202 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



cabal and intrigue ; that my feeble virtues, which 

 they once fo highly extolled, had procured me no- 

 thing lucrative ; and that they were incapable of 

 doing harm to any one ; in a word, that I no more 

 belonged to their fide, than to that of their anta- 

 gonifts j they negleded me entirely, and even per- 

 fecuted me in their turn. Thus I found, by ex- 

 perience, that in a felfith and corrupted age, our 

 friends meafure their confideration of us only by 

 that which their own enemies entertain refpefting 

 us, and that they court us, juft in proportion as 

 we can be ufeful, or render ourfelves formidable, 

 to them. 1 have every where feen confederacies of 

 various forts, and I have always found in them the 

 fame fpecies of men. They march, it is true, un- 

 der ftandards of different colours; but they are al- 

 ways thofe of ambition. They have but one and 

 the fame objeâ: in view, namely, to domineer. 

 Neverthelefs, the interefl of their corps excepted, 

 I never met with two of them, whofe opinions did 

 not diifer as much as their faces. What is a fource 

 of joy to the one, fmks the other into defpair : to 

 the one, evidence appears to be abfurdity ; to the 

 other, downright abfurdity is evidence. What do 

 I fay ? In the exact ftudy which 1 have made of 

 men, in the view of finding a comforter among 

 them, I have iccn perfons the moft renowned, dif- 

 fer completely from themfelves, according as it 

 was morning or night, as it was before or after 



dinner. 



