STUDY VIII. 195 



Wretched mortals ! Seek your happinefs in 

 virtue, and you will have no ground of complaint 

 againft Nature. Defpife that ufelefs knowledge, 

 and thofe unreafonable prejudices, which have cor- 

 rupted the Earth, and which every age fubverts 

 in it*s turn. Love thofe Laws which are eternal. 

 Your deftiny is not abandoned to chance, nor to 

 mifchievous demons. Recal thofe times, the re- 

 colledlion of which is ftill frefh among all Na- 

 tions. The brute creation every where found the 

 means of fupporting life ; Man alone had neither 

 aliment, nor clothing, nor inftinâ:. 



Divine wifdom left Man to himfelf, in order to 

 bring him back to GOD. She fcattered her blef- 

 lings over the whole Earth that, in order to gather 

 them, he might explore every different region of 

 it; that he might expand his reafon by the 

 infpedion of her works, and that he might be- 

 come enamoured of her from a fenfe of her bs- 

 nefits. She placed between herfelf and him, 

 harmlefs pleafures, rapturous difcoveries, pure 

 delights, and endlefs hopes, in order to lead 

 him to herfelf, ftep by ftep, through the path 

 of knowledge and happinefs. She fenced his way 

 on both fides, by fear, by languor, by remorfe, 

 by pain, by all the ills of life, as boundaries def- 

 tined to prevent him from wandering and lofing 

 himfelf. The mother, thus, fcatters fruit along 



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