STUDIES

OF

NATURE

VOL. II.

« <

STUDIES

OF

A T U JR E.

BY

JAMES - HENR\^- BERNARDIN

DE SAINT -PIERRE.

.MiSERIS SUCCURERE DISCO.

TRANSLATED IIY

HENRY HUNTER, D. D.

MINISTER OF THE SCOTS CHURCH, LONDON-WALL-

IN FIFE rO LUMES,

VOL. IL

HonDon:

PRINTED FOR C. DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.

MD.CCXCVI.

J <4f

CONTENTS

OF VOL. II.

STUDY VII. "O EPLIES to the Objeftions againfl
X\- Providence, founded on the Calami-
ties of the Human Race — ■

Page

STUDY VIII. Replies to the Objeftions againft a Divine
Providence, and the Hopes of a Life to
come, founded on the incomprehenfible
Nature of GOD, and the Miferits of a
prefent State ■

149

STUDY IX. Objeftions againfl the Methods of our
Reafon, and the Principles of our Sci-
ences ■ 201

STUDY X. Of fome general Laws of Nature, and,
firft, of Phyfical Laws —

Of Conformity ■

Of Order ■

Of Harmony

Of Colours

Of Forms — —

Of Movements — - .,.

Of Confonances —

Of Pfogreflioa — — ■■
Of Contraits —

263
264
269

275
280
300
307
326
352

359

^ S /) i

'"■" -i.

STUDIES

OF

N A T U R

STUDY SEVENTH.

REPLIES TO THE OBJECTIONS AGAINST PROVIDENCE,

FOUNDED ON THE CALAMITIES OF THE

HUMAN RACE.

THE arguments deduced from the varieties of
the Human Race, and from the evils accu-
mulated by the hand of Nature, by Governments,
and by Religions, on the head of Man, attempt
to demonftrate, that men have neither the fame
origin, nor any natural fuperiority above the
beafts ; that their virtues are deflitute of all prof-
pect of reward, and that no Providence watches
over their necelTities, to fupply them.

We fliall enquire into thofe evils, one after an-
other, beginning with fuch as are imputed to Na^;
ture J the neceffity and utility of which we (hall
endeavour to make appear ; and fliall afterwards

VOL. II. B demonftrate.

2 STUDIES OF NATURE.

demonflrate, that political evils are to be afcribed
entirely to deviations from the law of Nature, and
conftitute, themfelves, a proof of-the exiftence of
a Providence.

Our difcuffion of this interefting fubjeft fhall
commence with a reply to the 'objedions founded
on the varieties of the human fpecies. We pre-
tend not to deny, that there are men black and
white, copper-coloured, and pale. Some have a
beard, others little, if any. But thefe pretended
chara6lers are accidents merely, as has been al-
ready fliewn. Horfes white, bay or black, with
frizzled hair, as thofe of Tartary, or with Heek
fmooth hair, as thofe of Naples, are unqueftion-
ably animals of the fame fpecies. The Albinos^
or white Negros, are a fpecies of Lepers ; and no
more form a particular race of Negros, than per-
fons with us who have been marked by the fmall-
pox form a race of fpotted Europeans.

Though it does not enter into my plan here to
detail all the natural adaptations, which may be
oppofed to all the accufations of our wretched fyf-
tems of Phyfics, and though I have refervcd, in
the profecution of tliis undertaking, fome Studies
exprefsly devoted to this objedt, as far as my poor
ability enables me, I fhall, however, by the way,
obferve, that the black colour is a blelTmg of Pro-
vidence

STUDY Vil. 3

vidence to the inhabitants of tropical countries.
White refleéls the rays of the Sun, and black ab-
forbs them. The firft, accordingly, redoubles his
heat, and the fécond weakens it Experience de-
monftrates this in a thoufand different ways. Na-
ture has employed, among other means, the oppo-
fice effect of thefe colours, for multiplying, or
weakening, on the Earth, the heat of the Orb of
day.^The farther you advance toward the South,
the blacker are men and animals ; and the farther
you proceed northward, the whiter is the colour
of both the one and the other. Nay, when the
Sun withdraws from the northern regions, many
animals which were there, in Summer, of different
colours, begin to whiten ; fuch as fquirre's, wolves,
hares... ..and thofe of the fouthern regions, to
which he is approaching, then clothe themfelves
with tints deeper and more abforbent. ; Such are,
in the feathery race, the widozv, the cardinal, &c.
which exhibit much more powerful colouring,
when the Sun approaches toward the Line, than
when he is retiring from it. It is, therefore, by
adaptations of climate, that Nature has made the
inhabitants of the torrid Zone black, as flie has
■whitened thofe of the icy Zones. She has given,
befides, another prcfervative againfh the heat to
the Negros who inhabit Africa, which is the
hotteft. part of the Globe, principally by reafbn of
that broad belt of fand which croifes it, and whofe

B 2 utility

4 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Utility we have indicated. She has covered the
head of ihofe carelefs and uninduftrious tribes,
with a fleece more crifp than a tiflue of wool,
which effeflually flielters it from the burning heat
of the Sun. They are fo perfeflly fenfible of it's
accommodation to this purpofe, that they never
employ a fubftitute head drefs ; and there is no
defcription of Mankind among whom artificial co-
verings, as bonnets, turbans, hats, &c. are more
rare, than among the Negros. They ufe fuch as
are foreign to them, merely as objeds of vanity
and luxury, and I do not know of any one that is
peculiar to their Nation. The inhabitants of the
peninfula of India are as black as they ; but their
turbans communicate to the hair, which, but for
their head drefs, would, perhaps, be frizzled, the
facility of growing and expanding.

The American tribes which inhabit under the
Line, are not black, it muft be admitted ; they
are (imply copper- coloured. T afcribe this weak-
ening of the black tint to feveral caufes peculiar
to their country. The firft is, the univerfal prac-
tice of rubbing themfelves over with roiuou (a kind
of fweet-fcented pafte) which preferves the furface
of their ikin from the too vehement impreffion of
the Sun. Secondly, they inhabit a country clothed
with forefts, and croffed by the greatell river in the
World, which covers it with vapours. Thirdly,

their

STUDY VII. 5

their territory rifes infenfibly from the fhores of
Brafil, up to the mountains of Peru ; which, giving
it a greater elevation in the Atmofphere, procures
for it, Hkewife, a greater degree of coolnefs.
Fourthly, in a word, the Eaft-winds, which blow
there inceflantly, night and day, are always con-
tributing to that coolnefs.

Finally, the colour of all thofe Nations is fo
much the effed of Climate, that the defcendants
of Europeans, fettled there, allume the black tint
after a lapfe of fome generations. This is evi-
dently perceptible in India, in the pofterity of the
Moguls, tribes derived from the extremity of Afia,
whofe name lignifies whites^ and who are this day
as black as the Nations which they have con-
quered,

Tallnefs of llature no more charafterizes fpe-
cies, be the genus what it may, than difference of
colour. A dwarf and a large apple-tree proceed
from the fame grafts. Nature, however, has ren-
dered it invariable in the Human Species alone,
becaufe variety of magnitude would have deftroy-
ed, in the phyfical order, the proportions of Man
with the univerfality of her productions, and be-
caufe it would have involved, in the moral order,
confequences flill more dangerous, by fubjeding,

B 3 beyond

STUDIES OF NATURE.

beyond recovery, the fmaller fpecies of Mankind

to the greater.

There are no races of dwarfs, nor of giants.
Thofe which are exhibited at fairs, are little men
coiitradedj or tall over-grown fellows, without
proportion and without vigor. They re-produce
not themfelves eicher in miniature or magnitude,
whatever pains may have been taken by certain
Princes to procure a diftinft propagation; among
others, by the late King of Pruffia, Frederic II.
Befides, Do fufficient varieties of proportion ofT:he
Human Species ilUie from the hand of Nature to
merit the diftinctive appellation of dwarfs and
giants ? Is there between any two of them fo great
a difference, as between a little Sardinian poney
and a huge Brabant horfe ; as between a fpaniel,
and one of the large Danifli dogs which run be-
fore our coaches ?

All nations have been from the beginning, and
flill are, with very litde difference, and very few
exceptions, of the fame ftature. 1 have feen
Egyptian Mummies, and the bodies of the
Guanches * of the Canary illands wrapped up in
' their

* Guanches, are the fkeletons, covered with the fkin, of the
original inhabitants of the Canary Iflands. The body of the

Guancho

STUDY VII. 7

their fkins. I have feen in Malta, in a tomb hewn
out of the folid rock, the fkeleton of a Carthagi-
nian, all the bones of which were violet-coloured,
and which had, perhaps, lain there from tiie days
of Qiieen Dido. All thefe bodies were of the
common fize. Enlightened and fober- minded Tra-
vellers have reduced to a ftature hardly exceeding
our own, the pretended gigantic form of the Pa-
tagonians. I am aware that I have elfewhere al-
leged thefe ftme reafons ; but it is impofiible to
repeat them too frequently, becaufc they overturn,
beyond the pofiibility of contradidion, the pre-

Guancho was depofited in a cavity adapted to it's fize, hewn
out of the rock. The Hone being of a porous nature, the ani-
mal juices were abfoibed, or filtered through, and the folid
parts, with theirnatural flvinny mantle, became indurated, by a
procefs of natural embalming, to fuch a degree as to refill the
future aiïaults of time. They are fti 11 exhibited, by tlie natives
of thofe iilands, to ftrangers who vifit them, with emotions of
pride and veneration ; as the images of their illuilrious ancef-
tors were oftentatioufly difpiayed by the Patrician families of
Rome. Avarice has, however, infefted the Canaries, as well as
more enlightened Klands; and families have been prevailed oa
to part with their Gmvichcs to the Mufeums of European Collec-
tors of Curiofities, for a little ready money, or in confideratioii
of a large order of wines.

— — Quid non mortalia peflora cogis,
Auri facra fames !

in plain Englifli, The love of money ivlll make a man Ji-ll his
father, H. H.

B 4 tended

8 STUDIES OF NATURE.

tended influences of Clim:ite, which are become
the principles of our Phyfics, and, what is ftiU
worfe, of our MoraUty.

There were formerly, we are told, real giants.
The thing is pofTible ; but this truth is become to
us inconceivable, like all others of which Nature
no longer furniflies any teftimony.' If Polyphe-
mufes, lofty as a tower, ever cxifted, every ftep
they took in walking muft, in mod foils, have
funk into the ground. How could their long and
clumfy fingers have milked the little fhe-goats,
reaped the corn, mowed down the grafs, picked
the fruits of the orchard ? The greateft part of
our aliments would efcape their eyes as well as
their hands.

On the other hand, had there been generations
of pigmies, how could they have levelled the fo-
refts CO make way for the cultivation of the earth ?
They would have loft themfelves among the
rufiies. Every brook would have been to them a
river, and every pebble a rock. The birds of
prey would have carried them off in their talons,
unlefs they made war upon their eggs, as Homer.
reprefenis his pigm^^race engaged in war with the

eggs of cranes.

On

STUDY VII. 9

On either of thefe two fuppofitions, all the re-
lations of natural order areburftafunder, and fuch
difcords necelTarily involve the utter deftruâiion
of all focial order. Suppofe a nation of giants to
exift poffefled of our induftry, and inftigated by
our ferocious paffions. Let us place at the head
of it, a 'Tamerlane, and fee what would become of
our fortifications and of our armies before their
artillery, and their bayonets.

As much as Nature has affeded variety in the
fpecies of Animals of the fame genus, though
they were to inhabit the fame regions, and to fub-
fift on the fame aliments, fo much has (he ftudied
uniformity in the produdion of the Human Spe-
cies, notwithftanding the difference of Climates
and of food. The accidental prolongation of the
coccyx, in fome human individuals, has been mif-
taken for a natural charadter, and a new fpecies of
men with tails, has been grafted on a principle fo
flimfy. Man may degrade himfelf to the level of
the beaft, by the indulgence of brutal appetite ; but
never was his noble form diflionoured by the tail,
the forked feet, and the horns of the brute. In
vain is the attempt made to trace an approxima-
tion of Man toward the clafs of mere animals, by
infenfible tranfitions.

Were

10 ' STUDIES OF NATURE.

Were there any human race in animal forms,
or any animal endowed with human reafon, they
would be publicly exhibited. We (liould have
them in Europe, efpecially in times like thefe,
when the whole Globe is pervaded and ranfacked
by fo many enlightened Travellers ; and when, I
do not fay Princes, but puppet-players import
alive into our fairs, the zebra fo wild, the elephant
fo lumpilh, tigers, lions, white bears, nay, up to
crocodiles; which have all been prefented to pub-
lic infpeclion in London.

Vain is the attempt to eftablifh analogies be-
tween the human female, and the Ihe- orang-outang,
from the fitualion and configuration of the bofom,
from the periodical fexual purgations, from the
attitude, and even from a fort of modefty. Though
the female orang-outang pafles her life in the
woods, Allegrahiy furely, as has been obferved,
never could have modelled after her, his ftatue of
Diana, which is (hewn at Lucienne. There is a
much greater difference ftill between the realbn of
IVIan and that of the beafts, than there is be-
tween their forms ; and that man's muft have been
ftrangely perverted, who could advance, as a cele-
brated Author has done, that there is a greater
diftance between the underftanding of Newton, and
that of fuch or fuch a man, than between the un-

derftandinos;

STUDY VII. Il

derdanding of this man and die inflind of an
animal. As we have already faid, the duUeft of
Mankind can learn the ufe of fire, and the prac-
tice of agriculture, of which the mod intelligent
of animals is ablolutely incapable; but what I
have not yet faid, the fimple ufe of fire, and the
pradice of agriculture, are far preferable to all
,NewiOHS difcoveries.

Agriculture is the art of Nature, and fire her
primary agent. From experience we are allured,
that men have acquired by means of this element
and of this art a plenitude of intelligence, of which
all their other combinations, I venture to affirm,
are merely confequences. Our Sciences and Arts
are derived, for the greateft part, from thefe two
fources, and they do not conftitute a difference
more real between the underftanding of one man.
and another, than there is between the drefs and
furniture of Europeans and thofe of Savages. As
they are perfe6tly adapted to the neceffities of the
one and of the other, they efi:abli{li no real diffe-
rence between the underftandings which contrived
them. The importance which we affign to our'
talents, proceeds not from their utility, but fiom
our pride. We fliould take a material ftep to-
ward it's humiliation, did we confider that the
animals which have no fkill in agriculture, and
know not the ufe of fire, attain to the greateft

part

12 STUDIES OF NATURE,

part of the objeds of our Arts and Sciences, and
even furpafs them.

' j I fay nothing of thofe which build, which fpin,
•which manufadure paper, cloth, hives, and prac-
tife a multitude of other trades, of which we do
not fo much as know. But the torpedo defended
himfelf from his enemies by means of the eledric
Ihock, before Academies thought of making ex-
periments in eledricity ; and the limpet under-
ftood the power of the preffure of the air, and at-
tached itfelf to the rocks, by forming the vacuum
with its pyramidical (liell, long before the air-
pump was fet a going. The quails which annually
take their departure from Europe, on their way to
Africa, have fuch a perfed knowledge of the au-
tumnal Equinox, that the day of their arrival in
Malta, where they reft for twenty-four hours, is
marked on the almanacks of the ifland, about the
2 2d of Septpmber,and varies every year as the Equi-
nox. The fwan and wild duck have an accurate
knowledge of the Latitude where they ought to
ftop, when, every year they re-aftend, in Spring,
to the extremities of the North, and can find out,
without the help of compafs or odant, the fpot
where the year before they made their nefts. The
frigat which flies from Eaft to Welt, between the
Tropics, over vaft Oceans interrupted by no Land,
and which regains at night, at thç diftance of

many

STUDY Vil. IJ

many hundred leagues, the rock hardly emerging
out of the water which he left in the morning, /
pofleffcs means of afcertaining his Longitude, hi- /
therto unknown to our mod ingenious Aflro-
nomers. ^

Man, it has been faid, owes his intelligence to
his hands ; but the monkey, the declared enemy
of all induftry, has hands too. The lluggard, or
floth, likewife has hands, and they ought to have
fuggeftcd to him the propriety of fortifying him-
felf: of digging, at leaft, a retreat in the earth,
for himfelf and for his pofterity, expofed as they
are to a thoufmd accidents, by the flownefs of
their progreffion. There are animals in abundance
furniQied with tools much more ingenious than
hands, and which are not, for all that, a whit more
intelligent. The gnat is furnilhed with a probof-
cis, which is at once an awl proper for piercing
the flefli of animals, and a pump by which it fucks
out their blood. This probofcis contains, belldes,
a long faw, with which it opens the fmall blood-
veflels at the bottom of the wound which it has
made. He is likewife provided with wings, to
tranfport him wherever he pleafes ; a corllet of
eyes ftudded round his little head, to fee all the
objeds about him in every dircdion ; talons fo
fliarp, that he can walk on polilLed glafs in a per-
pendicular diredion ; feet fupplied with brulhes

for

y

/é4 STUDIES OF NATURE.

for cleaning himfelf ; a plume of feathers on his
, forehead; and an inftrument anfwering the pur-
pofe of a trumpet to proclaim his triumphs. He
is an inhabitant of the Air, the Earth, and the
Water, where he is boi^n in form of a worm, and
where, before he expires, the eggs which are to
produce a future generation are depofited.

With all thefe advantages, he frequently falls a
jf prey to infefts fmaller, and of a much inferior or-
ganization. The ant which creeps only, and is
furnilhed with no weapons except pincers, is for-
midable not to him only, but to animals of a
much larger fize, and even to quadrupeds. She
knows what the united force of a multitude is ca-
pable of effeding ; (he forms republics ; flie
lays up flore of provifions ; flie builds fubterra-
neous cities ; flie forms her attacks in regular mi-
litary array ; (he advances in columns, and fome-

1 times conftrains Man himfelf, in hot countries, to

1 furrender his habitation to her.

So far is the intelligence of any one animal from
depending on the ftru6lure of it's limbs, that
their perfeftion is frequently, on the contrary, in
the inverfe ratio of it's fagacity, and appears to be
a kind compenfation of Nature to make up a de-
feft. To afcribe the intelligence of Man to his
hands, is to deduce the caufe from the means, and

talent

STUDY VII. Ï5

talent from the tool with which it works. It is juft
as if I were to fay, that Le Sueur is indebted for
the happy native graces of his piflures to a pencil
of fable's hair ; and that Virgil owes all the har-
mony of his verfes to a feather of the fwan of
Mantua.

It is ftill more extravagant to maintain, that
human reafon depends on Climate, becaufe there
are fome (hades of variety in manners and cuf-
toms. The Turks cover their heads with turbans,
and we cover ours with hats ; they wear long
flowing robes, and we drefs in coats with (hort
fkit ts. In Portugal, fays Montagne^ they drink off
the fcdiment of wines, we throw it away. Other
examples, which I could quote, are of fimilar im-
portance. To all this I anfwer, that we would afl
as thpfe people, if we were in their country ; and
that they would ad as we do, were they in ours.

