222, STUDIES OF NATURE. 



charmed with the architedure of that monument, 

 but I pity the condition of it's inhabitants. Moft 

 of them are diffatisfied, and always murmuring, 

 as any one may be convinced, who will take the 

 trouble to converfe with them : 1 do not believe 

 there is any foundation for this 5 but experience 

 demonftrates, that men, formed into a corps, fooner 

 or later, degenerate, and are always unhappy. It 

 would be wifer to follow the Laws of Nature, and 

 to affociate them by families. 1 could wifh that the 

 pradlice of the Englidi were obferved and copied, 

 by fettling our fuperannuated feamen on the ferries 

 of rivers, on board all thofe little barges which 

 traverfe Paris, and fcatter them along the Seine, 

 like tritons, to adorn the plains : we Ihould fee 

 them {lemming the tides of our rivers, in wherries 

 under fmack-fails, luffing as they go ; and there 

 they would introduce methods of Navigation more 

 prompt, and more commodious, than thofe hi- 

 therto known and pradifed. 



As to thofe whom age, or woUnds, may have to- 

 tally difabled for fervice, they might be fuitably 

 accommodated and provided for, in an edifice 

 fimilar to that which the Englifli have reared at 

 Greenwich, for the reception of their decayed fea* 

 men. But, to acknowledge the truth, the State, 

 1 am perfuaded, would find it a much more eco- 

 nomical plan, to allow them penfions, and that 



thefc 



