“Why ridicule the act, the feeling blame,
Which from the spider would the fly reclaim;
Since from the reptile, in gradation due,
'Twould link the world in sympathy to you?
Let not this bold assertion ease thy mind,
"This all is nature, and by heav'n design'd:"
Would you not bless the arm, if stretch'd to save
Your individual carcass from the grave?
From the fierce tiger's unrelenting claw,
Or rav'nous wolf; though Nature gave the law?”

"To the Thoughtless", p. 307
The Modern Antique; Or, The Muse in the Costume of Queen Anne (1813)

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Isaac Gompertz3

1774–1856

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