Should suffer torture, and the streams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impal'd.
Earth groans beneath the burden of a war
Wag'd with defenceless innocence, while he,
Not satisfied to prey on all around,

Adds tenfold bitterness to death by pangs
Needless, and first torments ere he devours.
Now happiest they that occupy the scenes
The most remote from his abhorr'd resort,
Whom once, as delegate of God on earth,
They fear'd, and, as his perfect image, lov'd.
The wilderness is their's, with all its caves,
Its hollow glens, its thickets, and its plains,
Unvisited by man. There they are free,
And howl and roar as likes them, uncontrol'd;
Nor ask his leave to slumber 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 spare him, spares him on the terms

Of royal mercy, and through generous scorn

410

To rend a victim trembling at his foot.

In measure, as by force of instinct drawn,
Or by necessity constrain'd, 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 sells protection.-Witness at his foot
The spaniel dying, for some venial fault,
Under dissection of the knotted scourge-
Witness the patient ox, with stripes and yells
Driven to the slanghter, goaded, as he runs,
To madness; while the savage at his heels
Laughs at the frantic sufferer's fury, spent,
Upon the guiltless passenger o'erthrown.
He, too, is witness, noblest of the train
That wait on man, the flight-performing horse:
With unsuspecting readiness he takes

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His murderer on his back, and, push'd all day,

With bleeding sides and flanks that heave for life,

To the far-distant goal, arrives and dies.

430

So little mercy shows who needs so much!
Does law, so 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 desert)

435

The inglorious feat, and, clamorous in praise
Of the poor brute, seems wisely to suppose
The honours of his matchless horse his own!
But many a crime, deem'd innocent on earth,
Is register'd in heaven; and these, no doubt,
Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God will never. When he charg'd the Jew
To assist his foe's down-fallen beast to rise;
And when the bush-exploring boy, that seiz'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 interest all,
All, in the universal Father's love?
On Noah, and in him on all mankind,

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The charter was conferr'd, 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 oppression of a tyrannous control

455

Can find no warrant there. Feed then, and yield
Thanks for thy food. Carnivorous, through sin,
Feed on the slain, but spare the living brute!

The governor of all, himself to all
So bountiful, in whose attentive ear
The unfledg'd raven and the lion's whelp
Plead not in vain for pity on the pangs
Of hunger unassuag'd, has interpos'd,
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 strike
The blameless animal, without rebuke,
On which he rode. Her opportune offence

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Sav'd him, or the unrelenting seer had died.
He sees that human equity is slack

To interfere, though in so just a cause;

And makes the task his own. Inspiring dumb

And helpless victims with a sense so keen

475

Of injury, with such knowledge of their strength,

And such sagacity to take revenge,

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

By one of sound intelligence rehears❜d,

4.80

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

Where England, stretch'd towards the setting sun,
Narrow and long, o'erlooks the western wave,
Dwelt young Misagathus; a scorner he
Of God and goodness, atheist in ostent,
Vicious in act, in temper savage-fierce.

He journey'd; and his chance was as he went
To join a traveller, of far different note-
Evander, fam'd for piety, for years
Deserving honour, but for wisdom 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,

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O'er the green summit of the rocks, whose base

Beats back the roaring surge, scarce heard so high.

The charity that warm'd his heart was mov'd

At sight of the man-monster.

With a smile

Gentle, and affable, and full of grace,

500

As fearful of offending whom he wish'd

Much to persuade, he plied his ear with truths

Not harshly thunder'd forth or rudely press'd,

But, like his purpose, gracious, kind, and sweet.

"And dost thou dream," the impenetrable man
Exclaim'd, "that me the lullabies of age,
"And fantasies of dotards, such as thou,

505

"Can cheat, or move a moment's fear in me?

"Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave

"Need no such aids as superstition lends

510

"To steel their hearts against the dread of death."

He spoke, and to the precipice at hand

Push'd with a madman's fury. Fancy shrinks,

And the blood thrills and curdles, at the thought

Of such a gulph as he design'd his grave.

515

But, though the felon on his back could dare
The dreadful leap, more rational, his steed

Declin'd the death, and wheeling swiftly round,

Or e'er his hoof had press'd the crumbling verge,

Baffled his rider, sav'd against his will!

520

The frenzy of the brain may be redress'd

By medicine well applied, but without grace

The heart's insanity admits no cure.

Enrag'd the more, by what might have reform'd

His horrible intent, again he sought

525

Destruction, with a zeal to be destroy'd,
With sounding whip, and rowels died in blood-

But still in vain. The Providence, that meant

A longer date to the far nobler beast,

530

Spar'd yet again the ignobler, for his sake.

And now, his prowess prov'd, and his sincere

Incurable obduracy evinc'd,

His rage grew cool; and, pleas'd perhaps to have earn'd

So cheaply the renown of that attempt,

With looks of some complacence he resum'd

His road, deriding much the blank amaze
Of good Evander, still where he was left
Fixt motionless, and petrified with dread.
So on they far'd. Discourse on other themes
Ensuing, seem'd to obliterate the past;
And, tamer far for so much fury shown,
(As is the course of rash and fiery men)

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540

The rude companion smil'd, as if transform'd.

But 'twas a transient calm. A storm was near,

An unsuspected storm.

His hour was come.

545

The impious challenger of Power divine

Was now to learn that Heaven, though slow to wrath,

Is never with impunity defied.

His horse, as he had caught his master's mood,

Snorting, and starting in sudden rage,

550

Unbidden, and not now to be control'd,

Rush'd to the cliff, and, having reach'd it, stood.
At once the shock unseated him: he flew
Sheer over the craggy barrier; and, immers'd
Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not,
The death he had deserv'd-and died alone!
So God wrought double justice; made the fool
The victim of his own tremendous choice,

555

And taught a brute the way to safe revenge.

I would not enter on my list of friends

560

(Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense,

Yet wanting sensibility) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertent step may crush the snail

That crawls at evening in the public path;

565

But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,

Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,

And charg' perhaps with venom, that intrudes,
A visitor unwelcome, into scenes

570

A a

Sacred to neatness and repose-the alcove,
The chamber, or refectory-may die:

A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when, held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field:
There they are privileg'd; and he that hunts
Or haims them there is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the economy of nature's realm,

575

Who, when she form'd, design'd them an abode.

580

The sum is this.-If man's convenience, health,
Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish their's.

Else they are all-the meanest things that are-
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who, in his sovereign wisdom, made them all.
Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd in most

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By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand

To check them. But alas none sooner shoots ?

If unrestrain'd, into luxuriant growth,

Than cruelty, most devilish of them all.

Mercy to him that shews it, is the rule

595

And righteous limitation of its act,

By which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man;

And he that shows none, being ripe in years,

And conscious of the outrage he commits,

Shall seek it, and not find it, in his turn.

600

Distinguish'd much by reason, and still more
By our capacity of grace divine,

From creatures that exist but for our sake,
Which, having serv'd us, perish, we are held
Accountable; and God, some future day,
Will reckon with us roundly for the abuse
Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust.
Superior as we are, they yet depend

605

Not more on human help than we on their's.

Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were given

610

In aid of our defects. In some are found

Such teachable and apprehensive parts,

That man's attainments in his own concerns,

Match'd with the expertness of the brutes in their's,
Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind.

615