314 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



tion, from Guillery down to Defruçs. But, to take 

 leave, once for all of this horrid perfpedive, I 

 conclude with a fingle refledion : namely, if hu- 

 man nature were corrupted, as is alleged by thofe 

 who arrogate to themfelves the power of reforming 

 it, children could not fail to add a new corruption, 

 to that which they find already introduced into 

 the World, upon their arrival in it. Human So- 

 ciety would, accordingly, fpeedily reach the term 

 of it's diflblution. But children, on the contrary, 

 protradV, and put off that fatal period, by the in- 

 troduction of new and untainted fouls. It requires 

 a long apprenticefliip to infpire them with a tafte 

 for our paflions and extravagancies. New gene- 

 rations refemble the dews and the rains of Heaven, 

 which refrcfh the waters of rivers, llackened in 

 their courfe, and tending to corruption: change the 

 fources of a river, and you will change it in the 

 ftream ; change the education of a People, and 

 you will change their charader and their manners. 



We fhall hazard a few ideas on a fubjeft of fo 

 much importance, and fhall look for the indica- 

 tions of them in Nature. On examining the neft 

 of a bird, we find in it, not only the nutriments 



nity. All the Sciences are ftill in a ftate of infancy ; but that 

 of rendering men happy lias not, as yet, fo much as feen the 

 light, not even in China, whofe politics are fo far fuperior to 



•urs. 



which 