Turbans and flowing robes are adapted to hot
countries, where the head and body ftand in need
of being cooled, by inclofing in the covering of
both a greater mafs of air. From this neceffity
has arifen the ufe of turbans among the Turks,
the Perfians, and Indians, of the mitres of the
Arabians, of the bonnets like a fugar-loaf of the
Chinefe and Siamefe, and that of wide and flowing
robes, worn by moft of the Nations of the South.

From.

(

X6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

From a contrary neceflity, the Nations of the
North, as the Polanders, the Ruffians, the Tar-
tars, wear furred caps and clofe garments. We
are obhged to have, in our rainy Chmates, three
aqueduûs upon our head, and garments (hortened,
becaufe of the dirt. The Portugueze drink the
fediment of wine ; and fo would we do with the
wines of Portugal j for in fweet wines, as thofe of
hot countries, the moft fugary particles are at the
bottom of the calk ; and in ours, which are
fprightly, nothing is at the bottom but mere dregs,
the beft is uppermoft. 1 have feen in Poland,
where they drink great quantities of the wines of
Hungary, the bottom of the bottle prefented as a
mark of preference. Thus the very varieties of
national cufloms prove the confiftency of human
reafon.

Climate has no greater influence in changing
human morality, which is reafon in perfedion^r I
admit, at the fame time, that extreme heat and
cold produce an eifed on the paffions. I have
even remarked, that the hotteft days of Summer,
and the coldeft of Winter, were actually the fea-
fons of ihe year when moft crimes were commit-
ted. The dog-days, fay the vulgar, is a feafon of
calamity. I could fay as much of the month of
January. I believe it muft have been in confor-
mity to thefe obfervations, that ancient Legiflators

had

STUDY VII. 17

had edablifhed, for that critical period, feftivals
defigned to diffipate the melancholy of Mankind,
fuch as the feaft of Saturn among the Romans,
and the feaft of Kings * among the Gauls. In
each Nation the feflival was adapted to the public
taflc ; among the Romans, it prefented the images
of a republic ; among our anceflors thofe of mo-
narchy.

But I beg leave, likewife, to remark, that thofe
fcafons fertile in crimes, are the feafons, too, of
the moft fplendid allions. This effervefcence of
feafon afts on our fenfes, like that of wine. It
produces in us an extraordinary impuliion, but
indifferently to good and to evil. Befides, Nature
has implanted in our foul two powers, which ever
balance each other injufl: proportion. When the
phyfical fenfe, Love, debafes us, the moral fenti-
ment, Ambition, raifes us up again. The equili-

* The Feajl of Kings, T apprehend, is coeval with the Chrif-
tian Era, and had it's origin in the ftar-directed vifit of the
Ealtern Magi to Bethlehem of Judah, recorded in the beginning
of the fécond chapter of the Gofpel according to St. Matthew.
We can hardly fuppofe the ancient Gauls fo extremely attached
to irregular and unfteady Monarchy, as to inflitute and celebrate
annual feafls in honour of it. Whatever may be in this, mo-
dern Gauls can fay of the political body, what the Médecin malgré
lui oï Molière, fays, refpeéling the natural body : ÏVe have changed
all that. H. H.j

VOL. 11. c brium

l8 STUDIES OF NATURE.

brium neceflary to the empire of Virtue flill fub-
fifts, and it is never totally loft, except in perfons
with whom it has been deftroyed by the habits of
fociety, and more frequently ftill by thofe of edu-
cation. In that cafe, the predominant paflTion,
having no longer any counterpoife, allumes the
command of all our faculties j but this is the fault
of fociety, which undergoes the punifhment of it,
and not that of Nature.

I remark, however, that thefe fame feafons exert
their influence on the paffions of Man, by acfling
only on his moral, and not on his phyfical prin-
ciple. Though this refledion has fomething of
the air of paradox, I fhall endeavour to fupport it
by a very remarkable obfervation. If the heat of
Climate could act on the human body, it affuredly
would be when one is in his mother's womb : for it
then ads on that of all animals, whofe expanfion
it accelerates. Father dii "Tertre^ in his excellent
Hiftory of the Antilles, fays, that in thofe iflands,
the period of geftation of all European animals is
fliorter than in temperate Climates ; and that the
hen's eggs are not longer in hatching, than the
feeds of the orange in burfting their flicll, twenty-
three days. Pliny had obferved in Italy, that they
hatch in nineteen days in Summer, and in twenty-
five in Winter.

In

STUDY VII. 19

In every country, the temperature of Climate
haftens, or retards, the expanfion of all plants, and
the geftation of all animals, the Human Race ex-
cepted : let this be carefully remarked. *' In the
" Antilles iflands," fays Father du Tertre, " the
" white women and the negreffes go with child
" nine months, as in France," I have made the
fame remark in all the countries through which I
have travelled, in the Ifle of France, under the
Tropic of Capricorn, and in the extremity of Ruf-
fian Finland. This obfervation is of confiderable
importance. It demonftrates that the body of
Man is not fubjetfled, in this refped:, to the fame
laws with other animals. It manifefts a moral in-
tention in Nature, to preferve an equilibrium in
the population of Nations, which would have been
deranged, had the pregnancy of the woman been
of fhorter duration in hot countries than in cold.
This intention is farther manifefted in the admi-
rable proportion (lie maintains in the production
of the two fexes, fo nearly equal in number, and
in the very difference which we find, of one coun-
try from another, between the number of males
and females : for it is compenfated from North to
South, in fuch a manner, that if there be rather
more women born to the South, there are rather
more men born to the North ; as if Nature meant
to attract and to unite Nations, the mofl remote
from each other, by intermarriages.

c 2 Climate

20 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Climate has an influence on morality, but by no
means determines it ; and though this fuppofed
determination may be confidered, in many mo-
dern Books, as the fundamental bafis of the Le-
giflation of the Nations, there is no one philofo-
phical opinion more com.pletely refuted byhiftoric
teftimony. " Liberty," fay they, " has found
"her afylum in the lofty mountains; from the
*' North it was that the haughty conquerors of the
" World ifTued forth. In the fouthern plains of
" Afia, on the contrary, reign defpotifm, flavery,
" and all the political and moral vices which may
*' be traced up to the lofs of liberty."

So then, we muft go and regulate, by our baro-
meters, and thermometers, the virtues and the
laappinefs of Nations ! There is no neceflity to
leave Europe, in order to find a multitude of mo-
narchical mountains, fuch as thofe of Savoy, a part
of the Alps, of the Apennines, and the whole of
the Pyreneans. We fliall fee, on the contrary,
many republics in plains, fuch as thofe of Holland,
of Venice, of Poland, and even of England, Be-
fides, each of thofe territories has, by turns, made
trial of different forts of government. Neither
cold^ nor ruggcdnefs of foil, infpire men with the
energy of liberty, and ftill lefs with the unjuft am-
bition of encroaching on that of others. The pea-
fants of Ruffia, of Poland, and of the cold moun-
tains

STUDY VII. 21

tains of Bohemia, have been Haves for many ages
paft; whereas the Angrias, and the Marattahs,
are free men and tyrants in the South of India.
There are feveral republics on the northern coaft
of Africa, where it is exceffively hot. The Turks,
who have laid hold of the fineft provinces of Eu-
rope, iffued from the mild Climate of Afia. The
timidity of the Siamefe, and of moft Afiatics, has
been quoted ; but it is to be imputed, in thofe
Nations, to the multitude of their tyrants, rather
than to the heat of their countries. The Macaf-
fars, who inhabit the ifland of Celebes, ficu-
ated almoft under the Line, are poflefTed of a
courage fo intrepid, as the gallant Count Forbin
relates, that a fmall number of th-em, armed with
poniards only, put to flight the whole force under
his command, at Bancock, confiding of Siamefe
and French, though the former were very nume-
rous, and the others armed with muflcets and bay-
onets.

If from courage we make the tranfition to love,
we fliall find that Climate has no more a deter-
mining power over Man, in the one cafe than in
the other. I might refer niyfelf, for proof of the
excefTes of this paffion, to the teftimony of travel-
lers, to afcertain which has the fuperiority, in this
refpeft, the Nations of the South, or thofe of the
North. In all countries love is a torrid Zone to

c 3 the

22 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the heart of Man. I mud obferve, that theie ap-
propriations of Love to the Nations of the South,
and of Courage, to the Nations of the North, have
been imagined by our Philofopers, as efFefts of
Climate, applicable only to foreign nations : for
they unite thefe two qualities, as efFeds of the
fame temperament, in thofe of our heroes to whom
they mean to pay their court. According to them,
a Frenchman great in feats of love, is likewife great
in feats of w^ar ; but this does not hold as to other
Nations. An Afiatic, with his feraglio, is an eife-
minatc coward ; and a Ruffian, or any other fol-
dier of the North, whofe Courts give penfions, is a
fécond Mars. But all thefe diftindlions of temper-
ament, founded on Climate, and fo injurious to
Mankind, vanilh into air, before this fimple quef-
tion : Are the turtle-doves of Ruffia lefs amorous
than ihofe of Afia ; and are the tigers of Afia lefs
ferocious than the white bears of Nova Zembla ?

Without going to feek among men objects of
comparifon and contraft, from difference of place,
we (liail find greater diverfuy in manners, in opi-
nions, in habiliments, nay, in phyfiognomy, be-
tween an opera-ador and a capuchin-friar, than
there is between a Swede and a Chinefe. What a
contraft is the talkative, flattering, deceitful Greek,
fo fondly attached to life, to the filent, ftately, ho-
neft Turk, ever devoted to death ! Thefe men, fo

very

STUDY VII.

23

very oppofite, are born, however, in the fame ci-
ties, breathe the fame air, live on the fame food.
Their extraftion, we fhall be told, is not the fame;
for pride, among us, afcribes a mighty influence
to the power of blood. But the greatefl; part of
thofe Janilfaries, fo formidable to the cowardly
Greeks, are frequently their own children, whom
they are obliged to give in tribute, and who pafs,
by a regular procefs, into this firft corps of the
Ottoman foldiery. The courtefans of India fo vo-
luptuous, and it's penitents fo auftere, are they not
of the fame Nation, and, in many cafes, of the
fame family ?

I beg leave to afk, In what inflance was an in-
clination to vice or virtue known to be communi-
cated with the blood ? Pompey^ fo noted for his
generofity, was the fon of Strabo, infamoufly no-
torious to the Roman people for his avarice. The
cruel Domitian was brother to the gracious T'itus.
Caligula and Agrippina^ the mother of Nero^ were,
indeed, brother and lifter ; but they were the chil- ,
dren of Germaniciis^ the darling hope of Rome.
The barbarous Commodus was fon to the divine
Marcus Aurelms. What a difference is frequently
obfervable in the fame man, between his youth
and his mature age ; between Nero, faluted as the
Father of his Country, when he mounted the
throne ; and Nero execrated as it's avowed enemy

c 4 before

24 STUDIES OF NATURE.

before his death : between Titns^ ftigmatized with
the name of a fécond Nero, in his youth, and Titus
at his death, embalmed with the tears of the Se-
nate, of the Roman people, and of fhrangers ; and
tranfmittcd unanimoufly to pofterity as the delight
of mankind?

It is not Climate, then, which regulates the
morality of Man ; it is opinion, it is education ;
and fuch is their power, that they triumph not
only over latitudes, but even over temperament.

(Cefar, fo ambitious, fa diffolute ; and Cato, fo
temperate and virtuous, were both of a fickly con-
flitution. Place, Climate, Nation, Family, Tem-
perament, no one of thefe, and in no part of the
World, determine men to vice or to virtue. They
;are every where free to choofe.

Before we take into conllderation the evils which
men bring upon themfelves, let us attend to thofe
which are infiidled by the hand of Nature. It is
demanded. Why fhould beafls of prey exift ?
They are abfolutely neceflary. But for them the
Earth would be infefted with cadaverous fub-
fiances. There perifhes, annually, of a natural
death, the twentieth part, at lead, of quadrupeds,
the tenth part of fowls, and an infinite number of
inleds, mod of the fpecies of which live only one

year.

STUDY VII. 25

year. Nay, there are infefts whofe life is con-
tradled to a few hours, fuch as the ephemera.

<v^ As the rains convey all thefe fpoils of the land

I i to the rivers, and thence to the Seas, it is, ac-
J cordingly, on their fliores, that Nature has col-
jl leded the animals which are deflined to confume
^^ them. Môft of the ferocious animals defcend by
^*\ ' night from the mountains, to hunt for their prey
in this diredtion ; there are even feveral clafles
created exprefsly for fuch fituations ; as the whole
amphibious race ; for example, the white bear, the
otter, the crocodile. It is in hot countries efpe-
cially, where the effe<5ls of corruption are mofl ra-
pid and moft dangerous, that Nature has multi-
plied carnivorous animals. Tribes of lions, tigers,
leopards, panthers, civet cats, ounces, jackals, hy-
enas, condors, &c. refort thither, to re-inforce
thofe of wolves, foxes, martens, otters, vultures,
crows, &c. Legions of voracious crabs are nef-
tlcd in their fands ; the caimans and the croco-
diles lie in ambufh among their reeds ; fliell-fifh,
of innumerable fpecies, armed with utenfils fit for
fucking, piercing, filing, bruifing, roughen the
face of the rocks, and pave the borders of their
feas ; clouds of fea-fowls hover, with a loud noife,
over their fliallows, or fail round and round, at
the difcretion of the waves, in queft of food j the
Jamprey, the becune, the carang, and the v/hole

fpecies

2,6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

fpecies of cartilaginous fiflies, which live only on
fiefli, fuchas thehygian, the long fliark, the broad
thorn-back, the flipper, the polypus, armed with
air-holes, and all the varieties of fea-dogs, fwini
there in crowds, conftantly employed in devouring
the wreck of bodies thrown upon the fhore.

Nature calls in, befides, the infedl legions to
haften forward their confumption. The wafps,
furniflied with fciffars, cut afunder the flefliy
parts ; the flies pump out the fluids, the fea-
worms cut. in pieces the bones. Thefe laft on the
fouthern coafts, and efpecially at the mouths of ri-
vers, are in fuch prodigious quantities, and armed
with augers fo formidable, that they are capable
of devouring a fliip of war in lefs time than it
coft to build her ; and have thereby reduced the
maritime Powers to the neceflity of lately flieath-
ing the bottoms of their fquadrons with copper,
as a fecurity againft their attacks.

/ The wrecks of all thefe bodies, after having
ferved for food to the innumerable tribes of other
filhes, fome of which are provided with beaks
formed like a fpoon, and others like a pipe, for
picking up the very crumbs of this vafl: table ; re-
duced, at length, through fuch a feries of digef-
tions, into phlegms, into oils, into bitumens, and
united to the pulps of vegetables, which defcend

from

STUDY VII. ZJ

from all quarters into the Ocean, would re-pro-f
duce in it's waters a new chaos of putrefadion, -^"^^
did not the currents convey their diffblution to
volcanos, whofe fires finilh the procefs of decom-
pofition, and give them back to the elements. ^^
For this reafon it is, as has been already indicated,
that volcanos are frequent only in hot countries ;
that they are all fituated in the vicinity of the Sea,
or of great Lakes ; that they are difpofed at the ''
extremity of their currents ; and that they owe en-
tirely to the purification of the waters, the fulphurs /
and the bitumens which adminifter a conftant fup-
ply to their furnaces.

Animals of prey are by no means an objed of
terror to Man. Firft, becaufe mod of them roam
abroad only in the night. They have prominent
charaflers, which announce their approach even
before it is poffible to perceive them. Some fa-
vour flrongly of mufk, as the marten, the civet-
cat, the crocodile ; others have fhrill and piercing
voices, which may be heard by night, at a great
diftance, as wolves and jackals j others are diftin-
guilhed by parti-coloured fpots, or ftreaks, which
are perceptible a great way off, on the yellow
ground of their fkin ; fuch are the dufky ftripes
of the tiger, and the dark fpots of the leopard.
All of them have eyes which fparkle in the dark.
Nature has bellowed fome of thefe common figna-

tures

£§ STUDIES OF NATURE.

tures even on carnivorous and blood-fucking in-
fers J fuch is the wafp, whofe ground colour is
yellow, furrounded with rings of black like the
tiger, and the gnat, fpotted with white upon a
dark ground, who announces his approach by a
loud buzzing. Even thofe which attack the hu-
man body are furnifhed with remarkable indica-
tions. They either fmell ftrongly, as the bug ; or
prefent oppofitions of colour to the places on
which they fix, as white infefts on the hairj or
the blacknefs of the flea contrafled to the white-
nefs of the ikin.

A great many Writers exclaim violently on the
cruelty of ferocious animals, as if our cities were
liable to be invaded by fwarms of wolves, or, as if
bands of lions, from Africa, were, from time to
time, making incurfions into our European colo-
nies. They all fliyn the habitations of Man, and,
as I faid, moft of them flir abroad only in the
night. Thefe diftinftive charaders are unani-
mouily attefted by Naturalifts, Hunters, and Tra-
vellers. When I was at the Cape of Good -Hope,
M. de I'olback, who was then Governor, informed
me, that lions were formerly very common in the
adjacent country ; but that fince the Dutch had
formed a fettlement there, you muft travel fifty or
fixty leagues up the country before one is to be
feen.

After

STUDY VII. 29

After all, what is their ferocity to us ? Even fup-
pofing we were not provided with arms, which
they are incapable of reiifting, and with a fagacity
far fuperior to all their cunning, Nature has given
us dogs able to combat, nay, to fubdue them ;
and fhe has mod admirably adapted their fpecies
to thofe of animals the mod formidable. In the
countries where lions are natives, there is likewife
produced a breed of dogs capable of engaging
them in fingle combat. 1 fliall quote, after the
ancient, but learned tranflation of Dupinel, what
Pliny relates of a dog of this fpecies, which was
prefented to Alexander, by a King of Albania *.
" King Alexander firft oppofed to him a lion,
" which the dog prefently tore in pieces. After
" that, he ordered to let loofe an elephant, which
*' afforded him the hig-hefl: diverfion that he ever
" had enjoyed. For the dog, briftling himfelf up
" from the firft, began to wheel about, and fnarl,
'* at the elephant ; then advanced to the attack,
" fpringing on this fide and on that fide, with all
" imaginable circumfpeftion : now leaping up to
" aflauk, now couching to the right, to the left,
*' which caufcd the elephant to turn and wind
" about fo frequently, that he was, at laft, com-
" pletely tired our, and fell down with a fliock
" which made the ground tremble, on which the

* Pliny's Natural Hiftory, book viii. chap. xl.

*' dog

30 STUDIES OF NATURE.

** dog fprung upon him, and difpatched him." I
can hardly think this dog could be of the fame
race with our lap-dogs.

The animals formidable to Man are more to be
feared from their fmallnefs than from their mag-
nitude ; there is no one, however, but what may
be rendered fubfervient to his benefit. Serpents,
centipeds, fcorpions; toads, inhabit fcarcely any
other than humid and unwholefome places, from
which they keep us at a diftance, more by their
hideous figures than by their poifons. Such fer-
pents as are really dangerous, give fignals of their
approach ; fuch are the rattles of the fnake which
bears that name. Few perfons periQi by their
fting, and only from their own careleflnefs and
imprudence. Befides, our pigs and poultry eat
them currently, without fuffering the flighteft in-
convenience. Ducks, in particular, devour them
with avidity, as they likewife do moft poifonous
plants. Thofe of the kingdom of Pontus acquired
fo much virtue by aliments of fuch forts, which
are common there, that Mithridates employed
their blood in his famous counter- poifons.

