^Bz STUDIES OF NATURE. 



What an auguft Tribunal might be formed, of 

 3ifhops eminent for their piety, of upright Ma- 

 giftrates, of celebrated Commanders of armies, to 

 examine their feveral pretenfions ! What memoirs 

 might one day appear, proper to create an intereft 

 in the minds of the People, who fee nothing in 

 their library, but the fenrences of death pronounced 

 on illuftrious criminals, or the lives of Saints, 

 which are far above their fphere. How many new 

 fubjedts.for our men of letters, who have nothing 

 for it, but to trudge eternally over the beaten 

 ground of the age of Louis ^IV. or to prop up 

 the reputation of the Greeks and Romans ! What 

 .curious anecdotes for our wealthy voluptuaries ! 

 They pay a very high price for the Hiftory of an 

 American infed, engraved in every pofiible man- 

 ner, and fludied through the microfcope, minute 

 by minute, in all the phafcs of it's exiftence. They 

 would not have lefs pleafure in ftudying the man- 

 ners of a poor collier, bringing up his family vir- 

 tuoufly in the forcfts, in the midft of fmugglers 

 and banditti ; or thofe of a wretched filherman, 

 who, in finding delicacies for their tables, is 

 obliged to live, like a heron, in the midft of 

 tempefls. 



I have no doubt that thefe monuments, exe-' 

 cuted with the tafte which we are capable of dif- 



playing 



