The pagans feasted upon the meat they offered to idols, which is what we are to understand by the "glutton zeal" that "devoutly eats."
[1335] Dryden, Virg. Æn. ix. 640:
Ah how unlike the living is the dead.—Wakefield.
[1336] MS.:
Of half that live himself the living tomb.
[1337] MS.:
Who, foe to nature, other kinds o'erthrown
Restless he seeks dominion o'er his own.
Or,
Who deaf to nature's universal groan,
Murders all other kinds, betrays his own.
This is the same amiable being who is celebrated, ver. 51, for "helping the wants and woes of other creatures," and sparing singing-birds and gilded insects out of pure compassion.