46 STUDftS OF NATURE. 



If we attend to the origin and the end of her 

 Works, thofe of the moft renowned Nations will 

 appear perfedly frivolous. It was not neceffary 

 that mighty Potentates fhould rear fuch enormous 

 maffes of ftone, in order, one day, to infpire me 

 with refpecl, from their antiquity. A little flinty 

 pebble, in one of our brooks, is more ancient than 

 the pyramids of Egypt. A multitude of cities 

 have been deftroyed fuice it was created. If I feel 

 myfelf difpofed to blend fome moral fentiment 

 with the monuments of Nature, I can fay to myfelf, 

 on feeing a rock : " It was on this place, perhaps, 

 " that the good Fenelon repofed, while meditating 

 ** the plan of his divine Telemachtis ; perhaps the 

 " day will come, when there fliall be engraved on 

 " it, that he had produced a revolution in Europe, 

 *' by inftrudling Kings, that their glory confided 

 *' in rendering Mankind happy ; and that the 

 ** happinefs of Mankind depends on the labours 

 *' of agriculture : Pofterity will gaze with delight 

 " on the very ftone on which my eyes are at this 

 " moment fixed." It is thus that I embrace, at 

 once the pad and the future, at fight of an infen- 

 fible rock, and which, by confecrating it to virtue, 

 by a fimple infcription, I render infinitely more 

 venerable, than by decorating it with the five or- 

 ders of Architedlure. 



Of 