There are, it is admitted, noxious infefts which
prey upon our fruits, our corn, nay, our perfons.
But if fnails, may-bugs, caterpillars, and locufts,
ravage our plains, it is becaufe we deftroy the

birds

STUDY VII.

3ï

birds of our groves which live upon them ; or,
becaufe, that on tranfporting the trees of foreign
countries into our own, fuch as the great chefnut
of India, the ebony, and others, we have tran-
fported with them the eggs of thofe infecfls which
they -nourifli, without importing, likewife, the
birds of the fame climate which deftroy them.
Every country has thofe peculiar to itfelf, for the
prefervation of it's plants. I have (cen one, at the
Cape of Good-Hope, called the gardener's bird,
inceffantly employed in catching the worms and
caterpillars, which he ftuck on the thorny prickles
of the bufhes. I have likewife feen, in the Ifle of
France, a fpecies of ftarling called Martin, which
comes from India, and which lives entirely on lo-
cufts, and on other infedts which infeft the cattle.
If we were to naturalize thefe birds in Europe, no
fcientific difcovery ever made would be fo bene-
ficial to Man.

But the birds of our own groves are fiill fuffi-
cient to clear our plains of noxious vermin, pro-
vided the bird-catchers were laid under a prohibi-
tion to entrap them, as they do, by whole coveys,
in their nets, not to immure them in cages, but
to make food of themi A fancy was adopted, fome
years ago, in Pruffia, to exterminate the race of
iparrowE, as inimical to agriculture. Every pea-
fant in the rountry was fubjecfled to an annual

capitation

3i STUDIES OF NATURE.

capitation tax of twelve heads of that kind of bird,
which were employed in the manufadture of falt-
petre, for in that country, nothing is fufFered to
go to wade. At the end of the fécond, or, at far^
theft, of the third year, it was difcovered that in-
feâ:s had devoured their crops, and it was fpeedily
found advifable to invite the fparrows from neigh-
bouring countries, to re-people the kingdom with
them. Thefe birds, it is true, do eat fome grains
of corn, when the infeds fail them 3 but thefe laft,
among others the weevil, confume the grain by
bufhels, nay, by granaries. If, however, it were
poffible to extinguifli the whole race of infecfts, it
would be the height of imprudence to fet about
it; for we fliould deftroy, along with them, moft
of the feathered tribes of our plains, which have
no other food for their young while in the neft.

As to the animals which fall upon our corn in
the granary, and our woollens in the warehoufe,
fuch as rats, mice, mites, moths ; 1 find that the
former are ufeful in purifying the earth from hu-
man excrement, which conftitutes a confiderable
part of their food. Befides, Nature has made Man
a prefent of the cat, to clear the interior of his ha-
bitation from thofe vermin. She has endowed this
animal not only with uncommon agility, and with
wonderful patience and fagacity, but alfo with a
fpirit of domefticity perfedly adapted to her em-
ployment.

STUDY VII. 33

ployment. The cat attaches herfelf folely to the
houfe. If the mafter removes, fhe returns alone
at night to her old habitation. She differs effen-
tially in this from the dog, who attaches himfelf
folely to the perfon of his mafler. The cat has the
affeétion of a courtier, and the dog that of a
friend ; the former adheres to the poffeflion, and
the latter to the man.

The weevil and the moth, fometimes, commit,
it is true, great depredations among our grain and
our woollens. Some Writers have told us, that
the common hen is fufficient to clear the granaries
of them : poffibly it may be fo. We have, be-
fides, the fpider and the fwallow, which dedroy
them at the feafon when they take wing. I (liall
here confider only their political utility. On look-
ing into thofe prodigious magazines where mono-
polizers hoard up the provifion and clothing of a
whole province, are we not bound to blefs the
Hand that created the infedl which obliges them
to bring thefe neceffary commodities to market ?
Were grain as incorruptible as gold and filver, it
would foon become as fcarce. See under how
many locks and doors thefe metals are fecured.
The commonalty would, at length, be completely
deprived of their fubfiftence, if it were as little
fufceptible of change as that which is the reprefen-
tative of it. The mite and the moth firfl lay the

VOL. II. D ■ mifer

34 STUDIES OF NATURE.

mifer under the neceflity of employing a good
many hands in ftirring about and fifting his grain,
till they force him at laft to difpofe of it altoge-
ther. How many poor wretches would go naked,
if the moth did not devour the wardrobes and
warehoufes of the rich ! What is moft wonderful
here, is, that the articles which minifter to luxury
are not liable to perifh by infeds, as thofe which
are fubfervient to the moftpreffjng wants of human
life. It is poflible to preferve, without any dimi-
nution of value, coffee, lilk, and cottons, even for
ages ; but in India, where thefe commodities are
real neceffaries of life, there are infeds which
quickly corrode them, particularly cotton.

The infefts which attack the human body
equally oblige the rich to employ thofe who have
nothing, as domeftics, to keep up cleanlinefs
around them. The Incas of Peru exafted even
this tribute of the poor ; for in all countries thefe
infeds attach themfelves to Man, though it may
have been faid, that they did not pafs the line.
Befides thefe infeéts are rather teizing than noxi-
ous : they draw off the bad blood. As they im-
moderately increafe only in great heats, they in-
vite us to have recourfe to bathing, which is fo
wholefome, and yet fo much neglefted among us,
becaufe being expenfive, it is become an objed of
luxury.

After

STUDY VII. 35

After all, Nature has placed other infeds near
us, which deftroy them ; thefe are the fpiders *.
I have heard of an old officer, who being very-
much incommoded with bugs, at the Hofpital of
the Invalids, permitted the fpiders to multiply
round his bed, and thereby got the better of that
naufeous vermin. This remedy, I am aware, will
appear to many perfons worfe than the difeafe. But
I believe it poffible to find others more agreeable,
in perfumes and oily eflences ; at leaft, I have re-
marked, that the odour of various kinds of aro-

* I prefume that it is a particular fpecies of fpider : for I am
perfuaded that there are as many fpecies of thefe as there are of
infeéls to be deftroyed. They do not all expand nets ; fome
tatch their prey fairly in the chace ; others fucceed by lying in
annbufcade. I have feen one in Malta of a very fingular cha-
raéler, and which is to be found in every houfe of that ifland.
Nature has beftowed on this fpecies of fpider the refemblance of
a fly, in the head and fore part of the body. When flie perceives
a Ûy on the wall, fhe makes her firft approaches in great hafte,
taking care always to maintain the higher dation. When fhe
has got within five or fix inches of her objeft, flie advances very
flow'ly, prefenting to it a treacherous refemblance ; and when
file has got within the diftance of two or three inches, flie makes
a fudden fpring on her prey. This violent leap, made on a per-
pendicular plané, muft furely precipitate her to the ground.
No fuch thing. You find her again f^ill on the wall, whether
fhe has made good her blow or milTed it ; for preyioufly to this
great effort, fhe had affixed a cord a- top, by which to warp her-
felf up again. Cartefian Philofophers, will you pretend, after
this, to pcrfift in maintaining that animals are merely ma-
chines !

p a njatic

^5 STUDIES OF NATURE.

matic plants puts to flight thofe abominable ani-
mals.

As to other calamities of Nature's infliding, Man
feels their preffure only becaufe he deviates from
her laws. If ftorms fometimes ravage his orchards
and his corn fields, it is becaufe he frequently
places them where Nature never intended they
fliould grow. Storms fcarcely ever injure any cul-
ture except the injudicious cultivation of Man.
Forefts and natural meadows never fuffer in the
flighted degree., Befides, they have their utility.
Thunder-ftorms purify and cool the air. The
hail, with which they are fometimes accompanied,
deftroys great quantities of hurtful infefts ; and
hails are frequent only at the feafon when fuch in-
fers hatch and multiply j in Spring, and Summer.
But for the hurricanes of the torrid Zone, the ants
and locufls would render the iflands fituated be-
tween the Tropics totally uninhabitable.

I have already pointed out the utility, the abfo-
lute neceffity of the volcanos, whofe fires purify
the waters of the Sea, as thofe of the thunder pu-
rify the air. Eanhquakes proceed from the fame
caufe. Befides, Nature communicates previous
notice of their effe6ls, and of the places where
their focufes are fituated. The inhabitants of Lif-
bon know well that their city has^ been feveral

times

STUDY VII. 37

times (battered by fhocks of this kind, and that it
is imprudent to build in ftone. To perfons who
can fubmit to live in a houfe of wood, they have
nodiing formidable. Naples and Portici are per-
fedly acquainted with the fate of Herculaneum.
After all, earthquakes are not univerfal ; they are
local and periodical. Pliny has obferved that the
Gauls were not fubjedt to vifitations of this kind ;
but there are many other countries which know of
them only by report. They are fcarcely ever felt
esLcept in the vicinity of volcanos, on the fhores of
the Sea, or of great Lakes, and only at certain par-
ticular portions of the fliore.

As to the epidemical maladies of the Human
Race, and the difeafes of animals, they are, in ge-
neral, to be imputed to corrupted waters. Phyfi-
cians, who have inveftigated their caufes, afcribe
them fometimes to the corruption of die air, fome-
times to the mildew of plants, fometimes-te fogs :
but all thefe caufes are fimply effeds of the corrup-
tion of the waters, from which arife putrid exhala^
tions that infed the air, and vegetables, and ani-
mals. This may be charged, in almoft every in-
flance, on the injudicious labours of Man. The
mod unwholefome regions of the Earth, as far as I
am at prefent able to recoUeâ-, are in Afia, on the
banks of the Ganges, from which proceed, every
year, putrid fevers, that, in 1771, cofl Bengal the

p ^ life

38 STUDIES OF NATURE.

life of more than a million of men. They have
for their focus the rice plantations, which are arti-
ficial morafles, formed along the Ganges, for the
culture of that grain. After the crop is reaped,
the roots and ftalks of the plant left on the ground,
rot, and are transformed into infectious puddles,
from which pefliiential vapours are exhaled. It
is in the view of preventing thefe pernicious confe-
quences, that the culture of this plant has been
exprefsl}'- prohibited in many parts of Europe,
efpecially in Ruffia, round Otzchakof, where it
was formerly produced in great quantities.

In Africa, the air of the ifland of Madagafcar is
corrupted, and from the fame caufe, during fix
months of the year, and will everprefent an invin-
cible obftacle to any European fettlement upon it.
All the French colonies which have been planted
there, perifhed one after another, from the putri-
dity of the air; and I myfelf mufb, with the reft,
have fallen a vid:im to it, had not Divine Provi-
dence, by means of which I could have no fore-
fight, prevented my intended expedition, and re-
fidence in that part of the world.

It is from the ancient miry canals of Egypt,
that the leprofy and the pefiilence are perpetually
iffuing forth. In Europe, the ancient falt-marflies
of Brouage, which the water of the Sea no longer

reaches.

STUDY VII. 35.

reaches, and in which the rain-waters ftagnate,
becaufe they are confined by the dikes and ditches
of the old falt-pits, are become confiant fources of
diftemper among the cattle. Similar difeafes, pu-
trid and bilious fevers, and the land-fcurvy, annu-
ally iflTue from the canals of Holland, which pu-
trify, in Summer, to fuch a degree, that I have
feen, in Amfterdam, the canals covered with dead
iifhes ; and it was impofTible to crofs certain
ilreets, without obftrufting the pafTages of the
mouth and nofe with your handkerchief. They
have, indeed, forced a kind of current to the flag-
nant waters by means of wind-mills, which pump
them up, and throw them over the dikes, in places
where the canals are lower than the level of the
Sea ; but thefe machines are flill far too few in
number.

The bad air of Rome, in Summer, proceeds
from it's ancient aqueduds, the waters of which
are difFufed among the ruins, or which have inun-
dated the plains, the levels whereof have been in-
terrupted by the magnificent labours of the an-
cient Romans. The purple fever, the dyfentery,
the fmall-pox, fo common all over our plains, af-
ter the heats of Summer, or in warm and humid
fprings, proceed, for the mofl part, from the pud-
dles of the peafantry, in which leaves and the re-
fufe of plants putrify. Many of our city-diftem-

p 4 pers

4-0 STUDIES OF NATURE.

pers ifTue from the layflalls which furround them,
and from the cimeteries about our churches ; and
which penetrate into the very fanduary.

I do not beheve there would have been a fingle
unwholefome fpot on the Earth, if men had not
put their hands to it. The malignity of the air of
St. Domingo has been quoted, that of Martinico,
of Porto-Bello,and of feveral diftriâis of America,
as a natural effeâ: of Climate. But thefe places
have been inhabited by Savages, who, from time
immemorial, have bufied themfelves in diverting
the courfe of rivers, and choking up rivulets.
Thefe labours conftitute even an effcntial part of
their defence. They imitate the beavers in the
fortification of their villages, by inundating the
adjacent country. Provident Nature, however,
has placed thofe animals only in cold Latitudes,
where, in imitation of herfelf, they form lakes
which foften the air; and flie has introduced run-
ning waters into hot Latitudes, becaufe lakes
would there fpeedily change, by evaporation, into
putrid marflies. The lakes which fhe has fcooped
out in fuch Latitudes, are all fituated' among
mountains, at the fources of rivers, and in a cool
Atmofphere. I am the more induced to impute
to the Savages the corruption of the air, fo mur-
derous in fome of the Antilles, that all the iflands
which have been found uninhabited were exceed-
ingly

STUDY VII. 41

ingly wîiolefome ; fuch as the Ifle of France, of
Bourbon, of St. Helena, and others.

As the corruption of the air is a fubjed pecu-
liarly intending, 1 Ihail venture to fuggeft, by the
way, lome lirnple methods of remedying it. The
firft is, to remove the caules of it, by fubftitutins;.
in place of the Itagnant puddles with which our
plains abound, the ulb of cifterns, the waters of
which are fo lalubrious, when they are judicioufly
confiruéled. They are univerfally employed all
over Afia. Care fhould, likewife, be taken to pre-
vent the throwing the bodies, and other offal, of
dead animals into the layftalls of our cities ; they
ought to be carried to the rivers, which will be
thereby rende; ed more productive of fifli. In the
cafe of Cities which are not wafhed by rivers to
carry off the garbage, or if this method is found
otherwife inconvenient, attention {hould be paid,
at leaft, to placing the layftalls only to the North
and North-eaft of fuch cities, in order to efcape,
efpeciully during Summer, the fetid gufts which
pafs over them from the South and South-weft.

The fécond is, to abftain from digging canals.
We are well acquainted with the maladies which
have refulted from thofe of Egypt, in the vicinity
of Rome, and elfewhere, when care is not taken
to keep them in repair. Befides, the benefits de-
rived

42 STUDIES OF NATURE.

rived from them are very problematical. To look
at the medals which have been ftruck in our own
country, on occafion of the canal of Briare, would
we not be induced to think that the Strait of Gib-
raltar was henceforth to become fuperfluous to the
navigation of France ? Granting it to have been of
fome little utility to the interior commerce of the
country, has the mifchief done to the plains
through which it pafles been taken into the ac-
count, as a counterbalance ? So many brooks and
fprings diverted from their courfe, and collefted
from every quarter, to be gulped up in one great
navigable canal, muft have ceafed to water a very
confiderable extent of land. And can that be con-
fidered as a great commercial benefit, which is in-
jurious to agriculture ? Canals are adapted only
to marlTiy places.

This is the third method of contributing to the
reftoration of the falubrity of the air. The at-
tempts made in France to dry the marQies, have
always cod us a great many men, and frequently,
for that very reafon, have been left incomplete. I
can difcover no other caufe for this but the preci-
pitancy with which fuch works are undertaken,
and the multiplicity of the objects which they are
intended to embrace. The Engineer prefents his
plan, the Undertaker gives in his eflimate, the
Minifter approves, the Prince fi,nds the money, the

Intendant

STUDY VII. 43

Intendant of the province provides the labourers ;
all things concur to the effeâ; propofed, except
Nature. From the bofom of rotten eajth arife pu-
trid emanations, which prefently fcatter death
among the workmen.

As a remedy to thefe inconveniencies, I beg
leave to throw out fome obfervations, which I be-
lieve to be well-founded. A piece of land entirely
covered with water is never unwholefome. It be-
comes fo, only when the water which covers it eva-
porates, and expofes to the air the muds of it's
bottom and fides. The putridity of amorafsmight
be remedied as effedually by transforming it into
a lake, as into folid ground. It's fituation mufl
determine whether of thefe two objeds is to be
preferred. If it is in a bottom, without declivity,
and without efflux, the indication of Nature ought
to be followed up, and the whole covered with
water. If there is not enough to form a complete
inundation, it might be cut into deep ditches, and
the ftufFdug out thrown on the adjoining lands.
Thus we fhould have, at once, canals always full
of water, and little ifles both fertile and whole-
fome. As to the feafon proper for fuch labours,
the Spring and Autumn ought to be preferred ;
and great care muft be taken to place the labourers
"with their faces to windward, and to fupply, by
means of machinery, the neceffity, to which they

are

44 STUDIES OF NATURE.

are frequently fubjeded, of plunging into mires
and muds, to clear them away.

It has always appeared to me ftrangely unac-
countable, that in France, where there are fuch
numerous and fuch judicious eftablidiments, we
Ihould have miniflers of fuperintendance for foreign
affairs, for war, the marine, finance, commerce,
manufactures, the clergy, public buildings, horfe-
manfliip, and fo on, but never one fcr agriculture.
It proceeds, I am afraid, from the contempt in
which the peafantry are there held. All men,
however, are fureties for each other ; and, inde-
pendently of the uniform ftature and configuration
of the Human Race, I would exad no other proof
that all fpring from one and the fame original. It
is from the puddle, by the fide of the poor man's
hovel, which has been robbed of the little brook,
whofe flream fweetened it, that the epidemic plague
fliall iflfue forth to devour the lordly inhabitants of
the neighbouring caille.

Egypt avenges herfelf, by the pefi:ilence arifing
out of her canals, of the oppreffion of the Turks,
who prevent her inhabitants from keeping them m
repair. America, finking under the accumulated
ftrokes of Europeans, exhales from her bofom a
thoufand maladies fatal to Europe, and drags
down with her the haughty Spaniard expiring on

her

STUDY VII. 45

her ruins. Thus the Centaur left, with Deïnira,
his robe empoifoned with the blood of the Hydra,
as a prefent which (hould prove fatal to his con-
queror. Thus the miferies which opprefs Man-
kind, pafs from huts to palaces, from the Line to
the Poles, from Ages paft to Ages yet to come ; and
their long and lingering efFeâs are a fearful voice
crying in the ears of the Potentates of the Earth :
" Learn to be juft, and not to opprefs the mi-
" ferable."

Not only the elements, but reafon itfelf, cor-
rupts in the haunts of wretchednefs. What tor-
rents of error, fear, fuperftition, difcord, have broken
out in the lower regions of Society, and fwelled to
the terror and the fubverfion of Thrones ! The
more that men are opprelTed, the more miferable
are their oppreffors, and the more feeble is the
Nation which they compofe. For the force which
tyrants employ to fupport their authority at home,
is never exercifed but at the expence of that which
they might employ, to maintain their refpedability
abroad.

