Not fatisfied to prey on all around,
Adds tenfold bitterness to death by pangs
Needlefs, and first torments ere he devours.
Now happieft they, that occupy the fcenes
The moft remote from his abhorred resort,
Whom once, as delegate of God on earth,
They feared, and as his perfect image loved.
The wilderness is their's, with all its caves,
Its hollow glens, its thickets, and its plains,
Unvifited by man. There they are free,
And howl and roar as likes them, uncontrolled;
Nor afk his leave to flumber or to play.
Wo to the tyrant, if he dare intrude
Within the confines of their wild domain:
The lion tells him-I am monarch here-
And if he spare him, fpares him on the terms
Of royal mercy, and through generous fcorn
To rend a victim trembling at his foot.
In measure, as by force of inftin&t drawn,
Or by neceffity constrained, they live
Dependent upon man; those in his fields,
These at his crib, and some beneath his roof.
They prove too often at how dear a rate
He fells protection.-Witness at his foot
The fpaniel dying for fome venial fault
Under diffection of the knotted scourge;
Witness the patient ox, with stripes and yells
Driven to the slaughter, goaded, as he runs,
To madness; while the favage at his heels
Laughs at the frantic sufferer's fury, spent
Upon the guiltlefs paffenger o'erthrown.
He too is witness, nobleft of the train
That wait on man, the flight-performing horse:
With unfufpe&ting readiness he takes
His murderer on his back, and pushed all day
With bleeding fides and flanks, that heave for life,
To the far diftant goal, arrives and dies.
So little mercy fhows who needs fo much!
Does law, fo jealous in the cause of man,
Denounce no doom on the delinquent? None.
He lives, and o'er his brimming beaker boasts
(As if barbarity were high defert)
The inglorious feat, and clamorous in praise
Of the poor brute, seems wifely to suppose
The honours of his matchless horse his own.
But many a crime, deemed innocent on earth,
Is registered in heaven; and these no doubt
Have each their record, with a curfe annexed.
Man may difmifs compaffion from his heart,
But God will never. When he charged the Jew
To affift his foe's down-fallen beaft to rife;
And when the bush-exploring boy, that feized
The young, to let the parent bird go free;
Proved he not plainly that his meaner works
Are yet his care, and have an intereft all,
All, in the universal Father's love?
On Noah, and in him on all mankind,
The charter was conferred, by which we hold
The flesh of animals in fee, and claim
O'er all we feed on power of life and death.
But read the instrument, and mark it well:
The oppreffion of a tyrannous control
Can find no warrant there. Feed then, and yield
Thanks for thy food. Carnivorous, through fin,
Feed on the flain, but spare the living brute!
The Governor of all, himself to all
So bountiful, in whofe attentive ear
The unfledged raven and the lion's whelp
Plead not in vain for pity on the pangs
Of hunger unaffuaged, has interpofed,
Not seldom, his avenging arm, to smite
The injurious trampler upon nature's law,
That claims forbearance even for a brute.
He hates the hardness of a Balaam's heart;
And, prophet as he was, he might not ftrike
The blameless animal, without rebuke,
On which he rode. Her opportune offence
Saved him, or the unrelenting feer had died.
He fees that human equity is flack
To interfere, though in fo juft a cause;
And makes the task his own. Inspiring dumb
And helpless victims with a sense so keen
Of injury, with fuch knowledge of their ftrength,
And fuch fagacity to take revenge,
That oft the beaft has feemed to judge the man.
An ancient, not a legendary tale,
By one of found intelligence rehearsed,
(If fuch who plead for Providence may seem In modern eyes) shall make the doctrine clear.
Where England, stretched towards the setting fun,
Narrow and long, o'erlooks the western wave,
Dwelt young Mifagathus; a fcorner he
Of God and goodness, atheist in oftent,
Vicious in act, in temper favage-fierce.
He journeyed; and his chance was as he went
To join a traveller, of far different note,
Evander, famed for piety, for years
Deferving honour, but for wisdom more.
Fame had not left the venerable man
A ftranger to the manners of the youth,
Whofe face too was familiar to his view.
Their way was on the margin of the land,
O'er the green fummit of the rocks, whose base
Beats back the roaring furge, scarce heard so high.
The charity, that warmed his heart, was moved
At fight of the man-monfter. With a smile
Gentle, and affable, and full of grace,
As fearful of offending whom he wished
Much to perfuade, he plied his ear with truths.
Not harshly thundered forth or rudely preffed,
But, like his purpose, gracious, kind, and sweet.
"And doft thou dream," the impenetrable man
Exclaimed, "that me the lullabies of age,
"And fantafies of dotards fuch as thou,
"Can cheat, or move a moment's fear in me?
"Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave
"Need no fuch aids, as fuperftition lends,
"To steel their hearts against the dread of death."
He spoke, and to the precipice at hand
Pushed with a madman's fury. Fancy fhrinks,
And the blood thrills and curdles, at the thought
Of fuch a gulph as he defigned his grave.
But, though the felon on his back could dare
The dreadful leap, more rational, his steed
Declined the death, and wheeling swiftly round,
Or e'er his hoof had preffed the crumbling verge,
Baffled his rider, faved againft his will.
The frenzy of the brain may be redreffed
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