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YE WEARIE WAYFARER.

FYTTE V.

LEX TALIONIS.

[A MORAL DISCOURSE.]

“And if there's blood upon his hand,
'Tis but the blood of deer.”—W. Scott.

To beasts of the field, and fowls of the air,
And fish of the sea alike,
Man's hand is ever slow to spare,
And ever ready to strike;
With a license to kill, and to work our will,
In season by land or by water,
To our heart's content we may take our fill
Of the joys we derive from slaughter.

And few, I reckon, our rights gainsay
In this world of rapine and wrong,