Firft, from the haunts of mifery iffue forth prof-
titutions, thefts, murders, conflagrations, highway-
robberies, revolts, and a multitude of phyfical
evils befides, which, in all countries, are the plagues
that tyranny produces. But thofe of opinion are

much

46 STUDIES OF NATURE.

much more terrible. One man is bent on fubju-
gating another, not fo much for the fake of get-
ting hold of his property, as to command his ad-
miration, his reverence. Ambition propofes to it-
felf no boundary fhort of this. To whatever con-
dition he may be elevated, and hov/ever low his
rival reduced ; let him have at his mercy the for-
tune, the labour, the wife, the perfon, of his ad-
verfary, he has gained no point, unlefs he has
gained his homage. It availed Haman nothing to
have the life, the goods, of the Jews, at his difpo-
fal : he muft fee Mordecai proflrated at his feet.
Oppreflbrs are thus the opprefled, and become the
arbiters of their own happinefs ; and the opprefTed,
for the mofl part, paying them back injuftice for
injuftice, difturb them with falfe reports, religious
terrors, dark furmifes, calumnies, which engender
among them, fufpicions, apprehenfions, jealouiîes,
feuds, law-fuits, duels; and, at laft, civil wars,
which iflue in their total deftruftion.

Let us examine, in the cafe of fomc ancient
and modern Governments, this re-adion of evils
upon each other, and we fhall find it's extent to
be in proportion to the ills which they bring upon
Mankind. On contemplating this tremendous
balance, we fliall be conftrained to acknowledge
the exiftence of Sovereign Juftice.

Without

STUDY VIT. ^ 47

Without paying regard to the common divi-
fion of Governments *, into Democracy, Arifto-
cracy, and Monarchy, which are only, at bottom,

political

* Politicians, in claffing Governments according to thefe
exterior refemblances in form, have afted precifely as thofe Bo-
tanifts do, who comprehend in the fame category, plants which
have fimilar flowers or leaves, without paying any attention to
their virtues. The Botanift clafles together the oak and the
pimpernel ; and the Politician the Roman Republic and that of
St. Marino. This is not the way of obferving Nature : fhe is
throughout nothing but adaptation and harmony. Her fpirit,
not her forms, is the great thing which we ought to fludy.

If in the Hiftory of any People you do not attend to it's moral
and internal conftitution, which fcarcely any Hiftorian keeps
fteadily in view, it will be impoflible to conceive how Republics,
appaiently well conftituted, have fuddenly funk into ruin : how
others, on the contrary, in which nothing but agitation appeared,
became formidable : whence arife the duration and the power
of Defpotic States, fo much decried by modern Authors : and,
finally, how it came to pafs, that, after the glorious reigns of
Marcus Aurelius and of Antoninus^ which have been fo highly ex-
tolled, the Roman Empire finiflied its progrefs to diflblution.
It was, I am bold enough to affirm, becaufe thofe good Princes
thought only of prefervingthe exterior form of the Government.
All was tranquillity around them ; the form of a Senate remain-
ed ; Rome was well fupplied with corn ; the garrifons in the pro-
vinces were regularly paid. There was no fedition, no difturb-
ance, every thing to appearance went on well. But during this
lethargy, the rich were going on in an unbounded accumula-
tion of property, and the people were lofing the little that they
had. The great offices of the State were engrofied by the fame
families. In order to have the means of fubfirtence, it was ne-

ceflary

48 StUDIES OF NATURE.

political forms that determine nothing, as' to either
their happinefs, or their power, we (hall infift only
on their moral conftitution.

Every Government, of whatever defcription, is
internally happy, and refpeftable abroad, when it
beftows on all it's fubjeds their natural right of ac-
quiring fortune and honours : and the contrary

ceflary for the comttionalty to attach themfelves to the Great.
Rome contained a populacy of mere menials. The love of
Country was extinguifhed. The wretched did not know of
what to complain. No one did them any wrong. All was or-
derly ; but this very order precluded the poffibility of their ever
coming to any thing. They did not cut the throats of the citi-
zens, as in the days of Marius and Sylla, but they ftifled them.

In all human Society, there are two powers, the one temporal,
and the other fpiritual. You find them in all the Governments of
the World, in Europe, in Afia, in Africa, and in America.
The Human Race is governed in the fame way as the human
body. Such is thé will of the Author of Nature, in order to
the prefervation and happinefs of Mankind. When Nations
are opprefled by the fpiritual power, they refort for proteftion to
the temporal ; when this laft opprefTes, in it's turn, they have
recourfe to the other,* When both thefe concur to render them
niiferable, then arife herefies in fwarms, fchifms, civil wars, and
a multitude of fecondary powers, which balance the abufes of
the two firft, till there refults, at length, a general apathy, and
the State falls into deftruftion. We lliall prefently go into a
thorough invefligation of this interefting fubjed, wheji we come
to fpeak of France. We fliall find that, though there is but one
which governs, of right, there are five powers which govern, in

faa.

takes

STUDY VII. - 49

takes place, when it referves to a particular
clafs of citizens, the benefits which ought to be
common to all. It is not fufficient to prefcribe
limits to the People, and to reftrain them within
thefc by terrifying phantoms. They quickly force
the perfon who puts them in motion, to tremble
more than themfelves. When human policy locks
the chain round the ancle of a flave. Divine Juf-
tice rivets the other end round the neck of the
tyrant.

Few Republics have been more judicioufly con-
ftituted than that of Lacedemon. Virtue and hap-
pinefs were feen to flourifli there, during a period
of five hundred years. Notvvithftanding the me-
diocrity of it's extent, it gave law to Greece, and
to the northern coafts of Afia ; but as Lycurgus
had not comprehended in his plan either the Na-
tions which Sparta was to fubdue, or even the
Helots, who laboured the ground for her, by
them were introduced the commotions which
fliattered her conftitution, and at length totally
fubverted it.

In the Roman Republic there fubfifted greater
equality, and proportionally more power and hap-
pinefs. She was, indeed, divided into Patricians
and Plebeians ; but as thefe lail were capable of
attaining the higheft military dignities, as they

VOL. II. E poffefTed,

50 STUDIES OF NATURE.

poflefTed, befides, an exclufive title to the trlbnni-
tial office, the power of which equalled, nay, fur-
paffed, that of the Confuls, the mod perfeft har-
mony exifted between the two orders. It is im-
poffible to obferve, without emotion, the deference
and refped paid by the Plebeians to the Patricians,
during the moft glorious periods of the Republic.
They felefted their patrons from among that or-
der; they attended them in crowds on their way
to the Senate : when they happened to be poor,
they affeffed themfelves, to make up a marriage
portion for their daughters. The Patricians, on
the other hand, took an interefl in all the affairs
of the Plebeians ; they pleaded their caufes in the
Senate ; permitted them to bear their names ;
adopted them into their families, and gave them
their daughters in marriage, when they diflin-
guifhed themfelves by their virtues. Thefe alli-
ances with Plebeian families were not difdained
even by Emperors. Angujlus gave his only daugh-
ter, Julia, in marriage to the Plebeian Agrippa.
Virtue fat enthroned at Rome j and no where elfe
upon Earth were altars raifed more worthy of her.
A judgment of this may be formed from the re-
wards affigned to illuftrious actions. A criminal
was condemned to be flarved to death in prifon ;
his daughter is allowed permiffion to vifit him
there, and keeps him alive by the milk from her
own breaft. The Senate, informed of this inftance

of

STUDY Vil. ^I

of filial tendernefs, voted a pardon to the father,
in confideration of the daughter, and on the fpot
where the prifon flood, commanded to rear a
Temple facred to filial piety.

If a perfon condemned, was carrying to execu-
tion, the fentence was remitted, if a veftal hap-
pened to pafs that way. The puniQiment, due to
criminality, difappeared in the prefence of virtue.
If, in battle, one Roman faved another out of the
hands of the enemy, he became entitled to the ci-
vic crown. This crown confifted only of oak\
leaves, nay, it was the only military crown which
had nothing golden about ir, but it conferred the
right of fitting, in the public theatres, on the
bench adjoining to thofe which were allotted to
Senators, who all ftood up in deference, on the en-
trance of him who wore it. It was, fays Pliny,
the mod illuftrious of all crov/ns, and communi-
cated higher privileges than the mural, the obfi-
dional, and naval crowns, becaufe there is more
glory in faving a fingle citizen, than in taking ci-
ties, or in gaining battles. It was the fame, for
this reafon, whether the perfon faved was the com-
mander in chief, or a private foldier ; but it was
not to be earned by delivering an allied King, who
might have come to the affiftance of the Romans.
Rome, in the diftribution of rewards, diftinguiflied
only the citizen. By means of fuch patriotic fen-

E 2 timents,

5a STUDIES OF NATURE.

timeiits, (he conquered the Earth ; but flie was
juft only to her own people; it was by her injuf-
tice to other men, that (lie became weak and un-
happy. Her conquefts filled her with flaves, who,
under Spartacm^ brought her to the brink of de-
flruftion, and which decided her fate at laft by
the arms of corruption, much more formidable:
than thofe of war. By the vices and the flatteries
of the Grecian and Afiatic flaves at Rome, were
formed within her bofom the CaiilhieSj the Cefars,
the Neros ; and while their voice was corrupting
the mafters of the World, that of the Goths, the
Cimbri, the Teutones, the Gauls, the Allobroges,
the Vandals, the companions of their lor, was
inviting their compatriots from the North and,
from the Eaft, who at length levelled the glory of
Rome with the duft.

Modern Governments exhibit a fimilar re-ac-
tion of equity and felicity, of injuftice and mis-
fortune. In Holland, where the People may
afpire to every thing, abundance pervades the
whole States, good order prevails in the cities,
fidelity in wedlock, tranquility in all minds ; dif-
putes and law-fuits are rare in that country, be-
caufe every one is content. Few European Na-
tions poffefs a territory fo contra6led, and no one
has extended her power fo far : her riches are im-
menfe : flie mainiained fingly fuccefsful^war againft

Spain

STUDY VII. 5^

Spain in all it's fplendor, and afterwards againft
France and England united : her commerce ex-
tends over the whole Globe : fhe poffeffes power-
ful colonics in America, thriving fettlements in
Africa, formidable kingdoms in Alia. But if we
trace up to their fource the calamities and the wars
with which (lie has been vifitcd for two centuries,
it will be found that they proceed from the injuf-
tice of fome of her fettlements in thofe countries.
Her happinefs and her power are not to be attri-
buted to her republican form of Government, but
to that community of benefits, which flie prefents
indifcriminately to all her fubjeâis, and which pro-
duces the fame effeâis in defpotic Governments,
of which we have had reprefentations fo frightful.

Among the Turks, as among the Dutch, there
is no fuch thing as quarrelling, or calumniating,
or ftealing, or proflitution, in the cities. Nay,
there is not to be found, perhaps, over the whole
Empire, a fingle Turkifli woman carrying on the
trade of a courtezan. There is, in the general
mind, neither reftleflnefs nor jealoufy. Every man
fees, without envy, in his fuperiors, a felicity at-
tainable by himfelf, and he is at all times ready to
lay down his life for the Religion and Govern-
ment of his Country. Their force abroad is by
no means inferior to the perfedion of their union
at home. With whatever contempt our Hiftorians.

E 3 may

54 STUDIES OF NATURE.

may expofe their ignorance and ftiipidity, they
]iave aftually made themfelves mafters of the fined
provinces of Afîa, of Africa, of Europe, nay, of
the Empire of the Greeks themfelves, with ail their
wit and learning, becaufe the fentiment of pa-
triotifm which unites them, is fufficient to baffle
all the talents and all the tacflics in the world.
They have undergone, however, frequent convul-
fions from the revolting of the conquered Na-
tions ; but the mod dangerous proceed from their
feebleft adverfaries, from thofe very Greeks, whofe
property they plunder with impunity, and whofe
children they annually carry off, as a tribute to
recruit the Seraglio. From thefe fame children
iffue, by a re-ading Providence, mod of the Ja-
nizaries, the Agas, the Pachas, the Bafhaws, the
Viziers, which opprefs the Turks, in their turn,
and render themfelves formidable even to theiu
Sultans.

It is this fame community of hopes and of for-
tunes prefented, without didinftion, to all condi-
tions of men, which has given io much energy to
Pruffia, whofe internal police, and viftories abroad,
have been fo highly celebrated by our poHticai
Writers ; though it's Government is dill more de-
fpotic than that of Turkey ; for the Prince there
is abfolute mader at once in temporals and in fpi-
rituals.

The

STUDY VII.

55

The Republic of Venice, on the contrarjr, fo
well known for her courtezans, for the reflleffnefs
and jealoufy of her Government, is extremely
feeble externally, though (he is of higher anti-
quity, in a (ituation more advantageous, and
under a much finer fky than Holland. Venice is
a maritime power in the Mediterranean, haroly
acknowledged as fuch in modern times, whereas
Holland is enlivening the whole Earth by her
commerce; becaufe the firfl. has reftrifted the
rights of humanity to the clafs of Nobility, and
the fécond has extended them to the whole people.

It is, farther, from the influence of this unjufl
partition, that Malta, with the fined port in the
Mediterranean, fituated between Africa and Eu-
rope, in the vicinity of Afia, and fwarming with a
young Nobility of undaunted courage, will ever
remain the laft Power in Europe, becaufe the
People there are reduced to nothing,

I fhall here take occafion to obferve, that here-
ditary nobility in a State deftroys, at once, all
emulation in both the nobly and ignobly born. It
is deftroyed in the firft, becaufe, being entitled by
birth to pretend to every thing, they have no need
to call in the afTiftance of merit ; and in the fé-
cond, being excluded from every pretenfion to
rife, no degree of merit could avail them. This

£ 4 is

56 STUDIES OF NATURE.

is the political vice which has undermined the
power of Portugal, and that of Spain ; and not
the monaftic fpirir, as fo many Writers have af-
ferted. The monkilh order was all-powerful from
the times of Ferdinand and ÎJabella. It was a Monk
Avho decided at Court, the expedition of Chrijlo-
pher Columbus in queft of a new World, the con-
queft of which quadrupled in Spain the number
of Gentlemen. Not a Spanifli foldier went over
to America, but gave himfelf out, on his arriva,!
there, for a man of family, and who, on his return
to Spain, with money in his pocket, did not make
good his title. The fame thing Ihewed itfelf
among the Portugueze, who made conquefts in
Afia. The military order, in both thefe Nations,
at that time performed prodigies, becaufe the ca-
reer of ambition, in feats of arms, was then open
to the commonalty. But ever fince it has been
Tout againft them, by the prodigious number of
gentlemen with which thefe two States abound, the
balance has turned in favour of the monaftic or-
der, and conferred upon it a tribunitial Power.

However wonderful our political fpeculations
may reprefent the threefold counterbalancing
powers which conftitute the Government of Great
Britain, it is to the violent agitations of thofe
powers we muft afcribe the perpetual quarrels
which difturb her happinefs, and the venality

which

STUDY VÎI.

57

which has, at length, corrupted her. The Com-
mons, I grant, form one of her Houfes of Parlia ■
liament, but the right of fitting in it as a repre-
fentative, being reftrided to perfons polfeffed of
fuch a revenue, it's doors muft, of courfe, be fhut
againfi; the admiffion of many a wife head, and be
open to feme not entirely of that defcription. An
Alcibiadcs and a Catqline might have made a (hin-
ing figure there ; but a Socrates, the juft Arijiides,
Epaminondas, who transferred the Empire of
Greece to Thebes, Attilius-ReguhiSy who was called
from the plough to the Didatorfliip, Menenius-
Agrippa, who fettled the difpute between the Se-
nate and People ; no one of thefe could have pro-
cured a feat, becaufe he had not an eftate in land
worth fo much a year. Britain would deftroy her-
felf by her very boafted Conftitution, did (lie not
prefent a common career to every citizen, in her
Marine. All the Orders of the State concur in this
point of union, and give it fuch a preponderancy,
that it fixes their political equilibrium. Whoever
could deftroy the Marine of England, would an-
nihilate her Government. This unanimous con-
currence of the whole Nation toward the cultiva-
tion of one fingle Art, has raifed it to a height of
perfedtion hitherto unattained in any other Coun-
try, and has rendered it the fole inftrument of her
power.

If

58 STUDIES OF NATURE.

If we glance a look on the other States which
bear the name of Republic, we fnall find internal
diforder, and external weaknefs, increafing in pro-
portion to the inequality of the citizens. Poland
has referved to the Nobility exclufively, all the
authority, and left her Commonalty in the moft
deteftable flavery ; [o that war> which eftablifhes
between the citizens of one and the fame Nation, a
community of danger, eftablifhes, between thofe of
Poland, no community of reward. Her Hiftory
exhibits nothing but a long feries of bloody quar-
rels between Palatinate and Palatinate, City and
City, Family and Family, which have always ren-
dered her extremely miferable. The greateft part
of the Nobility themfelvcs are there reduced to
fuch wretchednefs, that they are obliged, for a
fubliftence, to ferve the Grandees in the moft con-
temptible employments, as our own Nobility for-
merly did under the feudal Government, and as is
the cafe to this day in Japan : for wherever the
pealantry are flaves, the yeomanry are menials.
The calamity has, at length, overtaken Poland, in
our own days, which would have fallen upon her
long ago, had not the Kingdoms which furround
her laboured then under the fame defects in their
feveral Conftitutions. She has been parcelled out
by her neighbours, in defpight of her long poli-
tical difcuffions, as the Empire of the Greeks was

by

STUDY VII. 59

by the Turks, at a time when certain priefts, who
had got poffeffion of the public mind, were amuf-
ing them with theological fubtilities.

In Japan, the wretchednefs of the Nobles is in
proportion to their tyranny. They formed at firft
a feudal Government, which it is fo eafy to fub-
vert, as well as all thofe of the fame nature; for
the firft of the feudal Chiefs who afpired at the
fovereignty, effefted his purpofe by a fingle battle.
He curtailed their power of determining their
quarrels by civil wars, but left them in full pof-
feffion of all their other privileges; thatof abufing
the peafants, who there are mere flaves, the power
of life and death over all who are in their pay,
even over their wives. The mafs of the people,
who, in extreme mifery, have no way of fubfift-
ing, but by intimidating or corrupting their ty-
rants, have produced, in Japan, an incredible mul-
titude of bonzes, of all fefts, who have ereâied
temples on every mountain; comedians and drolls,
who have theatres fet up at every crofs-ftreet of
their cities; and courtezans in fuch fhoals, that
the traveller is peftered with them on every high
road, and at every inn where he ftops. But this
very people fet fuch a high value on the confidera-
tion exaded of them by the NobiUty, that if fo
much as a crofs look palTes between two of them,
fight they muil; and if the infult be any thing

ferious.

6o «STUDIES OF NATURE.

ferions, it is abfolutely neccflary that both parties
fhould rip up each other, under pain of infamy.
To this hatred of it's tyrants we tnufl impute the
fmgular attachment which the Japanefe expreffed
for the Chriflian Religion, becaufe they hoped it
was to efface, by it's morality, diftindlions fo abo-
minable between man and man : and to popular
prejudices we muft refer, in the Nobility of that
Country, the contempt which they expreifed on a
thoufand occafions, for a life rendered fo preca-
rious from the opinion of another.

