God had made the momentous discovery, he is represented by them as having promulgated a new law, as if in order to counteract the effects of the unfortunate error attributed to him. "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you." "Here," say such reasoners,"—"we have indubitabable proof that it is now lawful to eat flesh! Oh! how very gracious is our God! Hew comforting the information contained in this indulgent law! Is it not as plain as language can express it, that we are here allowed to eat of every moving thing that liveth, without any restraining self denial, or any needless mortification of our bodily appetites!"
We shall not stop to dwell on the inconsistency, nor to enlarge on the blasphemy of representing the Omniscient as capable of erring, or of finding out a mistake in his legislation, which had continued undetected by his Infinite Wisdom for sixteen hundred years! But we shall bespeak your serious and unbiassed attention whilst we enquire a little more minutely into the correctness of the generally received acceptance of this new law—this supposed indulgent grant to feed on "every moving thing that liveth."
In the first place, then, it appears to us evident from the history and experience of all ages and of all nations, that "every moving thing that liveth" has never been considered as fit for meat, by any one class of people on the face of the whole earth; even the ferocious cannibal of the forest, who would feel no compunction at feeding on the flesh of a fellow mortal, would shrink from the odious practise of eating "every moving thing that liveth." True it is, mankind, in the aggregate, have treated the animal part of creation, much after the manner that the poet has represented the Mahometans as treating their Prophet's mysterious charge, in relation to a certain portion of the swine, that no good Musselman may taste;—
