104 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



of the billows breaking on the fhore, and the re- 

 petitions of all thefe founds, repercuffed by the 

 diftant echos, which, lofing themfelvcs in the fea, 

 refemble the voice of the Nereids : Ah ! if Love, 

 or Philofophy, fhould ever tempt you to fuch a 

 folitude, you will find in it an afylum more deli- 

 cious than the palaces of Kings can befcow. 



Would you wifli that fenfations of a different 

 order fhould 1>e excited ? Would you wifh to 

 hear the voice of paffion and fentiment burft from 

 the bofom of the rock ? Let the tomb of a vir- 

 tuous and unfortunate man ftart up amidft the 

 weeping willows, prefenting this infcription to die 

 eye : — Here reJIs J. J. Rousseau. 



Would you wiQi to ftrengthen the impreffion of 

 this pi'flure, without, however, doing violence to 

 Nature, as to the fubjeft ? Change the time, the 

 place, the monument ; let this ille be Samos ; the 

 trees of thefe groves, laurels and wild olives, and 

 this tomb the tomb of Pbilo^etes. Look at the 

 grotto, which ferved as a habitation to that great 

 man, when abandoned by the Greeks, whofe bat- 

 tles he had fought ; his woodeii pot, the tatters 

 in which he was clothed, the bow and arrows of 

 Hercules, which, in his hands, had fubdued fo 

 many monfters, and with which he, at laft, 

 wounded himfelf : and you will be impreiTed with 



two 