A fage equality, proportioned to the intelli-
gence, and to the talents of all her fubjeâs, has,
for a long time, rendered China the happieft fpot
on the Globe : but a tafte for pleafure having
there, at laft, produced a diifolution of the moral
principle, money, the inftrument of procuring it,
is become the moving principle of the Govern-
ment. Venality has there divided the Nation into
two great claffes, the rich and the poor. The an-
cient ranks which, in that Country, elevated men
to all the public offices, dill exiil:, but the rich
only aftually fill them. This vafh and populous
Empire having no longer any patriotifm, but what
confifts in certain unmeaning ceremonies, has
been, oftener than once, invaded by the Tartars,
who were invited into the Country by the calami-
ties which the People endured.

The

STUDY VII. 6î

The Negros, in general, are confidered as the
moft unfortunate fpecies of Mankind on the face
of the Globe. In truth, it looks as if fome deftiny
had doomed them to llavery. The ancient curfe
pronounced by Noûb *, is by fome believed to be
flill actually in efFefl : " Curfed be Canaan ! a
*' fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his bre-
** ihren." They themfelves confirm it by their
traditions. If we may give credit to a Dutch Au-
thor, of the name of Bojman, " the Negros of the
*' Guinea coaft allege, that GOD, having created
*' blacks and whites, propofed to them the power
*' of choofing between two things, namely, the
*' pofleffion of gold, and of the art of reading and
" writing ; and as GOD gave the power of the
*' firft choice to the blacks, they preferred gold ;
** and they left learning to the whites, which was
" accordingly granted them. But that the Crea-
" TOR, provoked at the appetite for gold which
" they had manifefted, immediately pafled a de-
" crée, that the whites (hould have eternal domi-
'* nion over them, and that they (liould for ever
" be fubjeâ; to their white brethren as Haves -j-".

I do

* Genefis, chap. ix. ver. 25,
\ Bo/man s P^oyage to Guhiea, letter x. This decifion of mo-
dern Negros is highly to their honour. They feem to feel the
ineftimable value of knowledge. But could they have feen, in
Europe, ;he condition of moft men of literature, compai ed with

that

62 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I do not mean to fupport, by Sacred Authority,
nor by that which thefe unfortunate wretches
themfelves furnifli, the tyranny which we exercife

over

tliat of men who poflefs gold, their tradition would have been
completely reverfed.

Similar opinions may be traced through other African black
tribes, particularly among the blacks of the Cape de Verd
Iflands, as may be feen in the excellent account given of them
by George Robert. This unfortunate Navigator was obliged to
flee for refuge to the Uland of St. John, where he received
from the inhabitants the moft aifefting proofs of generofity
and hofpitality, after having undergone the mofl atrocioufly
cruel treatment from his countrymen, the Englifli pirates»
who plundered his vefTel.

It mult, however, be acknowledged, that if fome African
tribes excel us in moral qualities, the Negros, in general, are
very inferior to other Nations in thofe of the underflanding^.
They have never to this day difcovercd the addrefs of managing
the elephant as the Afiatics have done. They have carried no
one fpecies of cultivation to it's highefl degree of perfedlion.
They are indebted for that of the greatefl part of their alimen-
tary vegetables to the Portugueze, and to the Arabians. They
pradife no one of the liberal Arts, which had made, however,
fome progrefs amo)ig the inhabitants of the New World, who
are much more modern than they. Nature has placed them on
a part of the Continent, from whence they might with eafe
have penetrated into America, as the winds which blow thither
are eafterly, that is, perfectly fair ; but fo far from that, they
had not even difcovered the iflands in their vicinity, fuch as
the Canaries and the Cape de Verds. The black Powers of
Africa have never to this hour difcovered genius equal to the
conilrudion of a brigantiue. So far from attempting to extend

their

STUDY VII. 65

over them. If the malediclion of a Father has
been able to extend fuch an influence over his
pofterity, the benediction of GOD, which, under
the Chriftian Rehgion, extends to them as well
as to us, re-eflabhllies them in all the liberty
of the law of Nature. The precept of Chriltianity

their boundaries, they have permitted ftrangers to take poflef-
fion of all their coafts. For in ancient times, the Egyptians and
Phenicians fettled on their eaftern and northern fliores, which
are now in poffeffion of the Turks and Arabians. And for fome
ages paft, the Portugueze, the Englifli, the Danes, the Dutch,
and the French, have laid hold of what remained to the Eaft,
and to the South, and to the Wert, fimply for the purpofe of get-
ting flaves.

It muft needs be, after all, that a particular Providence
fliould have preferved the patrimony of thefe children of Ca-
naan, from the avidity of their brethren, the children of Shem
and Japhet ; for it is aftonifliing, that perfons fuch as we are,
the fons of Japhet in particular, who, as bemg younger bro-
thers, were hunting after fortune all the world over, and who,
according to the benedic'lion of Noah, our Father, were to ex-
tend our lodging even into the tents of Shem, our elder bi-other,
fliould never have eflabliflied colonies, in a part of the world fo
beautiful as Africa is, fo near us, in which the fugar-cane, the
coffee plant, and mort of the productions of Afia and America
can grow, and, in a word, where flaves are the produce of the
foil.

Politicians may afcribe the different charaflers of Negros
and Europeans to whatever caufes they pleafe. For my own
part, I fay it on the moft perfeél conviftion, that I know no
book, which contains monuments more authentic of the Hilîory
of Nations, and of that of Nature, than the Book of Genefis.

which

ê4 STUDIES OF NATURE.

which enjoins us to confider all men as brethren,
fpeaks in their behalf^ as in behalf of our own
countrymen. If this were the proper place, I
could demonftrate how Providence enforces, in
their favour, the laws of univerfal juftice, by ren-
dering their tyrants, in our colonies, a hundred
times more wretched than they are. Befides, how
many wars have been kindled among the maritime
Powers of Europe, on account of the African
flave-trade ? How many maladies, and corruptions
of blood in families, have not the Negros pro-
duced among us ?

But 1 fhall confine myfelf to their condition in
tlieir own country, and to that of their compa-
triots who abufe their power over them. 1 do not
know that there ever exifted among them a fmgle
Republic, except it were, perhaps, fome pitiful
Arifcocracy along the weftern coafbof Africa, fuch
as that of Fantim. They are under the dominion
of a multitude of petty tyrants, who fell them at
pleafure. But, on the other hand, the condition
of thofe kings is rendered fo deplorable by priefts,
fetichasj grigris, fudden revolutions, nay, the very
want of the common neceffaries of life, that few
of our common failors would be difpofed to change
ftates with them. Befides, the Negros efcape a
confiderable proportion pf their miferies, by the
-thoughtleffnefs of their temper, and the levity of

their

STUDY VIT. 65

their imagination. They dance in the midfl of
famine, as of abundance; in chains, as when at
liberty. If a chicken's foot infpiresthem with ter-
ror, a fmall flip of white paper reftores their cou-
rage, Every day they make up, and pull to pieces
their gods, as the whim ftrikes them.

It is not in ftupid Africa, but in India, the an-
cient wifdom of which flands in fuch high reputa-
tion, that the miferies of the Human Race are car-
ried to their higheft excefs. The Bramins, for-
merly called Brachmans, who are the priefts there,
have divided the Nation into a variety of Cafts,
fome of which they have devoted to infamy, as
that of the Parias. No one will doubt that they
have taken care to render their own facred. No per-
fon is worthy to touch them, to eat with them,
much lefs to contract any manner of alliance. They
have contrived to prop up this imaginary gran-
deur by incredible fuperftitions. From their hands
have iffued that infinite number of Gods, of mon-
ftrous forms, which fcare the human imagination
all over Alia. The Commonalty, by a natural re-
adion of opinions, render them, in their turn, the
mod miferable of all mankind. They are obliged,
in order to fupport their reputation, to wafii them-
felves from head to foot, on the flighted contami-
nation by contadl ; to undergo frequent and ri-
gorous fadings ; to fubmit to penances the mod

VOL. II. F horrible.

66 STUDIES OF NATURE.

horrible, before idols which they themfelves have
rendered fo tremendous : and as the people are
not permitted to intermix blood with them, they
conftrain, by the power of prejudice over the ty-
rants, their widows to burn themfelves alive, with
the body of the dead hufband.

Is it not, then, a very horrible condition, for
men reputed wife, and who give law to their Na-
tion, to be witneflbs of the untimely death, in cir-
cumftances fo fliocking, of their female friends
and relations, of their daughters, their fifters, their
mothers ? Travellers have cried up their know-
ledge : but is it not an odious alternative for en-
lightened men, either to terrify perpetually the
ignorant, by opinions which, at the long-run, fub-
jugate even thofe who propagate them ; or, if they
arc fo fortunate as to preferve their reafon, to make
a fliameful and criminal ufe of it, by employing it to
diffeminate falfliood ? How is it poffible for them
to efteem each other ? How is it poffible to retire
within themfelves, and to lift up their eyes to that
Divinity, of whom, as we are told, they entertain
conceptions fo fublime, and of whom they exhibit
to the People reprefentarions fo abominable ?

Whatever may he, as far as their ambition is
concerned, the melancholy fruit of their policy,
it has drawn in it's train the mifery of this vaft

Em pire J

STUDY VII. 67

Empire, fituated in the fineft region of the Globe.
Their military is formed of the NobiHty, called
Nairs, who poffefs the fécond rank in the State.
The Bramins, in order to fupport themfelves by
force, as well as by guile, have admitted them to
a participation in fome of their privileges. Hear
what Walter Schouten fays, of the indifference ex-
prefled by the common People toward the Naïrs,
when any mifchief befals them. Afccr a bloody
encounter, in which the Dutch killed a confider-
able number of thofe who had taken the fide of
the Portugueze : " No outrage or infult," fays
he *, " was offered to any artifan, peafant, tid^er-
*' man, or other inhabitant of Malabar, not even
" in the rage of battle. They, in confequence,
" never thought of flight. A great many of them
*' were polled at different places, merely as fpec-
" tators of the nation ; and they appeared to take
'* no manner of intereft in the fate of the Naïrs."

I have been an eye-witnefs of the fame apathy
in Nations, whofe Nobility forms a feparate clafs,
among others, in Poland. The Commonalty of
India fubjeâ: the Naïrs, as well as the Bramins, to
their Hiare of the mifeiies of opinion. The Naïrs
are incapacitated to contrait legitimate marriages.
Many of them, known by the name of Amocas,

* Voyage to the Eaft-Indics, .vol. 1, page 367,

F 2 are

68 STUDIES OF NATURE.

are obliged to facrifice themfelves in battle, or on
the death of their kings. They are the vidims of
their unjuft honour, as the Bramins are of their
inhuman religion. Their courage, which is merely
profeffional fpirit^ far from being beneficial to their
Country, is frequently fatal to it. From time im-
memorial, it has been defolated by their inteftine
wars ; and it is fo feeble externally, that handfuls
of Europeans have made fettlements in it, where-
ever they pleafed. At the clofe of the war in 1762,
a propofition was made in the Parliament of Great
Britain, to make the complete conqueft of it, and
to pay off the national debt, with the riches which
might have been extra6led out of it j and this the
Propofer undertook to eflfeft, if he was landed in
India with an army of five thoufand Europeans.
The boldnefs of the enterprize afloniflied no one
of his compatriots, who were acquainted with the
weaknefs of that Country, and it was laid afide,
as is alleged, merely from the injuftice of it.

In France, the People never acquire any (hare
in the Government, from Julius Cefar, who is the
firft Writer that has made this obfervation, and
who is not the lafl politician that has availed him-
felf of it, to render himfelf eafily it's mafter, down
to Cardinal Ricblieu, who levelled the feudal
power. During this long interval, our Hillory
prefents nothing but a feries of diflentions, of civil

wars.

STUDY VII. 69

wars, of diflblute manners, of afTafTinations, of
Gothic laws, of barbarous cuftoms ; and furnifhes
nothing interefting to the Reader, let the Prefident
Henault, who compares it to the Roman Hiftory,
fay what he will. It is not merely becaiife the
fiélions of the Romans are more ingenious than,
ours ; it is becaufe we do not find in our Hiftory,
that of a People, but only the hiftory of fome
great family.

From this, however, muft be excepted the Lives
of fome good Kings, fuch as thofe of St. Louis,
of Charles V. of Henry IV ; and of fome good
Men, who are interefting to us, for this very rea-
fon, that they interefted themfelves in behalf of
the Nation. In every other cafe, it is impofiible
to difcover about what the Government was em-
ploying itfelf : it fttidied the intereft only of the
Nobility. The Country was fubjugated fuccef-
fively by the Romans, the Francs, the Goths, the
Alains, the Normans. The facility with which
France embraced Chriftianity, is a proof that flie
fought, in religion, a refuge from the m-iferies of
ilavery. To this fentiment of confidence the
Clergy is indebted for the firft rank which it ob-
tained in the State. But the Clergy foon degene-
rated from it's firft fpirit j and fo far from medi-
tating the deftru6lion of tyranny, enlifted under
the banner of tyrants ; adopted all their cuftorns ;

F 5 afTumed

70 STUDIES OF NATURE.

affumed their titles ; appropriated to itfelf their
rights and their revenues ; and even made ufe of
their arms to maintain interefts which were in fuch
dired oppofition to it's moraHty. A great many-
churches had their knights and their champions,
who fupported their claims in fingle combat.

It would be unfair to impute to religion, the
mifchief occaficned by the avarice and the ambi-
tion of her minifters. She herfelf affifts us in de-
tefling their faults, and enjoins us to be on our
guard againft them. The greateft Saints, St.
Jerorh * among others, have expofed and con-
demned the vices of the clergy, with more vehe-
mence than ever modern Philofophers have done.
Much has been written of late to difcredit reli-
gion, with a view to diminifli the power of priefts.
But, univerfally, wherever ihe has fallen, their
power has increafed. Religion herfelf alone re-
ftrains them within due bounds. Obferve in the
Archipelago, and elfewhere, how many fraudulent
and lucrative fuperftitions have been fubftituted by
the Greek Papas and Caloyers^ in place of the fpirit
of the Gofpel ! Befides, whatever reproach may be
caft upon our own clergy, they have their anfwer
ready, namely, that they have been, in all ages,
like the reft of their compatriots, the children of

* Confult his Letters.

this

STUDY VII. 71

this world. The Nobles, Magidrates, Soldiers,
nay, the Kings themfelves, of former times, were
no better than they.

They have been accufed of promoting every
where the fpirit of intolerance, and of aiming at
fuperiority, by preaching up humility. But moffc
of them, repelled by the world, carry into their
profeflional corps, that fpirit of intolerance of
which the world fet the example, and of which
they are the vidims ; and their ambition, fre-
quently, is a mere confequence of that univerfal
ambition, with which national education, and the
prejudices of fociety, infpire all the members of
the State.

Without meaning to make their apology, and
much lefs fatirically to inveigh againft them, or
any body of men whatever, whofe evils it was not
my wiQito difcover, except for the purpofe of in-
dicating the remedies which feem to me to be
within their reach, I fliall here confine myfelf to
a few refleftions on religion, which is, even in this
life, the avenger of the wicked, and the confola-
tion of the good.

The world, in thefe days, confiders religion as

the concern only of the vulgar, and as a mere po-

F 4 litical

72 STUDIES OF NATURE.

litical contrivance to keep them in order. Our
Philofophers, ftate in oppofition to it, the philofo-
phy of Socrates, of EpiSîeîiiSy of Marcus- Aurelhis ; as
if the morahty of thofe fages were lefs ayftere than
that of Jesus Christ; and as if the benefits to
be expeded from it were better fecured than thofe
of the Gofpel ! What profound knowledge of the
heart of man ; what wonderful adaptation to his
necefiities ; what delicate touches of fenfibility, are
treafured up in that divine Book ! I leave it's myf-
teries out of the queftion. Part of them, we are
told, have been taken from Plato. But Plato him-
felf borrowed them from Egypt, into which he
had travelled j and the Egyptians were indebted
for them, as we are, to the Patriarchs. Thefe
myderies, after all, are not more incomprehenfible
than thofe of Nature, and than that of our own
exiftence. Befides, in our examination of them,
we inadvertently miflead ourfelves. We want to
penetrate to their fource, and we are capable only
of perceiving their elfe(5ts. Every fupernatural
caufe is equally impenetrable to man. Man him-
felf is only an efFecl, only a refult, only a combi-
nation for a moment. Pie is incapable of judging
of divine things according to their nature ; his
judgment of them muft be formed according to
his own nature, and from the correipondence
which they have to his neceffities.

If

STUDY VII^ 73

If we make ufe of thefe teftimonles of our
weaknefs, and of thefe indications of our heart, in
the ftudy of religion, we fliall find that there is
nothing that can pretend to that name, on the face
of the Earth, fo perfcdiy adapted to the wants of
human nature, as the religion of the Bible. I fay
nothing of the antiquity of it's traditions. The
Poets of moft Nations, Ovid among the reft, have
fung the Creation, the happintfs of the Golden
Age, the indifcreet curiofity of the firft woman,
the miferies which ifTued from Pandora's Box, and
the Univerfal Deluge, as if they had copied thefe
Hiftories from the Book of Genefis.

To the Mofaic account of the Creation, and the
recent exiftence of the World, have been obje(5ted
the antiquity and the multiplicity of certain lavas
in volcanos. But have thefe obfervations been ac-
curately made ? Volcanos muft have emitted their
fiery currents more frequently in the earlier ages,
U'hen the Earth was more covered with forefts, and
when the Ocean, loaded with it's vegetable fpoils,
fupplied more abundant matter to their furnaces.
Befides, as I have faid in the courfe of this Work,
it is impoffible for us to diftinguifh between what
is old and what is modern in the ftrudure of the
World. The hand of Creation muft have mani-
fefted the imprefs of ages upon it, from the mo-
ment of it's birth. Were we to fuppofe it eternal,

and

74 STUDIES OF NATURE.

and abandoned to the laws of motion fimply, the
period muft be long pad, when there could not
have been the fmallefl: rifing on it's furface. The
adion of the rains, of the winds, and of gravity,
would have brought down every particle of Land
to the level of the Seas.

It is not in the works of GOD, but in thofe of
men, that we are enabled to trace epochs. All
our monuments announce the late Creation of the
Earth which we inhabit. Jf it were, I will not fay
eternal, but of high antiquity only, we fhould,
furely, find fome productions of human induftry
much older than from three to four thoufand years,
fuch as all thofe that we arc acquainted with.
We have certain fubflances on which time makes
no very perceptible alteration. I have feen, in the
pofleflion of the intelligent Count de Caylus, con-
ftellation rings of gold, or Egyptian talifmans, as
entire as if they had juft come from the hand of
the workman. Savages, who have no knowledge
of iron, are acquainted with gold, and fearch after
it, as much for it's durability as for it's fhining
colour. Inftead, then, of finding antiques of only
three or four thoufand years, fuch as thofe of the
moft ancient Nations, we ought to poffefs fome
of fixty, of a hundred, of two hundred thoufand
years.

