In short, the whole universe is a kind of theatre filled with objects that either raise in us pleasure, amufement, or admiration.

THE reader's own thoughts will fuggeft to him the viciffitude of day and night, the change of feafons, with all that variety of fcenes which diverfify the face of nature, and fill the mind with a perpetual fucceffion of beautiful and pleafing images.

I fhall not here mention the feveral entertainments of art, with the pleafures of friendship, books, converfa. tion, and other accidental diversions of life, because I would only take notice of such incitements to a chearful temper, as offer themselves to persons of all ranks and conditions, and which may fufficiently fhew us, that Providence did not defign this world fhould be filled with murmurs and repinings, or that the heart of man should be involved in gloom and melancholy.

I the more inculcate this chearfulness of temper, as it is a virtue in which our countrymen are observed to be more deficient than any other nation. Melancholy is a kind of demon that haunts our island, and often conveys herself to us in an eafterly wind. A celebrated French

novelift, in oppofition to thofe who begin their romances with the flowery feason of the year, enters on his story thus: In the gloomy month of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves, a difconfolate lover walked out into the fields, &c.

EVERY one ought to fence against the temper of his climate or conftitution, and frequently to indulge in himself thofe confiderations which may give him a ferenity of mind, and enable him to bear up chearfully àgainst thofe little evils and misfortunes which are common to human nature, and which, by a right improvement of them, will produce a fatiety of joy, and an uninterrupted happiness.

AT the fame time that I would engage my reader to confider the world in its moft agreeable lights, I must own there are many evils which naturally fpring up amidst the entertainments that are provided for us; but thefe, if rightly confidered, fhould be far from overcafting the mind with forrow, or destroying that chearfulnefs of

temper

temper which I have been recommending. This interfperfion of evil with good, and pain with pleasure, in the works of nature, is very truly afcribed by Mr. Locke in his Effay on human understanding, to a moral reafon, in the following words :

BEYOND all this, we may find another reafon why God hath Scattered up and down several degrees of pleafure and pain, in all the things that environ and affect us, and blended them together, in almost all that our thoughts and fenfes have to do with; that we finding imperfection, diffatisfaction, and want of compleat happiness in all the enjoyments which the creatures can afford us, might be led to feek it in the enjoyment of him, with whom there is fulness of joy, and at whofe right hand are pleasures for evermore.

On Cruelty to Brutes, with an Elegy on a Black-bird. [Advent. No 37.]

TH

HOUGH it be generally allowed, that to communicate happiness is the characteristic of virtue, yet this happiness is feldom confidered as extending beyond our own fpecies; and no man is thought to become vicious, by facrificing the life of an animal to the pleasure of hitting a mark. It is, however, certain, that by this act more happiness is deftroyed than produced; except it be fuppofed, that happiness fhould be estimated, not in proportion to its degree only, but to the rank of the being by whom it is enjoyed: but this is a fuppofition, which perhaps cannot eafily be, fupported. REASON, from which alone man derives his fuperiority, fhould, in the prefent queftion, be confidered only as SENSIBILITY: a blow produces more pain to a man, than to a brute; because to a man it is aggravated by a fenfe of indignity, and is felt as often as it is remembered; in the brute it produces only corporal pain, which in a fhort time ceafes for But it may be justly afferted, that the fame de

ever.

gree

gree of pain in both fubjects, is in the fame degree an evil; and that it cannot be wantonly inflicted, with out equal violation of right. Neither does it follow from the contrary pofitions, that man fhould abftair from animal food; for by him that kills merely to eat, life is facrificed only to life; and if man had lived up on fruits and herbs, the greater part of thofe animal which die to furnish his table, would never have lived instead of increafing the breed as a pledge of plenty he would have been compelled to destroy them to pre vent a famine.

THERE is great difference between killing for food and for fport. To take pleasure in that by which pain is inflicted, if it is not vicious, is dangerous; and ever practice which, if not criminal in itfelf, yet wears ou the fympathizing fenfibility of a tender mind, mu render human nature proportionably lefs fit for fociety In my purfuit of this train of thought, I confidere the inequality with which happiness appears to be dif tributed among the brute creation, as different animal are in a different degree expofed to the capriciou cruelty of mankind; and in the fervor of my imagin ation, I began to think it poffible that they might par ticipate in a future retribution; efpecially, as mer matter and motion approach no nearer to fenfibility than to thought: and he, who will not venture t deny that brutes have fenfibility, fhould not haftily pro nounce, that they have only a material existence While my mind was thus bufied, the evening ftole im perceptibly away; and at length morning fucceeded midnight my attention was remitted by degrees, an I fell asleep in my chair.

