390 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



power * and that of cavalry. In levelling thefe 

 two Coloflufes to the ground, they employed no 

 other weapons but ridicule, that natural contraft 

 of human terror. I^ike to children, the Nations 

 of Europe laughed, and refumed their courage : 

 they no longer felt any other impuKions toward 

 happinefs, but thofe which their Princes chofe to 

 give them, if their Princes had then been capable 

 of communicating fuch impulfion. The Telemachus 

 made it's appearance, and that Baok brought Eu- 

 rope back to the harmonies of Nature. It pro- 

 duced a wonderful revolution in Politics. It re- 

 called Nations and their Sovereigns to the ufeful 

 arts, to commerce, to agriculture, and, above all, 

 to the fentiment of Deity. That Work united, to 

 the imagination of Homer the wifclom of Confucius. 



* God forbid thatlfhould be thought to infinuate an invec- 

 tive againft perfons, or orders, trvily religious. Suppofing them 

 to poffefs no higher merit in this life, than that of paffing it 

 without doing mifchief, they would be refpeftable in the eyes 

 of infidelity itfelf. The perfons here expo'fed are not men really 

 pious, who have renounced the World, in order to cherifh, 

 without interruption, the fpirit of Religion : but thofe who have 

 aflumed a habit cdnfecrated by Religion, to procure for them- 

 felves the riches and the honours of this World ; thofe againft 

 whom St. Jerome thundered fo vehemently to no purpofe, and. 

 who have verified his prediftion in Paleftine and in Egypt, in 

 bringing Religion into difcredit, by the profligacy of their man- 

 ners, by their avarice, and their ambition. 



It 



