STUDY XII. 85 



honours of a prefent flate, could you have forced 

 your way through paths fo dreary and fo rude, had 

 not a Hght from Heaven ilkiminated your eyes * ? 



Tt 



* It is itnpoffible for virtue to fubfift independantly of Reli- 

 gion, t do not mean the theatrical virtues, wiiich attract public 

 admiration, and that, many a time, by means fo contemptible, 

 that they may be rather confidered as fo many vices. The very 

 Pagans have turned them into ridicule. See what Marcus Aurclius 

 has faid on the fubjefl. By virtue I underftand the good which 

 we do to men, without expeftation of reward on their part, and, 

 frequently, at the expence of fortune, nay, even of reputation. 

 Analyze all thofe whofc traits have appeared to you the moft 

 ftriking; there is no one of them but what points out Deity, 

 nearer or more remote. I fliall quote one not generally known, 

 and fingularly interefting from it's very obfcurity. 



In the laft war in Germany, a Captain of cavalry was ordered 

 out on a foraging parfy. He put himfelf at the head of his 

 troop, and marched to the quarter affigned him. It was a foli- 

 tary valley, in which hardly any thing but woods could be feen. 

 In the midft of it flood a little cottage ; on perceiving it, he 

 went up, and knocked at the door ; out comes an ancient Her- 

 jiouten, with a beard filvered by age. " Father," fays the officer, 

 *' fliew me a field where I can fet my troopers a-foraging"... ... 



*' Prefently," replied the Hernouten. The good old man walked 

 before, and conduced them out of the valley. After a quarter 

 of an hour's march, they found a fine field of barley : " There 



*' is the very thing we want," fays the Captain " Have pa- 



*' tience for a ïtw minutes," replies his guide, ** you (liall be 

 *' fatisfied." They went on, and, at the diftance of about a 

 quarter of a league farther, they anive at another field of barley. 

 The troop immediately difmounted, cut down the grain, truffed 

 It up, and remounted. The officer, upon this, fays to his con- 



G 3 du(5tor, 