THOUGH the labours of memory and judgment we now at an end, yet fancy was ftill bufy by this ro ing wanton I was conducted through a dark avenu which, after many windings, terminated in a plac which fhe told me was the elyfium of birds and beaft Here I beheld a great variety of animals, whom I pe ceived to be endowed with reafon and fpeech: th prodigy, however, did not raise astonishment, but cur ofity. I was impatient to learn, what were the topi of difcourfe in fuch an affembly; and hoped to gain

valuable addition to my remarks upon human life. For this purpose I approached a HORSE and an Ass, who seemed to be engaged in serious conversation; but I approached with great caution and humility: for I now confidered them as in a ftate fuperior to mortality; and I feared to incur the contempt and indignation, which naturally rise at the fight of a tyrant who is divested of his power. My caution was, however, unnecefiary, for they seemed wholly to difregard me; and by degrees I came near enough to overhear them.

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"IF I had perifhed," faid the Ass, "when I was dif"miffed from the earth, I think I should have been a "loser by my existence; for during my whole life, "there was scarce an interval of an hour, in which I “ did not suffer the accumulated mifery of blows, hun66 ger, and fatigue. When I was a colt, I was stolen by a Gypfie, who placed two children upon my back in a pair of paniers, before I had perfectly acquired the "habit of carrying my own weight with fteadiness and dexterity. By hard fare and ill treatment, I quick"ly became blind; and when the family, to which I belonged, went into their winter quarters in Nor"wood, I was ftaked as a bet against a couple of geefe, which had been found by a fellow who came by, driving before him two of my brethen whom he "had overloaded with bags of fand: a halfpenny was "thrown up; and to the inexpreffible increase of my calamity, the dealer in fand was the winner.

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"WHEN I came to town I was harneffed with my "two wretched affociates to a cart, in which my new "mafter had piled up his commodity till it would hold 65 no more. The load was fo difproportionate to our ftrength, that it was with the utmost difficulty and "labour dragged very flowly over the rugged pave. ment of the streets, in which every ftone was an "almoft infuperable obftacle to our progrefs.

morning very early, as we were toiling up Snow"hill with repeated efforts of ftrength, that was ftimu"lated, even to agony, by the inceffant ftrokes of a whip, which had already laid our loins bare even to "the bone; it happened, that being placed in the

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fhafts,

"fhafts, and the weight preffing hard upon me, I fell "down. Our driver regarded my misfortune, not "with pity but rage; and the moment he turned "about he threw a ftick with fuch violence at my "head, that it forced out my eye, and paffing through "the focket into the brain, I was inftantly difmiffed "from that mifery, the comparison of which with my prefent ftate conftitutes great part of its felicity. "But you, furely, if I may judge by your ftature, and "the elegance of your make, was among the favorites "of mankind; you was placed in a higher and a "happier ftation; you was not the flave of indigence, "but the pride of greatnefs; your labour was fport, "and your reward was triumph, eafe, plenty and at"tendance."

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"It is true," replied the STEED, "I was a favorite : "but what avails it to be the favorite of caprice, "avarice and barbarity? My tyrant was a wretch "who had gained a confiderable fortune by play, parti

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cularly by racing, I had won him many large fums; "but being at length excepted out of every match, as having no equal, he regarded even my, excellence "with malignity, when it was no longer fubfervient to "his intereft. Yet I ftill lived in eafe and plenty ; and as he was able to fell even my pleafures, though my labour was become ufeless, I had a feraglio in "which there was a perpetual fucceffion of new

beauties. At laft, however, another competitor ap ❝peared: I enjoyed a new triumph by anticipation; "I rushed into the field, panting for the conqueft; and

the first heat I put my mafter in poffeffion of the "ftakes, which amounted to ten thousand pounds. "The proprietor of the mare that I had distanced, "notwithstanding this difgrace, declared with great "zeal, that the thould run the next day against any "gelding in the world for double the fum: my maf"ter immediately accepted the challenge, and told him, that he would the next day produce a gelding "that should beat her: but what was my aftonishment "and indignation, when I discovered that he most cruelly and fraudulently intended to qualify me for

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