In this charter no
exception is made. Hence wild animals are included in it equally with
the tame. And hence a hare may as well be killed, if people have
occasion for food, as a chicken or a lamb.
They believe also that, when the creator of the universe gave men
dominion over the whole brute-creation, or delivered this creation into
their hands, he intended them the right of destroying such animals, as
circumstances warranted them in supposing would become injurious to
themselves. The preservation of themselves, which is the first law of
nature, and the preservation of other animals under their care, created
this new privilege.
But though men have the power given them over the lives of animals,
there is a condition in the same charter, that they shall take them with
as little pain as possible to the creatures. If the death of animals is
to be made serviceable to men, the least they can do in return is to
mitigate their sufferings, while they expire. This obligation the
Supreme Being imposed upon those, to whom he originally gave the
charter, by the command of not eating their flesh, while the life's
blood was in it. The Jews obliged all their converts to religion, even
the proselytes of the gate, who were not considered to be so religious
as the proselytes of the covenant, to observe what they called the
seventh commandment of Noah, or that "they should[10] not eat the member
of any beast that was taken from it, while it was alive.
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