204 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



and their fenfibility, more than one illuilrloiis fiif- 

 fcrer would come and draw from them thofe con- 

 folations, which all the preachers, and books, and 

 philofophy in the World, are incapable to admi- 

 nifter. All that the poor man needs, in many- 

 cafes, in order to foothe his woe, is a perfon into 

 whofe ear he can pour out his complaint. 



A Society, compofed of men fuch as I have 

 fondly imagined to myfelf, would undertake the 

 important tafk of eradicating the vices and the pre- 

 judices of the populace. They would endeavour, 

 for example, to apply a remedy to the barbarity 

 which impofes fuch oppreflive loads on the mi- 

 ferable horfes, and cruelly abufes them in other re- 

 fpefls, while every ftreet of the city rings with the 

 horrible oaths of their drivers. They would like- 

 wife employ their influence with the rich, to take 

 pity, in their turn, upon the human race. You 

 fee, in the midft of exceffive heats, the hewers of 

 ftone expofed to the meridian Sun, and to the 

 burning reverberation of the white fubftance on 

 which they labour. Hence thefe poor people are 

 frequently feized with ardent fevers, and with dif- 

 orders in the eyes, which ifTue in blindnefs. At 

 other times, they have to encounter the long rains, 

 and pinching cold of Winter, which bring on 

 rheums and confumptions. Would it be a very 

 coflly precaution for a mafter-builder, poffelTed of 



humanity^ 



