But fin marr'd all; and the revolt of man,
That fource of evils not exhausted yet,
Was punish'd with revolt of his from him.
Garden of God, how terrible the change

Thy groves and lawns then witnefs'd! Ev'ry heart,
Each animal of ev'ry name, conceiv'd

A jealousy and an instinctive fear,

And, conscious of fome danger, either fled
Precipitate the loath'd abode of man,

Or growl'd defiance in fuch angry fort,
As taught him, too, to tremble in his turn.
Thus harmony and family accord

Were driv'n from Paradife; and in that hour
The feeds of cruelty, that fince have fwell'd
To fuch gigantic and enormous growth,
Were fown in human nature's fruitful foil.
Hence date the perfecution and the pain
That man inflicts on all inferior kinds,
Regardless of their plaints. To make him sport,
To gratify the frenzy of his wrath,

Or his bafe gluttony, are caufes good

And juft, in his account, why bird and beast
Should fuffer torture, and the streams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impal'd.
Earth groans beneath the burden of a war
Wag'd with defencelefs innocence, while he,

Not fatisfied to prey on all around,
Adds tenfold bitterness to death by pangs
Needlefs, and firft torments ere he devours.
Now happiest they that occupy the scenes
The most remote from his abhorr'd refort,
Whom once, as delegate of God on earth,
They fear'd, and, as his perfect image, lov'd.
The wilderness is theirs, 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, uncontroul'd;
Nor afk his leave to flumber or to play.
Woe 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 fpare him, fpares him on the terms
Of royal mercy, and through gen'rous fcorn
To read a victim trembling at his foot.
In measure, as by force of instinct drawn,
Or by neceflity conftrain'd, they live
Dependent upon man; thofe in his fields,
These at his crib, and fome beneath his roof.
They prove too often at how dear a rate
He fells protection.-Witnefs at his foot.
The fpaniel dying for fome venial fault,
Under diffection of the knotted fcourge--

Witness the patient ox, with ftripes and yells
Driv'n to the flaughter, goaded, as he runs,
To madness; while the favage at his heels
Laughs at the frantic fuff'rer's fury, spent
Upon the guiltless paffenger o'erthrown.
He, too, is witness, nobleft of the train
That wait on man, the flight-performing horse:
With unfufpecting readiness he takes

IBLY

His murd'rer on his back, and, pufh'd all day,
With bleeding fides and flanks that heave for life,
To the far-distant goal, arrives and dies.
So little mercy fhows who needs so 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)
Th' inglorious feat, and, clamorous in praise
Of the poor brute, feems wifely to fuppose
The honours of his matchlefs horfe his own!
But
many a crime, deem'd innocent on earth,
Is register'd in heav'n; and thefe, no doubt,
Have each their record, with a curfe annex'd.
Man may difmifs compaffion from his heart,
But God will never. When he charg❜d the Jew
T'affift his foe's down-fallen beast to rise;
And when the bufh-exploring boy, that feiz'd

The young, to let the parent-bird go free;
Prov'd he not plainly that his meaner works
Are yet his care, and have an int'rest all,
All, in the univerfal Father's love?

On Noah, and in him on all mankind,
The charter was conferr'd, by which we hold
The flesh of animals in fee, and claim

O'er all we feed on pow'r of life and death.
But read the inftrument, and mark it well:
Th' oppreffion of a tyrannous controul

Can find no warrant there. Feed, then, and yield Thanks for thy food. Carnivorous through fin, Feed on the flain, but fpare the living brute!

The Governor of all, himself to all
So bountiful, in whofe attentive ear
The unfledg'd raven and the lion's whelp
Plead not in vain for pity on the pangs
Of hunger unaffuag'd, has interpos'd,
Not feldom, his avenging arm, to fmite
Th' 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 strike
The blameless animal, without rebuke,
On which he rode. Her opportune offence

Sav'd him, or th' unrelenting feer had died.
He fees that human equity is flack
To interfere, though in fo juft a caufe';
And makes the task his own.

Infpiring dumb

And helpless victims with a fense so keen

Of inj'ry, with fuch knowledge of their strength,
And fuch fagacity to take revenge,

That oft the bealt has feem'd to judge the man.
An ancient, not a legendary tale,

By one of found intelligence rehears'd,

(If fuch who plead for Providence may feem
In modern eyes) shall make the doctrine clear.—

Where England, ftretch'd towards the fetting 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 journey'd; and his chance was as he went To join a trav'ller, of far diff'rent noteEvander, fam'd for piety, for years Deferving honour, but for wifdom more. Fame had not left the venerable man A stranger to the manners of the youth, Whose face, too, was familiar to his view. Their way was on the margin of the land,