92. STUDIES OF NATURE. 



With the fentiment of Deity, every thing is 

 great, noble, beautiful, invincible, in the moft 

 contrafted fphere of human life ; without it, all 

 is feeble, difpleafing, and bitter, in the very lap of 

 greatnefs. This it was which conferred empire 

 on Rome and Sparta, by Ihevving to their poor 

 and virtuous inhabitants the Gods as their protec- 

 tors and fellow-citizens. It was the deftrucTtion of 

 this fentiment which gave them up, when rich and 

 vicious, to llavery ; when they no longer faw, in 

 the Univerfe, any other Gods except gold and 

 pleafure. To no purpofe does a man make a bul- 

 wark around himfcif of the gifts of fortune j the 

 moment this fentiment is excluded from his heart, 

 languor takes pofleffion of it. If it's abfence is 

 prolonged, he finks into fadnefs, afterwards into 

 profound and fettled melancholy, and finally into 

 defpair. If this ftate of anxiety becomes perma- 

 nent, he lays violent hands on himfelf. Man is 

 the only fenfible being which deftroys itfelf in a 

 flate of liberty. Human life, with all it's pomp, 

 and all it's delights, ceafes, to him, to have the ap- 

 pearance of life, when it ceafes to appear to hira 

 immortal and divine *, 



* Plutarch remarks, that Alexander did not abandon himfelf 

 to thufe excelles, which fuUied the conclufion of his glorious ca- 

 reer, tin he beUeved himfelf to be forfakcn of the Gods. No^ 

 enly does this fentiment become a fource of mifery, when it fe- 

 parates itfelf from our pleafures ; but when, from the effecft of 



our 