Lucrelm

STUDY VII. 75

Lucrethis, who afcribes the Creation of the
World to atoms, on a fyftem of Phyfics altogether
unintelligible, admits that it is quite a recent pro-
dudlion.

Praeterea, fi nulla fuit genitalis origo
TerraY & cœli, femperque eterna fiierc.
Cur fupra bellum Thebanum, & funera Trojae,
Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae.

De reruin Natura^ Lib. -v. ver. 325 *.

*' Had Heaven and Earth known no beginning of
*' exiftence, but endured from eternity, why have
** we no Poets tranfmitting to us the knowledge
'' of great events, prior to the Theban war, and
" the downfall of Troy ?"

The Earth is filled with the religious traditions
of our Scriptures : they ferve as a foundation to
the religion of the Turks, the Perfians, and the
Arabians : they extend over the greateft part of
Africa : we find them again in India, from whence
all Nations and all Arts originally proceeded :
We can trace them in the ancient and intricate

* Thus imitated :

If genial Nature gave the Heavens no birth,
And from eternal ages roU'd the Earth,
Why neither wars nor Poets — Sages, tell,
Till Homer fung, how mighty Hedor fell ?

religion

?6

STUDIES OF NATURE.

religion of the Bramins * ; in the Hiftory of Bra-
ma, or Abraham ; of his wife Sarai, or Sara ; in
the incarnations of Wiftnou, or ofChriftnou; in
a word, they are difFufed even among the favage
tribes which traverfe America.

I fay nothing of the monuments of our religion,,
as univerfally diffufed as her traditions, one of
which, inexpUcable on the principles of our Phy-
fics, proves a general Deluge, by the wrecks of
marine bodies fcattered over the furface of the
Globe J the other, irreconcileable to the laws of
Gur Politics, attefts the reprobation of the Jews,
difperfed over all regions, hated, defpifed, perfe-
cuted, without Government, without a Country ;
reverthelefs, always numerous, always fubfifting,
and always tenacious of their Law. To no pur-
pofe have attempts been made to trace refem-
blances between their condition, and that of feve-
ral other Nations, as the Armenians, the Guebres,
and the Banians. But thefe lad-mentioned Na-
tions hardly emigrate beyond the confines of Afia:
their numbers are extremely inconfiderable : they
are neither hated nor perfecuted by other Nations;
they have a Country ; and, finally, they have not
adhered to the rehgion of their anceftors. Cer-

* See Abraham Rogers^ his Hiftory of the Manners of the
bramins,

tain

STUDY VII. 77

tain illuftrious Authors have ftated thefe fuper-
natural proofs of a Divine Juflice, in a very ftrik-
ing light. I fliall fatisfy myfelf with adducing a
few more, flill more affeding, from their corre-
fpondence to Nature, and to the neceffities of
Mankind.

The morality of the Gofpel has been challenged,
becaufe Jesus Christ, in the country of the Ga-
darenes, permitted a legion of demons to take pof-
feffion of a herd of two thoufand fwine, which
were thereby precipitated into the Sea, and chok-
ed. "Why," aik the objeétors, " ruin the pro-
'" prietors of thofe animals ?" Jesus Christ afled
in this as a Legiilator. The perfons to whom the
fwine belonged were Jews ; they tranfgreffed,
therefore, the Law which declares thofe animals
unclean. But here again ftarts up a new objeftion,
levelled at Mofes. *' Why are thofe animals pro-
*' nounced unclean ?" Becaufe, in the Climate of
Judea, they are fubjeâ: to the leprofy. But here
is a freOi triumph for our Wits. *' The Law of
*' Mofes," fay they," was, then, relative to Cli-
" mate j it could be at moft, of confequence, a
*' mere political conftitution." To this I anfwer,
that if I found in either the Old Teftament, or
the New, any ufage whatever which was not rela-
tive to the Laws of Nature, I fliould be ftill more
aftoniflied. It is the character of a Religion di-
vinely

78 STUDIES OF NATURE.

vinely infpired, to be perfecflly adapted to the
happinefs of Man, and to Laws antecedently
enaded by the Author of Nature. From this
want of correfpondence, all falfe religions may be
deteded. And as to the point in queftion, the
Law of Mofes, from it's privations, was evidently
intended to be the Law of a particular People ;
whereas that of the Gofpel, from it's univerfality,
muft have been intended for the whole Human
Race.

Paganifm, Judaifm, Mahometanifm, have all
prohibited the ufe of certain fpecies of animal
food ; fo that if one of thofe religions fhould be-
come univerfal, it would produce either total de-
flru6lion, or unbounded multiplication ; each of
which evidently would violate the plan of the
Creation. The Jews and Turks proicribe pork ;
the Indians of the Ganges reverence the heifer and
the peacock. There is not an animal exifting
which would not ferve as a Feticha to fome Negro,
or as a Manitou to fome Savage. The Chriftian
Religion alone permits the neceffary ufe of all ani-
mals ; and prefcribes abftinence from thofe of the
Land, only at the feafon when they are procreating,
and when thofe of the Sea abound on the fliores,
early in the Spring *.

* Is it poflible to abftain from fmiling ? No, the prejudices
of education, in a good man, excite a ferious emotion, in a be-
nevolent

STUDY VII. 79

All religions have filled their temples with car-
nage, and immolated to Deity the life of the

nevolent mind. Brought up in the habit of abftinence from
animal food, during the feafon of Lent, good M. de Saint-
Pierre takes it for granted, that this is an inftitution of Chrifti-
anity, and endeavours ingenioufly to reconcile it to a law
of Nature. But the truth is, the Gofpel contains no fuch
injunftion ; and the univerfality of that religion is ftill greater
than even the enlarged mind of our Author apprehended, in
one refpeél at leaft. How can it be imagined, that Jesus
Christ, in faftingfo long in the Wildernefs, intended to fet the
example, of an annual abftinence of the fame duration, to his
difciples ? What Jew ever thought of making Mofes a pattern
iii this fame refpeft ? But While I regret the power of prejudice
in another, let me take care that my own be overcome ; or if
any remain, that they be harmlefs, or rather on the fide of
virtue.

In the very next paragraph, our Author is betrayed into a
fimilar mi (lake, refpefting the nature and defign of the Sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper, by the phrafe in ufe, in that Church
whofe communion he had, from education, adopted. That or-
dinance is, in Roman Catholic countries, denominated they^-
crifice of the mafs. Carried away by the word faaijice, M. de
Saint-Pierre is led to reprefent the Chriftian Worfliipper as pre-
fenting to GOD, in " the Sacrament, an offering of bread and
wine. But it is not fo. He is commanded to take and eat, to
take a?id drink, in remembrance of Christ. The facrifice
which Chriftianity demands, and which every fincere commu-
nicant prefents to GOD, is the Iming facrifice of himfelf, which
St. Pauls calls our reafonable fervice. We meet, however, with a
beautiful train of thought, in what follows, refpefting the ele-
mentary part of the inftitution, ftrongly charaéleriftic of a pious,
penetrating, and comprehenfive mind ; and which the devout
Proteftant may perufe to advantage. H. H.

brute

So STUDIES OF NATURE.

brute creation. The Bramins themfelves, fo full
of compaffion to the beafts, prefent to their idols
the blood and life of men. The Turks offer in
facrifice camels and Iheep. Our Religion, more
pure, if we attend merely to the matter of the fa-
crifice, prefents in homage to GOD bread and
\vine, which are the mofh delicious gifts which He
has beftowed on Man. Nay, here we muft ob-
ferve, that the vine, which grows, from the Line
up to the fifty -fécond degree of North Latitude,
and from England to Japan, is the moft widely
diffufed of all fruit-trees ; that corn is almoft the
only one of alimentary plants which thrives in ali
Climates ; and that the liquor of the one, and the
flour of the other, is capable of being preferved
for ages, and of being tranfported to every corner
of the Earth.

All religions have permitted to men, a plurality
of women in marriage : Chriftianity permitted
but one, long before our Politicians had obferved
that the two fexes are born in nearly equal num-
bers. All have boafted of their genealogies ; and,
regarding with contempt moft other Nations, have
permitted their votaries, when they had it in their
power, to reduce them to a ftate of flavery. Ours
alone has protedted the liberty of all men, and has
called them back to one and the fame deftination,
as to one and the lame origin. The religion of

the

STUDY VII. 8l

the Indians promifes pleafure in this world ; that
of the Jews, riches; that of the Turks, conqueft:
ours enjoins the pracftice of virtue, and promifes
the reward of it in Heaven. Chriftianity alone
knew that our unbounded paffions were of divine
original. It has not limited love, in the heart of Man,
to wife and children, but extends it to all Man-
kind : it circumfcribes not ambition to the fphere
of a party, to the glory of one Nation, but has
dircded it to Heaven and Immortality : Our Re-
ligion intended that our paffions fliould miniiler
as wings to our virtues *. So far from uniting us

on

* Religion alone gives a fiiblime charafter to our paffions.
It difFufes charms ineffable over innocence, and communicates
a divine majefty to grief. Of this I beg leave to quote two in-
llances. The one is extrafted from an account, not in very
high eftimation, of the Ifland of St. Erini, (chap, xii.) by Fa-
ther Francis Richard^ a jefuit-miffionary ; but which contains
fome things that pleafe me from their native fimplicity. Of the
other I was an eye-witnefs.

" After dinner,'' fays Father Richard, " I retired to St.
*' George's, which is the principal Church of the Ifland of
** Stamphalia. There one of the Papas prefented to me a book
*' of the Gofpels, in order to difcover if I could read their lan-
" guage as well as I fpake it. Another came and afked me,
* whether our holy father the Pope were a married man. But
" I was ftill more amufed by the queftion of an old woman,
*' who, after looking fteadily at me for a confiderable time, be-
*' fought me to tell her if 1 really believed in GOD and in the
*' Holy Trinity. Yes, faid I, and to give her full aflurance of

VOL. u. « '* it.

STUDIES OF NATURE.

on Earth, to render us miferable, it is flie who
burfls afunder the chains by -which we are held
captive. How many calamities has flie foothed !

how

*' it, I made the fign ofthecrofs. O! how glad I am, fays

" flie, that you are a Chriftian ! We had fome doubt of it. Oa

*' this I pulled from my bofom the crofs which I wore : The

" wom.an, quite tranfported with joy, exclaimed, Why fliould

" we any longer call in queftion his being a good Catholic,

*' feeing he worfliips the crofs ! After her, another ap-

*' plied to me, of whom I afked, whether fhe had a mind to

** confefs. How ! replied Ihe, would it not be a fin to confefs

'• to fuch gentlemen as you ? No, faid I, for though I am

*' French, I confefs in Greek. 1 will go, replied fhe, and alk

*' our Bifliop. In a little while flie returned, perfectly de-

" lighted at having obtained his permiffion. After confeffion,

" I gave her an Agnus Dei, which flie went about and fhewed

*' to every one, as a curiofity which they had never feen before.

*' I was prefently befet by a multitude of women and children,

*' who prefled me to give them fome. I anfwered, that thofe

*' Agnnfcs were given only to fiich as had confefTed. In or-

" der to gain their point, they inftantly offered to confefs,

" and wanted to do fo by pairs ; that is to fay, a young girl

*' with her female confident, a young man with his bofom-

*' friend, whom they denominate «SsXipoTjs/ôo», Adclphopeithon,

*' confidential brother, alleging as a reafon, that they had but

*' one heart ; and that, therefore, there oiight to be nothing fe-

" cret between them.. It was with difficulty I could feparate

*' them ; however they were under the neceflity of fubmit-

" ting."

Some years ago, I happened to be at Dieppe, about the time
of the autumnal Equinox; and a gale of wind having fprung
up, as is common at that feafon, I went to look at it's effefts

on

STUDY VII. S3

how many tears has (lie wiped away ! how mahy
hopes has (lie inrpired, when there was no longer
room for hope ! how many doors of mercy thrown

open

bn the fea-fliore. It might be about noon. Several large boats
had gone out of the harbour in the morning, on a ftfliing expe-
dition. While I was obferving their manœuvres, I perceived
a company of country lafles, handfome, as the Caucboifes gene-
rally are, coming out of the city, with their long white head
drefles, which the wind fet a flying about their faces. They
advanced playfully to the extremity of the pier, which was,
from time to time, covered with the fpray which the dailiing of
the waves excited. One of them kept aloof, fad and thoughtful.
She looked wiftfully at the dilbnt boats, fome of which were
hardly perceptible, amidfl a very black Horizon. Her com-
rades, at firft, began to rally, with an intention to arnufe her;
What, faid they, is your fvveetheart yonder? But findirg her
continue iuflexibiy penfive, they called out, Come, come, don't
let us flop any longer here ! Why do you make yourfelf fo un-
eafy? Return, return with us; and they refumed the road that
led to town. The young woman followed them with a flow
pace, without making any reply, and when they had got nearly
out erf fight, behind fome heaps of pebbles which are on the
road, flie approached a great crucifix, that ftands about the
middle of the pier, took fome money out of her pocket, drop-
ped it into the little chell: at the foot of the crofs; then kneeled
down, and with clafped hands, and eyes lifted up to Heaven,
put up her prayer. The billows breaking with a deafening
noife on the fliore, the wind which agitated the large lanterns
of the crucifix, the danger at fea, the uneafinefs on the laud,
confidence in Heaven, gave to the love of this poor country
girl, an extent, and a dignity, which the Palaces of the Great
cannot communicate to their paffions.

G 2 It

84 STUDIES OF NATURE.

open to the guilty Î how many fupports given to
innocence ! Ah ! when her ahars arofe amidft our
forefts, enfanguined by the knives of the Druids,
how the oppreffed flocked to them in quell of an
afylum ! How many irreconcileable enemies there
embraced with tears ! Tyrants, melted to pity,
felt, from the height of their towers, their arms
drop from their hands. They had known the
Empire only of terror, and they faw that of charity
fpring up in it's room. Lovers ran thither to
mingle vows, and to fwear a mutual afîeétion,
which fhould furvive even the tomb. She did
not allow a fingle day to hatred, and promifed
eternity to love. Ah ! if this Religion was dé-
fi gned only for the confoiation of the miferable,
it was, of courfe, defigned to promote that of the
Human Race !

It was not long before her tranquillity returned ; for all the
boats gained the harbour a few hours afterward, without having
fuftained the flighteft injury.

Religion has been frequently calumniated, by having the
blame of our political evils laid to her charge. Hear what
Montagne, who lived in the midll of thofe civil wars, fays on
this fubjeft : " Let us confefs the iruth : Whoever fhould make
" a draught from the army, even the moft legally embodied,
*' of thofe who ferve from the zeal of a religious affeélion, and
*« add to them, fuch as regard only the proteftion of the laws
«' of their Country, or the fervice of the Prince, would find it
" difficult to make up of them one complete company of fol-
" diers." Effays^ Book ii. chap. xii. page 317.

Whatever

STUDY VII. 85

Whatever may may have been faid of tlie am-
bition of the Church of Rome, fhe has frequently
interpofed in behalf of fuffering humanity. I
produce an inllance taken at random, and which
I fubmit to the judgment of the Reader. It is on
the fubjeâ: of the African flave-trade, which is
pradifed without fcruple by all the Chriftian and
maritime Powers of Europe, and condemned by
the Court of Rome. *' In the fécond year of his
" miffion, Merolla was left alone at Segno, by
" the death of the Superior General, whofe place
*^ Father Jojeph BiiJJeto went to fill at the Convent
" of Angola. Much about the fame time, the
" Capuchin miffionaries received a letter from
*' Cardinal Cibo, in name of the facred College.
" It contained fevere reproaches on the conlinua-
" tion of the fale of ilaves, and earneft remon-
*' ftrances, to put an end, at laft, to that abomi-
" nable traffic. But they faw little appearance of
" having it in their power to execute the orders of
** the Holy See, becaufe the commerce of the
" Country confifts entirely in ivory and flaves *.'*
All the efforts of the mifllonaries iffued fimply in
an exclufion of the Englidi from a (hare of the
traffic.

* Extraâ: koxn the General Hijîcry of Foyages, by the Abbe
Prevoji. Book xxii. page 180: Merolla. A. D. 1633.

G 3 The

86 STUDIES OF NATURE.

The Earth would be aparadife, were the Chrif-
tiaii Religion producing univerfally it's native
efFeds. It is Chriflianity which has aboliflied 11a-
very in the greateft part of Europe. It wrefted,
in France, enormous poffefiions out of the hands
of the Earls and Barons, and deftroyed there a
part of their inhuman rights, by the terrors of a
life to come. But the people oppofed ftill another
bulwark to tyranny, and that was the power of the
Women.

Our Hiftorians are at pains to remark the in-
fluence which fome women have had under certain
reigns, but never that of the fex in general. They
do not write the Hiftory of the Nation, but
merely the Hiftory of the Princes. Women are
nothing in their eyes, unlefs they are decorated
with titles. It was, however, from this feeble di-
vifion of Society, that Providence, from time to
time, called forth it's principal defenders. 1 fay
nothing of ihofe intrepid females, who have repel-
led, even by arms, the invaders of their country,
fuch as Joan of Arc ^ to whom Rome and Greece
would have erecfted altars : I fpeak of thofe who
have defended the nation from internal foes, much
more formidable ftill than foreign affailants ; of
thofe who are powerful from their weaknefs, and
who have nothing to fear, becaufe they have no-
thing to hope.

From

STUDY VII. 87

From the fceptre down to the fliepherdefles
crook, there is, perhaps, no countrj/^ in Europe
where women are treated fo unkindly by the Laws,
as in France J and there is no one where they have
more power. I believe it is the only kingdom of
Europe where they are abfoiutely excluded from
the throne. In my country, a father can many
his daughters, without giving them any oiher por-
tion than a chaplet of rofes : at his death, they
have all together only the portion of a younger
child. This unjuft diftribution of property is
common to the clown as to the gentleman. In
the other parts of the kingdom, if they are richer,
they are not happier. They are rather fold, than
given, in marriage. Of a hundred young women,
who there enter into the married ftate, there is not,
perhaps, one who is united to her lover. Their
condition was even ftill more wretched in former
times. Cefar, in his Commentaries, informs us,
*' That the hufband had the power of life and
*' death over his wife, as well as over his children ;
*' that when a man of noble birth happened to die,
" the relations of the family affembled ; if there
" was the llighteft lliadow of fufpicion againft his
" wife, (he was put to the torture as a flave ; and
*' if found guilty, was condemned to the flames,
*' after a previous procefs of inexpreffible fuiîer-
" ing *."

* Gallic War, book vi.

