An History of Birmingham (1783) eBook

William Hutton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 295 pages of information about An History of Birmingham (1783).

An History of Birmingham (1783) eBook

William Hutton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 295 pages of information about An History of Birmingham (1783).
2-1/2 1715 718 2 1 1763 3330 13 11-1/2 1716 788 3 2-1/2 1764 3963 11 0-1/2 1717 764 0 6-1/2 1765 3884 18 9 1718 751 2 4 1766 4716 2 10-1/2 1719 1094 10 7 1767 4940 2 2 1768 4798 2 5 1775 6509 10 10 1769 5082 0 9 1776 5203 4 9-1/2 1770 5125 13 2-1/4 1777 6012 5 5 1771 6132 5 10 1778 6866 10 8-1/2 1772 6139 6 5-1/2 1779 8081 19 7-1/2 1773 5584 18 8-1/2 1780 9910 4 11-3/4 1774 6115 17 11

We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being pleased with its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor can the cleanliness be exceeded:  but I am extremely concerned, that I cannot pass through without complaint.

There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but there are very few which may not be lessened by prudence.

The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty, are truly defective.  It is to be feared the method intended to train up inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions of the grave.

Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to tread the stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that we might keep possession for ever.  The unfortunate orphan that none will own, none will regard:  distress, in whatever form it appears, excites compassion, but particularly in the helpless.  Whoever puts an infant into the arms of decrepit old age, passes upon it a sentence of death, and happy is that infant who finds a reprieve.  The tender sprig is not likely to prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture; applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are the most powerful—­An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as opposite as the antipodes.

If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two years, the child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more active animal in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is unemployed:  why then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to still life, in what is called a school, who is designed for action?

We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room by the hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed a school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod, continues much inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every individual not only re breathes his own air, but that of another:  the whole assembly is composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the maimed, and the orphan; the result of whose confinement, is a fallow aspect, and a sickly frame:  but the paltry grains of knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren field of learning, will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas, if we could introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to the community, and a greater to himself.  Till he is initiated into labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and exercise.

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An History of Birmingham (1783) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.