Study xiiï. 99 



tômpenfe that my heart can defire : if I am encou- 

 raged to flatter myfelf with the thought that I have 

 wiped away the tears from the eyes of but one un- 

 fortunate fellow-creature ; fuch a refledion would 

 wipe away mine own in my dying moments. 



The men who can turn the diftreffes of their 

 t^ountry to their own private emolument, will re- 

 proach me with being it's enemy, in the hacknied 

 obfervation, that things have always been (o, and 

 that all goes on very well, becaufe all goes on well 

 for them. But the perfons who difcover, and who 

 linveil the evils under which their Country labours, 

 they are not the enemies which fhe has to fear ; 

 the perfons who flatter her, they are her real ene- 

 mies. The Writers afluredly, fuch as Horace and 

 'Juvenal, who prediftcd to Rome her downfal, 

 when at the very height of her elevation, were 

 much more fincerely attached to her profperiry, 

 than thofe who offered incenfe to her tyrants, and 

 made a gain of her calamities. How long did the 

 Roman Empire furvive the filutary yearnings of 

 the firft ? Even the good Princes, who afterwards 

 afTumed the government of it, were incapable of 

 replacing it on a folid foundation, becaufe they 

 were impofed upon by their contemporary Wri- 

 ters, who never had the courage to attack the mo- 

 ral and political caufes of the general corruption. 

 They fatisfied themfelves with th'.^ir own perfonal 

 H 2 reiormation. 



