280 CONCLUSION. 



are on as gentle a slope as those of its commence* 

 ment. They have not been led, by vain ambition, 

 to climb precipices, or to incur a violent death ; but, 

 faithful to the laws received from Nature, they re- 

 store her that instinct which has now become useless 

 in an exhausted machine: they expire without regret, 

 remorse, or murmur. When a tranquil death takes 

 place in the night, the moon may be said to untie 

 those links which she strung together at the time of 

 birth. Her light still sheds a pale ray over their 

 breathless bodies, and covers them with her funereal 

 crape; while the earth, their common mother, which 

 receives them in her bosom, raises, as an ornament 

 to their tomb, the broad foliage of the burdock, or a 

 garland of ivy. Time, like a reaper, cuts down ge- 

 neration after generation of animals; and he like- 

 wise plants and gathers, but in comparatively smaller 

 numbers, the individuals of our species. 



" Let man, however, not vent complaints on the 

 short duration of life; his celestial harmonies will 

 subsist after his terrestial are at an end. The Au- 

 thor of Nature has attached to his bodily existence 

 several years of bitterness and trial ; but he has given 

 his soul an eternity of joy and delight He is by no 

 means a being condemned to creep on this globe, or 

 to tear its bosom with the ploughshare for the sake 

 of supporting a frail existence HisJife is transient, 

 but it has an object, and that object is sublime. Be- 

 hold him expiring- in his bed; his body is in pain, 

 but he already contemplates a God prepared to re- 

 ceive him. Can this being, so weak and helpless, 



