Ireland, John: Hogarth illustrated (Band 2,3): Nature (London, 1793)

THE FOUR STAGES OF CRUELTY.

" The poorest beetle that we tread upon,

" In corporal sufferance, feels a pang, as great

" As when a giant dies."

This pathetic lesson of humanity is given by
the poet of nature. Aiming at the same end by
different means, our benevolent artist here steps
forth as the instructor of youth, the friend to
mercy, and advocate of the brute creation.

In the prints before us, an obdurate boy begins
his career of cruelty by tormenting animals; re-
peated acts of barbarity sear his heart, he commits
a deliberate murder, and concludes in an igno-
minious death. These gradations are natural, I
had almost said inevitable; and that parent who
discovers the germ of barbarity in the mind of a
child, and does not use every effort to exter-
minate the noxious weed, is an accessary to the
evils which spring from its baneful growth. To
check these malign propensities, becomes more
necessary from the general tendency of our amuse-
ments. Most of our rural, and even infantine
sports, arc savage and ferocious.