creatures, is expressed with wonderful tenderness ———— 'Should I not spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons———— and also much cattle?' And we have in Deuteronomy a precept of great good-nature of this sort, with a blessing in form annexed to it, in those words; 'If thou shalt find a bird's nest in the way, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go; that it may be well with thee, and that thou may'st prolong thy days.'
To conclude, there is certainly a degree of gratitude owing to those animals that serve us. As for such as are mortal or noxious, we have a right to destroy them; and for those that are neither of advantage or prejudice to us, the common enjoyment of life is what I cannot think we ought to deprive them of.
This whole matter with regard to each of these considerations, is set in a very agreeable light in one of the Persian fables of Pilpay, with which I shall end this paper.
A traveller passing through a thicket, and seeing a few sparks of fire, which some passengers had kindled as they went that way before, made up to it. On a sudden the sparks caught hold
of a bush in the midst of which lay an adder, and set it in flames. The adder intreated the traveller's assistance, who tying a bag to the end of his staff reached it, and drew him out: he then bid him go where he pleased, but never be more hurtful to men, since he owed his life to a man's compassion. The adder, however, prepared to
