Chapter X: Pope. 1688-1744

_Primâque e cæde ferarum
Incaluisse putem maculatum sanguine ferrum._

(Ovid _Metam._ XV. 106).

“I cannot think it extravagant to imagine that mankind are no
less, in proportion, accountable for the ill use of their dominion
over the lower ranks of Beings, than for the exercise of tyranny
over their own species. The more entirely the inferior creation
is submitted to our power, the more answerable we should seem for
the mismanagement of it; and the rather, as the very condition of
Nature renders these beings incapable of receiving any recompense
in another life, for their ill-treatment in this.

“It is observable of those noxious animals, who have qualities
most powerful to injure us, that they naturally avoid mankind, and
never hurt us unless provoked, or necessitated by hunger. Man, on
the other hand, _seeks_ out and pursues even the most inoffensive
animals on purpose to persecute and destroy them. Montaigne thinks
it some reflection on human nature itself, that few people take
delight in seeing ‘beasts’ caress or play together, but almost
every one is pleased to see them lacerate and worry one another.

“I am sorry this temper is become almost a distinguishing character
of our own nation, from the observation which is made by foreigners
of our beloved _Pastimes_--Bear-baiting, Cock-fighting, and the
like. We should find it hard to vindicate the destroying of
anything that has Life, merely out of wantonness. Yet in this
principle our children are bred, and one of the first pleasures we
allow them is the licence of inflicting Pain upon poor animals.
Almost as soon as we are sensible what Life is ourselves, we make
it our Sport to take it from other beings. I cannot but believe a
very good use might be made of the fancy which children have for
Birds and Insects. Mr. Locke takes notice of a mother who permitted
them to her children; but rewarded or punished them as they treated
well or ill. This was no other than entering them betimes into a
daily exercise of Humanity, and improving their very diversion to a
Virtue.

“I fancy, too, some advantage might be taken of the common notion,
that ’tis ominous or unlucky to destroy some sorts of Birds, as
Swallows or Martins. This opinion might possibly arise from the
confidence these Birds seem to put in us, by building under our
roofs, so that it is a kind of violation of the laws of Hospitality
to murder them. As for Robin-red-breasts, in particular, ’tis
not improbable they owe their security to the old ballad of the
_Children in the Wood_. However it be, I don’t know, I say, why
this prejudice, well-improved and carried as far as it would go,
might not be made to conduce to the preservation of many innocent
beings, who are now exposed to all the wantonness of an ignorant
barbarity....

“When we grow up to be men we have another succession of sanguinary
Sports--in particular, _Hunting_. I dare not attack a diversion
which has such Authority and Custom to support it; but must have
leave to be of opinion, that the agitation of that exercise, with
the example and number of the chasers, not a little contribute to
resist those checks which Compassion would naturally suggest in
behalf of the Animal pursued. Nor shall I say, with M. Fleury,
that this sport is a remain of the Gothic Barbarity; but I must
animadvert upon a certain custom yet in use with us, barbarous
enough to be derived from the Goths or even the Scythians--I mean
that savage compliment our Huntsmen pass upon ladies of quality who
are present at the death of a Stag, when they put the knife into
their hands to cut the throat of a helpless, trembling, and weeping
creature.

“_Questuque cruentus,
Atque imploranti similis._”[302]

“But if our ‘Sports’ are destructive, our _Gluttony_ is more so,
and in a more inhuman manner. Lobsters roasted alive, Pigs whipt
to death, Fowls sewed up,[303] are testimonies of our outrageous
Luxury. Those who (as Seneca expresses it) divide their lives
betwixt an anxious Conscience and a Nauseated Stomach, have a
just reward of their gluttony in the diseases it brings with it.
For human savages, like other wild beasts, find snares and poison
in the provisions of life, and are allured by their appetite to
their destruction. I know nothing more shocking or horrid than the
prospect of one of their kitchens covered with blood, and filled
with the cries of Beings expiring in tortures. It gives one an
image of a giant’s den in a romance, bestrewed with the scattered
heads and mangled limbs of those who were slain by his cruelty.

“The excellent Plutarch (who has more strokes of good nature in
his writings than I remember in any author) cites a saying of Cato
to this effect:--_That ’tis no easy task to preach to the Belly
which has no ears._ Yet if (says he) we are ashamed to be so out
of fashion as not to offend, let us at least offend with _some_
discretion and measure. If we kill an animal for our provision, let
us do it with the meltings of compassion, and without tormenting
it. Let us consider that it is, in its own nature, cruelty to put a
living being to death--we, at least destroy a soul that has sense
and perception.[304]

“History tells us of a wise and polite nation that rejected a
person of the first quality, who stood for a justiciary office,
only because he had been observed, in his youth, to take pleasure
in teasing and murdering of Birds. And of another that expelled a
man out of the Senate for dashing a bird against the ground who
had taken refuge in his bosom. Every one knows how remarkable the
Turks are for their Humanity in this kind. I remember an Arabian
author, who has written a Treatise to show how far a man, supposed
to have subsisted in a desert island, without any instruction, or
so much as the sight of any other man, may, by the pure light of
Nature, attain the knowledge of Philosophy and Virtue. One of the
first things he makes him observe is the benevolence of Nature, in
the protection and preservation of her creatures.[305] In imitation
of which, the first act of virtue he thinks his self-taught
philosopher would, of course, fall into, is to relieve and assist
all the animals about them in their wants and distresses....

“Perhaps that voice or cry, so nearly resembling the human, with
which Nature has endowed so many different animals, might purposely
be given them to move our Pity, and prevent those cruelties we are
to apt to inflict upon our Fellow Creatures.”

Pope quotes, in part, the admirable verses of Ovid, Metam. XV., with Dryden’s translation--and an apposite _fable_ of the Persian Pilpai, which illustrates the base ingratitude of men who torture and slaughter their fellow labourers.--“I know it” (this common ingratitude) said the Cow, “by woful experience; for I have served a man this long time with milk, butter, and cheese, and brought him, besides, a Calf every year--but now I am old, he turns me into this pasture with design to sell me to a butcher, who, shortly, will make an end of me.”--_The Guardian_, LXI, May 21, 1713.

With Pilpai or Bidpai’s fable, compare that of La Fontaine on the same subject--_L’Homme et la Couleuvre_.