The Journal of a Naturalist, 18 1 



it crumbled away, " having been calcined into lime ; " yet the 

 man seemed unconscious of his loss ; " he expressed no sense 

 of pain, and probably experienced none, from the gradual 

 operation of the fire, and his own torpidity, during the hours 

 his foot was consuming." Might we be permitted to doubt of 

 the attempt to rise, and the missing of the shoe, we should 

 believe that his not expressing any sense of pain was attribut- 

 able to that beneficent law of nature which decrees that ex- 

 treme suffering shall produce insensibility. We will venture 

 upon no further comment on this story; some things are pos- 

 sible that are passing strange. 



Our author then proceeds to expatiate upon the successive 

 employments afforded to the labouring classes of the district; 

 such as potato-setting, hay-making, teasel-gathering, corn- 

 reaping, &c., until the approach of winter, when comes the 

 time for " breaking the limestone for the use of the roads." 

 And here we see an instance of the powerful effect of habit : 

 here is a man, apparently amiable and kind-hearted, whose 

 leisure is devoted to the contemplation of nature, and whose 

 pursuits have taught him that the meanest worm, the pettiest 

 insect, holds its station as a link in the great work of creation, 

 yet so little acquainted with the necessities and feelings of his 

 own species, as to believe that he is describing prosperity and 

 comfort in a passage like the following : — 



" The rough material costs nothing ; a short pickaxe to 

 detach the stone, and a hammer to break it, are all the tools 

 required. A man or a healthy woman can easily supply about 

 a ton in the day; a child that goes on steadily^ about one third 

 of this quantity ; and, as we give \s, for the ton, a man, his 

 wife, and two tolerable-sized children, can obtain from 25. 8^. 

 to 35. per day, by this employ, during the greater part of the 

 winter ; and, should the weather be bad, they can work at 

 intervals, and various broken hours, and obtain something; 

 and there is a constant demand for the article." 



By what process of reasoning, or by what want of reason- 

 ing, is it, that a man, apparently in the enjoyment of the com- 

 forts of life himself, yet not sufficiently affluent to be ignorant 

 of the value of money, can persuade himself that this is well- 

 doing ? Most probably from a habit of enjoying his own 

 ease, without thinking of others ; and of looking upon the poor 

 (perhaps unconsciously to himself) as an inferior race of 

 beings. How is it that a man, evidently leading a life of ease; 

 with leisure to enjoy his speculative rambles, in the finer sea- 

 sons ; a sufficiency of food to satisfy his appetite, sharpened 

 by exercise ; an easy bed to repose on after his fatigue ; clothing 

 to cover him at all seasons ; a sound roof to shelter him from 



