STUDY XIV. 401 



the fliores of the Ocean, and at the bottom of the 

 Pyrenees. It depends altogether on themfelves, 

 to pafs the burning heats of Summer, embofomed 

 in the mountains of Dauphiné, and encompaffed 

 with a horizon of fnowj the Winter in Provence, 

 under oHve-trees and verdant oaks ; the Autumn, 

 in the ever-green meadows, and amidft the apple 

 orchards, of fertile Normandy. They would every 

 day behold arriving on the fhores of France, the 

 fea-faring men of all Nations, Britifli, Spanifh, 

 Dutch, Italian, all exhibiting the peculiarities and 

 the manners of their feveral countries. Our Kings 

 have in their palaces, comedies, libraries, hot- 

 houfes, cabinets of Natural Hiflory ; but all thefe 

 colledions are only vain images of Men and of 

 Nature. They polTefs no gardens more worthy of 

 them than their kingdoms, and no libraries Co 

 fraught with inflrudtion as their own fubjedts *. 



Ah! 



* Here, undoubtedly, the Volume ought to have clofed. It 

 is no inconfiderable mortification to me, that my duty, as a 

 Tranflator, permitted me not to retrench the piece of extravagance 

 \vhich follows. In juflice to myfelf, however, I tranfmit it to the 

 Britifh Public, with an explicit difavowalof it's fpirit, of it's ftyle, 

 of it's fentiments, and of it's objeft. I can excufe the rapturous 

 vanity of a Frenchman, when his Prince, or when his Republic 

 is the theme ; I can not only excufe, but likewife commend, the 

 effufions of a grateful heart, filled with the idea of a kingly bene- 

 faftor ; I can excufe the felf-complacency 01 an Author contem- 



voL, ÎV. D d plating 



