BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE.

A luxury the poor enjoy, that is not looked upon as such, and which there is no doubt but the wealthiest in a golden age would abstain from, is their making use of the flesh of animals to eat. In what concerns the fashions and manners of the ages men live in, they never examine into the real worth or merit of the cause, and generally judge of things Time was not as their reason, but as custom directs them. when the funeral rites in the disposing of the dead, were performed by fire, and the carcasses of the greatest emperors were burnt to ashes.

If it was not for this tyranny which custom usurps over us, men of any tolerable good nature could never be reconciled to the killing of so many animals, for their daily food, as long as the bountiful earth so plentifully provides them with varieties of vegetable dainties. I know that reason excites our compassion but faintly, and therefore I would not wonder how men should so little commiserate such imperfect creatures as cray-fish, oysters, cockles, and indeed all fish in general: as they are mute, and their inward formation, as well as outward figure, vastly different from ours, they express themselves unintelligibly to us, and therefore it is not strange that their grief should not affect our understanding which it cannot reach; for nothing stirs us to pity so effectually, as when the symptoms of misery strike immediately upon our senses, and I have seen people moved at the noise a live lobster makes upon the spit, that could have killed half a dozen fowls with pleasure. But in such perfect animals as sheep and oxen, in whom the heart, the brain and nerves differ so little from ours, and in whom the separation of the spirits from the blood, the organs of sense, and consequently feeling itself, are the same as they are in human creatures; I cannot imagine how a man not hardened in blood and massacre, is able to see a violent death, and the pangs of it, without concern. In answer to this, most people will think it sufficient to that all things being allowed to be made for the service of man, there can be no cruelty in putting creatures to the use they were designed for; but I have heard men make this reply, while their Nature within them has reproached them with the falsehood of the assertion. There is of all

say,

the multitude not one man in ten but what will own, (if he was not brought up in a slaughter-house,) that of all trades he could never have been a butcher; and I question whether ever any body so much as killed a chicken without reluctancy the first time. Some people are not to be persuaded to taste of any creatures they have daily seen and been acquainted with, while they were alive; others extend their scruple no further than to their own poultry, and refuse to eat what they fed and took care of themselves; yet all of them will feed heartily and without remorse on beef, mutton, and fowls, when they are bought in the market. In this behaviour, methinks, there appears something like a consciousness of guilt, it looks as if they endeavored to save themselves from the imputation of a crime (which they know sticks somewhere) by removing the cause of it as far as they can from themselves; and I can discover in it some strong remains of primitive pity and innocence, which all the arbitrary power of custom, and the violence of luxury, have not yet been able to conquer.

When to soften the flesh of male animals, we have by castration prevented the firmness their tendons, and every fibre would have come to without it, I confess, I think it ought to move a human creature, when he reflects upon the cruel care with which they are fattened for destruction. When a large and gentle bullock, after having resisted a ten times greater force of blows than would have killed his murderer, falls stunned at last, and his armed head is fastened to the ground with cords; as soon as the wide wound is made, and the jugulars are cut asunder, what mortal can, without compassion, hear the painful bellowings intercepted by his blood, the bitter sighs that speak the sharpness of his anguish, and the deep sounding groans, with loud anxiety, fetched from the bottom of his strong and palpitating heart; look on the trembling and violent convulsions of his limbs; see, while his reeking gore streams from him, his eyes become dim and languid, and behold his strugglings, gasps, and last efforts for life, the certain signs of his approaching fate? When a creature has given such convincing and undeniable proofs of the terrors upon him, and the pains and agonies he feels, is there a follower of Descartes so inured to blood, as not to refute, by his com miseration, the philosophy of that vain reasoner?

Justice recording the Voice of the People guided by Light Liberty and Truth.

These prints were engraved with the hope of in some degree correcting that barbarous treatment of animals, the very sight of which renders the streets of our metropolis so distressing to every feeling mind. If they have that effect in checking the progress of cruelty, I am more proud of being their author than I should be of having painted Raphael's Cartoons! Hogarth.

[The explanations are altered from those of John Trusler. A few additions to the plates are marked by brackets.]

12

Humanity is the distinguishing attribute of the human species, yet how common is reckless and even studied barbarity! The cruelty of some of our pastimes is fitting our old English ancestors, the Goths, and Scythians; does not the epicure even torture his fellow-animal, to pamper his voluptuous appetite? People called civilized are still sanguinary, at the expense of all that is rational, humane, and religious. Here are seen children of various ages, engaged in different barbarous diversions; some solitary, some in groups. The wretch on the right-hand corner in front, is tying a bone to a dog's tail, in order to hurry it through the streets and enjoy its terror and pain; this cruel act is heightened by the affectionate creature's turning round and innocently attempting to lick the boy's hand. Next to him is a lad setting two cocks to fight; a refined amusement practised by full-grown children. On the left corner a dog is urged to worry and tear to pieces, one of the tabby kind, by a young master. Further back on the right of the plate is seen a fellow who is the hero of these plates, and was by Mr. Hogarth, named Nero, after the old Roman monster. He has deprived his dog of its ears, and is about cutting off its tail with his shears, one of his comrades securing and choking the animal with a rope round its neck. A youth returning from school, intercedes in behalf of the maimed, suffering creature, and even offers the other a book as a present, if he will release the dog. This shows not only the necessity of general instruction, but also that general humanity should always be an essential constituent of education, without which, both boys and men would be little better than savages and brutes. Behind Nero, an arch lad has drawn on the wall a criminal hanging on a gallows: the probable destiny of Nero and some of his wicked companions. On the rear of the wall a young mob are suspending two cats together, and enjoying their agonies; above these is an infant philosopher throwing a cat from a garret window in imitation of those adult sages, who connect useless animal suffering with experiments. [Additions to the plate are, the urchin who has robbed a bird's nest; the other swinging a buzzing insect impaled at the end of a string; and the poor, inoffensive, decrepit woman, insulted, hooted and pelted by a gang of mischievous children: for