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21. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come, but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. The circumstance is natural, and therefore universal; it is peculiar to no one age, nor confined to any particular country.

Some stanzas on the birth of an INFANT shall be added; for they express not merely the joy occasioned by the arrival of the little stranger, but are fraught with parental anxiety, which follows the Infant growing up to maturity, and pushing forward through the subsequent gradations of life

Welcome little helpless stranger,
Welcome to the light of day;
Smile upon thy HAPPY MOTHER,
Smile, and chase her cares away!

Lift thine eyes and look around thee,
Various objects court thy sight;
Nature spreads her verdant carpet,
Earth was made for thy delight!

Welcome to a Mother's bosom,
Welcome to a Father's arms,
Heir to all thy FATHER'S virtues,
Heir to all thy MOTHER'S charms!

Joy thou bringst, but mix'd with trembling,
Anxious joys, and tender fears;
Pleasing hopes, and mingled sorrows,
Smiles of transport dash'd with tears!

Who can say what lies before thee,
Calm, or tempest-peace, or strife?
With what various turns and trials
HEAVEN may mark thy chequer'd life!

Who can tell what eager passions
In this little breast shall beat,
When Ambition, Love, or Glory,
Shall invade this peaceful seat?

Who can tell how wide the branches
Of this tender plant may spread,
While beneath their ample shadow
Swains may rest, and flocks be fed?

ANGELS guard thee, lovely blossom,
Hover round and shield from ill;
Crown thy Parents' largest wishes,
And their fondest hopes fulfil!

And yet what a spectacle of weakness does this little thrice-welcomed stranger exhibit to all around him! The imbecility of Infancy is most picturesquely pourtrayed by our great Poet:

At first, the Infant,

Mewling and puking in the NURSE's arms!

The term mewling is admirably expressive of that indistinctness of cry in INFANTS, which is more the result of animal than of mental sensation. Indications of pain will arise from the action of the atmosphere; but the child is soon reconciled to it, and feels its genial influence. Buffon, speaking of the new-born infant, says it is equally sensible of heat as of cold; in every situation it utters complaints, and pain appears to be its first and only sensation. Unlike the young of other animals, infants open their eyes the moment they

enter the world; but their eyes are fixed and dull. The senses also are weak and illusory; they require time before they attain to any degree of consistency. According to the great naturalist already mentioned, an infant begins not to smile in less than forty days; when it begins also to weep, for its former cries were unaccompanied with tears. Lord Byron however has these beautiful lines on the subject:

When late I saw thy favourite child

I thought my jealous heart would break,
But when the unconscious Infant smil'd

I kiss'd it for its MOTHER's sake;
I kiss'd it, and repress'd my sighs
Its Father in its face to see;
But then it had its MOTHER's eyes,
And they were all to Love and Me!

passions in the The features of

Nor are there vestiges of the countenance of a new-born child. the face have not acquired that consistence and elasticity which are necessary for expressing the sentiments of the mind. Indeed INFANCY at its commencement is proverbial imbecility.

New-born INFANTS are much addicted to sleep. "Tir'd nature's sweet restorer," is soon wanted with its balmy energies, to recruit the tremulous delicacy of infancy. From this sleep, into which it is almost constantly falling, it is roused either by pain or hunger. Thus sleep is often terminated

by a fit of crying; the only method which the tender infant has in its power to make known its wants. And when hunger stimulates, the application of the Babe to the MOTHER'S breast is a sovereign remedy:

The MOTHER now unveils her snowy breast,
Swell'd with a milky stream, and gently lays
Her charge delighted in her lap to rest;
Then, softly raising, to the fount conveys:

Instinctive NATURE to the nipple clings,

Down glides in copious draughts the luscious store;
While round her Boy the indulgent Parent flings
Maternal arms, and eyes him o'er and o'er!

This same instinctive nature teaches the babe to throw off the superabundant quantity without trouble to itself, or disgust to the mother. And this apparently trivial circumstance "puking in the nurse's arms," our Poet has noticed as the second characteristic of Infancy.

The lamp of life burns with a feeble glimmering in the bosom of an INFANT. The life of a child, says Buffon, till it be three years of age, is extremely precarious. In the two or three succeeding years, however, its life becomes more certain; and in the sixth or seventh year, a child has a better chance of living, than at any other period. According to Tables of the Degrees of Mortality, in the British Metropolis, when a child is born, we might lay a bet that it would not live above three

years! This exhibits a melancholy view of the human species; for though a man who dies at the age of Twenty-one, is generally lamented as being prematurely deprived of life; yet, according to certain calculations, one half of mankind must die before the termination of three years; and consequently every man who lives more than three years, instead of complaining of his fate, ought to consider himself as peculiarly favoured by his Creator.

It is a curious remark made respecting INFANTS that, though their bodies be extremely delicate, they are less sensible of cold than at any other period of life. And it is added, by way of exemplification, that the pulse of an infant, or of a little man, is more frequent than that of an adult, or of a large man. The pulse of an ox is slower than

that of a man.

A dog's pulse is quicker than that of a man; and the motion of the heart in very small animals, as that of a sparrow, is so rapid, that the strokes can hardly be numbered.

That INFANTS, so very tender in their make and constitution, should have every possible attention paid them, is a position which none will deny. And who so proper to take this care of them as THE MOTHER to whom they owe their birth? Among the poor this becomes a necessary duty--not having the means of transferring the important charge to the care of another. The rich, indeed, often betray a criminal inattention to the

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