STUD"^ VIÎI. 189 



fullefl conviélion that all the purfuits of this world 

 would from that inftant be aban,doned. This 

 perfpeftive of a divine felicity, here below, would 

 throw us into a lethargic rapture. 



I recoiled: that on my return to France, in a 

 veflel which had been on a voyage to India, as foon 

 as the failors had perfedly diftinguilhed the land 

 of their native country, they became, in a great 

 meafure, incapable of attending to the bufmefs of 

 the fhip. Some looked at it wiftfully, without 

 the power of minding any other objedt ; others 

 drefled themfelves in their beft clothes, as if they 

 had been going that moment to difembark j fome 

 talked to themfelves, and others wept. As we ap- 

 proached, the diforder of their minds increafed. 

 As they had been abfent feveral years, there was 

 no end to their admiration of the verdure of the 

 hills, of the foliage of the trees, and even of the 

 rocks which Ikirted the (hore, covered over with 

 fea-weeds and moffes j as if all thefe objeds had 

 been perfeflly new to them. The church fpires 

 of the villages where they were born, which they 

 diftinguiflied at a diftance up the country, and 

 which they named one after another, filled them 

 with tranfports of delight. But when the veflel 

 entered the port, and when they faw on the quays, 

 their friends, their fathers, their mothers, their 

 wives, and their children, ftretching out their arms 



to 



