Should this analogy be well
founded, how criminal will our account appear when laid before that just
and impartial judge! How will man, that sanguinary tyrant, be able to
excuse himself from the charge of those innumerable cruelties inflicted
on his unoffending subjects committed to his care, formed for his
benefit, and placed under his authority by their common Father? whose
mercy is over all his works, and who expects that his authority should
be exercised, not only with tenderness and mercy, but in conformity to
the laws of justice and gratitude.
But to what horrid deviations from these benevolent intentions are we
daily witnesses! no small part of mankind derive their chief amusements
from the deaths and sufferings of inferior animals; a much greater,
consider them only as engines of wood or iron, useful in their several
occupations. The carman drives his horse, and the carpenter his nail, by
repeated blows; and so long as these produce the desired effect, and
they both go, they neither reflect or care whether either of them have
any sense of feeling. The butcher knocks down the stately ox, with no
more compassion than the blacksmith hammers a horseshoe; and plunges his
knife into the throat of the innocent lamb, with as little reluctance as
the tailor sticks his needle into the collar of a coat.
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