and yet I must fee the good old man again. His converfation, it is true afflicts me; but I had rather indulge a pleasing sadness in his company, than fuffer the infulting gaiety of vain unthinking men, who throng about me in my palace.

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CHAPITRE XV.

T the accustomed hour, the next day, the emperor and Tiberius found the hero in his garden enjoying the departing rays of the western fun. It no longer lights me, faid Belifarius, with a look expreffive of inward happiness, but it ftill warms and comforts me. In that ftupendous orb I adore the bounty and magnificence of the great Creator. To hear this ftrain of piety from a warrior, faid Juftinian, delights and ravishes me; it is the triumph of religion! The

dans le malheur, c'eft de mêler une douceur célefte aux amertumes de la vie. Et qui l'éprouve mieux que moi ? Accablé de vieilleffe privé de la vue, fans amis, feul avec moi-même, & n'ayant devant moi que la caducité, la douleur & la tombe, qui m'ôteroit l'idée du Ciel me réduiroit peut-être au défespoir. L'homme de bien eft avec Dieu; il est affuré que Dieu l'aime (a): ce qui le remplit de force & de joie au milieu des afflictions. Je me fouviens que, dans des moments de détreffe, où tout m'abandonnoit, où tout conjuroit ma ruine, je me difois: Courage, Bélifaire, tu es fans reproche, & Dieu te voit. Cette penfée me dilatoit le cœur que la trifteffe avoit ferrée; elle rendoit la vie & la

(a) Nulla fine Dea mens bona eft. Senec. Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia eft, conciliante virtute, Idem.

triumph of religion, replied Belifarius, is to adminifter confolation in the hour of adverfity, and to mingle in the cup of forrow the fweets of calm delight, and heavenly fatisfaction. That religion affords this heart-felt joy, who can give better teftimony than myself? Overwhelmed with years, deprived of fight and deftitute of friends, abandoned over to myself, and nothing present to my thoughts but the decline of frail mortality, affliction, and my approaching grave, I have nothing left but to fend up my meditation to Heaven to deprive me of that were, perhaps, to drive me to defpair. The good man walks with God (a); a fecret consciousness that he is acceptable to his Creator warms his heart; and from that fource he

(a) Nulla fine Deo mens bona eft. Senec, Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia eft, con ciliante virtute. Idem,

force à mon ame. Je me parle de même encore; & quand ma fille eft avec moi, qu'elle s'afflige, & que je fens fes larmes baignet mon vifage: Hé bien, lui dis-je, as-tu peur que celui qui nous a créés ne nous délaiffe & ne nous oublie? Ton cœur eft pur, fenfible, honnête; ton pere n'eft pas plus méchant que toi; comment veux-tu que la bonté même n'ait pas foin des bonnes gens? Laiffe, ma fille laiffe venir le moment où celui qui, d'un fouffle, "a produit mon ame, l'enveloppera dans fon fein; & nous verrons fi les méchants y viendront troubler mon repos. Ma fille, que ce langage éclaire & perfuade, pleure en m'écoutant; mais ce font de plus douces larmes; & peu-àpeu je l'accoutume à regarder la vie comme un petit voyage, où l'on eft dans la barque affez mal à fon aife, mais dont le port fera délicieux.

derives

derives ftrength and rapture even in the midft of affliction. When I was firft furrounded with misfortunes; deferted by all, and given up to my enemies, who were plotting my ruin, I have often faid to myfelf, Be of courage, Belifarius; you are free from felf-reproach, and your God beholds you. My heart, where all was laid waste and defolate with mifery, revived and glowed within me at that reflection; I felt it expand

in my bofom with new life and joy. I hold the fame felf-conference ftill; and when my daughter is with me, yielding to the ftroke of affliction and bathing my face with tears: Can you be afraid, I ask her, that He who fent us on this ftage of life, will ceafe to prompt, to invigorate, and fupport us? Your heart is endowed with fenfibility, and truth and pureft virtue refide there? your father has not more to answer for than yourfelf; and can you imagine Tome IV. D