130 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



I have feen, at college, many a pretty creature 

 ready to fall into a fwoon with pain, receive on 

 their little hands, up to a dozen of fharp ftrokes. 

 I have feen, by the infli(5tion of this punifhment, 

 the fkin feparated from the tip of their fingers, 

 and the bare flefli expofed. What (hall be faidof 

 thofe infamous punifhments, which produce a 

 difgraceful efFeâ:, at once, on the morals of both 

 fcholars and regents, and of which a thoufand ex- 

 amples might be adduced ? It is impoffible to enter 

 into any detail, on this fubjefV, without putting 

 modeily to the blufli. And yet they are employed 

 by priefls. They reft on a palTage from Solomons 

 writings, of this import, "He that fpareth the rod 

 " hateth the child." But who knows whether the 

 Jews themfelves pradlifed corporal punifliment af- 

 ter our falhion? The Turks, who have retained a 

 great part of their ufages, hold this in deteftation. 

 It has been diffufed over Europe only by the cor- 

 ruption of the Greeks of the Lower Empire, and 

 it was introduced there by the Monks. If the 

 Jews actually employed it, who can tell but their 



lead, was very fliort. He was inftrufted without tafling corpo- 

 ral puniftiment, and without emulation, under the paternal 

 roof, by the gentleft of fathers, and by preceptors whofe me- 

 mory he has precioufly embalmed in his writings. He became, 

 by means of an education fo diametrically oppofite to ours, one 

 of the beft, and one of the moft intelligent men of the Nation. 



ferocity 



