Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/410

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¬suffer the knowledge of their existence, though highly useful, to make us cold to the sufferings of our fellow-creatures. — We may often be mis- taken in the true objects of charity, but if from the impression of imposture, a real one should be passed by, how fatal might be the mistake ! In times like the present, we should suspend the very remembrance of it, and go forth into the streets to take our chance of being deceived. ¬Before I leave the subject of human suf- ferings, I must shock the feelings of the reader by taking notice of a most barbarous custom in Armata, wholly inconsistent with the benevolent character of her people. ¬Although their mechanical inventions had reached such perfection that almost nothing was left for human hands to perform without aids to assist labour and to avert dangers, yet they persisted in devoting the unprotected chil- dren of the poor to misery, disease, and death, by a practice, not yet reformed amongst our- selves, ¬