STUDY XIII. Ï67 



Patriotifm ought not to be made too frequently 

 the fubjed of fcenic reprefentation. A heroifm 

 fhould be fuppofed to exift, which braves death, 

 but which is never talked of. In order, therefore, 

 to replace the people, in this refped, in the road 

 of Nature and Virtue, they ihould be made to 

 ferve as a fpedacle to themfelves. They ought to 

 be prefented with realities, and not fidions; with 

 foldiers, and not comedians ; and if it be impof- 

 fible to exhibit to them the terrible fpedacle of a 

 real engagement, let them fee, at leaft, a reprefen- 

 tation of the evolutions and the vlciffitudes of one, 

 jn military feftivals. 



The foldiery ought to be united more inti- 

 mately with the Nation, and their condition ren- 

 dered more happy. They are but too frequently 

 the fubjeds of contention in the provinces through 

 which ihey pafs. The fpirit of corps animates them 

 to fuch a degree, that when two regiments happen 

 to meet in the fame city, an infinite number of 

 duels is generally the confequence. Such ferocious 

 animofities are entirely unknown in Pruffian and 

 Ruffian regiments, which I confider as, in many 

 refpeds, the beft troops in Europe. The King of 

 Pruffia has contrived to infpire his foldiers, not 

 with the fpirit of corps, which divides them, but 

 with the fpirit of country which unites them. This 



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