roughly investigated and found all that the inanimate frame is capable of unfolding, that nothing remains to be achieved; and to gratify a preposterous ambition, and a criminal curiosity, must you commence a course of diabolical experiments on living creatures, in hope of discovering something new? And suppose this as yet undiscovered something to be found, what will be its real use in the medical profession, and what will atone for the guilt you must incur in prosecuting the inquiry? You are desirous of celebrity. Well, let it be an honest celebrity, and pursue it in such paths as virtue will approve. Never let the genius of evil be your conductor to the temple of fame. Though all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, were to be the reward of your falling down and worshipping the enemy of God and man, what would you be profited? You are now preparing to immolate me, by horrible tortures, on the blood-stained altar that he loves; and what will you gain by the sacrifice, but the harrowing reflection of having perpetrated an enormous atrocity, against which I protest, and make my final appeal to heaven ?" CAUSES OF CRUELTY. SECTION SEVENTH. SCIENCE PERVERTED.-NATURAL HISTORY. "Every degree of unnecessary pain becomes cruelty, which, I need not assure you, I abhor; and from my own observations, however ruthlessly the entomologist may seem to devote the few specimens wanted for scientific purposes to destruction, no one, in ordinary circumstances, is less prodigal of insect life. For my own part, I question whether the drowning individuals which I have saved from destruction, would not far outnumber all that I ever sacrificed to science."-KIRBY. The advocates of vivisection, as we have seen, maintain that if animals may be killed for food, or to protect ourselves from harm, they may be killed for intellectual nutriment; to promote the advancement of science and elucidate our knowledge of nature. The naturalist may Q urge a similar plea, and contend that those who have no objection to see their table loaded with every variety of game, should not grudge him the indulgence of his more refined taste. May the epicure slaughter thousands of beasts and of birds for his appetite, and the lovers of nature be censured for rescuing a few from the kitchen or the kennel? We answer decidedly, No. You may kill what your necessities require; but you must not torture. You are not to imagine that even a love of science will justify the application of the wedge and the screw, the needle and the dissecting knife, to living creatures. Naturalists, as well as vividissectors, have been accused of great cruelty. We wish we could, in all instances, repel the charge, but we must be contented with expressing our condemnation of every act by which animals are wantonly destroyed, or subjected to any pain that can possibly be prevented. The desire of possessing new and rare specimens, or the most beautiful of the kind, sometimes tempts to a profligate expenditure of life. Vaillant ensconsed himself in the hollow of a tree, and "from this sacred niche," says he, "I brought down without mercy everything that presented itself before me :" and on another occasion, not contented with obtaining one specimen of an elephant, he shot four of these noble animals in one day; a day which he afterwards regarded with as much pride as a conqueror regards that of his greatest victory.* His achievements, however, were trifling in comparison of those of Captain Rogers, of the Ceylon Rifle Corps. "During a sojourn of fifteen years in the island of Ceylon, he destroyed upwards of 600 of these gigantic quadrupeds, and has become eminently notorious for his skill in this particular description of sport." Audubon, in a letter which is prefixed to the "Natural history of Parrots, by Lander and Brown," has the following confession : I shot sixteen birds on the passage, (to America,) which I got through the kind attention of our commander. I 66 Thunberg, in his second journey into Caffraria, met with a man who "twice in his life had destroyed with his gun twenty-two elephants each day." But he shot them for their ivory, not for sport; it was his trade. killed fifty more, when the Columbia was going too fast for the purpose of picking them up. My young man is now closely engaged in skinning, and killed a bag-full of warblers yesterday. Vive la joie ! no taxes on shooting or fishing." No; humanity only is taxed, and the rights violated of creatures, that can make no appeal, except to heaven, against such useless and profligate slaughter. Adanson records an anecdote of himself equally reprehensible. After describing a woody district very full of green monkeys, and informing us how much he was entertained, after he had killed two or three of them, by the agility of the rest in endeavouring to escape from his murderous shots, "I continued," says he, " still to shoot at them, and though I killed no less than three and twenty in less than an hour, and within the space of twenty fathoms, yet not one of them screeched the whole time.' Our traveller prefaces this account by saying, "What struck me most was the shooting of monkeys, which I enjoyed, *** and I do not think there ever was better sport!" These, it must be admitted, are