CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 



397 



which have no existence in the all-comprising view 

 of the Creator and governor of the universe. 



The consideration that all the felicity of animals 13 

 confined to the short period of the present life, with- 

 out any hope or compensation in a future state of ex- 

 istence, ought to be an aditional inducement to treat 

 them with compassion. We ought to imagine every 

 inoliensive animal which our wanton cruelty would 

 deprive of existence, addressing us in the mouse's afcv 

 feeling petition : 



"But if this transient gleam of light 

 Be all of Hie we share, 

 Let pity plead within thy breast, 

 This little all to spare." 



These moral sentiments, so strongly inculcated by 

 reason, are decidedly corroborated by religion, sanc- 

 tified by scripture, and impressed by the discourses 

 of Him from whom all scripture derives its authority, 

 and all true religion its origin. The Redeemer of 

 mankind reminds us that his Heavenly Father takes 

 care to feed the ravens, and that the sparrows are not 

 overlooked in the universality of his providence; 

 which is sufficient to convince us that we cannot, 

 without offering a gross insult to the Creator and -So- 

 vereign of the world wantonly ill-treat any of his 

 creatures, all of which are objects of his parental soli- 

 citude. 



In the system of nature, it is ordained by an ar- 

 rangement, for which yon will recollect the reasons 

 already assigned, that animals should be conducive to 

 the support of one another, and that all of them 

 should be subservient to the interests of man, or at 

 least subject to his reasonable will, although not to his 

 wanton cruelty. When, therefore, we are obliged to 

 kill any of them for our food, or to destroy for our 

 safety such as are noxious, we ought to dispatch them 

 expeditiously, and to render the pang of death ^s 

 short and easy as possible. 



In contemplating the immensity of the universe, 

 and the regularity of its architecture, we have ob* 

 served the ponderous magnitude and uniform motion* 

 T 



