STUDY XII. 



Science is continually fhewing us the boundary 

 of our reafon, and ignorance is for ever removing 

 it. I take care, in my folitary rambles, not to afk 

 information refpeéling the name and quality of 

 the perfon who owns the caftie which I perceive 

 at a diflance. The hiftory of the mafter frequently 

 disfigures that of the landfcape. It is not fo with 

 the Hiftory of Nature j the more her Works are 

 ftudied, the more is our admiration excited. There 

 is one cafe only in which the knowledge of the 

 works of men is agreeable to us, it is when the 

 monument which we contemplate has been the 

 abode of goodnefs. What little fpire is that which 

 I perceive at Montfnorency ? It is that of Saint- 

 Gratian, where Catinat lived the life of a fage, and 

 under which his alhes are laid to reft. My foul, 

 circumfcribed within the precindls of a fmall vil- 

 lage, takes it's flight, and ranges over the capacious 

 fphere of the age of Louis XIV. and haftens thence 

 to expatiate through a fphere more fublime than 

 that of the World, the fphere of virtue. When I 

 am incapable of procuring for myfelf fuch per- 

 fpedives as thefe, ignorance of places anfwers my 

 purpofe much better than the knowledge of them 

 could do. I have no occafion to be informed that 

 fuch a foreft belongs to an Abbey or to a Dutchy, 

 in order to feel how majeftic it is. It's ancient 

 trees, it's profound glades, it's folemn, filent foli- 

 tudes, are fufficient for me. The moment I ceafe 



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