STUDY XII. S9 



were long in an erratic flate, and who withdrew 

 from thofe ancient monuments of virtue, chofe 

 rather to look for them in the poflerity of their 

 great men, and to fee the living images of them in 

 their children. This is the reafon, in my opinion, 

 that the Afiatics have no Noblefle, and the Euro- 

 peans no monuments. 



This infhinft of Deity conftitutes the charm of 

 the performances which we perufe with mofl de- 

 light. The Writers to whom we always return 

 with pleafure, are not the mofl fprightly, that is, 

 thofe who abound the moft in the focial reafon 

 which endures but for a moment, but thofe who 

 render the adlion of Providence continually pre- 

 fent to us. Hence it is that Homer, Firgil, Xeno- 

 pboH, Phtarchy Fenelon, and moft of the ancient 

 Writers, are immortal, and pleafe the men of all 

 Nations. For the fame reafon it is, that books of 

 travels, though, for the moft part, written very 

 artlefsly, and though decried by multitudes, of 

 various orders in Society, who difcern in them an 

 indireâ: cenfure of their own conduét, are, never^ 

 thelefs, the moft interefting part of modern read- 

 ing ; not only becaufe they difclofe to us fome 

 new benefits of Nature, in the fruits and the ani- 

 mals of foreign countries, but becaufe of the dan- 

 gers by land and by water which their authors have 

 fsfcaped, frequently beyond all reafonable expeda- 



tion. 



