24» STUDIES OF NATURE. 



merit this kind of r^compenfe, as illuftiious as 

 thofe which Country beftows, and ftill more ad- 

 drefled to the heart ! Thus did the Catos and the 

 Scipios di{lingui(h themfelves, in hope of being in- 

 grafted into Patrician famiUes. Thus it was that the 

 Plebeian Jgricola obtained in marriage the daughter 

 of Aiignftus. I do not know, but, perhaps, I am only 

 betraying my own ignorance, that adoption ever 

 was in ufe among us, unlefs it were between cer- 

 tain great Lords, who, from the failure of heirs of 

 blood, were at a lofs how to difpofe of their vaft 

 pofTefilons when they died. I confider adoption 

 as much preferable to nobility conferred by the 

 State. It might be the means of reviving ilkif- 

 trious families, the defcendants of which are now 

 languifhing in the miofl" abjeâ; poverty. It #ould 

 endear the Nobility to the People, and the People 

 Î0 the Nobility. It would be proper that the pri- 

 vilege of beftowing the rights of adoption, (liould 

 be rendered a fpecies of recompenfe to the No- 

 blefle themfelves. Thus, for example, a poor man 

 of family, who had diftinguilhed himfelf, might 

 be empowered to adopt one of the commonalty, 

 who Ihould acquire eminence. A man of birth 

 would be on the look-out for viitue among the 

 People ; and a virtuous man of the commonalty, 

 would go in queft of a vyorthy nobleman as a pa- 

 tron. Such political bonds of union appear to me 

 more poweiful, and more honourable, than mer- 



cenarv 



