them of their liberty, mutilating their bodies, and, at last, putting an end to their lives for our pleasure or convenience. "The reasons alleged in vindication of this practice are the following: That the several species of animals being created to prey upon one another afford a kind of analogy to prove that the human species were intended to feed upon them; that, if let alone, they would overrun the earth, and exclude mankind from the occupation of it; that they are required for what they suffer at our hands by our care and protection. "Upon which reasons I would observe that the analogy contended for is extremely lame, since the carnivorous animals have no power to support life by any other means, and since we have, for the whole human species might subsist entirely upon fruit, pulse, herbs, and roots, as many tribes of Hindus actually do. The two other reasons, as far as they go, may be valid reasons, for, no doubt, if men had been supported entirely by vegetable food a great part of those animals who die to furnish our tables would never have lived, but they by no means justify our right over the lives of other animals to the extent to which we exercise it. What danger is there, for example, of fish interfering with us in the occupation of their element, or what do we contribute to their support or preservation? "The natives of Hindustan being confined, by the laws of their religion, to the use of vegetable food, and requiring little except rice, which the country produces in plentiful crops; and food in warm climates, composing the only want of life, these countries are populous under all the injuries of a despotic, and the agitations of an unsettled government. If any revolution, or what would be called, perhaps, refinement of manners (?), should generate in these people a taste for the flesh of animals, similar to what prevails amongst the Arabian hordes-should introduce flocks and herds into grounds which are now covered with corn-should teach them to account a certain portion of this species of food amongst the necessaries of life-the population from this single change would suffer in a few years a great diminution, and this diminution would follow in spite of every effort of the laws, or even of any improvement that might take place in their civil condition. In Ireland the simplicity of living alone maintains a considerable degree of population under great defects of police, industry, and commerce. "The first resource of savage life is in the flesh of wild ani mals. Hence the numbers amongst savage nations, compared with the tract of country which they occupy, are universally small, because this species or provision is, of all others, supplied in the slenderest proportion. The next step was the invention of pasturage, or the rearing of flocks and herds of tame animals. This alteration added to the stock of provision much. But the last and principal improvement was to follow, viz.: tillage, or the artificial production of corn, esculent plants, and roots. This discovery, whilst it changed the quality of human food, augmented the quantity in a vast proportion. "This consideration teaches us that tillage, as an object of national care and encouragement, is universally preferable to pasturage, because the kind of provision which it yields goes much farther in the sustenation of human life. Tillage is also recommended by this additional advantage-that it affords employment to a much more numerous peasantry. Indeed, pasturage seems to be the art of a nation, either imperfectly civilized, as are many of the tribes which cultivate it in the internal parts of Asia, or of a nation like Spain, declining from its summit by luxury and inactivity." A warm friend and associate of Rousseau; born at Havre, France, Jan. 19, 1737; graduated at the College of Rouen he entered the army as military engineer. He was also employed in the Russian service four years as an engineer. Later he served as an engineer under the French government. In 1771 he took up his residence in Paris and devoted himself to literature. Here his intimacy with Rousseau and other distinguished writers commenced. In 1773 Pierre published his "Voyage to the Isle of France", then his "Studies of Nature," and "Paul and Virginia," very popular. These were followed by "Desires of a Solitary," "The Indian Cottage," "Harmonies of Nature," and "Essays on J. J. Rousseau.' This charming writer enjoyed the patronage of Louis XVI, Joseph Bonaparte, and the emperor Napoleon. He was considered one of the best prose writers in France. Pierre's "Paul and Virginia" was successively translated into English, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. He thus describes the natural feasts of his young heroine and hero : "Amiable children! thus in innocence did you pass your first days. How often in this spot did your mothers, pressing you in their arms, thank heaven for the consolation you were preparing for them in their old age, and for the happiness of seeing you enter upon life under so happy auguries! How often under the shadows of these rocks have I shared with them your outdoor repasts which had cost no animals their lives. Gourd full of milk, of newly laid eggs, of rice cakes upon banana leaves, baskets laden with potatoes, with mangoes, with oranges, with pomegranates, with