STUDY VII. 17 



had edablifhed, for that critical period, feftivals 

 defigned to diffipate the melancholy of Mankind, 

 fuch as the feaft of Saturn among the Romans, 

 and the feaft of Kings * among the Gauls. In 

 each Nation the feflival was adapted to the public 

 taflc ; among the Romans, it prefented the images 

 of a republic ; among our anceflors thofe of mo- 

 narchy. 



But I beg leave, likewife, to remark, that thofe 

 fcafons fertile in crimes, are the feafons, too, of 

 the moft fplendid allions. This effervefcence of 

 feafon afts on our fenfes, like that of wine. It 

 produces in us an extraordinary impuliion, but 

 indifferently to good and to evil. Befides, Nature 

 has implanted in our foul two powers, which ever 

 balance each other injufl: proportion. When the 

 phyfical fenfe, Love, debafes us, the moral fenti- 

 ment, Ambition, raifes us up again. The equili- 



* The Feajl of Kings, T apprehend, is coeval with the Chrif- 

 tian Era, and had it's origin in the ftar-directed vifit of the 

 Ealtern Magi to Bethlehem of Judah, recorded in the beginning 

 of the fécond chapter of the Gofpel according to St. Matthew. 

 We can hardly fuppofe the ancient Gauls fo extremely attached 

 to irregular and unfteady Monarchy, as to inflitute and celebrate 

 annual feafls in honour of it. Whatever may be in this, mo- 

 dern Gauls can fay of the political body, what the Médecin malgré 

 lui oï Molière, fays, refpeéling the natural body : ÏVe have changed 

 all that. H. H.j 



VOL. 11. c brium 



