CHILDREN CRYING AT THEIR BIRTH. "When I was born, I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature, _and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do_."--_Wisd._ vii. 3. "Tum porro Puer, ut saevis projectus ab undis Navita, _nudus, humi jacet_, Infans, indigus omni Vitali auxilio; cum primum in luminis oras Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit: _Vagituque locum lugubri complet_, ut aequum est, Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum." _Lucret. De Rer. Nat._, v. 223. For the benefit of the lady-readers of "N. & Q." I subjoin a translation of these beautiful lines of Lucretius: "The infant, as soon as Nature with great pangs of travail hath sent it forth from the womb of its mother into the regions of light, lies, like a sailor cast out from the waves, _naked upon the earth_ in utter want and helplessness; _and fills every place around with mournful wailings_ and piteous lamentation, as is natural for one who has so many ills of life in store for him, so many evils which he must pass through and suffer." "Thou must be patient: we came crying hither; Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air, We wawle and cry-- When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools."--Shakspeare's _Lear_. "Who remindeth me of the sins of my infancy? 'For in Thy sight none is pure from sin, not even the infant whose life is but a day upon the earth.' (Job xxv. 4.) Who remindeth me? Doth not each little infant, in whom I see what of myself I remember not? What then was my sin? Was it that I _hung upon the breast and cried_?"--St. Austin, _Confess._, lib. i. 7.