Thou blind Pharisee! cleanse first that within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whitened sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.-St. Matthew.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable. year of the Lord.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and they stripped him of his raiment and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion. Which now of these three, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? "He that showed mercy on him." Go, and do thou likewise.
Give alms of such things as ye have; and behold, all things are clean unto you. But wo unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint, and rue, and all manner of herbs; and pass over judgment and the love of God. Wo unto you also, lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Souls to which Destiny 'portions new mutable bodies,
Imbibe the Lethean oblivion of prior existence.
A spirit internal supports all-earth, ocean and ether,
Flies to the moon's lucid orb, stars distant and sunlike,
The mind, through each member diffused, all matter enlivens;
Thence men and animals sprung, birds, insects and fishes.
Virgil, En. VI.
PYTHAGORAS divine, him Samos bore,
But since self-banished from his native shore,
Because he hated tyrants, nor could bear
The chains, which none but servile souls will wear:
The crowd with silent admiration stand,
And heard him as they heard their god's command;
While he discours'd of heav'n's mysterious laws,
The world's original, and Nature's cause.
He first the taste of flesh from tables drove, And argu'd well, if arguments could move:
"O mortals, from your fellows' blood abstain,
Nor taint your bodies with a food profane:
While corn and pulse by nature are bestow'd,
And planted orchards bend their willing load;
While labour'd gardens wholesome herbs produce,
And teeming vines afford their gen'rous juice;
Nor tardier fruits of cruder kinds are lost,
But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost;
While kine to pails distended udders bring,
And bees their honey, redolent of spring;
While earth not only can your needs supply,
But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury;
A guiltless feast administers with ease,
And without blood is prodigal to please.
Wild beasts their maws with their slain brethren fill;
And yet not all, for some refuse to kill :
Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed,
On browze, and corn, and flow'ry meadows, feed.
Bears, tigers, wolves, the lion's angry brood,
Whom heav'n endu'd with principles of blood,
He wisely sunder'd from the rest to yell
In forests, and in lonely caves to dwell;
Where stronger beasts oppress the weak by might,
And all in prey, and purple feasts delight.
O impious use! to Nature's laws oppos'd,
Where bowels are in others bowels clos'd;
Where, fatten'd by their fellow's fat, they thrive;
Maintain'd by murder, and by death they live.
"Tis then for nought that mother Earth provides
The stores of all she shows, and all she hides,
If men with fleshy morsels must be fed,
And chew, with bloody teeth, the breathing bread;
What else is this, but to devour our guests,
And barb'rously renew Cyclopean feasts!
We, by destroying life, our life sustain;
And gorge th' ungodly maw with meats obscene.
Not so the Golden Age, who fed on fruit,
Nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute.
Then birds in airy space might safely move,
And tim'rous hares on heaths securely rove
Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear,
For all was peaceful; and that peace sincere.
Whoever was the wretch, (and curs'd be he
That envy'd first our food's simplicity!)
Th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began,
And after forg'd the sword to murder man.
Had he the sharpen'd steel alone employ'd
On beasts of prey, that other beasts destroy'd
Or man invaded with their fangs, and paws,
This had been justified by nature's laws,
And self-defence: But who did feasts begin
Of flesh, he stretch'd necessity to sin.
To kill man-killers, man has lawful pow'r,
But not th' extended license to devour.
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
The sow, with her broad snout, for rooting up
Th' intrusted seed, was judg'd to spoil the crop,
And intercept the sweating farmer's hope:
The cov'tous churl, of unforgiving kind,
Th' offender to the bloody priest resign'd:
Her hunger was no plea: For that she died.
The goat came next in order, to be tried;
The goat had cropt the tendrils of the vine:
In vengeance laity and clergy join,
Where one had lost his profit, one his wine:
Here was, at least, some shadow of offence:
The sheep was sacrific'd on no pretence,
But meek, and unresisting innocence:
A patient, useful creature, born to bear
The warm and woolly fleece, that cloth'd her murderer;
And daily to give down the milk she bred,
A tribute for the grass on which she fed.
Living, both food and raiment she supplies,
And is of least advantage when she dies.
How did the toiling ox his death deserve,
A downright simple drudge, and born to serve?
O tyrant! with what justice canst thou hope
The promise of the year, a plenteous crop,
When thou destroy'st thy lab'ring steer, who till'd
And plough'd with pains, thy else ungrateful field?
From his yet reeking neck to draw the yoke,
That neck, with which the surly clods he broke ;
And to the hatchet yield thy husbandman,
Who finish'd Autumn, and the Spring began!
Nor this alone! but Heav'n itself to bribe,
We to the gods our impious acts ascribe:
First recompense with death their creatures' toil;
Then call the bless'd above to share the spoil:
The fairest victim must the pow'rs appease,
(So fatal 'tis sometimes too much to please!)
A purple fillet his broad brows adorns,
With flow'ry garlands crown'd, and gilded horns;
He hears the murd'rous pray'r the priest prefers,
But understands not 'tis his doom he hears:
Beholds the meal betwixt his temples cast,
(The fruit and product of his labours past);
And in the water views perhaps the knife
Uplifted, to deprive him of his life;
Then broken up alive, his entrails sees
Torn out, for priests t' inspect the gods' decrees.
From whence, O mortal man, this gust of blood
Have you deriv'd, and interdicted food?
Be taught by me this dire delight to-shun,
Warn'd by my precepts, by my practice won:
And when you eat the well-deserving beast,
Think, on the lab'rer of your field you
"All I would teach, and by right reason bring To think of death, as but an idle thing. Why thus affrighted at an empty name, A dream of darkness, and fictitious flame? Vain themes of wit, which but in poems pass, And fables of a world, that never was! What feels the body, when the soul expires, By time corrupted, or consum'd by fires? Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats In other forms, and only changes seats.
Then Death, so call'd, is but old matter drest In some new figure, and a varied vest:
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