An essay on abstinence from animal food, as a moral duty / By Joseph Ritson.

  • Q6286581
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on abstinence from animal food, as a moral duty / By Joseph Ritson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/258 page 28
    would, in fuch a ftate, have been a moft miferable creature; and, indeed, if it be true, as i think i have prove’d,* that he muft have live’d- many ages, without haveing either defire or oppor- tunity of emergeing from fuch a’ftate, this cir- cumftance would onely ferve as the grounds of accufation againft Nature, and not againft the being which fhe had thus unhapyly conftituteéd. But if i rightly comprehend the ufe of the term miferable, it is a word which either has no mean-- %* ¢¢ The more we reflect,” he has fay’d, “on this fubject, the greater appears the distance between mere fenfation and the moft fimple fcience: it is, indeed, imposfible to conceive how man, by his own powers alone, without the aid of communi- cation, and the fpur of necesfity, could have, got over fo great an interval. It is not improbable that many ageés elapfe’d be- fore mankind beheld any other fire than that of the -heavens. What a multiplicity of accidents muft have concur’d to bring | them acquainted with the moft common ufeés of that element? How often muft they not have fuffer’d it to expire or be ex- tinguifh’d, without knowing the art or means of reproducing it? and how often may not fuch fecrets have dye’d with the difcoverer?... Let it be confider’d,” he ads, “ how many ideas we owe to the ufe and practice of fpeech; how far grame mar exercifeés the underftanding, and facilitates its operations, ‘Let us refle&t on the inconceiveable pains and infinite fpace of time beftow’d on the firft invention of languageés. To thefe reflections join the precedeing, and then judge how many mil- lions of agecs muft elapfe in the fuccesfive developement of thofe intellectual operations of which the human mind is ca= | pable.” (P. 183, ec.)
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image