100 HISTORY OF 



rid spectacle, very easily moved to pity and com- 

 passion. She felt, therefore, all those strong emo- 

 tions which so terrible a sight must naturally in- 

 spire ; shuddered at every blow the criminal re- 

 ceived, and almost swooned at his cries. Upon 

 returning from this scene of blood, she continued 

 for some days pensive, and her imagination still 

 wrought upon the spectacle she had lately seen. 

 After some time, however, she seemed perfectly 

 recovered from her fright, and had almost forgot- 

 ten her former uneasiness. When the time of her 

 delivery approached, she seemed no ways mindful 

 of her former terrors, nor were her pains in labour 

 more than usual in such circumstances. But 

 what was the amazement of her friends and assis- 

 tants, when the child came into the world! It 

 was found that every limb in its body was broken 

 like those of the malefactor, and just in the same 

 place. This poor infant, that had suffered the 

 pains of life even before its coining into the world, 

 did not die, but lived in an hospital, in Paris, for 

 twenty years after, a wretched instance of the 

 supposed powers of imagination in the mother, of 

 altering and distorting the infant in the womb. 

 The manner in which Malbranche reasons upon 

 this fact, is as follows: The Creator has esta- 

 blished such a sympathy between the several 

 parts of nature, that we are led not only to imi- 

 tate each other, but also to partake in the same 

 affections and desires. The animal spirits are 

 thus carried to the respective parts of the body, 

 to perform the same actions which we see others, 

 perform, to receive in some measure their wounds, 



