One of the most striking
examples of this nature, was his belief that the black colour of
the negro is a disease, which depletion, properly exercised, might
be capable of remedying--a scheme not a whit more feasible, than
that of the courtiers of _La Reine Quinte_, referred to by
Rabelais, "who made blackamoors white, as fast as hops, by just
rubbing their stomachs with the bottom of a pannier."
The satire here is not so fortunately displayed, as in other
instances, owing probably to the difficulty of saying any thing new on
so hackneyed a subject; for it has ever happened, that,--
"The Galenist and Paracelsian,
Condemn the way each other deals in."
The affair concludes, by the Doctors quarrelling; and, in the mean
time, the patient, profiting by some simple remedies administered by
the Brahmin, and an hour's rest, was so much refreshed, that he
considered himself out of danger, and had no need of medical
assistance.
_Pestolozzi's system of education_, is with justice satirized;
since, instead of affording facilities to the student, as the
superficial observer might fancy, it retards his acquisition of
knowledge, by teaching him to exercise his external senses, rather
than his reflection.[10]
In a _menagerie_ attached to an academy, in which youths of
maturer years were instructed in the fine arts, the travellers had an
opportunity of observing the vain attempts of education, to control
the natural or instinctive propensities.
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