b STUDIES OF NATURE. 



their offerings at the altar, in the view of rendering 

 the Gods propitious to their Country, by the fpec- 

 tacle of infant innocence. The fight of infancy 

 calls men back to the fentiments of Nature. When 

 CrJo of Utica had formed the refolution to put 

 himfelf to death, his friends and fervants concealed 

 his fword ; and upon his demanding it, with ex- 

 preffions of violent indignation, they delivered it 

 to him by the hand of a child : but the corrup- 

 tion of the age in which he lived, had ftified in 

 his heart the fentiment which innocence ought to 

 have excited. 



Jesus Christ recommends to us to become as 

 little children : We call them innocents, non no- 

 centes^ becaufe they have never injured any one. 

 But, notwithftanding the claims of their tender 

 age, and the authority of the Chriliian Religion, 

 to what barbarous education are they not aban- 

 doned ? 



Of Pity. 



The fentiment of innocence s the'native fource 

 of compaffion ; hence we are more deeply affefted 

 by the fufferings of a child than by thofe of an old 

 man. The reafon is not, as certain Philofophers 

 pretend, becaufe the refources and hopes of the 

 child are inferior; for they are, in truth, greater 



than 



