[ 325 ] 
Cheaiii-e, inhabited by farmers, the propoition is confi- 
derably lefs (‘). 
It is a common but injurious praaice in manufadur- 
ing countiieSj to confine children^ before they have at- 
tained a fufhcient degree of foength, to fedentary em- 
ployments, in places where they breathe a putrid air, and 
aie debarred the free ufe of their limbs. The effea of 
this confinement, fays an able writer, is either to cut 
them off early in life, or to render their conflitutions 
feeble and fickly ; but the love of money ftifles the feel- 
ings of humanity, and even makes men blind to the 
very intereft they fo anxioufly purfue. The fame prin- 
ciple of found policy vrhich mduces them to fpare their 
horfes and cattle, till they arrive at a due fize and vigour, 
fliould determine them to grant a proportionable refpite 
to their children (<i). And this obfervation may, perhaps 
be extended to the untimely culture of the mind. For 
too early an application to ftudy impairs the faculties, 
injures the conftitution, and hurts the temper by fre- 
quent contradidlion. Almofl as fbon as a boy has ac- 
quired the powers of fpeech, he is fliut up many hours 
every day in a noifome fchool, fecluded from the bene- 
fit of exercife and the refrefliment of the open air, and 
tied dov/n to the fevere drudgery of learning what ferves 
only, at fuch a period of life, to over-charge his memory, 
{c) See my former paper on Population. Phi!. Tranf. vol. LXIV part i - 
page 62. • j 1. 
(d) See Dr. GRZGORX’S Comparative View of die State and Faculties of 
and 
