did not speak French, presented themselves to me in the streets, unable to explain their distresses and their wants but by tears. Not for their sakes, but for their Sovereign's, the Ambassadors of their Nations reside at Paris. Were there but a single family maintained there by the State, some one at least might be found with whom to weep. Why may it not be permitted me one day to behold in the Asylum which I wish to provide for them, some of the men of the Nations who have honoured myself with their hospitality and their fears! I have found such in Holland, in Russia, in Prussia, who said to me; "Forget a Country "which repels you, and pass your days with us.' Some of them have said, what perhaps a rich man of my own Country never said to one that was poor: "Accept the hand of my sister, and be my "brother." But how could I have accepted a hand which would have given me a companion for life and a brother; when at a distance from my Country, I could no longer dispose of my heart? No, it is not climate nor language by which men are disunited; but intolerant corps and treacherous. Courts; for I have every where found man at once good and unfortunate. Oh! with what glory would France clothe herself, were she to open in her bosom a retreat for the wretched of all Nations! Happy, could I consecrate to this hallowed establishment the scanty fruits of my labours! Happy! could I but finish my days, were it but in a hut, on some rugged cliff of a mountain under the fir and the juniper, but beholding at a distance, on the hills and in the vallies, men formerly disjoined

by

by language, government, religion, reunited in the bosom of abundance and liberty by the hospitality of France!

To you, O Louis XVI! I address these wishes, who in convoking the States-general of the Kingdom, have invited me to form and express them, by summoning every subject to the foot of the Throne. To your attention I recommend them, ye Ministers of a Religion which breathes goodwill to men; to you I call, generous Nobles, who have an immortal glory for the object of your ambition; ye defenders of the People whose voice must make itself heard by posterity: you of every description, who by virtue, birth, fortune or talents, constitute powers in the august Assembly of the Nation. I nominate you as my representatives in it, ye women, oppressed by the laws, children rendered miserable by an injudicious education, a peasantry oppressed by imposts, citizens forced into celibacy, the feudal slaves of Mount Jura, the Negroes of our Colonies, ye unfortunate of all Nations; could your sorrows and your tears make themselves heard in the midst of that Assembly of upright and enlightened citizens, the wishes which I form in your behalf should speedily be transformed into so many laws.

May these wishes at length he accomplished! At sight of a church-spire or nobleman's castle, rising above exuberant harvests, may the solitary Widow pursuing her journey on foot, and the still more unfortunate Mother surrounded by perishing infants, secretly rejoice as at the sight of a place of refuge destined to protect them, to comfort and

to

to nourish them! Or rather, O France! through thy rich and extensive plains may no indigent person henceforward be seen; may property of moderate extent diffuse over thy surface, to the very heaths, industry abundance, and joy; in thy meanest hamlets may every young woman find a lover, and every lover a faithful wife; may thy mothers behold their crops multiply with their families; may thy children be for ever preserved from that fatal ambition which produces all the evils which befal mankind; may they learn from the heart of a mother to live only to love, and to love only to propagate life; and may thy old men, the fellow-workers in promoting thy future felicity, close their days in hope and tranquillity, which are the gift of Heaven to those only who love God and Men.

O France! may thy monarch walk about unguarded through the midst of his children, and see them in return deposit at his feet the cheerful tribute of affection and gratitude? May the Nations of Europe there assemble their States-general, and form with us but one family, of which he may be the head! In a word, may all the Nations of the World, whose unfortunate subjects we shall have succoured, send their Deputies thither in process of time, to bless God in every language of the habitable Globe, and to contribute to the relief of Man in all the exigencies of human life!

SEQUEL

SEQUEL

ΤΟ

THE WISHES OF A RECLUSE.

CERTAIN persons have expressed surprize that after having spoken, in my Studies of Nature, of the causes which were likely to produce the revolution, I should have declined to accept any employment in it. To this I shall make the reply already stated: it is that for more than twenty years past the state of my health has not permitted me to mix in any assembly, political, literary, religious, or even convivial, if there be a crowd and the doors shut. Some of my friends allege that the desire of getting out, and the spasmodic agitations which I then undergo, arise from an over exquisite sentiment of liberty: it may be so; but God forbid I should endeavour to make my infirmities pass for virtues! My maladies are real maladies; they are produced by a derangement of my nervous system, the effect of the rude shocks to which my life has been exposed.* Independently of the physical

causes

*This malady is much more ancient than is generally imagined. I find the following passage on the subject toward the beginning of the 54th Epistle of Seneca to Lucilius:

Longum mihi commeatum dederat mala valetudo; repentè me invasit. Quo genere, inquis? Prorsus merito me interrogas: adeo nullum mihi ignotum est. Uni tamen morbo quasi assignatus sum, quem quare Græco nomine apellem, nescio. Satis enim aptè dici suspirium potest.

causes which forbid my mixing with assemblies, I had other reasons of a moral nature. I had acquired an experience so long and so discouraging of mankind, that for some time past I formed the resolution of expecting no portion whatever of my happiness from them. I had consequently retired for several years into one of the least frequented suburbs of Paris. There I tried to comfort myself with the recollection of the vain efforts which I had formerly

Brevis autem, valdè & procellæ similis est. Intra horam ferè desinit. Quis enim dieu expirat? Omnia corporis aut incommoda aut pericula per me transierunt: nullum mihi videtur molestius: quidni? Aliud enim quidquid est egrotare est, hoc est, animam agere. Itaque medici hanc meditationem mortis vocant.

"My indisposition had given me a considerably long respite; but "attacked me all of a sudden. Of what Nature is it you will ask? "Good reason you have for putting the question: to such a degree "have I felt every existing species of malady. I am however delivered

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up as it were to one distemper, which I can see no reason for "calling by a Greek name; for it may with sufficient propriety be “denominated the sighing illness. The paroxysm is very short, and "resembles the violence of a tempest. It generally spends itself within "the hour; for who can remain long in giving up the ghost? All the "disorders and dangers to which the human body is exposed have "passed through mine, but I know no one more insupportable. How "so? Every other disorder, of whatever kind, is only to be sick, but "this is actually dying. Physicians, on this account call it meditation

" of death."

This malady, if I am not mistaken, has a perfect resemblance to the nervous disorder. It was perhaps to Seneca the source of his philosophy, which in return alleviated disease: it instructed him how to support it as well as the atrocities of Nero. Philosophy then is necessary to all men, as one may be as violently tormented, in the calmest retreat, by a sigh, as by the most inhuman tyrant.

The Epistles of Seneca to Lucilius are, in my opinion, his best production. He composed them in his old age, after having passed through a long and severe ordeal of affliction.