136 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



is that Horace, Pope, Addiron,Ila Fontaine, Gef- 

 ner, have fmoothed the rough paths of Wifdom, 

 and have rendered them more acceffible, and more 

 lovely, than the treacherous fteeps of Folly. 



A multitude of Poets and Hiftorians of all Na- 

 tions, a Sophocles, an Euripides, a Corneille, a 

 Racine, a Shakefpear, a TafTo, a Xenophon, a 

 Tacitus, a Plutarch, a Suetonius, introduce them 

 into the very clofets of thofe terrible Potentates, 

 who bruifed, with a rod of iron, the head of the 

 Nations, whofe happinefs was intruded to their 

 care, and call them to rejoice in their happy def- 

 tiny, and to hope for a better ftill, under the reign 

 of another Antoninus. Thofe vafh geniufes, of all 

 Ages, and of all Countries, celebrating, without 

 concert, the undecaying luftre of Virtue, and the 

 Providence of Heaven, in the punifhment of Vice, 

 add the authority of their fublime reafon to the 

 "univerfal inftinâ: of Mankind, and multiply a 

 thoufand and a thoufand times, in their favour, 

 the hopes of another life, of much longer duration, 

 and of more exalted felicity. 



Does it not feem reafonable, that a chorus of 

 praife Hiould afcend, day and night, from the 

 dome of every hotel, to the Author of Nature ? 

 Never did ancient King of Afia accumulate (o 

 many means of enjoyment, in Suza, or Ecbatana, 



as 



