“ ‘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 timorous 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 cursed be he) That envied first our food’s simplicity, The essay of bloody feasts on brutes began, And after forged 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 power, But not the extended license to devour.