1£0 ON THE RIGHTS OF BEASTS. 



a duty to moderate their own appetites, and 

 that nature has left all indifferent matters to be 

 regulated by their difcretion, they fuppofe they 

 may make equally free with elements or prin- 

 ciples, as with their acceftories. Hence the ab- 

 furdity of that fagacious practice, fo highly 

 vaunted by fophifts, of moderating and fitting 

 principles for human ufe, inftead of fitting the 

 human mind for the reception of true princi- 

 ples. The danger of this practice is ufually 

 diftant, and feldom defcried ; it fupervenes, by 

 degrees, but never fails in the end, to fall upon 

 mankind with accumulated force. Are men, 

 for example, to affume the liberty of mode- 

 rating (that is to fay, ufing at difcretion) bar- 

 barity, or common honefty ? Are we to teach, 

 that in certain cafes of intcreft, barbarity is al- 

 lowable ; and in others, that it is dangerous to 

 be honeft over-much ? He who calls for a de- 

 finition of barbarity, of common honefty, or of 

 truth, is either a weak man, or very defirous of 

 becoming a fophift. The principle of truth 

 is indivifible ; if vou detract one fingle atom 

 from the golden circle, the whole effence is de- 

 ftroyed, and the error univerfally, although 

 perhaps gradually, pervades the moral world. 

 As an analogy ready at hand, the permifTion 

 given to the trade in human (laves, makes an 

 obvious breach in the principle of juftice, and 

 pofitively authorizes univerfal rapine. To plead 



either 



