134 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



happiefl and moft amiable period of their exift- 

 ence, and which has afterward fo much influence 

 on their charaders. Man is born good. It is 

 fociety that renders him wicked j and our mode 

 of education prepares the way for it. 



As my tcftimony is not of fufficient weight to 

 bear out an affertion of fo much importance, I 

 ftiall produce feveral which are not liable to fuf- 

 picion, and which I fhall extraâ. at random from 

 the Writings of Ecclefiaftics, not in conformity 

 to their opinions, which are diflated by their con-- 

 dition, but refulting from their perfonal experi- 

 ence, which, in this refpeâ:, abfolutely deranges 

 their whole theory. 



Here is one from Father Claude d^ Abbeville, a 

 Capuchin Miffionary, on the fubjeft of the chil- 

 dren of the inhabitants of the Ifland of Maragnan, 

 on the coaft of Brafil ; where we had laid the 

 foundations of a colony, whofe fate has been llmi- 

 lar to that of fo many others, which have been 

 loft by our want of perfeverance, and by our un- 

 happy divifions, the ufual and natural confequence 

 of injudicious education. " Farther, I know not 

 *' whether it be from the fingular affedion which 

 *' fathers and mothers here bear to their children, 

 *^ but certain it is, they never fay a word which 

 ^- Ççin poffibly give them the flighteft uneafinefs 5 



" they 



