"…I believe it inconsistent with Humanity to eat Flesh, inconsistent with our Nature, or the Intentions of God in our first Formation, to imbrue our Teeth in the Blood of the Animals. They have the same Sense of Pleasure and Pain as we have, and we put them to an equal Torture with us by a Wound given to them; if so, it is at best a Cruelty to destroy them. I would fain know of you, that if I believe it criminal to eat Flesh, and continue so to do, whether I do not live in a Sin against Conscience, against Nature, which is the greatest of Sins; if by her I am convicted, if that faithful Monitor sets it before me as criminal to feed on the animal Creation, I seem to need no other Remonstrance."
Robert Morris was an English writer, architectural theorist, and surveyor. He wrote on Palladian architecture and published architectural treatises and pattern books, including Lectures on Architecture (1734–1736), Rural Architecture (1750), and The Architectural Remembrancer (1751). Few executed works can be securely attributed to him, but he worked as a surveyor and has been associated with proj
"If I have any Virtues in me, or if there be such a distinguishing Characteristick in Man, they are chiefly a universal Love of my Fellow-creatures, placed here in concert with me to compleat the Harmony of the Universe."
"Before we enter immediately upon the intended Controversy about the Right of eating Animals; I would beg Leave first to endeavour to unprejudice your Mind, by shewing the Primitive and Religious Notions of eating Flesh: They established their Reasons upon a fundamental Law in Nature, the original Justice of the World, which teaches us not to do that to another which we would not have another do to us. Now since tis evident that no Man would willingly become the Food of Beasts; therefore by the same Rule, he ought not to prey on them."
"A Flie, a Mite, or other Insect, are in the same great Chain of Beings; and I but help to fill up the Rank of the Divin Works, I am no more than they. Look upon the Mechanism of a Spider with a Microscopic Eye, upon the Architecture of the Bee, &c. let Man consider the Fineness of their Texture and Composure, and with what Exactness they are formd, and he will find in himself nothing to be vain of. If I boast of any thing, it is only of being joind with you in this great Concatenation of Things, and moving with you in one of its Revolutions—My Friend, when we are worn out, and drop insensibly into the Grave, we only leave the Space to be filled up in the next successive Moment, perhaps by some other Race of Creatures, who compleat the Harmony of Wonders in this Structure of the Universe."
"We have no Right of Property from Nature. When Men were first made, no Boundaries were set to his Possession; Right and Wrong were not known; no Man assumed a Right by Nature, and what was effected was by Power. If we could claim no Right to the Bodies of Animals, we had no Power to destroy. The Sparrow and the Fish of the Sea are in common to all, no Man claims a particular Right to them, therefore has no Power by Nature over them to kill."
"Man is but one Link in the great Concatenation of Beings, and to ufurp an Authority over any other part of the Chain is indeed Pride, rank Pride, and Haughtiness of Soul."
"...Blood and Flesh with a voracious Appetite we devour, and glut ourselves with slaughterd Animals, perhaps endued with Reason equal to ourselves; it may be we cannot affirm, that they possess one so perfect as ours, but that Perfection is acquird by Discipline, which the Generality of Brutes want. They have not Seminaries of Literature, nor Cambridge, Oxford, nor Eaton or Westminster, where Arts and Sciences are taught by Rules. — No, Nature is their only School-Mistress, and they learn her Instructions with wonderful Promptness and Sagacity. The Elements founded by the infinite Creator serve them as a Book, to teach them all the Knowledge which is necessary for their Well-being here."