OBSERVATIONS. 



Oyi Cruelti/ to Insects : 

 BY William Cowper, esq. 



I WOULD not enter on my list of friends 

 (Tho' graced with polished 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 evening in the public path ; 

 But he that has humanity, forewarned, 

 Will tread aside, and let the reptile live. 

 The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight, 

 And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes, 

 A visitor unwelcome, into scenes 

 Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove, 

 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, 

 Or take their pastime in the spacious field: 

 There they are privileged ; and he that hunts 

 Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong. 

 Disturbs the economy of Nature's realm. 

 Who, when she formed, designed them an abode. 

 The sum is this. If man's convenience^ hedth, 



