i,^Z STUDIES OF ÎTATURE. 



a good mafter ? Was he fond of his wife and chil- 

 dren ? Was he a friend to the poor ? The People 

 infift particularly on this laft queflion; becaufe, 

 being conunually influenced by the principal call 

 of Nature, they diftingui(b, in the rich, hardly any 

 other virtue than beneficence. I have often heard 

 this reply given : " Oh ! he never did good to any 

 «' one : he was an unkind relation, and a harfh 

 *^ mafter." I have heard them fay, at the inter- 

 ment of a Farmer-General, who left behind him 

 more than twelve millions of livres, (half a mil- 

 lion fterling) : " he drove away the country poor, 

 *' from the gate of his caftle, with fork and flail." 

 On fuch occaiions, you hear the fpedators fall a 

 fwearing, and curfing the memory of the deceafed. 

 Such are, ufually, the funeral orations of the rich, 

 in i,he mouth of the populace. There is little 

 doubt, that their decifions would produce confe- 

 quences of a certain kind, were the police of Faris. 

 lefs ftrict than it is, 



Death alone can enfure reputation, and nothing 

 fhort of religion can confecrate it. Ourgiandeesare 

 abundantly aware of this. Hence the fumptuoufnefs 

 of their monuments, in our churches. It is not that 

 the clergy make a point of their being interred 

 there, as many imagine. The clergy would equally 

 receive their perquihtes, were the interment in the 

 country : they would take care, and very juftly, to 



be 



