Fixt motionless, and petrified with dread.

So on they far'd. Discourse on other themes
Ensuing, seem'd t'obliterate the past;
And, tamer far for so much fury shown,
(As is the course of rash and fiery men)
The rude companion smil'd, as if transform'd.
But 'twas a transient calm. A storm was near,
An unsuspected storm. His hour was come.
The impious challenger of Pow'r divine

Was now to learn that Heav'n, tho' slow to wrath,
Is never with impunity defied.

His horse, as he had caught his master's mood, Snorting, and starting into sudden rage,

Unbidden, and not now to be control'd,

Rush'd to the cliff, and, having reach'd it, stood.
At once the shock unseated him: he flew
Sheer o'er the craggy barrier; and, immers'd
Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not,
The death he had deserv'd—and died alone!
So God wrought double justice; made the fool

The victim of his own tremendous choice,

And taught a brute the way to safe revenge.

I would not enter on my list of friends (Tho' grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at ev'ning in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes,

A visitor unwelcome, into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose-th' alcove, l The chamber, or refectory-may die:

A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when, held within their proper bounds, And guiltless of offence, they range the air,i Or take their pastime in the spacious field:

There they are privileg'd; and he that hunts
Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs th' economy of nature's realm,

Who, when she form'd, design'd them an abode.
The sum is this. If man's convenience, health,
Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish their's.
Else they are all-the meanest things that are--
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who, in his sov'reign wisdom, made them all.
Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd in most

By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand

To check them. But, alas! none sooner shoots,
If unrestrain'd, into luxuriant growth,

Than cruelty, most dev'lish of them all.
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule

And righteous limitation of its act,

By which Heav'n moves in pard'ning guilty man; And he that shows none, being ripe in years,

And conscious of the outrage he commits,

Shall seek it, and not find it, in his turn.

Distinguish'd much by reason, and still more By our capacity of grace divine,

From creatures that exist but for our sake,
Which, having serv'd us, perish, we are held
Accountable; and God, some future day,
Will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse
Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust.

Superior as we are, they yet depend

Not more on human help than we on their's. Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were giv'n

In aid of our defects. In some are found

Such teachable and apprehensive parts,

That man's attainments in his own concerns, Match'd with th'expertness of the brute's in their's, Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind.

Some show that nice sagacity of smell,
And read with such discernment, in the port
And figure of the man, his secret aim,

That oft we owe our safety to a skill

We could not teach, and must despair to learn.
But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop
To quadrupede instructors, many a good
And useful quality, and virtue too,
Rarely exemplified among ourselves.
Attachment never to be wean'd, or chang'd
By any change of fortune; proof alike
Against unkindness, absence, and neglect;
Fidelity, that neither bribe nor threat

Can move or warp; and gratitude for small
And trivial favours, lasting as the life,
And glist'ning even in the dying eye.

Man praises man. Desert in arts or arms Wins public honour; and ten thousand sit Patiently present at a sacred song,