206 STUDIES OP NATURE. 



The rich, however, ftand in no lefs need than 

 the populacCj of moral afFeâiions. Thefe are, as we 

 have feen, the moving fprings of all the human 

 paffions. To no purpofe do they pretend to refer 

 the plan of their felicity to phyfical objeâis ; they 

 foon lofe all tafte for their caftles, their pidures, 

 their parks, when, inftead of fentiment, they pof- 

 fefs merely the fenfations of them. This is fo in- 

 dubitably true, that if, under the preflure of their 

 languor, a ftranger happens to arrive to admire 

 their luxury, all their powers of enjoyment are re- 

 novated. They feem to have confecrated their life 

 to an indefinite voluptuoufnefs ; but prefent to 

 them a (ingle ray of glory, in the very bofom of 

 death itfelf, and they are immediately on the wing 

 to overtake it. Offer them regiments, and they 

 poft away after immortality. It is the moral prin- 

 ciple, therefore, which muft be purified and di- 

 reiled in Man. It is not in vain, then, that Re- 

 ligion prescribes to us the pradice of virtue, which 

 is the moral fentiment by way of excellence, feeing 

 it is the road to happinefs, both in this World, 

 and in that which is to come. 



The fociety of which I have been fuggefting 

 the idea, would farther extend it's attentions, into 

 the retreats of virtue itfelf. I have remarked that, 

 about the age of forty- five, a ftriking revolution 



takes 



