taxerxes moderated the Severity of the ancient Laws of Perfia, by an Order, that the Nobility who debafed themfelves, inftead of being lafhed, as they used to be, should be ftripped, and their Veftments whipped for them; and that, inftead of having the Hair of their Heads plucked off, as was the Practice, they fhould only take off their high-crowned Tiare. The Egyptians who affected to be fo devout, thought they fully fatisfied the Juftice of God by facrificing Swine to him, in Picture and Effigy. A bold Invention, to think to please the Divine Being, a Substance fo effential, with Picture and Shadow ! u I live in Times that abound with incredible Inftances of Inflances of ex- this Vice, owing to the Licentioufness of our treme Cruelty. Civil Wars; and I may challenge the Ranfackers of the ancient Hiftories to produce any Paffage more extraordinary than what we experience of it every Day, yet I am not at all reconciled to it. I could scarce believe, till I had seen it, that there could be fuch favage Monsters, who could commit Murder purely for the Delight they took in it, and that, from that Motive only, could hack and lop off the Limbs of their Fellow-creatures, and rack their Brains to find out unufual Torments and new Deaths, without Enmity, without Gain, and for this End only, to feaft their Eyes and Ears with the distressful Gestures and Motions, and the lamentable Cries and Groans of a Man in the Agonies of Death: For this is the utmost Point to which Cruelty can attain, Ut Homo hominem non iratus, non timens, tantùm fpe&taturus occidat. i. e. That one Man fhould kill another, without being pushed upon it by Anger or Fear, but only by a Defire of feeing him die. For my own Part, it always gives me Pain to see a harmless Beast, which is incapable of making Montaigne's Humanity its Defence, and gives us no Offence, pursued swith Regard and worried to Death: And, as it often hapto Beafts. pens, that the Stag, when hunted till it has loft its Breath and Strength, finding no other Remedy, falls Plutarch, in his notable Sayings of the ancient Kings. "Herodotus (lib. ii. p. 122.) fays this was only done by the poorer Sort, who made Swine in Dough, which they baked, and then offered in Sa crifice. falls on its Back, and furrenders itself to its Purfuers, feeming, with Tears, to beg for Mercy, quæftúque cruentus Atque imploranti fimilis". I ever thought it a very unpleasant Sight: I fcarce take any Beast alive, but I turn it abroad again: Pythagoras purchased Fish and Fowls alive for the fame Purpose. primoque a cæde ferarum Incaluiffe puto maculatum fanguine ferrum *. i. e. With Slaughter of wild Beafts the Sword began, They that thirst for the Blood of Beasts discover a natural Inclination to Cruelty. After they had accustomed themfelves, at Rome, to Spectacles of the Slaughter of Animals, they proceeded to that of Men, and the Combats of Gladiators. Nature itself (I fear) has planted in Man a kind of Instinct to Inhumanity: No-body is fond of feeing Beafts play with and carefs one another, nor fhould any-body take a Pleasure in feeing them difmember and worry one another. And, that I may not be jeered for my fympathifing with them, we are enjoined to have fome Pity for them by Theology itfelf: And, confidering that one and the fame Mafter has lodged us in this World for his Service, and that they are of his Family as well as we, it had Reafon to command us to fhew fome Regard and Affection for them. Pythagoras borrowed the Doctrine of the Metempfychofis from the Egyptians; but it was afterwards received by feveral Nations, and particularly by our Druids. Pythagoras's Morte carent Anima, femperque priore reliЯâ` w Æneid. lib. vii. v. 501, 502. V. 47, 48. › Ovid. Metam. lib. xv. Fab. 3. v. 6,7. i. e. Souls never die, but, having left one Seat, The Priests of our ancient Gauls maintained, that Souls, being eternal, never ceafed to remove and shift their Stations from one Body to another; mixing, moreover, with this Fancy, fome Confideration of the Divine Juftice: For, according as the Soul had behaved whilft it had been in Alexander, they faid, that God ordered it to inhabit another Body, more or lefs uneafy, and suitable to its Condition. muta ferarum Cogit vincla pati, truculentos ingerit urfis, Atque ubi per varios annos, per mille figuras Egit, Lethao purgatos flumine tandem Rurfus ad humanæ revocat primordia formæ ". i. e. The Yoke of fpeechlefs Brutes he made them wear; If the Soul had been valorous, they lodged it in the Body of a Lion; if voluptuous, in that of a Hog; if timorous, in that of a Hart or Hare; if treacherous, in that of a Fox, and fo of the reft, till, purified by this Correction, it again entered into fome human Body. Ipfe ego, nam memini, Trojani tempore belli, i. e. z Claudian in Ruffin. lib. i. v. 482, 483, 484.