$12 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" which fide juftice laj'-, Do you conceive that, in 

 *' following it, would confift the greateft pofiible 

 " glory that can be acquired? Whatever applaufes 

 ^' conquerors may receive from their compa- 

 *^ triots, truft me, Mankind know well how to 

 *' place them, one day, in their proper fituation. 

 *' They have given only the rank of heroes and 

 ^' of demi-gods to thofe who have merely prac- 

 " tifcd juftice, fuch as Thefeus, Hercules, Piritb'hs. 

 ♦* But they have raifed to the fupreme order of 

 *' Deity, thofe who have been beneficent ; fuch as 

 *' If. s J who gave Laws to men j Ofiris^ who taught 

 *' them tl'.e Arts, and Navigation ; Apollo, Mufic; 

 ** Merany, Commerce ; Pan, the art of breeding 

 ** cattle ; Bacchus, the cultivation of the vine ; 

 '^ Ceres, that of corn. I am a native of Gaul,'* 

 continued Cephas ; *' it is a Country naturally rich 

 *' and fertile, but which, for want of civilization, 

 *' is deftitute of the greater part of thofe things 

 ** which minifter to happineis. Let us go, and 

 ^' carry thither the arts, and the ufeful plants of 

 *' Egypt; a humane Religion, and fecial Laws : 

 ^' we may, perhaps, bring back fome commodities 

 *^ ufeful to your own Country. There does not 

 ** exift a Nation, however favage it may be, that 

 •* docs not poffefs fome ingenuity, from which a 

 *' poli (bed People may derive benefit; fome an- 

 ^* cient tradition, fome rare production, which is 

 ♦* peculiar to it's own climate. It is thus that 



Jupiter^ 



