î8q studies of nature. 



This advice was to me a rav of light, which pro- 

 duced another : this wa?, nrll of ail, to oppofe to 

 thefe two pidlures, that of the barbarifm of a third 

 people, in order to reprefent the three fucceffive 

 fiâtes through which moft Nations pafs ; that of 

 barbarifm, that of Nature, and that of corruption. 

 I thus had a complete harmony of three periods 

 ufual to human Societies. 



In the view of reprefenting a ftate of barbarifm, 

 I made choice of Gaul, as a country, the com- 

 mencements of which, in every refped, ought to 

 intereft us the moft, becaufe the firfl: ftate of a 

 People communicates an influence to all the pe- 

 riods of it's duration, and makes itfclffelt evenina 

 flate of decline, juft as the education which a man 

 receives on the breaft, extends it's influence even 

 to the age of decrepitude. Nay, it feems as if at 

 this lafl: epocha, the habits of infancy re-appeared 

 with more force than thofe of the reft of life, as has 

 been obferved in the preceding Studies. The firft 

 impreflions efface the laft. The charafter of Na- 

 tions is formed from the cradle, as well as that of 

 Man. Rome, in her decline, preferved the fpirit 

 cf univerfal domination, which flie had from her 



I found the principal charafters of the manners, 

 ^nd of the religion of the Gauls, completely traced 



in 



