îgo STUDIES OF NATURE. 



render me : I carry the whole houfehold, of a ho- 

 liday, into the country, and fit down with them 

 to dinner upon the grafs ; the father and mother 

 return to town in the evening, well refrefhed, and 

 loaded with a fupply for the reft of the week. On 

 the approach of Winter, I clothe the children with 

 good woollen ftuffs, and their little warmed limbs 

 blefs their benefador, becaufe my haughty, vain- 

 glorious bounty, has not frozen their heart. It is 

 the godfather of their little brother who has made 

 them a prefent of the clothes. The lefs clofely 

 you twift the bands of gratitude, the more firmly 

 do they contra(5t of thcmfelves. 



I enjoy not only the pleafure of doing good, 

 and of doing it in the beft manner 3 I have the 

 farther pleafure of amufmg and inftruding myfelf. 

 We admire in books the labours of the artifan, but 

 books rob us of half our pleafure, and of the gra- 

 titude which we owe them. They feparate us from 

 the People, and they impofe upon us, by difplay- 

 jng the arts with exceflive parade, and in falfe 

 lights, as fubjeéls for the theatre, and for the ma- 

 gic-lantern. Befides, there is more knowledge iq 

 the head of an artifan than in his art, and more 

 intelligence in his hands, than in the language of 

 the Writer who tranflates him. Objeds carry their 

 own expreffion upon them : Rem verba feqmmtur 

 (words follow things). The man of the com- 

 monalty 



