388 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Happy then/ happy beyond conception, if I 

 have been enabled to contribute one feeble effort 

 toward redreffing fome of the evils which opprefs 

 my Country, and to open to it fome new profpeft 

 of felicity ! Happy, if I have been enabled to wipe 

 away, on the one hand, the tears of fome unfor- 

 tunate wretch, and to recal, on the other, men 

 mifled by the i-ntoxication of pleafure, to the 

 DiviNiT.Y, toward whom Nature, the times, our 

 perfonal miferies, and our fecret affections, are at- 

 tracting us with fo much impetuofity ! 



I have a prefentiment of fome favourable ap- 

 proaching revolution. If it does take place, to the 

 influence of literature we fhall be indebted for it. 

 In modern times, learning produces little folid 

 benefit to the perfons who cultivate it ; never- 

 thelefs, it diredts every thing. I do not fpeak. of 

 the influence which letters pofl^efs, all the Globe 

 over, under the government of books. Afia is go- 

 verned, by the maxims of Confucius, the Korans, 

 the Beths, the Vidams, and the reft; but, in Eu- 

 rope, Orpheus was the firft who aflbciated it's in- 

 habitants, and allured them out of barbarifm by 

 his divine poefy. The genius of Homer, after- 

 wards, produced the legiflations and the religions 

 of Greece. He anim^jted Alexander, and fent him 

 forth on the conqueft of Afia. He exte'nded bis 



influence 



