STtJDV IX, 253 



means. Alas ! It is not by thefe that we (hall be 

 able to find our way toward that Heaven, which 

 we pretend to know fo well. The greateft of 

 Mankind have cad an eye thitherward as their laft 

 afylum. Cicero flattered himfelf with the hope of 

 being, after death, an inhabitant of the Stars; and 

 Ce/ar, from that elevation, to prefide over the def- 

 tiny of Rome. An infinite number of other men 

 have limited their future happinefs to a fuperin- 

 tendance of maufoleums, groves, fountains j and 

 others to a re-union with the objeds of their loves. 

 As for us, what are we now hoping for from Earth 

 and from Heaven, where we fee nothing beyond 

 the levers of our pitiful machines? 



How ! as the reward of our virtues, is our def- 

 tination to mount no higher than this, to be con-, 

 founded with the elements ! What, thy foul, O 

 fublime Fenelon! to be exhaled in inflammable 

 air; and to have had on the Earth the fenti- 

 ment of an order which did not exift even in 

 the Heavens ! How, among thofe Stars fo lumi- 

 nous, is there nothing but material Globes ; and 

 in their motions, fo confiant and fo varied, nothing 

 but blind attrapions ? How ! Every thing around 

 us infenfible matter and no more ; and intelligence 

 given to Man, who could give himfelf nothing, 

 only to render him miferable ! How ! and can we 

 have been deceived by the involuntary fentiment 



which 



