Of beasts on blood and slaughter only lives: 140

The tyger, form’d alike to cruel meals,

Would at the manger starve: Of milder seeds,

The generous horse to herbage and to grain

Confines his wish; tho’ fabling Greece resound

The Thracian steeds with human carnage wild. 145

Prompted by instinct’s never-erring power,

Each creature knows its proper aliment;

But man, th’ inhabitant of every clime,

With all the commoners of nature feeds.