Montaigne remarks, that there is a certain claim of kindness and benevolence which every species of creatures has a right to, from us. It is to be regretted, that this general maxim is not more attended to in the affairs of education, and pressed home upon tender minds in its full extent and latitude; the early delight which children discover in tormenting different animals should by all possible means be discouraged, as, by being unrestrained in such sports, they may at least acquire a habit of confirmed inattention to every kind of suffering but their own, if not progressively be led to the perpetration of more atrocious acts of cruelty. The supreme court of judicature at Athens thought an instance of this sort not below its cognizance, and punished a boy for putting out the eyes of a poor bird that had unhappily fallen into his hands; and the inimitable HOGARTH, “the great painter of mankind,” has in his “Five Stages of Cruelty,” admirably depicted the consequences which may result from an early indulgence of a propensity towards cruelty. In order to awaken as early as possible in the minds of children an extensive sense of humanity, it might be prudent to indulge them with a view of several sorts of insects as magnified by the microscope, and to explain to them that the same marks of divine wisdom prevail in the formation of the minutest insect, as in the most enormous leviathan; that they are equally furnished with whatever is necessary, not only for the preservation, but the happiness of their beings, in that class of existence which Providence has assigned them: in a word, that the whole construction of their respective organs distinctly and decisively, proclaims them the objects of divine benevolence, and therefore they justly ought to be so of ours. EDIT. OF ANIMALCULA IN INFUSIONS, &C. These require little or no preparation. The first object is to procure them, the second, to render them visible by the microscope. A few observations, however, may be of use. Many drops of water may be examined before any can be found; so that if the observer be too hasty, he may be easily disappointed, though other parts of the same water may be fully peopled by them. The surface of infused liquors is generally covered with a thin pellicle, which is easily broken, but acquires thickness by standing; the greatest number of animalcula are generally to be found in this superficial film. In some cases it is necessary to dilute the infusions; but this is always to be done with distilled water, and that water should be examined in the microscope before it is made use of: the neglect of this precaution has been a source of many errors.