I shall speak, likewise, of the nature of fire, not to explain it, but to evince our profound ignorance of the subject. This element, which renders all things else perceptible, itself eludes our most eager researches. p. 27.

The proportions of the human body. no where vary; from the tallest to the shortest of the human race, there is not, at most, the difference of a foot; the black colour, within the tropics, is simply the effect of the heat of the sun, which tinges him in proportion as he approaches the line. And it is, as we shall see, one of the blessings of nature.

p. 43.

Man has been, in every age, the friend of man, not merely from the interests of commerce, but by the more sacred, the more indissoluble bands of humanity. p. 45.

Virtue is to man the true law of nature. It is the harmony of all harmonies. Virtue alone can render love sublime, and ambition beneficent. It can derive the purest

gratifications even from privations the most severe. Rob it of love, friendship, honour, the sun, the elements, it feels that, under the administration of a Being just and good, abundant compensation is reserved for it, and it acquires an increase of confidence in God, even from the cruelty and injustice of man. It was virtue that supported, in every situation of life, a Socrates, an Epictetus, a Fenelon; that rendered them, at once, the happiest, and the most respectable of mankind. p. 50.

Our illumination, like our virtue, consists in descending and our force in becoming sensible of our feebleness. p. 59.

Let us farther suppose, what neither poetry nor painting can pretend to imitate, the odour of the plants, and even the smell. of the sea, the rustling of leaves, the humming of insects, the matin-song of the birds, the hollow murmuring noise, intermixed with silence of the billows breaking on the

shore, and the repetitions of all these sounds, &c.

Through a Providence, worthy of the highest admiration, places the most unprolific, present to man, in the greatest abundance, provisions, clothing, lamps, and firing, not of his own production.

How delightful would it be to behold the human race collecting all these various blessings, and communicating them to each other in peace, from climate to climate! not with the dreadful noise of artillery, &c. p. 66.

Our forefathers were aided, no doubt, in their necessitous circumstances, and in their industry, by some celestial intelligence, who commisserated their distress.

P. 67.

If it be delightful to acquire knowledge, it is much more delightful still to diffuse it. The noblest reward of science is the pleasure of the ignorant man instructed.

Alas! blessings have been given us in

common, and we communicate to each other only the ills of life. Man is every where complaining of the want of land, and the globe is covered with deserts. Man alone is exposed to famine, while the animal creation, down to insects, are wallowing in plenty. Almost every where he is the slave of his equal, while the feeblest of animals maintain their liberty against the strongest. Nature, who designed him for love, denied him arms, and he has forged them for himself, to combat his fellow. p. 68.

The history of nature exhibits blessings only, that of man, nothing but robbery and madness.

Every where he despises the hand which spins the garment that clothes him, and which cultivates for him the fertile bosom of the earth. Every where he esteems his deceiver, and reveres his oppressor. ways dissatisfied with the present, he alone of beings regrets the past, and trembles at the thought of futurity.

Al

O ye Legislators! boast no longer of

your laws. Either man is born to be miserable; or the earth every where watered with his blood, and with his tears, accuses you all of having misunderstood those of p. 69.

nature.

Religion alone appears to me the natural bond of mankind, the hope of our sublime passions, and the complement of our miserable destiny. Happy, if I have been able sometimes to prop, with my feeble support, that sacred edifice, assailed as it is, in these times, on every side! But its foundations rest not on the earth, and to heaven its stately columns rear their heads. However bold some of my speculations may be, they have nothing to do with bad people. But, perhaps, more than one epicurean may discern in them, that man's supreme pleasure is in virtue. Good citizens will perhaps, find in them new means of being useful. At least, I shall have the full recompense of my labour, if so much as one misérable wretch, ready to sink at the melancholy spectacle which the world presents,