108 SAMUEL JOHNSON

THE Idlers that sport only with inanimate nature may claim some indulgence; if they are useless, they are still innocent ; but there are others, whom I know not how to mention without more emotion than my love of quiet willingly admits. Among the inferior pro- fessors of medical knowledge, is a race of wretches, whose lives are only varied by varieties of cruelty ; whose favourite amuse- ment is, to nail dogs to tables and open them alive ; to try how long life may be continued in various degrees of mutilation, or with the excision or laceration of the vital parts ; to examine whether burning irons are felt more acutely by the bone or tendon ; and whether the more lasting agonies are produced by poison forced into the mouth, or injected into the veins.

It is not without reluctance that I offend the sensibility of the tender mind with images like these. If such cruelties were not prac- tised, it were to be desired that they should not be conceived ; but, since they are published every day with ostentation, let me be allowed once to mention them, since I mention them with abhorrence.

��PLEASURE is very seldom found where it is sought. Our bright blazes of gladness are

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