bananas, with dates, offered at once the most wholesome of meats, the most beautiful colors, and the most agreeable juices. The conversation was as refined and gentle as their food. "Virginia loved to repose on the slope of this fountain, which was decorated with a pomp at once magnificent and wild. Often would she come there to wash the household linen beneath the shade of two cocoanut trees. Sometimes she led her goats to feed in this place; and while she was preparing cheese from their milk, she pleased herself in watching them as they browsed the herbage on the precipitous sides of the rocks, and supported themselves in mid-air upon one of the jutting points as upon a pedestal. Paul, seeing that this spot was loved by Virginia, brought from the neighboring forest the nests of all sorts of birds. The fathers and mothers of these birds followed their little ones, and came and established themselves in this new colony. Virginia would distribute to them from time to time grains of rice, maize, and millet. As soon as she appeared the blackbirds, the bengalis, whose flight is so gentle, the cardinals, whose plumage is of the color of fire, quitted their bushes; parroquets, green as emeralds, descended from the neighboring lianas, partridges ran along under the grass, and advanced pell-mell up to her feet like domestic hens. Paul and she delighted themselves with their transports of joy, with their eager appetites, and with their loves." And when a whole people shall return to the innocence and simplicity of nature, this joyful communion with the denizens of the field and forest will again be enjoyed. When man is PALEY. 1748-1805. 65 habitually kind to the lower creatures, especially to the feathered tribes, as are the Maoris of New Zealand, they are most happy to establish their habitation close to his. Indeed, his largest compensation consists, not in slaying and eating his dumb companions, but in coming en-rapport with them in a manner that he may participate in the sweetest of all forms of communion and fellowship. St. Pierre invites the serious attention of educators to the importance of providing a vegetable régime for the young : "They (the educators) will accustom children to vegetable régime. The people living upon vegetable foods are, of all men, the handsomest and the most vigorous, the least disposed to disease and to passions, and they whose lives last the longest. Such in Europe are a large proportion of the Swiss. The stout, robust, highland Scotch seldom or never taste of animal flesh. The greater part of the peasantry, who, in every country, form the most vigorous portion of the people, eat very little flesh meat. The Brahmins of India, who frequently reach the age of one hundred years, eat only vegetable foods and fruits." Though belonging to the less known prophets of the new age, his eloquent plea for the rights of the lower animals, and his noble defense of a purely vegetable diet, entitles the name of Oswald to be placed on record here. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At an early age he entered the ranks as an English soldier, and soon worked his way up to a commissioned officer. In the East Indies he distinguished himself for courage and ability. At length he renounced the soldier's life and devoted himself to the study of Brahminical and Buddhistic religions. He uniformly abstained from all flesh, and came to abhor slaughter houses so intensely that he avoided them with the same feeling that would prompt him to keep away from a pest house. He joined the Publicans in France during the French Revolution, and fell fighting in La Vendee for the triumph of liberty. He was the author of a book entitled, "The Cry of Nature" from which we make a few extracts : "But far more is the state of animals. For, alas! when they are plucked from the tree of Life, suddenly the withered blossoms of their beauty shrink to the chilly hand of Death. Quenched in his cold grasp expires the lamp of their loveliness, and struck by the livid blast of loathed putrefaction, their comely limbs are involved in ghastly horror. Shall we leave the living herbs to seek, in the den of death, an obscene aliment? Insensible to the blooming beauties of Pomona-unallured by the fragrant odors that exhale from her groves of golden fruits-unmoved by the nectar of nature, by the ambrosia of innocence, shall the voracious vultures of our impure appetites speed along those lovely scenes and delight in the loathsome sink of putrefaction, to devour the remains of other creatures, to load with cadaverous rottenness a wretched stomach? "And is not the human race itself highly interested to prevent the habit of spilling blood? For, while the man, habituated to violence, be nice to distinguish the vital tide of a quadruped from that which flows from a creature with two legs? Are the dying struggles of a lamb less affecting than the agonies of any animal whatever? Or, will the ruffian who beholds unmoved the supplicatory looks of innocence itself, and reckless of the calf's infantine cries, plunges in her quivering side the murdering knife, will he turn, I say, with horror, from human assassination? It is well that in most, if not all of the American states, butchers, men of blood, are forbidden to set on juries. "What more advance can mortals make in sin, |