merciless achievements. But let us not judge of all naturalists by a few such examples; they form the exception, not the rule. Examples of a contrary character may be adduced. When three sea-swallows came on board Lieutenant Kotzebue's vessel, and suffered themselves to be caught, so far from acting as Audubon would have done, he liberated two, and kept but one of them for the collection of natural history; and when a land bird paid him a visit far at sea, instead of killing, he gave it a hearty meal of mill-beetles, and set it at liberty. A. Capell Brooke, too, acted as became a humane man, when sailing among the islands on the coast of Norway, where the slayer of the green monkeys would have found excellent sport in the destruction of wild geese, eider ducks, and other birds congregated on the rocks. These were in such numbers that he could soon have filled his boat with them. But says he, “ The happy state of peace, which every description of the feathered tribe seemed to enjoy, and the confidence they placed in us, quite disarmed me of any murderous intention towards them, though I had come out well provided with guns. I therefore determined not to molest them, at least till the breeding season was over; and the pleasure experienced at being daily in the midst of such an infinite variety, and observing their habits and the diversity of their plumage, amply repaid me." The best friends of animals, I am persuaded, are found among men devoted to the study of natural history. They have no wish to exchange the delight which they enjoy, in the contemplation of animated nature, for the tyrannical exercise of a power to kill. But this is a delight which cannot always be enjoyed. Many of the chief objects of their curiosity can neither be preserved nor obtained without a sacrifice of life; and they may with reason ask if they are more to be blamed for choosing the most beautiful to adorn a collection, than a cook or a butcher the fattest and best for the table? They may be deemed the friends of humanity, inasmuch as they gratify by the exhibition of dead specimens, that curiosity which would otherwise seek gratification in other captures and in other deaths. As it is desirable to have the creature which they wish to obtain for a specimen as perfect as possible, they put it to death in the easiest and most expeditious mode, celerrima via mortis; and having gained their object, they are content. They may expatiate on the beauty of their prize, but they make no boast of the numbers they destroy. Who have pleaded against barbarity to beasts and birds with so much eloquence, as naturalists; or so successfully exposed the ignorance and the prejudices to which such multitudes of various species are sacrificed? Who but naturalists have shewn the folly as well as cruelty of extirpating rooks, woodpeckers, and goat-suckers? Who becomes the friend and advocate of swallows, by telling us that "they are the most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, social, and useful of birds; they touch no fruit in our gardens; delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to our houses; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous agility, and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats and other troublesome insects ?" Kirby and Spence are not the only entomologists who have saved more insects from drowning than they ever sacrificed to science. Many birds and quadrupeds have found with naturalists protection, and an asylum from persecution and death; and many too have received ample compensation in kind treatment, for the temporary sufferings to which they may have been subjected. Mr. Waterton, a naturalist, who every where expresses himself as a man of humanity, gives us the following interesting anecdote: having made an experiment on a she ass, of the effects of the Wourali poison, from which she recovered, he says, "The kindhearted reader will rejoice on learning that Earl Percy, pitying her misfortunes, sent her down from London to Walton-hall, near Wakefield. There she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be sheltered from the wintry storm; and when summer comes, she shall feed in the finest pasture. No burden shall be placed upon her, and she shall end her days in peace."—pp. 81, 82. The learned and amiable Sir William Jones has touched on this subject in a way that merits consideration. He says, "Could the figure, instincts, and qualities of birds, beasts, insects, reptiles, and fish, be ascertained, either on the plan of Buffon or on that of Linnæus, without giving pain to the objects of our examination, few studies would afford us more solid instruction, or more exquisite delight; but I never could learn by what right, nor conceive with what feelings a naturalist can occasion the misery of an innocent bird, and leave its young, perhaps, to perish in a cold nest, because it has gay plumage, and has never been accurately delineated; or deprive even a butterfly of its natural enjoyments, because it has the misfortune to be rare or beautiful; nor shall I ever forget the couplet of Firdausi, for which Sadi, who cites it with applause, pours blessings on his departed spirit:— "Ah! spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain, 66 This |