Whatever be the disorders of Society, this celestial instinct is ever amusing itself with the children of men. It inspires the man of genius, by disclosing itself to him under eternal attributes. It presents to the Geometrician, the ineffable progressions of infinity; to the Musician rapturous harmonies; to the Historian, the immortal shades of virtuous men. It raises a Parnassus for the Poet, and an Olympus for the Hero. It sheds a lustre on the unfortunate days of the labouring poor. Amidst the luxury of Paris, it extracts a sigh from the breast of the humble native of Savoy after the sacred covering of the snows upon his mountains. It expatiates along the vast ocean, and recals, from the gentle climates of India, the European mariner, to the stormy shores of the West. It bestows a country on the wretched, and fills with regret those who have lost nothing. It covers our cradles with the charms of innocence, and the tombs of our forefathers with the hopes of immortality. It reposes in the midst of tumultuous citics, on the palaces of mighty kings, and on the august temples of Religion. It frequently fixes its residence in the desert, and attracts the attention of the Universe to a rock. Thus it is that you are cloth"pressed with a certain dignified air of chagrin and dissatisfaction. I "have seen two or three ancient busts of Alexander, with the same air, "and in the same attitude; and I am disposed to believe that the Sculp"tor pursued the idea of the Conqueror sighing after new worlds, or “some similar circumstance of his History." Addison's Voyage to Italy. I imagine that the circumstance of Alexander's History, to which those busts ought to be referred, is that which represents him complaining of being abandoned of the Gods. I have no doubt that it would have fixed the exquisite judgment of Addison, had he recollected the observation made by Plutarch,

ed

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ed with majesty, venerable ruins of Greece and Rome! and you too, mysterious pyramids of Egypt! This is the object which we are invariably pursuing amidst all our restless occupations; but the moment it discovers itself to us in some unexpected act of virtue, or in some one of those events which may be denominated strokes of Heaven, or in some of those indescribably sublime emotions, which are called sentimental touches by way of excellence, its first effect is to kindle in the breast a very ardent movement of joy, and the second is to melt us into tears. The soul, struck with this divine light, exults at once in enjoying a glimpse of the heavenly country, and sinks at the thought of being exiled from it.

Oculis errantibus alto

Quæsivit cœlo lucem, ingemuitque repertâ.

ENEID, BOOR IV

With wandering eyes explor'd the heavenly light,

Then sigh'd, and sunk into the shades of night.

STUDY THIRTEENTH.

APPLICATION OF THE LAWS OF NATURE TO THE DISORDERS OF SOCIETY.

I HAVE exposed in this Work, the errors of human opinion, and the mischief which has resulted from them, as affecting morals and social felicity. I have refuted those opinions, and have ventured to call in question even the methods of human Science; I have investigated certain Laws of Nature, and have made, I am bold to affirm, a happy application of them to the vegetable order: but all this mighty'exertion would, in my own opinion, prove to be vain and unprofitable, unless I employed it in attempting to discover some remedies for the disorders of Society.

A Prussian Author, who has lately favoured the World with various productions, carefully avoids saying a word respecting the administration of the government of his own Country, because, being only a passenger, as he alleges in the vessel of the State, he does not consider himself as warranted to intermeddle with the pilot's province. This thought, like so many others borrowed from books, is a mere effusion of wit. It resembles that of the man, who sceing a house on the point of being seized with the flames, scampered off, without making any attempt to save it, because, forsooth, the house was not his. For my own part, I think myself so much the more obliged to take an interest in the vessel

of

of the state, that I am a passenger on board, and thereby bound to contribute my efforts toward her prosperous navigation. Nay, I ought to employ my very leisure, as a passenger, to admonish the steersman of any irregularity, or reglect, which I may have perceived in conducting the business of the ship. Such, to my apprehension, are the examples set us by a Montesquieu, a Fenelon, and so many other names, to be held in everlasting respect, who have in every country consecrated their labours to the good of their compatriots. The only thing that can be with justice objected to me, is my insufficiency. But I have seen much injustice committed; I myself have been the victim of it. Images of disorder have suggested to me ideas of order. Besides, my errors may perhaps serve as a foil to the wisdom of those who shall detect them. Were I but to present one single useful idea to my Sovereign, whose bounty has hitherto supported me, though my services remain unrewarded, I shall have received the most precious recompence that my heart can desire: if I am encouraged to flatter myself with the thought that I have wiped away the tears from the eyes of but one unfortunate fellow-creature, such a reflection would wipe away mine own in my dying moments.

The men who can turn the distresses of their Country to their own private emolument, will reproach me with being its enemy, in the hacknied observation, that things have always been So, and that all goes on very well, because all goes on well for them. But the persons who discover, and who unveil, the evils under which their Country labours,

they are not the enemies which she has to fear; the persons who flatter her, they are her real enemies. The Writers assuredly, such as Horace andJuvenal, who predicted to Rome her downfal, when at the very height of her elevation, were much more sincerely attached to her prosperity, than those who offered incense to her tyrants, and made a gain of her calamities. How long did the Roman Empire survive the salutary warnings of the first. Even the good Princes who afterwards assumed the government of it, were incapable of replacing it on a solid foundation, because they were imposed upon by their contemporary Writers, who never had the courage to attack the moral and political causes of the general corruption. They satisfied themselves with their own personal reformation, without daring to extend it so much as to their families. Thus it was that a Titus and a Marcus Aurelius reigned. They were only great Philosophers on the throne. As far as I am concerned, I should believe that I had already deserved well of my country, had I only announced in her ear this awful truth: That she contains in her bosom more than seven millions of poor, and that their number has been proceeding in an increasing proportion from year to year, ever since the age of Louis XIV.

God forbid that I should wish or attempt to disturb, much less destroy, the different orders of the State. I would only wish to bring them back to the spirit of their natural Institution. Would to God, that the Clergy would endeavour to merit, by their virtues, the first place, which has been

granted