- 491, 492, 493. **Tis Pythagores who speaks thus of himself, in Ovid. Metam. lib. xv, Fab. 3. v. 8, 9. Would you know by what Means Pythagoras could remem ber what he had been in the Time of the Trojan War? See Diogenes Laerti in the Life of Pythagoras, lib. viii. fect. 4, 5. i. e. For I myself remember, in the Days As to the Kindred betwixt Us and the Beasts, I lay no great Stress on it, nor on the Practice of feveral Nations, and fome, too, the most noted for Antiquity and Dignity, faid to have not only admitted Brutes to their Society and Company, but to have alfo preferred them to a Rank far above themselves; fome efteeming them as Familiars and Favourites of their Gods, and paying them Refpect and Veneration more than Human, while others acknowledged no God nor Deity but them. Bellua à Barbaris propter beneficium confecrata. i. e. The Barbarians confecrated Beasts for the Benefit they received by them. Crocodilon adorat Pars hæc, illa pavet faturam ferpentibus ibin ; Oppida tota canem venerantur. i. e. One Country does adore the Crocodile, That ftrikes fuch Terror on the Banks of Nile; And the very Conftruction that Plutarch puts upon this Error, which is very well fancied, is alfo to their Honour: For he fays, that it was not the Cat, nor the Ox (for Example) that the Egyptians adored, but that, in those Brutes, they reverenced fome Image of the Divine Facul ties. In the Ox, Patience and Profit; in the Cat, Vivacity, K 4 b Cicer. de Nat. Deorum, lib. i. c. 36. Juv. Sat. xv. v. 2, 3, 49"In his Treatife of Ifis and Ofyris, ch. 39. of Amyot's Translation. 7.8. Book II. vacity, or, like our Neighbours, the Burgundians, with all the Germans, an Impatience to fee itself fhut in, by which they reprefented the Liberty they loved and adored beyond every other Faculty; and fo of the others. But when, amongst the more moderate Opinions, I meet with Arguments that endeavour to demonftrate the near Refemblance betwixt us and Animals, and what a Share they have in our greatest Privileges, and with what Probability they are compared to us, it really very much abates my Prefumption, and I am ready to refign that imaginary Royalty which is afcribed to us over the other Crea tures. We ought to have fome Regard for the brute Beafts. Be all this as it will, there is, nevertheless, a certain kind of Refpect, and a general Obligation of Humanity, which attaches us, not only to the Beafts that have Life and a Senfe of Feeling, but also to Trees and Plants. We owe Justice to Men, and Favour and good Ufage to other Creatures that are fufceptible of it: There is a certain Correfpondence, and a mutual Obligation betwixt them and us; I fear not to declare the Tendernefs of my Nature to be fo puerile that I cannot well refufe to play with my Dog when he careffes me, or defires it, though it be out of Seafon. Remarkable Inftances of this fort of Refect. The Turks have Alms-houfes and Hofpitals for Beasts. The Romans made public Provifion for the Nourishment of Geefe, after the Watchfulness of one of them had faved their Capitol. . The Athenians made a Decree, that the Mules which had been employed in the building of the Temple, called Hecatompedon, fhould be free, and allowed to graze any where without Moleftation. 'Twas the common Practice of the Agrigentines to give folemn Inter'ment to their favourite Beafts, as Horfes of fome rare Qualities, Dogs, and Birds, which they made a Profit of, and even fuch as had ferved for the Diverfion of their Children: And the Magnificence which they commonly • A Paffion natural to Cats, which can't endure to be pent up displayed in a Room, |