352 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



of the Worlds but we efteem them more, becaufe 

 they are dignified by more beautiful names. A 

 medal is nothing but a bit of copper, frequently 

 eaten with ruft, but it acquires value from being 

 decorated by an illuftrious name. 



I could vv'fli, therefore, to have children diftin- 

 guifhed by interefting names. A lad fathers him- 

 felf upon his name. If it inclines toward any 

 vice, or if it furniflies matter for ridicule, as many 

 of ours do, his mind takes a bias from it. Bayk 

 remarks, that a certain Inquifitor, named Torre- 

 Cremada, or the Burnt-Tower, had, in his life- 

 time, condemned I know not how many heretics 

 to the flames. A Cordelier, of the name of Feij- 

 Ardent (Ardent- Flame) is faid to have done as 

 much. There is a farther abfurdity, in giving 

 children, deftined to peaceful occupations, turbu- 

 lent and ambitious names, fuch as thofe of AieX' 

 ander and Cefar. It is ftill more dangerous to give 

 them ridiculous names. I have feen poor boys fo 

 tormented, on this account, by their companions, 

 and even by their own parents, from the (illy cir- 

 cumftance of a baptifmal name, which implied 

 fome idea of fimplicity and good-nature, that they 

 infenfibly acquired from it an oppofite charafler of 

 malignity and ferocioufnefs. Inftances of this are 

 numerous. Two of our mod fatyrical Writers, in 

 Theology and Poefy, were named, the one Blaise 



Pafcaly 



