INFANCY. 



condition, the young of the opossum, of hares, rabbits, rats, 

 mice, &,c., carfdo no more. They can neither move nor sup- 

 port their bodies. Besides, many quadrupeds are destitute 

 of the sense of seeing for several days after birth. But the 

 faculty of vision is enjoyed by infants the moment after they 

 come into the world. This faculty, in a few hours, becomes 

 a great source of pleasure and amusement to them ; but it is 

 denied, for some days, to many other species of animals. The 

 young of most birds are equally weak and helpless as human 

 infants. If infants really suffer more pain and misery than 

 other animals in the same state, Nature seems not to merit 

 that severity of censure which she has sometimes received. 

 Men in society, like domestic animals, by luxury, by artificial 

 modes of living, by unnatural and vicious habits, debilitate 

 their bodies, and transmit to their progeny the seeds of weak- 

 ness and disease, the effects of which are not felt by those 

 who live more agreeably to the general economy and inten- 

 tions of Nature. The children of savages/- for the same reason, 

 whether in the hunting or shepherd state, are more robust, 

 more healthy, and liable to fewer diseases, than those produced 

 by men in the more enlightened and refined stages of society. 

 Even under the same governments, and in the same state of 

 civilization, a similar gradation of imbecility and disease is to 

 be observed. The children of men of rank or fortune are, 

 in general, more puny, debilitated, and diseased than those 

 of the peasant or artificer. Still, however, children, in their 

 progress from birth to maturity, have innumerable sources of 

 pleasure, which alleviate, if they do not fully compensate, the 

 pain which must unavoidably be endured, whether in a more 

 natural or more artificial state of mankind. If luxury and 

 civilization debilitate the constitutions of children, they give 

 rise to many real enjoyments which are totally unknown to 

 the savage. His wants are fewer ; but his gratifications are 

 more than proportionally diminished. 



From what causes or circumstances particular modes in the 

 management of infants originate, it is difficult to determine. 

 But it is certain that savages, and the ruder nations, in their 

 treatment of infants, often discover more discernment and 

 propriety of conduct, than are to be found in the most pol- 

 ished stages of society. The negroes, the savages of Canada, 

 of Virginia, of Brazil, and the natives of almost the whole of 

 South America, lay their infants naked into hammocks, or 

 hanging beds of cotton, or into cradles lined with fur. The 

 Peruvians leave the arms of their infants perfectly loose in -a 



