But let us consider.
Nobody denies that man has a right first to milk the cow, and to sheer
the sheep, and then to kill them for his table. May he not, by parity of
reason, first work a horse, and then kill him the easiest way, that he
may have the means of another horse, or food for cows and sheep? Man is
influenced in both cases by different motives of self-interest. He that
rejects the one must reject the other.
'I am, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, Dec. 24, 1783.'
'A happy and pious Christmas; and many happy years to you, your lady,
and children.'
The late ingenious Mr. Mickle[781], some time before his death, wrote me
a letter concerning Dr. Johnson, in which he mentions,--
'I was upwards of twelve years acquainted with him, was frequently in
his company, always talked with ease to him, and can truly say, that I
never received from him one rough word.'
In this letter he relates his having, while engaged in translating the
_Lusiad_, had a dispute of considerable length with Johnson, who, as
usual, declaimed upon the misery and corruption of a sea life, and used
this expression:--'It had been happy for the world, Sir, if your hero
Gama, Prince Henry of Portugal, and Columbus, had never been born, or
that their schemes had never gone farther than their own imaginations.
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