G 4 What

88 STUDIES OF NATURE.

What is fingularly flrange, at that very time,
and even before, they enjoyed the moft unbounded
power. Hear what the good Plutarch fays on the
fubjed, as he is communicated to us, through the
medium of the good Amyot. *' Before the Gauls
** had pafled the Alps, and got pofleffion of that
*' part of Italy which they now inhabit, a violent
*' and alarming fedition arofe among them, which
" iffued in a civil war. But their wives, juft as
" the two armies were on the point of engaging,
" threw themfelves into the intervening fpace ;
" and taking up the caufe of their diffenfion, dif-
" cuffed it with fo much wifdom, and decided
" upon it with fuch moderation and equity, that
** they gave complete fatisfadion to both parties.
" The refult was an unanimous return to mutual
" benevolence, and cordial friendfhip, which re-
" united not only city to city, but family to fa-
" mily : and this with fo much effeél, that ever
" fince, they invariably confult their wives, on all
*' deliberations, whether refpeding war or peace;
" and they fettle all difputes and differences with
*' neighbours and allies, conformably to the advice
*' of the women. Accordingly, in the agreement
*' which they made with Hannibal^ when he march-
*' ed through Gaul, among other flipulations, this
" was one, that if the Gauls fhould have occaiion
*' to complain of any injury done them by the
" Carthaginians, the caufe was to be fubmitted to

"the

STUDY VII.

89

** the decifion of the Carthaginian Officers and
" Governors ferving in Spain : and if, on the con-
'' trary, the Carthaginians could allege any ground
" of complaint againft the Gauls, the matter
" (hould be left to the determination of the Wives
" of the Gauls *."

It will be difficult to reconcile thefe two clafliinor

o

authorities, unlefs we pay attention to the re-ac-
tion of human things. The power of women pro-
ceeds from their oppreffion. The commonalty,
as opprefled as they, gave them their confidence,
as they had given theirs to the people. Both par-
ties were wretched, but mifery attraded them to-
ward each other, and they made a common ftock
of woe. They decided with the greater equity,
that they had nothing to gain or lofe. To the
women we muft afcribe the fpirit of gallantry, the
thoughtlelTnefs, the gaiety, and, above all, the
tafte for raillery, which have, at all times, charac-
terized our Nation. With a fong fimply, they
have oftener than once made our tyrants tremble.
Their ballads have fent many a banner into the
field, and put many a battalion to flight. It is by
them that ridicule has acquired fuch a prodigious
influence in France, as to have become the moft

* Plutarch, vol. ii. in folio : Virtuous Adions of Women ;
page 233.

terrible

pO STUDIES OF NATURE.

terrible weapon which it is poffible to employ,
though it be the armour only of the weak, becaiife
women are the firfl: to lay hold of it ; and as, from
national prejudice, their efteem is the firft of blef-
fings, it follows, that their contempt muft be the
mod grievous calamity imaginable *,

Cardinal Richlieu having, at laft, reftored to
Kings the legiflative authority, thereby ftripped
the Nobility, in a great meafure, of the power of
injuring each other by civil wars ; but he was not
able to abolifh among them the rage for duelling,
becaufe the root of this prejudice is in the people,
and becaufe edids have no power over their opi-
nions when they are opprefled. The edidt of the
Prince prohibits the gentleman to go to meet his
antagonift in fingle combat, and the opinion of his

* A provincial Academy, fome years ago, propofed this

queftion as the fubjeft for the prize of Saint Lcuis ; " In what

" manner female education might be made to contribute to-

" ward rendering men better ?" I treated it, and was guilty of

committing two faults of ignorance, not to mention others.

The firlt was, my prefuming to write on fuch a fubjecl, after

Fenelcn had compofed an excellent treatife on the educ ation of

young women; and the fécond, to think of arguing for truth

in an Academy. The one in queftion did not beftow the prize,

and recalled it's fubjeft. All that can be faid on this queftion

is, that in every country, women are indebted for their empire,

only to their virtues, and to the intereft which they have always

taken in behalf of the miferable.

valet-

STUDY VII. 91

valet -de- chambre forces him out. The Nobility
arrogate to then:ifelves all the national honour, but
the People determine for them the obje6l of it, and
allot it's proportions. Louis XIV. however, gave
back to the People, a part of their natural liberty,
by means of his very defpotifm. As he hardly faw
any thing elfe in the world, except himfelf, every
one appeared in his eyes nearly equal. It was his
wifli, that all his fubjefts fliould have permiflion
to contribute their exertions toward the extenfion
of his glory, and he rewarded them in proportion
as fuch exertions had promoted this end. The
defire of pleafmg the Prince reduced all ranks to
a level. Under that reign, of confequence, were
feen multitudes of men of all clafTes, rendering
themfelves eminent, each in his feveral way. But
the misfortunes of that great King, and perhaps
his policy, having obliged him to defcend to the
fale of employments, of which the pernicious ex-
ample had been fet him by his predecefTors, and
which has been extended, fince his time, to the
meaneft offices in the State, this gave the finifiiing
ftroke to the ancient preponderancy of the Nobi-
lity J but it gave rife, in the Nation, to a power
much more dangerous ^ that of gold. This,
this has levelled every rival influence, and tri-
umphed over even the power of women *.

* As mofl men are fhocked at abiifes, only by feeing them in
detail, becaule every thing great dazzles, and commands refpeft,

I dial I

9^

STUDIES OF NATURE.

And firft, the Nobility, having preferved a
part of their privileges, in the country ; trades-
people polTelTed of fome fortune, do not chafe to
live there, for fear of being expofed, on the one
hand, to infult, and of being confounded, on the
other, with the peafantry, by paying tallage and
drawing for the militia. They hke better to live
in fmall cities, where a multitude of financial em-
ployments and revenues enable them to fubfift in
indolence and liftleffhefs, rather than to vivify the
fields which degrade their cultivators. Hence it
comes to pafs, that fmall landed eftates fink in
value, and are year after year falling into the
hands of the great proprietors. The rich, who
make the purchafes of them, parry the inconveni-
enciçs to which they are fubjed, either by their

I fhall here produce a few inftances of the effeft of venaiity in
the lower orders of Society. All the fubaltern conditions which
naturally rank under others, of right, are become the fuperiors,
in faft, merely becaufe they are the richer. Accordingly, it is the
Apothecary, now-a-days, who has the employing of the Phyfi-
cian ; the Attorney of the Advocate ; the Handicraft of the Mer-
chant ; the Mafter-mafon of the Architeél ; the Bookfeller of
the Scholar, even thofe of the Academy ; the Chair-hirer in

Church, of the Preacher, &c. 1 fhall fay no more. It is

eafy to fee to what all this leads. From tins venality alone mud
enfue the decline of all talents. It is, in faft, abundantly per-
ceptible, on comparing thofe of the age in which we live, with
thofe of the age of Louis XIV.

perfonal

STUDY VII. 93

perfonal nobility, or by buying off the impolis
under which they labour.

I know well, that a celebrated Farmer-general,
fome years ago, greatly cried up the over-grown
proprietors, becaufe, as he alleged, they could af-
ford to give a better bargain than the fmaller :
but without confidering whether they could fell
corn cheaper, and all the other confequences of
the nett produce , which attempts have been made
to eftablifli as the alone ftandard and objeft of
agriculture, nay, of morality ; it is certain, that
if any given number of wealthy families were, year
after year, to purchafe the lands which might lie
commodioufly for them, fuch family bargains
would fpeedily become fatal to the State. I have
often been aftoniQied, that there is no law in
France, to prevent the unbounded accumulation
of landed property. The Romans had cenfors,
who limited, in the firfl inftance, the extent of a
man's poffeflion to feven acres, as being fufficient
for the fubfiftence of one family. By the word
which we tranflate acre, was underftood as much
land as a yoke of oxen could plow in one day.
As Rome increafed in luxury, it was extended to
five hundred : but even this Law, though indul-
gent in the extreme, was foon infringed, and the
infradion hurried forward the ruin of the Re-
public.

** Extenfive

94 STUDIES OF NATURE.

" Extenfive parks," fays 'Pliny *, *' and un-
*' unbounded domains, have ruined our own Italy,
*' and the Provinces which the Romans have con-
*' quered : for that which occafioned the viélories,
*' obtained by Nero (the Confulj in Africa, was
*' fimply this, fix men were in poffeffion of al-
*' moft one half of Numidia, when Nero defeated
*' them." Plutarch informs us, that in his time,
under Trajan^ you could not have raifed three
thoufand men in all Greece, which had formerly
furnifhed armies fo numerous; and that you might
have fometimes travelled a whole day, on the high
roads, without meeting a human being, except
now and then a draggling folitary fiiepherd. The
reafon was, Greece had by this time been parcelled
out among a few great proprietors.

Conquerors have always met with a very feeble
refiftance in countries where property is very un-
equally divided. We have examples of this in all
ages, from the invafion of the Lower-Empire by
the Turks, down to that of Poland in our own
days. Overgrown eilates deftroy the fpirit of pa-
triotifm, at once, in thofe who have every thing,
and in thofe who have nothing. *' The Ihocks of
** corn," faid Xenophon^ " inlpire thofe who raife
*' them with courage to defend them. The fight

* Natural Hiltory, Book xviii. chap. iii. and vi.

" of

STUDY VII. 9^

** of them in the fields, is as a prize exhibited in
" the middle of the theatre, to crown the con-
*' queror.^

Such is the danger to which exceffive inequality
of property expofes a State outwardly; let us take
a look of the internal mifchief which it produces.
I have heard a perfon of undoubted veracity re-
late, that an old Comptroller-general having re-
tired to his native province, made a very confider-
able purchafe in land. His eftate was furrounded
by about fifty fmali manors, the annual rent of
which might be from fifteen hundred to two thou-
fand livres each *. The proprietors of thefe were
good country-gentlemen, who had through a fuc-
cefiion of generations fupplied their Country with
gallant officers and refpeftable matrons. The
Comptroller-general, defirous of extending his
landed property, invited them to his caftle, enter-
tained them magnificently, gave them a tafte for
Parifian luxury, and concluded with an offer of
double the value of their efi:ates, if they thought
proper to difpofe of them. They to a man ac-
cepted his offer, imagining they were going to
double their revenue, and in the hope, no kfs falla-
cious to a country gentleman, of fecuring a power-
ful proteftor at Court. But the difficulty of laying

* About from fixty to fourfcore guineas.

out

pÔ STUDIES OF NATURE.

out their money to advantage, a tafte for elegant
expenfe, infpired by the fight of fiims of money
fuch as they never before had in their coffers, in a
word, frequent journies to Paris, and back to the
country, foon meked away the price of their pa-
trimony. Thefe refpedable families difappeared
one after another ; and thirty years afterward, one
of their defcendants, who could reckon among his
ancefhors a long fucceffion of captains of dragoons,
and knights of St. Louis, was found fcampering
over his paternal inheritance, on foot, foliciting
the place of keeper of a falt-office, to keep him
from ftarving.

Such are the mifchiefs produced among the ci-
tizens of a country, by the exceffive accumulation
of property. Thofe produced on the ftate of the
lands are not lefs to be deplored. I was, fome
years ago, in Normandy, at the houfe of a gentle-
man in affluent circumftances, who cultivated,
himfelf, a very confiderable grafs-farm, fituaied
on a rifing ground, of a very indifferent foil. He
walked me round his vaft enclofure, till we came
to a large fpace, completely over-run with moflfes,
horfetail, and thillles. Not a blade of good grafs
was to be feen. The foil, in truth, was at once
ferruginous and marfhy. They had interfered it
with many trenches, to drain off the water, but
all to no purpofe : nothing could grow.

Immediately

STUDY VII. 97

Immediately below, there was a feries of fmall
farms, the face of which was clothed with grafly
verdure, planted with apple-trees in full fruit, and
enclofed with tall alder-trees. The cows were
feeding among the trees of the orchards, while the
country-girls fung, as they were fpinning, around
the door. Thefe " native wood-notes wild," re-
peated from diftance to didance, under the fliade
of the trees, communicated to this little hamlet, a
vivacity which increafed flill more the nakednefs,
and the depreffing folitude, of the fpot where we
were. I alked it's pofleflbr. How it came to pafs,
that lands fo contiguous, fhould prefent an afpeâ:
fo very different ?

" They are," replied he, " of the feif-fame na-
" ture, and there formerly were, on this very fpot,
*' fmall houles fimilar to thofe which you fee be-
** low. I made a purchafe of them, but (adly to my
*' lofs. Their late inhabitants having abundance
** of leifure, and a fmall compafs of ground on
*' their hands, cleared away the moffes, the thif-
" ties, manured it ; up fprung the grafs. Had
*' they a mind to plant ? They dug holes, they
*' removed the ftones, and filled them with good
*^ mould, which they went to colleft from the
*^ bottom of the ditches, and along the high-way's
*i fide. Their trees took root and profpered.
*' But all thefe neceflary operations coll me incre-

voL. II. H " dible

98 STUDIES OF NATURE.

" dible time and expenfe. I never was able to
*' make out the common intereft of my money."

I am bound in juftice to remark, that this
wretched fleward, but excellent gentleman, in
every fenfe of that word, was at that very time re-
lieving, by his charity, moft of thofe ancient far-
mers, now difabled to earn a livelihood. Here,
then, is another inftance of both men and lands
rendered ufelefs, by the injudicious extenfion of
property. It is not upon the face of vafl domains,
but into the bofom of induftry, that the Father
of Mankind pours out the precious fruits of the
Earth.

I could eafily demonflrate, that enormous pro-
perty is the principal caufe of the multiplication
of the poor all over the kingdom, for the very
reafon which has procured it the elogium of many
of our Writers, namely, that it fpares men the
labours of agriculture. There are many places,
where there is no employment to give the peafan-
try during a confiderable part of the year; but I
Ihall infift only on their wretchednefs, which feems
to increafe with the riches of the diftriâ: where
their lot is caft.

The diilrid of Caux is the mofl fertile country
which 1 know in the World. Agriculture, on the

great

STUDY VII. 99

great fcale, is there carried to the height of perfec-
tion. The deepnefs of the foil, which, in fome
places, ex:ends to five and fix feet ; the manure-
fupplied from the flratum of marl over which it
is raifed, and that of the marine plants. on it's
(hores, which are fpread over it's ftirface, concur
toward clothing it with the noblefb vegetables.
The corn, the trees, the cattle, the women, the
men are there handfomer and more vigorous than
any where elfe. But as the Laws have affigned, in
that province, in every family, two thirds of the
landed property to the firft-born, you find there
unbounded affluence, on the one hand, and ex-
treme indigence, on the other.

I happened one day to be walking through this
"fine country ; and admired, as I went, it's plains
fo well cultivated, and fo extenfive, that the eye
lofes itfelf in the unbounded profpcft. Their long
ridges of corn, humouring the undulations of the
plain, and terminating only in villages, and caftles
furrounded with venerable trees, prefented the ap-
pearance of a Sea of verdure, with here and there
an ifland rifing out of the Horizon. It was in the
month of March, and very early in the morning.
It blew extremely cold from the North-eaft. I
perceived fomething red running acrofs the fields,
at fome diftance, and making toward the great
road, about a quarter of a league before me. I
H 2 quickened

100 STUDIES OF NATURE.

quickened my pace, and got np in time enough
to fee that they were two little girls in red jackets
and wooden flioes, who, with much difficulty,
were fcrambling through the ditch which bounded
the road. The talleft, who might be about fix or
feven years old, was crying bitterly. " Child,"
faid I to her, *' what makes you cry, and whither
** are you going at fo early an hour ?" *' Sir,"
replied fhe, " my poor mother is very ill. There
*' is not a mefs of broth to be had in all our pa-
** rifli. We are going to that church in the bot-
*' torn, to try if the Curé of this parilh can find us
*' forae. I am crying becaufe my little filler is
** not able to walk any firther." As flie fpake,
llie wiped her eyes with a bit of canvas, which
ferved her for'a petticoat. On her raifing up the
rag to her face, I could perceive that fiie had not
the femblance of a fhift. The abjeâ: mifery of
thefe children, fo poor, in the midft of plains fo
fruitful, wrung my heart. The relief which I
could adminifter to them was fmall indeed. I
myfelf was then on my way to fee mifery in other
forms.

The number of wretches is fo great, in the bed
cantons of this province, that they amount to a
fourth, nay, to a third of the inhabitants in every
parilli. The evil is continually on the increafe.
Thefe obfervations are founded on my perfonal

experience.

STUDY VII.- loi

experience, and on the teftimony of many parifli-
miniilers of undoubted veracity. Some Lords of
the Manor order a diftribution of bread to be
made, once a week, to moft of their peafantry, to
eke out their Uvelihood. Ye ftewards of the pub-
lic, refledt that Normandy is the richeft of our
provinces ; and extend your calculations, and your
proportions, to tlie reft of the Kingdom ! Let the
morality of the financier fuperfede that of the Gof-
pel ; for my own part, I defire no better proof of
the fuperiority of Religion to the reafonings of
Philofophy, and of the goodnefs of the national
heart to the enlarged views of our policy, than
thi^, that notwithftanding, the deficiency imputable
to our laws, and our errors in almoft every refpedV,
the State continues to fupport itfelf, becaufe cha-
rity and humanity almoft conftantly interpofe in
^id of Government.

Picardy, Brittany, and other provinces, are in-
comparably more to be pitied than Normandy.
If there be twenty-one millions of perfons in
France, as is alleged, there muft be then, at leaft,
feven millions of paupers. This proportion by no
means diminilhes in the cities, as may be con-
cluded from the number of foundlings in Paris,
which amounts, one year with another, to fix or
feven thoufand, whereas the number of children,
not abandoned by their parents, does not exceed,.

H 7, in

102 STUDIES OF NATURE.

in that city, fourteen or fifteen thoufand. And
it is reafonable to fuppofc, that among thefe laft,
there muft be a very confiderable proportion the
progeny of indigent families. The others are partly,
it muft be admitted, the fruit of libertinifm ; but
irregularity in morals proves equally the mifery
of the people, and even more powerfully, as it
conftrains them at once to renounce virtue, and
to flifle the very firft feelings of Nature.

The fpirit of finance has accumulated all thefe
woes on the head of the People, by ftripping them,
of moll of the means of fubfiilence ; but, what is
infinitely more to be regretted, it has fapped the
foundations of their morality. It no longer efteems
or commends any but thofe who are making a for-
tune. If any refpecl be ftill paid by it, to talents
and virtue, this is the only reafon, it confiders
thefe as one of the roads to wealth. Nay, what,
in the phrafe of the world, is called good company,
has hardly any other way of thinking. But I
fhould be glad to know, whether there be any ho-
nourable method of making a fortune, for a man
who has not already got money, in a country
where every thing is put up to fale. A man muft,
at Icaft, intrigue, unite himfelf to a party and flat-
ter it, fecure puffers and protedlors ; and for this
purpofe he muft be diflioneft, corrupt, adulate,
deceive, adopt another man's pafTions, good or

bad.

STUDY Vil.

103

bad, in a word, let himfelf down in one Qiape or
another. I have feen perfons attain every variety
of firuation ; but, I fpeak it without referve,
whatever praife may have been beftowed on their
merit, and though many of them really had merit,
I never faw any one, even of the ftrifteft honour,
raife himfelf, and preferve his fituation, but by the
facrifice of fome virtue.

