iÔ STUDIES OF NAtfRE. 



Of the Love of Country. 



This fentiment is, ftill farther, the fource of 

 Jove of Country, becaufe it brings to our recollec- 

 tion the gentle and pure affcftions of our earlier 

 years. It increafes with extenfion, and expands 

 with the progrefs of time, as a fentiment of a celef- 

 tial and immortal nature. They have, in Switzer- 

 land, an ancient mufical air, and extremely fimple, 

 called the rans des vaches. This air produces an 

 cffeâ: fo powerful, that it was found neceflary to 

 prohibit the playing of it, in Holland and in 

 France, before the Swifs foldiers, becaufe it fee 

 them all a-deferting one after another. I imagine 

 that the rans des vaches muft imitate the lowing 

 and bleating of the cattle, the repercuffion of the 

 echos, and other local aflbciations, which made 

 the blood boil in the veins of thofe poor foldiers, 

 by recalling to their memory the valleys, the lakes, 

 the mountains of their Country *, and, at the fame 



time, 



* I have been told that Poutaverl^ the Indian of Taiti, who 

 tvas fome years ago brought to Paris, on feeing, in the Royal 

 Garden, the paper-mulberry tree, the bark of which is, in that 

 ifland, manufaélured into cloth, the tear ftarted to his eye, and 

 clafping it in his arms, he exclaimed : Ah ! tree of my country ! 

 I could wifh it were put to the trial, whether, on prefenting ta 

 a foreign bird, fay a paroquet, a fruit of it's country, which it 



had 



