54 
lavater's 
'■^by their parents on that account, or artful impof- 
tors. 
A real Savage, as Buffon fays, would be an 
objeft of curiofity to a philofophic eye able to 
trace all the inftin61:s of pure Nature, obferve the 
human mind without difguife, and form a jull 
eftimate of the ftrongeft innate cravings implanted 
in his breaft, where we fliould probably find more 
peace and comfort, \yith a larger portion of virtue, 
than by fearching the bofom of a civilized man : 
confequently the refult would be, that vice pro- 
ceeds from evil communication in fociety. 
Bernard Connoi\ in his Evangelium Medici, has 
given us the hiftory of a child bred with - - :?s. 
Martiniere, in his Geographical Di6tionar- en- 
tions a wild youth found in the forefi; of Hano 
But in order to form a juft idea of our natural 
powers, undirected by the light derived from a 
poliflied education, let it fuffice for us to {fate feme 
of the particulars that the younger Racine has 
tranfmitted concerning a Savage Girl, who was 
difeovered near Chulom, in the year 1731 . 
It was at the Cattle of Sogny, that Tome fervants, 
having perceived at night what was taken for a 
fpeCtre upon an apple-tree, they drew near quietly, 
with an intention of furrounding it ; but the ob- 
jeCt of their attention fuddenly jumped over the 
walls of the garden, and efcaped into an adjoining 
strove 
