420 
The heav’ns and afl the conftellations rung, 
The planets in their ftation lift’ning ftood. 
Wer. 562. 
“Ore nat A:@+ acrepun Gy - 
Avey opeveey cB, 
Xovevar de GeAaye. 
; Euripides. Ton. 198. 
for God will deign 
To vifit oft the dwellings of juft men, 
Delighted. Ver. 569, 
Prefentes namque ante domos invifere caftas, 
Szpius et fefe mortali oftendere ccetu, 
Celicole, nondum fpreta pietate, folebant. 
Sepe pater diviim, templo in fulgente re- 
vifens. 
Catullus, Nuptt. Pel. et Thet. 334. 
that milky way, 
Which rightly, as a circling zone, theu feet 
Powder’d with frarse Ver. 581. 
And joy’ to look down to the azur’d bars 
Of heav’n, fowder'd with troops of ftreaming 
arse 



Prummond’s Tears onthe Death of Meliades. 
[To be continued} 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
TAKE the liberty to addrefs you upon 
a fubje&, which, as far as my reading 
goes, has never been reprefented in the 
Kiht that je will, perhaps, appear in this 
Jetrrer, if my powers of communication 
fhall prove, fortunately, equal to the vaft 
‘conceptions 1 have formed, on a fubjeét fo 
interefting at all times, but particularly 
fo at the prefent crifis. } attempt my 
prefent undertaking, indeed, -with con- 
fiderable diffidence. I know that I am 
about to oppofe the. dignity of rank and 
fafhion, and I know that I am about to 
combat the prejudices even of poor men and 
plebeians, bur, like other men, who ad- 
wance firange difcoveries and unheard of 
fchemes, 1 beg leave to fhelter myfelf un- 
der my good intentions, and bequeath to 
pofterity, what the ignorance and the pre- 
yudices of the prefent generation, wiil, 
perhaps, not fuller them to accept from me 
in my life-time. 
Without farther preface, then, let me 
remark, that many late writers on ihe 
fubjeét of medicine, have inveighed with 
much feverity, end no fimail portion of 
argument, agzinft thofe mothers who 
(although capable of the tafk without dan- 
ger), refufe to fuckle their own children, 
and, confequently, place them to be fuck led: 
by women generally of an inferjor rank, 
and nowife related to the family. Thefe 
medical advifers advance many. cogent 
reafons againft this practice, and term it 
“unnatural. It is not my purpofe to trouble 
you with any of thefe reafons, except one, 
4 
Noble Blood fpoilt by Suckling. 
[Dee 
namely, that the child fuckled by a fo- 
reign nurfe, as every nurfe muft be, who 
‘is not its mother, is liable to receive a 
certain fomething into its conftitution, 
both of body and mind, which’ it would 
not, and could not have received from its 
mother; and, Mr. Editor, by a parity of 
reafoning, does ot acqutre a certain fomye- 
thing which it was in its mother’s power 
to beftow.—Now, fir, it is the latter argu- 
ment, the want of that fomething, which 
T mean to infift upon, and to prove how 
Perpicious it muft be to the rifing gene- 
ration. 
_. Methinks now, I fee you gravely tak. — 
ing your fpectacles from your nofe, laying 
down my letter,{and afking, « Whar is 
this fellow driving at? Does he mean to 
make our magazine a vehicle for his fock- 
ling fpeculations, and fvying-in lucubra- 
tions? Are we, in thefe times too, to raife 
againft us fo formidable a hoftas the whole 
fifterhood of nurfes and their genteel and 
fafhionable employers? Is this atime to 
difpute about the bringing up of childien, 
when one fearcely knows what to do with 
them when they are brought up?” 
Pardon me, Mr. Editar, it ts really far 
from my intention to trouble yeu, upon 
fubjeéts that hall feem foreign to the pur- 
pofe of your publication, becaufe capable 
of being handled elfewhere with more pro- 
fpeét of utility. 1 really thought that yéu 
would have gueffed my meaning fooner— 
T theught you woyld have difcovered, shat 
when I mentioned how much children Jo 
by not being nurfed by their mothers, I 
meant that an immediate and direG inter: 
ruption was given to hereditary virtues. 
Yes, fir, we have heard a grear deal of 
late about sereditary virtues, and the pure 
and untainted blood of \Miuftrious anceflors 5 
but, fir, while the praétice of purting our 
children to be nurfed by ftrangers thall 
‘ continue, what becomes of our hereditary 
virtues and our pure’ blood ? No wonder . 
that a fine hande has been given to the 
democratic fpiris of the prefent day, by 
fuch a praétice. No wonder that they 
rear their proud crefts, and afk where we 
can find examples of hereditary vitttucs, 
and untainted blood?) The matter is too 
piain ta be difguited, fir ; we have defiroy- 
ed our yirtues by an unnatyral mixture 
with the vices of ftrangers, and we have 
contaminated our nobie blood, by a com- 
munication with plebeians. Hence it is - 
that we mect fo frequently with thofe an- 
omalous beings, men 43 rank without 
honour or honefty; yea, without apy of 
the virtues of their anceftors. 
And, is this wonderful? Js it bate 
