358 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



the reft of animals ; that his reafon perverted has 

 given offence to the Author of the Univerfe j 

 that as a juft punifhment, he has been left to the 

 direction of his own understanding ; that he is ca- 

 pable of forming his reafon only by the ftudy of 

 univerfal reafon, difplayed in the Works of Na- 

 ture, and in the hopes which virtue infpires ; that 

 by fuch means alone he can be enabled to rife 

 above the animal, beneath the level of which he is 

 funk, and to re-afcend, ftep by ftep, along the 

 fleepy declivity of the celeftial mountain from 

 which he has been precipitated. 



Happy is he, in thefe days, who, inftead of ram- 

 bling over the "World, can live remote from Man- 

 kind I Happy the man who knows nothing be- 

 yond the circumference of his own Horizon, and 

 to whom even the next village is an unknown 

 land ! He has not placed his affections on objects 

 which he muft never more behold, nor left his re- 

 putation at the mercy of the wicked. He believes 

 that innocence refides in hamlets, honour in pa- 

 laces, and virtue in temples. His glory and his 

 religion confift in communicating happinefs to 

 thofe around him. If he beholds not in his gar- 

 den the fruits of Afia, or the fhady groves of Ame- 

 rica, he cultivates the plants which delight his wife 

 and children. He has no need of the monuments 



of 



