“He first the taste of flesh from tables drove, And argued well, if arguments could move: ‘Oh 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 generous juice; Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost, But tamed 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 browse, and corn, and flowery meadows feed. Bears, tigers, wolves, the lion’s angry brood, Whom Heaven indued with principles of blood, He wisely sunder’d from the rest, to yell In forests, and in lonely caves to dwell;