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

FIRST STAGE OF CRUELTY.

" While various scenes of sportive woe

" The infant race employ ;
" And tortur'd victims bleeding, shew

'• The tyrant in the boy.

•• Behold a youth of gentler heart.

" Learn from this fair example, you

" Who savage sports delight,
" How cruelty disgusts the view,

** While pits charms the sight."

Let us suppose a disciple of Pythagoras to
contemplate this print, how would it affect him?
He would imagine it to represent a group of young
barbarians, qualifying themselves for executioners;
would raise his voice to heaven, and thank the
God of mercy, that he is not an inhabitant of
such a country; would lament that these dege-
nerate little beings should not have been informed
that the animals on whom they are now inflicting
such tortures, might, previous to transmigration,
have been their fathers, brothers, friends.

The delineation of such scenes must shock
every feeling heart, and their enumeration disgust
every humane mind. I hope, for the honour of
nature and our nation, that they,are not so fre-