and feast his brutal eyes on their expiring struggles! Marc Antony sometimes caused the heads of those he had proscribed to be brought to him when he was at table, that he might indulge himself with the bloody spectacle. But the wife of this monster was still worse; for when the head of Cicero was brought, she took it in her hands, and spat upon it; and, putting it in her lap, she drew out the tongue and pierced it with a dagger, uttering a thousand curses on the lifeless orator!

Among the early Christians, some were torn to pieces by ferocious beasts; others were enclosed in the skins of wild animals, and given to furious dogs; some were buried alive; others were cut with whips; others were covered with combustible materials and burnt as torches. Sometimes these persecuted people were banished, and then they were laden with chains and kept in abject slavery. On these occasions the head was partly shaved, one of the legs was disabled, the forehead was burnt with a red-hot iron, and one of the eyes was bored out. Some were pierced with sharp instruments, or scourged, or tortured with the rack or burning pincers: they were beaten with clubs, pricked in the eyes with sharp reeds, dragged about the streets, and roasted in iron chairs. They were, as St. Paul states in his eloquent account, "destitute, afflicted, tormented." These cruelties were practised on Jews as well as Christians. Josephus says, that, on one occasion, he recognised three of his friends (worthy men) who had been crucified by the Romans. They had been on the cross three days, and were yet alive! If all the

sighs which have arisen from the destitute (those who have been injured by their fellow-men), and all the expressions of sorrow from the afflicted, and all the shrieks of the tormented, and all the groans of the dying, could ascend in one mighty sound to the Deity, how would it shake heaven's concave! and what a dreadful petition would it be for Divine vengeance!

Enough has been said to show that cruelty has been a prevailing, and a horrid vice. Much more might be stated; for the annals of history, in every age, and in almost every country, exhibit a long and a bloody record of the cruelties of mankind. Bayle has observed, that women are generally more tender-hearted than men; and this is perfectly true: but he adds, that those among the female sex who have been cruel have gone further than men. Lady Macbeth is an illustration of this remark; and the wife of Marc Antony, to whom I have just referred, is another instance.

Domestic animals are sometimes treated badly. The horse is beaten for starting, when fear, and not vice, is the occasion of it; and for stumbling, when weakness, and not carelessness, is the cause. The dog is often cruelly used. Oxen, sheep, and pigs are frequently over-driven, badly fed, or shamefully beaten. If the brute creation had a voice, it would utter a long and a loud complaint.

Cruelty has sometimes arisen from pride and ostentation. This was the case with the Romans in their triumphs. For the purpose of sounding their own praises, and exhibiting the spoils of their victories, they loaded their noble prisoners with

chains, and led them in cruel and unmanly degradation. Avarice has contributed to this odious vice. Children, men, and women have been sold, and sentenced to perpetual bondage and servitude. In some parts of the globe, and especially on the borders of Abyssinia, the principal traffic consists in selling children. These are frequently disposed of by their own parents! How many thousands of wretches are annually dragged away from the shores of Africa, and exposed to suffering, and even death, for a little paltry gold!

Even love is sometimes cruel. It is inconsistent and injurious. It may arise in the conduct of parents to their offspring. Through a foolish fondness, they indulge perverse and improper inclinations; and thus the children are ruined. They train them up in luxury and delicacy; and hence the least degree of heat or cold affects them. They allow them not to expose themselves to the fresh air; and thus they are always sickly. They instil into their minds high and foolish notions; and consequently they are more subject to mortification and disappointment. They flatter them, and make them formal and contemptible. Husbands and wives, also, may expend so much love on each other, as to diminish rather than contribute to rational enjoyment. Perhaps the husband may be influenced by foolish whims; and then his wife must never leave his presence: -he cannot live without her: she is his sun she alone cheers and illumines him; or rather his moon - with many other lunatic notions, disadvantageous to himself and cruel to her. Or the wife, in a similar man

ner, may be a wanderer from common sense. Madame Neckar was so fond of her husband's company, and he, of course, so fond of her, that she made him promise that he would keep her, after her death, in a glass case; and he did so for many years. This was cruelty.

Ambition and power have been productive of cruelty. How frequently have assassinations been perpetrated for the purpose of giving usurpers and tyrants an undisputed claim to the throne! Children, the softer sex, and the aged, have been treacherously murdered! Not many sceptres have been free from human blood. Cruelty has sometimes seated itself on the bench of justice; and trivial transgressions have been visited with weighty punishments. The rack, and various other tortures, have been used most unmercifully by tyrannical governors. The Holy Inquisition as it has been profanely called — has practised a great deal of iniquity in this way. The day of Saint Bartholomew will be remembered as a period famous for its dreadful deeds. In many instances superiors have treated inferiors with much brutality. Whatever goes beyond the just requirements of duty, with regard to labour, or restrictions in food and clothing, is unjust and cruel. Authority is sometimes exerted harshly and indiscreetly. Captain Cook observes that, in the Friendly Islands, "the chiefs behave most brutally to the inferior people, and beat them unmercifully. They show them, and their lives, no more regard than if they were dogs."

War has been employed as a mighty engine of

cruelty. A war of ambition and conquest is murder and plunder legalised. Bloody deeds become familiar, and excite disgraceful wretches to perpetrate the greatest enormities. Acts of a repulsive kind performed by warriors have stained the page of history in every age. Polybius states, that Paulus Æmilius, after a victory, destroyed threescore and ten cities of Epirus, and carried into captivity one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The conquests and ravages of Alexander and Cæsar were repugnant, in most cases, to humanity. After the Moguls had invaded and taken the northern parts of China, it was proposed, at one of their assemblies, that all the inhabitants of that populous district should be massacred, for the purpose of turning the country into pasturage. Fortunately, the humanity of one person prevented this barbarity.-Baron des Adrets, having taken the city of Grenoble, was exceedingly cruel to many of the captives. He erected a large platform on the summit of a tower, and caused a great number of the vanquished to precipitate themselves from this dizzy height. If any were too timid they were thrown over. One of the soldiers

ran twice to the edge of the platform, but he had not resolution enough to leap off. The cruel Des Adrets said to him, sharply, it was enough to have twice sounded the ford. The soldier replied, with a happy pleasantry, that he would give the general four times to do it. This answer relaxed the stern governor, and induced him to save the poor fellow's life.

Sometimes the malevolence of the heart appears