RECAPITULATION. 381 



1 have not been deditute of means to direâ: me 

 toward her. The di (orders of which I have fre- 

 quently been the witnefs, and the vidlim, have 

 fugg-fted to me ideas of order. I have fometimes 

 found upon my road, great perfonages of high re- 

 pute, and men belonging to refpedlable bodies, 

 who had the words Country and Humanity con- 

 tinually in their mouth. I alTociated with them, 

 in the view of deriving illumination from their in- 

 telligence, and of putting myfelf under the protec- 

 tion of their virtues ; but I difcovered them to be 

 intriguers merely, who had no other objecfl in view 

 but their perfonal fortune, and who began to per- 

 fecute me the moment that they perceived I was 

 not a proper perfon to be either the agent of their 

 pleafures or the trumpeter of their ambition. I 

 then went over to the fide of their enemies, pro- 

 mifing myfelf to find among them the love of 

 truth, and of the public good ; but however di- 

 verfified our feds, our parties, and our corps, may 

 be, I every where met the fame men, only clothed 

 in different garbs. As foon as the one or the other 

 found that I refufed to enlift as a partifan, he ca- 

 lumniated me, after the perfidious manner of the 

 age, that is, by pronouncing my panegyric. The 

 times we live in are highly extolled ; but, if we 

 have on the throne a Prince who emulates Alarcus 

 AureliuSi the age rivals that of Tiberm. 



Were 



