CHAP. XII.] RURAL SPORTS. 367 



the books which he has had made and sold, 

 hundreds of flocks and scores of droves must 

 have perished : nay, that, to get him his beaver- 

 hat, a beaver must have been hunted and killed, 

 and, in the doing of which, many beavers may 

 have been wounded and left to pine away the 

 rest of their lives ; and, perhaps many little 

 orphan beavers, left to lament the murder of 

 their parents. BEN LEY was the only real and 

 sincere Pythagorean of modern times, that 1 

 ever heard of. He protested, not only against 

 eating the flesh of animals, but also against 

 robbing their backs ; and, therefore, his dress 

 consisted wholly ofjlax. But, even he, like 

 Sir Richard Phillips, eat milk, butter, cheese, 

 and eggs ; though this was cruelly robbing the 

 hens, cows, and calves ; and, indeed causing 

 the murder of the calves. In addition, poor 

 little BEN forgot the materials of book-binding ; 

 and, it was well- he did; for else, his Bible 

 would have gone into the fire! 



373. Taking it for granted, then, that sports 

 men are as good as other folks on the score of 

 humanity, the sports of the field, like every 

 thing else done in the fields, tend to produce, 

 or preserve health. I prefer them to all other 

 pastime, because they produce early rising; 

 because they have no tendency to lead young 

 men into vicious habits. It is where men con- 



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