5l8 STUDIES OF NATURE» 



to nurfe, as foon as they come into the World, it 

 is becaufe they love them not ; if they place them, 

 as foon as they have acquired a little growth, in 

 boarding-fchools and colleges, it is becaufe they 

 love them not ; if they procure for them fituations 

 out of their State, out of their Province, it is be- 

 caufe they love them not : if they keep them at a 

 diftance from themfelves, at every epoch of life, it 

 muft undoubtedly be, becaufe they look upon them 

 as their heirs. 



I have been long enquiring into the caufe of 

 this unnatural fentiment, but not in our books ; 

 for the Authors of thefe, in the view of paying 

 court to fathers, who buy their Works, infift only 

 on the duties of children ; and if, fometimes, they 

 bring forward thofe of fathers, the difcipline which 

 they recommend to them, refpe(fling their chil- 

 dren, is fo gloomy and fevere, that it looks as if 

 they were furnifhing parents with new means of 

 rendering themfelves hateful to their offspring. 



This parental apathy is to be imputed to the 

 diforderly ftate of our manners, which has ftifled 

 among us all the fentiments of Nature. Among 

 the Ancients, and even among Savages, the per- 

 fpedive of fecial life prcfented to them a feries of 

 employments, from infancy up to old age, which, 

 among them, was the era of the higher magiflra^ 



cies. 



