STUDY I. 



117 



prefents to all her children afylums and feftivals ; 

 and the avenues of our cities announce our ap- 

 proach to them only by the fad fpeâ:acle of wheels 

 and gibbets. The Hiflory of Nature exhibits 

 bicffings only, that of Man, nothing but robbery 

 and madnefs. His heroes are the perfons who 

 have rendered themfelves the moft tremendous. 

 Every where he defpifes the hand which fpins the 

 garment that clothes him, and which cultivates for 

 him the fertile bofom of the Earth. Every where 

 he efteems his deceiver, and reveres his opprefTor. 

 Always diflatisfied with the prefent, he alone of 

 beings regrets the paft, and trembles at the thought 

 of futurity. Nature has granted to him alone, the 

 knowledge of a Deity, and fwarms of inhuman 

 religions have fprung up out of a fentiment fo 

 limple and fo confolatory. What, then, is the 

 power which has oppofed barriers to that of Na- 

 ture ? What illufion has milled that marvellous 

 reafon, which has invented fo many arts, except 

 the art of being happy ? O ye Legiflators ! boaft 

 no longer of your laws. Either Man is born to 

 be miferable ; or the Earth every where watered 

 with his blood, and with his tears, accufes you all 

 of having mifunderftood thofe of Nature. 



'& 



He who adapts not himfelf to his Country, his 

 Country to Mankind, and Mankind to GOD, is 

 no more acquainted with the laws of Politics, than 



I 3 he 



