174 History of Nature. [BOOK VII. 



Stems of Trees she hath defended with Bark, which is some- 

 times double, against the injuries both of Heat and Cold ! 

 Man alone she hath cast all Naked upon the bare Earth, 

 even on his Birth-day, immediately to cry and lament : so 

 that among so many Living Creatures there is none subject 

 to shed Tears and Weep like him from the very onset of his 

 Existence. And verily, however forward and active we may 

 be, to no one is it given to laugh before he is Forty Days old. 

 From this glimmering of Light he is bound fast, and hath 

 no Member at liberty ; a thing which is not practised upon 

 the Young of any Wild Beast among us. The Child thus 

 unhappily born, and who is to rule all other, lieth bound 1 

 Hand and Foot, weeping and crying ; and receiveth the 

 auspices of Life with Punishments, to make satisfaction for 

 this only Fault, that he is born Alive. What madness in 

 such as think this the proper Beginning of those who are 

 born to be proud ! The first Hope of our Strength, the first 

 gift that Time affordeth us, maketh us no better than four- 

 footed Beasts. How long ere we can go alone ! How long- 

 before we can speak, feed ourselves ! How long continueth 

 the Crown of our Heads to palpitate, the mark of our ex- 

 ceeding great weakness above all other Creatures ! Then 

 the Sicknesses, and so many Medicines devised against these 

 Maladies : besides the new Diseases that spring up to 

 overcome us. Other Living Creatures understand their 

 own Nature ; some assume the use of their swift Feet, 

 others of their Wings ; some are Strong ; others able to 

 Swim ; but Man knoweth nothing unless he be taught : 

 not even to speak, or go, or eat: and, in short, he is 

 naturally good at nothing but to weep. And hence some 

 have insisted on it, that it is best for a man never to have 

 been born, or else speedily to die. To one only, of living 



1 The artificial bandages inflicted on new-born children are the swad- 

 dling-clothes referred to in St. Luke's Gospel, c. ii. v. 7 ; but they can 

 scarcely be numbered among the necessary evils of humanity, for they 

 have long since been abolished in England. In the seventh chapter of 

 this Book the Author dwells again on the littleness and misery of the 

 human race. Wern, Club. 



