consider this stone as that of the philosophers,* remarks that this passage is found in the first Paris edition in octavo,† and in the Franckfort re-impressions, both in folio and octavo; as is the case in the copy which I possess, but not in the other editions. He quotes also the words from the letter to Mizaud, which must be printed somewhere, but in what work I do not know. It appears that the historian inserted it almost without any change.

festim evolabat in sublime; contineri vero includive ullo loco angusto nulla hominum arte poterat, sed ampla liberaque loca duntaxat amare videbatur; summa in eo puritas, eximius nitor, nulla sorde aut labe coinquinatus; figuræ species nulla ei certa, sed inconstans et momento commutabilis, cumque esset aspectu longe pulcerrimus, contrectari tamen sese impune non patiebatur, et diutius contra adnitentibus aut obstinatius cum eo agentibus, incommodum afferebat ; quod multi multis spectantibus sunt experti; si quid fortassis ex eo enixius conando detrahebatur, nam durus admodum non erat, nihilo minor fiebat. Hujus virtutem ac vim esse ad quam plura cum utilem, tum præcipue regibus necessarium aiebat hospes, qui miraculum ostentabat, sed quam revelaturus non esset, nisi ingenti pretio prius accepto. Hæc ut in literis Jo. Pipini oculati rei testis, qui in familia A. Momorantii M. E. medicinam faciebat, ad Ant. Mizaldum et ipsum insignem medicum pridie Ascensionis Bononiæ datis perscripta sunt; ista trado et amplius discutienda physiologis relinquo.

* Polyhist. i. 1. 13, 26, p. 127.

+ Lib. v. p. 453.

Lib. vi. p. 286 and 217.

FOUNDLING HOSPITALS.

CHILD-MURDER is so unnatural a crime, that mankind can be brought to the commission of it only by the greatest desperation, for which unfortunately there is too much cause. To parents who are just able by incessant labour to procure those things indispensably necessary to support life, the birth of every child increases the fear of starving or of being reduced to beggary. Those who have secured to them a scanty subsistence, but who live amidst the torments of slavery, wish to the new-born child, which at any rate is doomed to death, a speedy dissolution, before it can know that it has had the misfortune to be brought into the world, in order that they may not bequeath to it their poverty. A young female who has ac quired by education the most delicate sense of honour and shame, finds herself, on the birth of an illegitimate child, exposed at once to the utmost disgrace and contempt. Her misfortune, though viewed with an eye of pity by the compassionate, excites the hatred of the greater part of her relations and friends, by whom she was before loved and respected, and who endeavoured to render her happy; and often amidst the most poignant feelings, and an agitation bordering on madness, she sees no other means of saving her honour than

the total concealment of her error by destroying the child: a resolution which, notwithstanding the vigilance of the laws, is too often attended with success. A young woman who at this moment finds herself suddenly despised and neglected by her admirer, who gained her affections by the most powerful of all means, love and confidence, and obtained from her what she cannot recover, is often induced, in a fit of despair, to vent her fury on the consequences of her seduction-the child of her seducer.

These misfortunes of mankind are among the disadvantages attending civilised society, which always render marriage more difficult as well as burthensome, and thereby make it impossible to gratify one of the most powerful impulses of nature. In the savage state, parents require no more for themselves and their children than what they can easily obtain. The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, who live at the greatest distance from all culture, find shell-fish and esculent plants sufficient to appease their hunger; never are their thoughts disturbed by care for the maintenance of a child. The black slaves in St. Domingo say, that "it is only the white man who begs ;" and indeed in this they are right. Beggars exist only where they

*

* The negroes in St. Domingo cannot bear to be thought poor, or to be called beggars. They say none but white men beg; and when any one asks alms at the door, they observe to their master, "There is a poor white man, or a poor Frenchman, begging." Labat had a

are established by religion and governments which command them to be fed. But the transition from living by one's own industry to beggary is, in consequence of the shame attending it, most painful and insupportable to those who with the greatest exertion and waste of strength, amidst the privation of every comfort, are exposed with their children to the horrors of famine. On the other hand, to those who, in our states, are obliged to eat the bread of mendicity, children are a blessing; because as long as the are incapable of running alone, they increase their alms by exciting greater compassion, and afterwards by begging in the streets*.

It is not therefore poverty already reduced to the state of beggary, but the dread of being at length overwhelmed notwithstanding every exertion to

negro who gave away a small part of his property, merely that he might have the proud satisfaction of being able to say, "There, white man; there is an alms for you." See Algemeine Historie der Reisen, xvii. p. 444. But in all probability, there will be beggars even in St. Domingo, if the negroes are so fortunate as to establish the freedom which they have obtained at the expense of so much blood, and to form a negro state.

* During a great scarcity at Hamburgh, when bread was distributed to the poor, one woman told another, to whose request no attention had been paid, that she brought her child with her, and pinching it so as to make it cry excited compassion, and by these means received bread. The latter begged the other to lend her the child for the like purpose, and having made it cry obtained bread also; but when she returned and wished to restore the child with thanks, the mother was not to be found, and therefore she was obliged to keep the child.

swim against the stream, that occasions child-murder. The same is the effect of slavery which excludes the possibility of even hoping for a change to a better condition. The serfs of a hard-hearted land-proprietor, who however acted according to the established laws, entered into a resolution to get no children, that they might not be under the necessity of putting any of them to death.* The sense of honour becomes stronger the more the manners approach towards a certain degree of refinement; and it is proved that it is this cause which, in most instances, gives rise to child-murder. In vain have legislators endeavoured to prevent this crime by capital punishment, more cruel than the crime itself. But indeed it is difficult, or rather impossible, to proportion punishment to delinquency or the just degree of guilt.

It needs excite no wonder that many states where the Christian religion was not introduced, and even the Jewish, made no law against child

* In the course of nine years not a single individual announced an intention of marrying. The young people supplied their wants in another manner. Hence arose a scarcity of men, who cannot be purchased in Europe, as in the West Indies. The proprietor, therefore, was obliged to sell his estate. The purchaser improved the condition of his serfs, and marriages became common among them. See Büsch vom Geld-umlauf. vi. 3. § 35. p. 393. La dureté du gouvernement peut aller jusqu'à detruire les sentimens naturels, les sentimens naturels mêmes. Les femmes de l'Amerique ne se faisoient-elles pas avorter, pour que leur enfans n'eussent pas des maîtres aussi cruels ? Montesquieu, Esprit des loix. Amsterd. 1758, 12mo. ii. p. 402.

par