Page:The Guardian (Vol 1).pdf/475

N°61. kind. I remember an Arabian author, who has written a treatise to show, how far a man supposed to have subsisted in a desert island, without any instruction, or so much as the sight of any other man, may, by the pure light of nature, attain the knowledge of philosophy and virtue. One of the first things he makes him observe is, that universal benevolence of nature in the protection and preservation of its creatures. In imitation of which the first act of virtue he thinks his self-taught philosopher would of course fall into is, to relieve and assist all the animals about him in their wants and distresses. Ovid has some very tender and pathetic lines applicable to this occasion: '————Met. xv. 116.

'————'Ib. ver, 463.

'The Sheep was sacrific'd on no pretence, But meek and unresisting innocence.