Cow's milk, which is still in most general use, was included among the principal articles of diet, in very remote ages. Homer mentions a nation who principally lived on cow's milk.
ON THE CONDUCT OF MAN TO INFERIOR
ANIMALS.
Long after habitual cruelty had almost erased from the mind of man every mark of affection for the inferior ranks of his fellow-creatures, a certain respect was still paid to the principle of life, and the crime of murdered innocence was, in some degree, atoned by the decent regard which was paid to the mode of their destruction.
⸻Gentle friends,
let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
let's carve him as a dish fit for the Gods,
not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds:
and let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
stir up their servants to an act of rage,
and after seem to chide them.—Shakespere.
Such was the decency with which, at first, the devoted victims were put to death. But when man became perfectly civilized, those exterior symbols of opinions, with which he was now but feebly, if at all, impressed, were also laid aside. Animals were formerly sacrificed with some decorum to the plea of necessity, but are now with unceremonious brutality destroyed, to gratify the unfeeling pride or wanton cruelty of men. Broad barefaced butchery occupies every walk of life; every element is ransacked for victims; the most remote corners of the globe are ravished of their inhabitants, whether by the fastidious gluttony of man their flesh is held grateful to the
