150 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



of these animals mingle with our dishes? Because our hearts 

 become in some degree attached to these useful animals, and 

 it is a principle of our nature, to be averse to devouring what 

 has been an object of love. 



Those animals which are esteemed proper articles of food, 

 and which w e feed to serve up at our tables, sometimes afford 

 illustrations of this principle. So liable is the heart of man 

 to attach itself to surrounding objects, that those animals 

 which are doomed to the knife, if fed and tended by our- 

 selves, often fix themselves upon our affections, and thus are 

 unfitted for our food. When a boy, I could never have eaten 

 of the rabbit which I had tended myself, and which had so 

 often nibbled the cabbage leaf from my hands. There are 

 instances enough to establish the principle, that we dislike eat- 

 ing what we once had loved, and it is probable that our aver- 

 sion to a meal of human flesh, depends upon this principle. 

 Cannibalism is the practice only of the most savage and fero- 

 cious nations, of those who have little sensibility of heart to 

 render them capable of loving, and who are devoid of the 

 amiable qualities of the mind, which are the objects of love. 

 It should be observed also, that they only devour their enemies, 

 and rather to satisfy their revenge, than their hunger ; of all 

 passions, revenge is the most destructive of love. Perhaps the 

 above remarks will throw some light upon the general detesta- 

 liion, and the possible practice of cannibalism. 



