proved and carried as far as it would go, might not be made to conduce to the preservation of many innocent creatures, which are now exposed to all the wantonness of an ignorant barbarity. There are other animals that have the misfortune, for no manner of reafon, to be treated as common enemies where-ever found. The conceit that a Cat has nine lives has coft at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them: scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone Hercules himself, who was famous for killing a monster that had but three lives. Whether the unaccountable animofity against this useful domestick may be any cause of the general perfecution of Owls (who are a fort of feathered cats) or whether it be only an unreasonable pique the moderns have taken to a ferious countenance, I fhall not determine. Tho' I am inclined to believe the former; fince I obferve the fole reafon alledged for the deftruction of Frogs is because they are like Toads. Yet amidft all the misfortunes of these unfriended creatures, 'tis fome happiness that we have not yet taken a fancy to eat them: for fhould our countrymen refine upon the French never fo little, 'tis not to be conceived to what unheard-of torments, owls, cats, and frogs may be yet referved. When we grow up to men, we have another fucceffion of Sanguinary fports; in particular hunting. I dare not attack a diverfion which has fuch authority and cuftom to fupport it; but must have leave to be of opinion, that the agitation of that exercise, with the example and number of the chafers, not a little contribute to refift thofe checks, which compaffion would naturally fuggeft in behalf of the animal purfued. Nor fhall I fay with Monfieur Fleury, that this sport is a remain of the Gothic barbarity; but I must animadvert upon a certain custom yet in use with us, and barbarous enough to be derived from the Goths, or even the Scythians: I mean that favage compliment our huntsmen pass upon Ladies of quality, who are present at the death of a Stag, when they put the knife in their hands to cut the throat of a helpless, trembling and weeping creature. Queftuque cruentus, Atque Imploranti fimilis.-- But if our sports are destructive, our gluttony is more so, and in a more inhuman manner. Lobfters roafted alive, Pigs whipp'd to death, Fowls fewed up, are testimonies of our outragious luxury. Those, who (as Seneca expreffes it) divide their lives betwixt an anxious confcience, and a nauseated stomach, have a just reward of their gluttony in the diseases it brings with it: for human favages, like other wild beafts, find fnares and poyfon in the provisions of life, and are allured by their appetite to their destruction. I know nothing more shocking, or horrid, than the prospect of one of their kitchens covered with blood, and fill ed with the cries of creatures expiring in tortures. It gives one an image of a Giant's den in a romance bestraw'd with the scattered heads and mangled limbs of those who were flain by his cruelty. The excellent Plutarch (who has more ftrokes of good-nature in his writings than I remember in any author) cites a faying of Cato to this effect: "That 'tis no easy task to "preach to the belly which has no ears. Yet "if (fays he) we are ashamed to be fo out of "fafhion as not to offend, let us at least offend "with fome difcretion and measure. If we kill СС an animal for our provifion, let us do it with "the meltings of compaflion, and without tormenting it. Let us confider, that 'tis in its own. "nature cruelty to put a living creature to death; "we at least destroy a foul that has fenfe and per"ception." In the life of Cato the Cenfor, he takes occafion from the fevere difpofition of that man to discourse in this manner: "It ought to be "esteemed a happiness to mankind, that our hu"manity has a wider sphere to exert itself in, than bare juftice. It is no more than the obligation "of our very birth to practife equity to our own "kind; but humanity may be extended thro' the "whole order of creatures, even to the meaneft: "fuch actions of charity are the over-flowings of a « mild good nature on all below us. It is certainly the part of a well-natured man to take "care of his horfes and dogs, not only in expec " "tation of their labour while they are foals and whelps, but even when their old age has made "them incapable of service." History tells us of a wife and polite nation, that rejected a perfon of the firft quality, who stood for a judiciary office, only because he had been obferved in his youth to take pleasure in tearing and murdering of birds. And of another, that expelled a man out of the fenate for dashing a bird against the ground which had taken fhelter in his bofom. Every one knows how remarkable the Turks are for their humanity in this kind. I remember an Arabian author, who has written a treatise to fhew, how far a man, fuppofed to have subsisted in a desert island, without any inftruction, or fo much as the fight of any other man, may, by the pure light of nature, attain the knowledge of philofophy and virtue. One of the first things he makes him obferve is, that univerfal benevolence of nature in the protection and prefervation of its creatures. In imitation of which, the first act of virtue he thinks his felf-taught philofopher would of course fall into is, to relieve and affift all the animals about him in their wants and diftreffes. Ovid has fome very tender and pathetick lines applicable to this occafion : Quid meruiftis, oves, placidum pecus, inque tegendos Natum homines, pleno quæ fertis in ubere nectar? Mollia quæ nobis veftras velamina lanas Quam male confuevit, quam fe parat ille cruori Perhaps that voice or cry fo nearly refembing the human, with which providence has endued fo many different animals, might purposely be given them to move our pity, and prevent those cruelties we are too apt to inflict on our fellow crea tures. There is a paffage in the book of Jonas, when God declares his unwillingness to deftroy Nineveh, where, methinks, that compaffion of the creator, which extends to the meaneft rank of his creatures, is expreffed with wonderful tenderness---"Should I not fpare Nineveh the great city, "wherein are more than fix thoufand perfons--"And allo much catt.1?" And we have in Deuteronomy a precept of great good nature of this fort, with a bleffing in form annexed to it in thofe words: "If thou fhalt find a bird's neft in the |