study xii. 373 



pretendedly poliflhed ; and fentiment, men of ge- 

 nius, in ages pretendedly barbarous. Reafon varies 

 from age to age, and fentiment is always the fame. 

 The errors of reafon are local and changeable, but 

 the truths of fentiment are invariable and univer- 

 fal. Reafon makes the I Greek, the I EngliuV 

 man, the I Turk ; and fentiment, the I Man, and 

 the I Divine. We ftand in need, at this day, of 

 commentaries, in order to underftand the books 

 of antiquity, which are the works of reafon, fuch 

 as thofe of mod: Hiftorians, and Poets, fatyrical 

 and comic, as Martial, Plautus, Juvenal, and 

 even thofe of the paft age, as Boileau and Mo- 

 lière; but none will ever be neceflary, in order 

 to be moved by the fupplications of Priam at the 

 feet of Achilles, by the defpair of Dido, by the tra- 

 gedies of Racine, and the lively fables of La Fon- 

 taine. We frequently ftand in need of many com- 

 binations, for the purpofe of bringing to light 

 fome concealed reafon of Nature ; but the fimple 

 and pure fentiments of repofe, of peace, of gentle 

 melancholy, which {Tie infpires, come to us with- 

 out effort. 



Reafon, I grant, procures for us pleafures of a 

 certain kind , but if fhe difcovers to us fome fmall 

 portion of the order of the Univerfe, fhe exhibits 

 to us, at the fame time, our own deftruclion, at- 

 tached to the Laws of it's prefervation ; (he pre- 



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