he first place, to respect the laws of nature, as
established by its Supreme Author from the creation, and not to do
capriciously things that are in direct opposition to such laws. From
this principle spring the various prohibitions to couple sexually
different species of animals, to practise on them castration, to
constrain simultaneously to joint labour beasts of unequal strength, to
muzzle them while thrashing, and to use towards them any kind of
cruelty. Nay, it is enjoined that they, also, should participate in the
general rest ordained for men on festivals. It is well for us to reflect
how incomplete are as yet the modern institutions for the prevention of
cruelty to animals, when compared with those of the ancient Mosaic code.
Even the simultaneous sowing of heterogeneous species, and the
ingrafting of plants, are considered as violations of the law of nature,
which had established the distinctions. In the second place, in order
that man, while using all things for his benefit, might not imagine that
he is their absolute master, and should not forget the true Owner, who
conferred them upon him under various reservations, he was enjoined not
to appropriate at the same time two things, one of which had been born
or produced from the other; but in the act of converting to his own use
some object or being, he should spare that which gave it birth, and not
lay his hands upon both simultaneously. He is thus to learn to respect
the causes while enjoying the effects; and from the secondary causes he
will mentally ascend to the primitive one, which produced them all from
nought. This is the sense and intention of the prohibitions of taking in
a covey the mother with the young, of slaughtering a quadruped together
with that which gave it birth, of cutting down a tree, were it even for
the necessity of a siege, while we are enjoying its fruit.

CHAPTER XIV.

LXXXIX. THE third class of duties comprises those which man has towards
himself; and here the fundamental rule, from which they all emerge,
sounds thus--"Sanctify thyself, for I, the Eternal, am holy," which, in
other words, may be rendered as follows--"Imitate God, for thou wast
created in His image." As, however, this sanctification of self cannot
possibly be effected without knowing and loving God, and without walking
in his ways by practising justice and charity, it follows that this
third article is the cardinal point, which virtually comprehends in
itself