STUDY xîi. 79 



appear to me altogether fupernatural, that men 

 who enjoy thfe (imie elements, and are fubjefted 

 to the fame wants, fhould not employ the fame 

 words in expreffing them. There is but one Sun 

 to illuminate the whole Earth, and he bears a dif- 

 ferent name in every different land. 



I beg leave to fuggeft a farther effed of a Law 

 lo which little attention has been paid ; it is this, 

 that there never arifes any one man eminently di- 

 flinguiflied, in whatever line, but there appears, 

 at the fame time, either in his own Country, or in 

 lome neighbouring Nation, an antagonift, poflef- 

 fing talents, and a reputation, in complete oppo- 

 fition : fuch were Democritus and HeracliluSf Alex- 

 ander and Diogenes, Defcartes and Newton, Corneille 

 and Racine, Bojfiiet and Fenelon, Voltaire and J. J, 

 RouJJeau. I had colleded, on the fubjed: of the 

 two extraordinary men laft mentioned, who were 

 contemporaries, and who died the fame year, a 

 great number of ftriftures, which demonftrate 

 that, through the whole courfe of life, they pre- 

 fented a ftriking contrafl; in refpeft of talents, of 

 manners, and of fortune : but I have relinquifhed 

 this parallel, in order to devote my attention to & 

 purfuit which I deemed much more ufeful. 



This balancing of illuftrious characters will not 

 appear extraordinary, if we confider- that it is a 



confequence 



