$iO STUDIES 01* NATURE. 



ror of the Laws, or by the fear which they have oi 

 each other, feeble and defencelefs children fliould 

 not be abandoned to the difcretion of tyranny ? 

 Nothing can be conceived fo ignorant, and fo 

 conceited, as the greateft part of tradefmen ; among 

 them it is that folly fhoots out fpreading and pro- 

 found roots. You fee a great many of this clafs, 

 both men and women, dying of apopledic fits, 

 from a too fedentary mode of life ; from eating 

 beef, and fwallowing ftrong broths, when they are 

 out of order, without fufpeding for a moment that 

 fuch a regimen was pernicious. Nothing can be more 

 wholefome, fay they ; they have always feen their 

 Aunts do fo. Hence it is that a multitude of falfe 

 remedies, and of ridiculous fuperftitions, maintain 

 a reputation among them, long after they have 

 been exploded in the World. In their cup-boards 

 is flill carefully treafured up the cajis, a fpecies of 

 poifon, as if it were an univerfal panacea. The re- 

 gimen of their unfortunate children, refemb.les that 

 which they employ where their own health is con- 

 cerned J they form them to melancholy habits ; 

 all that they make them learn, up to the Gofpel 

 itfelf, is with the rod over their head ; they fix 

 them in a fedentary pofture all the day long, at an 

 age vvhen Nature is prompting them to ftir about, 

 for the purpofe of expanding their form. Be good 

 children, is the perpetual injundion ; and this 

 goodnefs conllils in never moving a limb. A wo- 

 man 



