Pressed to his last retreat, bravely resolves
  To sink his wealth beneath the whelming wave,
  His wealth, his foes, nor unrevenged to die. 
  So fares it with the stag:  so he resolves
  To plunge at once into the flood below,
  Himself, his foes in one deep gulf immersed.
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  Ere yet he executes this dire intent,
  In wild disorder once more views the light;
  Beneath a weight of woe, he groans distressed: 
  The tears run trickling down his hairy cheeks;
  He weeps, nor weeps in vain.  The king beholds
  His wretched plight, and tenderness innate
  Moves his great soul.  Soon at his high command
  Rebuked, the disappointed, hungry pack
  Retire submiss, and grumbling quit their prey. 
     Great Prince! from thee, what may thy subjects hope;
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  So kind, and so beneficent to brutes? 
  O mercy, heavenly born!  Sweet attribute! 
  Thou great, thou best prerogative of power! 
  Justice may guard the throne, but joined with thee,
  On rocks of adamant it stands secure,
  And braves the storm beneath; soon as thy smiles
  Gild the rough deep, the foaming waves subside,
  And all the noisy tumult sinks in peace.

BOOK IV.

THE ARGUMENT.

Of the necessity of destroying some beasts, and preserving others for the use of man.—­Of breeding of hounds; the season for this business.—­The choice of the dog, of great moment.—­Of the litter of whelps.—­Number to be reared.—­Of setting them out to their several walks.—­Care to be taken to prevent their hunting too soon.—­Of entering the whelps.—­Of breaking them from running at sheep.-Of the diseases of hounds.-Of their age.—­Of madness; two sorts of it described, the dumb, and outrageous madness:  its dreadful effects.—­Burning of the wound recommended as preventing all ill consequences.—­The infectious hounds to be separated, and fed apart.—­The vanity of trusting to the many infallible cures for this malady.—­The dismal effects of the biting of a mad dog, upon man, described.  —­Description of the otter hunting.—­The conclusion.

  Whate’er of earth is formed, to earth returns
  Dissolved:  the various objects we behold,
  Plants, animals, this whole material mass,
  Are ever changing, ever new.  The soul
  Of man alone, that particle divine,
  Escapes the wreck of worlds, when all things fail. 
  Hence great the distance ’twixt the beasts that perish,
  And God’s bright image, man’s immortal race. 
  The brute creation are his property,
  Subservient to his will, and for him made.
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  As hurtful these he kills, as useful those
  Preserves; their sole and arbitrary king. 
  Should he not kill, as erst the Samian sage
  Taught unadvised, and Indian Brahmins now
  As vainly preach; the teeming ravenous brutes
  Might fill the scanty space of this terrene,