RECAPITULATION. 395 



multitude, had not milled them by flattering their 

 paffions, and by miftaking their deceitful voices 

 for thofe of human nature. 



See how theie paflions have milled yourfelves, 

 from your having come too clofely into contad 

 with men ! It is in foHtude, and living together in 

 unity, that your talents communicate mutual in- 

 tellectual light. Call to remembrance the times 

 when the La FontaineSy the Boileaus, the Racines^ 

 the Molieres, lived with one another. What is, at 

 this day, )'Our deftiny ? That World, whofe paf- 

 lions you are flattering, arms you againft each 

 other. It turns you out to a ftrife of glory, as the 

 Romans expofed the wretched, to wild beafts. 

 Your holy lifts are become the amphitheatres of 

 gladiators. You are, without being confcious of 

 it, the mere inftruments of the ambition of corps. 

 It is by means of your talents that their leaders 

 procure for themfelves dignities and riches, while 

 you are fuffered to remain iri obfcurity and indi- 

 gence. Think of the glory of men of letters, among 

 the Nations who were emerging out of barbarifm ; 

 they prefented virtue to Mankind, and were ex- 

 alted into the rank of their Gods. Think of their 

 degradation among Nations funk into corruption : 

 they flattered their paffions, and became the vic- 

 tims of them. In the decline of the Roman Em- 

 pire, 