Let us now look at the re-aflions of thefe evils.
The people ufually balance the vices of their op-
preflbrs by their own. They oppofe corruption to
corruption. From the prolific womb of vulgar
debauchery ifTues a monftrous fwarm of buffoons,
comedians, dealers in luxury of every fort, nay,
even men of letters, who, to flatter the rich, and
fave themfelves from indigence, extend diffipation
of manners and of opinions to the remoteft extre-
mity of Europe. In the clafs of the unmarried
vulgar, we find the moft powerful bulwark op-
pofed to rank and wealth. As this is a very nume-
rous body, and comprehends not only the youth
of both fexes, who, with us, do not form early
marriages, but an infinite number of men befides,
who, from peculiarity of condition, or want of
fortune, are deprived, as youth is, of the honours
of Society, and of the firft pleafures of Nature,
they conftitute a formidable affociation, which has
all reputations at their mercy, together with the

H 4 power

104 STUDIES OF NATURE.

power of difturbing the peace of all families. Thefe
are the perfons who retail, for a dinner, that in-
exhauftible collection of anecdotes, favourable or
unfavourable, which are^ in every inftance, to re-
gulate public opinion.

It is not in the power of a rich man to marry a
handfome wife, and enjoy himfelf at home in his
own way ; thofe perfons lay him under the necef-
lîty, unlefs he would be laughed at, that is, under
pain of the fevereft evil which can befal a Frencli-
man, of making his wife the central point of all
fafliionable fociety ; he muft exhibit her at all
public places ; and adopt the manners which his
plebeian dictators think proper to prefcribe, how-
ever contradiélory they may be to Nature, and
however inconfiftent with conjugal felicity. While,
as a regularly embodied army, they difpofe of the
reputation and the pleafures of the rich, two of
the columns attack their fortune in front, in two
different ways. The one employs the method of
intimidation, and the other that of feduâ:ion.

I (hall not here confine my reflsélions to the
power and wealth gradually acquired by fevetal
religious orders, but extend them to their number
in general. Some politicians pretend, that France
would become too populous, were there no con-
vjnts in it. Are England and Holland over-
peopled,

STUDY Vil. 105

peopled, where there is no fuch thing ? It betrays,
befides, little acquaintance with the refources of
Nature. The more inhabitants any country con-
tains, the more produftive it is. France could
maintain, perhaps, four times more people than it
now contains, were it, like China, parcelled out
into a great number of fmall freeholds. We muft
not form our judgment of it's fertility from it's
immenfe domains. Thefe vafl, deferred diftriâis
yield only one crop in two years, or, at moft, two
in three. But with how many crops, and how
many men, are fmall tenements covered 1 Obferve,
in the vicinity even of Paris, the meadow-land of
St. Gervais. The foil is, in general, of a middling
quality; and, nothwithftanding, there is no fpe-
cies of vegetable which our Climate admits of,
but what the induftry of cultivation is there ca-
pable of producing. You fee at once fields of
corn, meadow grounds, kitchen-gardens, flower-
plots, fruit-trees, and flately foreft-trees. I have
feen there, in the fame field, cherry-trees growing
in potatoe-beds ; vines clambering up along the
cherry-trees, and lofty walnut-trees riling above
the vines ; four crops, one above another, within
the earth, upon the earth, and in the air. No
hedge is to be feen there, feparating pofTeffion
from pofTelîion, but an inter-communication wor-
thy of the Golden Age.

Here

I06 STUDIES OF NATURE,

Here a young ruftic, with a bafket and ladder,
mounts a fruit-tree, like another Vertumms j while
fome young girl, in a winding of the adjoining
valley, fings her fong loud enough to be heard by
him, prefenting the image of another Pomona. If
cruel prejudices have flricken with fteriliiy and fo-
litude a confiderable part of France, and hence-
forth allot the pofleffion of a great Kingdom to a
little handful of proprietors, how is it that, inftead
of Founders of new orders. Founders of new co-
lonies do not arife among us, as among the Egyp
tians and the Greeks ? Shall France never have to
boaft of an Inachus, and of a Danaus f Why do we
force the African tribes to cultivate our lands in
America, while our own peafantry is ftarving for
want of employment at home ? Why do we not
tranfport thither our miferable poor by families ;
children, old men, lovers, coufms, nay, the very
churches and faints of our villages, that they may
find in thofe far diftant lands, the loves and the
illufions of a country.

Ah ! had liberty and equality been invited to
thofe regions, where Nature does fo much with
moderate cultivation, the cottages of the New
World would, at this day, have been preferable
to the palaces of the Old. Will another Arcadia
never fpring up in fome corner of the Earth ?
When I imagined 1 had fome influence with men

in

STUDY VII. 107

in power, I endeavoured to exert it in projeds of
this nature ; but I have never had the fehcity of
falling in with a fingle one, who took a warm inte-
reft in the happinefs of Mankind. I have endea-
voured to trace, at lead, the plan of them, as a le-
gacy to thofe who fliall come after me, but the
clouds of calamity have fpread a gloom over my
own life ; and the poffibility of enjoying happi-
nefs, even in a dream, is no longer my portion.

Politicians have confidered war itfelf as nccef-
fary to a State, becaufe, as they pretend, it takes
off the fuperflux of Mankind. In general, they
have a very limited knowledge of Human Nature.
Independent of the refources of the fub-divifion
of property into fmall allotments, which every
where multiply the fruits of the Earth, we may
reft afliired, that there is no country but what has
the means of emigration within it's reach, efpe-
cially fince the difcovery of the New World. Be-
fides, there is not a fmgle State, even among thofe
which are beft peopled, but what contains im-
menfe tracks of uncultivated land. China and
Bengal are, I believe, the countries on the Globe
which contain moft inhabitants. In China, never-
thelefs, are many and extenfive deferts, amidft it's
fineft provinces, becaufe avarice attradls thofe who
fliould cultivate them, to the vicinity of great ri-
vers, and to the cities, for the conveniency of

commerce.

IgS studies of nature.

commerce. Many enlightened travellers have
made this obfervation.

Hear what that honeft Dutchman, Walter Schou-
ten, fays of the deferts of Bengal. " Toward the
** South, along the fea-coafh, at the mouth of the
" Ganges, there is a very confiderable extent of
** territory, defert and uncultivated, from the in-
** dolence and inadtivity of the inhabitants, and
** alfo from the fear which they are under of the
*' incurfions of ihofe of Arracan ; and of the cro-
*' codiles and other monfters which devour men,
♦* lurking in the deferts, by the fides of brooks,
" of rivers, of morafles, and in caverns*." Ob^
ftacles very inconfiderable, it mud be allowed, in
a Nation where Fathers fometimes fell their chil-
dren for want of the means of fupporting them \
Berniery the phyfician, remarks likewife, in his
travels over the Mogul Empire, that he found a
great many, but deferted illands, at the mouth of
the Ganges,

We muft afcribe, in general, to the exceffive
number of bachelors, that of profligate women ;
which univerfally are in exact proportion to each
other. This evil, too, is the cfted of a natural
re-action. As the two fexes are born and die in

* JFaha- Schouten'^ Voyage to the Ealt-Intlies, vol. ii. page 154..

equal

STUDY VII.

109

equal numbers, every man comes into the world,
and leaves it, in company with his female. Every
man, therefore, who prefers celibacy to the mar-
ried ftate, dooms a female, at the fame time, to a
fingle life. I'he ecclefiaftical order robs the fex
of fo many huibands ; and the focial order de-
prives them of the means of fubfiflence. Our ma-
nufadures and machinery, fo ingenioufly induf-
trious, have fwallowed up almoft all the arts by
which they were formerly enabled to earn a liveli-
hood. I do not fpeak of thofe who knit flock-
ings, embroider, weave, 8cc. employments which,
in better times, fo many worthy matrons followed,
but which are now entirely engroffed by perfons
bred to the bufmefs, but we have, forfooth ! tay-
lors, fhoemakers, male hair-dreffers for the ladies.
We have men-milliners, dealers in linen, gauze,
muflin, gum-liowers. Men are not afhamed to
alTume to themfelves the eafy and commodious
occupations, and to leave to the poor women, the
rougher and more laborious. Wc have female
dealers in cattle, in pigs, driving through fairs on
horfeback : there are others who vend bricks, and
navigate barges, quite embrowned with the fun ;
fome labour in quarries.

We meet multitudes, in Paris, fvveating under
an enormous load of linen, under heavy water-
pails, blacking {hoes on the quays j others yoked,

like

ttÔ STUDIES OF NATURE.

like beafts, to little carts. Thus the fexes iinfex
themfelves ; the men dwindle into females, the
women harden into men. The greateft part of
females, in truth, would rather turn their charms
to account than their ftrength. But what mifchief
is every day produced by women of the town !
What conjugal infidelity, what domeftic plunder,
what quarrelling, beating, duelling, do they occa-
lion ! Scarcely has night begun to fpread her cur-
tain, when every flreet is inundated with them ;
every place of refort fwarms with thefe unhappy
creatures ; at every corner they lie in wait for
their prey. Others of them, known by the name,
now of fome confideration among the vulgar, of
kept mijirejfes, loll it away to the opera and play-
houfe, in magnificent equipages. They take the
lead, at the balls and feftivals of the better fort of
our trades-folks. For them, in part, arife in the
fuburbs, in the midft of gardens in the Englifli
tafte, gay alcoves in the Egyptian ftile. Every
one of them bent on melting down a fortune. It
is thus GOD puniflies the oppreffors of a People,
by the oppreffed. While the rich are dreaming
that they are expending their fubftancc in tran-
quillity, men fpringing from the dregs, plunder
them in their turn by the torments of opinion : if
they are fo fortunate as to efcape thefe, fall they
mufl into the hands of abandoned women ; who,
if they (hould happen to mifs the fathers, make

fure

STUDY Vil. Ht

fiire of indemnifying ihemfelves upon the chil-
dren.

An attempt has been made, for fome years paft,
to give encouragement to virtue, in our poor
country girls, by feftivals called Rojieres (rofe-
feafts) ; for as to thofe who are rich, and our city-
dames in bulinefs, the refpeâ; which they owe to
their fortune, permits them not to put themfelves
on a level with the female peafantry, even at the
foot of the altar. But you who beftovv crowns on
virtue, are you not afraid of blighting the prize
by your touch ? Know you not, that among Na-
tions who really honoured virtue, the Prince only,
or the voice of the Country, prefumed to confer
the crown ? The pro-conful Jpronms refufed the
civic crown to a foldier who had merited it, be-
caufe he confidered this privilege as^ belonging
only to the Emperor. Tiberius beftowed it, find-
ing fault with Apronius for not having done it, in
quality of Pro-conful *. Have you been informed
in what refped virginity was held among the Ro-
mans ? The Veftals had the maces of the Prœtors
borne before them. We have mentioned, on a
former occafion, that their prefence, merely, be-
ftowed a pardon on the criminal going to execu-
tion, provided, however, the Veftals could affirm,

* Annah of Tacitus ^ book iii. year 6.

that

112 STUDIES OF NATURE.

that they did not pafs that way exprefsly for the
purpofe. They had a particular bench allotted
them at the public feftivals ; and feveral Em-
prefles requefted, as the higheft honour they
could afpire to, permiffion to fit among them»
And our Paris trades- people, too, crown our ruf-
tic Veftals * 1 Noble and generous effort ! They
beftow a garland of rofes upon indigent virtue, in
the country ; while, in the city, vice flaunts abouE
glittering with diamonds.

On the other hand, the punifliments of guilt
appear to me as injudicioufly adj lifted as the re-
wards of virtue. We too frequently hear called
aloud In our ftreets thefe terrible words, The fen-
tence of condemnation I but never. The fentence of re-
ward. Crimes are reprefled by infamous punifh-
ments. A fimple brand inflicted, inftead of re-
forming the criminal, frequently plunges him
deeper in guilt, and not feldom drives his whole
family headlong into vicious courfes. Where, let
me afk, can an unhappy wretch find refuge, who
has been publicly whipped, branded, and drum-
med out ? Neceflity has made him a thief; indig-
nation and defpair will hurry him on to murder.

* They candefccnd^ likewife, to permit them to eat at the fame
table with themfelves, for that day. See the journals of the fef-
tivity, which break out into" captures on this gccafion.

His

STUDY VII. 113

His relations, diûionoured in the public eftima-
tion, abandon their home, and become vaga-
bonds. His fillers give themfelves up to profli-
tution.

Thefe efFedls of the fear, which the hangman
imprefles on the lower orders, are confidered as
prejudices which are falutary to them. But they
produce, as far as I am able to judge, unfpeakable
mifchief. The vulgar extend them to anions the
moft indifferent, and convert them into a bitter
aggravation of mifery. Of this I witnefTed an in-
ftance on board a veffel, in which I was a paffen-
ger, on my return from the Ifle of France. I ob-
ferved that not one of the failors would eat in
company with the cook of the (hip; they hardly
deigned even to fpeak to him. I enquired the
reafon of this at the Captain. He told me, that
being at Pegu, about fix months before, he had
left this man on fhore, to take charge of a ware-
houfe which the people of the country had lent
him. When night came on, thefe people locked
the door of it, and carried home the key with
them. The flore-keeper being on the infide, and
not having it in his power to go out to difburthen
nature, was under theneceffity of eafing himfelf in
a corner. Unfortunately, this warehouie was like-
wife a church. In the morning the proprietors
came and opened the door ; but obferving that

VOL. II. I the

114 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the place was polluted j they fell upon the poor
ftore-keeper, with loud exclamations, bound him
faft, and delivered him over to the executioner,
who would have immediately hanged him, unlefs
the Captain of the veflel, feconded by a Portu-
gueze BiQiop and the King's brother, had haf-
tened to interpofe in his behalf, and favcd him
from the gallows. From that moment, the failors
confidered their countryman as degraded, from
having paffed, as they alleged, through the hands
of the hangman.

This prejudice did not exid among either the
Greeks or Romans, There are no traces of it
among the Turks, the Ruffian?, and the Chinefe.
It does not proceed from a fenfe of honour, nor
even from the Ihame of guilt ; it is attached only
to the Ipecies of punilhment. The decapitation
of a man for the crimes of treafon and perfidy, or
being fliot for defertion, are confidered as no
ftigma on the family of the perfon thus puniihed.
The people, funk below their level, defpife that
only which is peculiar to themfelves, and fhevv no
pity in their decifions, becaufe they are miferable.

The wretchednefs of the lower orders is, therefore,
the principal fource of our phyfical and moral ma-
ladies. There is another, no lefs fertile in mifchief,
I mean the education of children. This branch of

political

STUDY VII. IÎ5

political economy engaged, among the Ancients,
the attention of the greateft Legiflators. The
Perfians, the Eg^-^ptians, and the Chinefe, made it
the bafis of their Government. On this foundation
Lycurgiis reared the fabric of the Spartan Repub-
lic. We may even go fo far as to affirm, that
wherever there is no national education, there is
no durable leglflation. With us, education has no
manner of reference to the conllitution of the State.
Our moft celebrated Writers, fuch as Montagne^
FeneloHi John James Rouffeau, have been abundantly
fenfible how defeélive our police is, in this re-
fped: : but defpairing, perhaps, of effeding a re-
formation, they have preferred offering plans of
private and domeftic education, to patching up
the old method, and adapting it to all the abfur-
dities of the prefent ftate of Society. For my own
part, as I am tracing up our evils to their fource,
only in the view of exculpating Nature, and in
the hope that fome favoured genius may one day
arife to apply a remedy, I find myfelf farther en-
gaged, to examine into the influence of education
on our particular happinefs, and on that of our
Country in general.

Man is the only fenfible being who forms his
reafon on continual obfervations. His education
begins with life, and ends only with death. His
days would fleet away in a flate of perpetual un-

I z certainty,

Il6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

certainty, unlefs the novelty of objeds, and the
flexibility of his brain gave, to the impreffions of
his early years, a charader not to be effaced. At
that period of life are formed the inclinations and
the averfions which influence the whole of our ex-
iftence. Our firft affedions are likewife the laft.
They accompany us through the events with which
human life is variegated. They re-appear in old
age, and then revive the fenfibilities of childhood
with ftill greater force than thofe of mature age.
Early habits have an influence even on animals,
to luch a degree, as to extinguifli their natural
inftind. Lyciirgits exhibited a ftriking example
of this to the Lacedemonians, in the cafe of two
hounds taken from the fame litter, in one of
which education had completely triumphed over
Nature. But 1 could produce fi:ill ftronger in-
ffcances in the Human Species, in which early ha-
bit is found triumphant, fometimes, even over
ambition. Hillory furniflies innumerable exam-
ples to this purpofe ; 1 beg leave to produce one
which has not yet obtained a place in the hiftoric
page, and which is, apparently, of no great im-
portance, but is highly interefting to myfelf, be-
caufe it brings to my recolledion perfons who
were juftly dear to me.

When I was in the RufTian fervice, I frequently
had the pleafure of dining at the table of his

Excellency

STUDY VU. 117

Excellency M. de Villebois *, Grand Mafter of Ar-
tillery, and General of the corps of engineers to
which I belonged. I obferved that there was

every

* Nicolas de Villeboh was a native of Finland, hut defcended
from a French family originally from Brittany. In the battle
of Francfort, he turned the tide of vi6lory decidedly in favour
of Ruflia, by charging the Pruffians at the head of a regiment of
fufileersof the artillery, of which he was then Colonel. This
aftion, joined to his perfonal merit, procured him the blue rib-
bon of St. Andrew, and foon after the place of Grand Mafler
of the Ordnance, which he held at the time of my arrival in
Rulfia. Though his credit was then on the decline, he procured
me an admiflion into the fervice of her Imperial Majefty Ca-
tharine II. and did me the honour of prefenting me to her as
one of the officers of his corps of engineers. He was making
arrangements, in concert with General Daniel de Bofquet, Com-
mander in Chief of the corps of engineers, for my farther pro-
motion in it. They both employed all their.powersof perfuafion
to retain me in that fervice, and endeavoured to render it agree-
able by every affecfVionate and polite attention, and by alfurances
of an honourable and advantageous eftablifliment. But the love
which I bare to my country, in whofe fervice I had previoufly
engaged, and to which I Hill wiflied to devote my fervices, a
fond wifli, fed with vain hopes, by men of very high character,
induced me to perfift in demanding my difmiffion, which I ob-
tained, with Captain's rank, in 1765.

On leaving Ruffia, I made an elFort to ferve my country, at
my own expence, by joining that party in Poland which France
had efpoufed. There I was expofed to very great rifKS, hav-
ing been made prifoner by the Polonefe-Ruffian party. On
my return to Paris, I prefentcd memorials refpeftincf tb.e ftate
of things in the North, to the Minifter for Foreign Aftairs, in
I 3 which

Il8 STUDIES OF NATURE.

every day ferved up to him a plate of fomething
gray-coloured, I could not tell what, and fimilar,
in form, to fmall pebbles. He ate very heartily
of this didi, but never prefented it to any one at
table ; though his entertainments were always
given in the moft elegant ftyle, and every other
diQi indifcriminately recommended to his guefts,
of whatever rank. He one day perceived me
looking attentively at his fivourite mefs ; and
aiked, with a fmile, if T would pleafe to tafte it.
I accepted his offer, and found that it confided of
little balls of curdled milk, faked, and befprinkled
with anife- feeds, but fo hard and fo tough, that it
coft me inexpreffible exertion to force my teeth
through them, but to fwallow them down, was
abfolutely impoffible.

** Thefe are," faid the Grand Mafler to me,
*' the cheefes of my native country. It is a tafte
*' which I acquired in myboyifli days. I was ac-
*' cuftomed, when a child, to feed with the pea-

which I predifled the future partition of Poland, by the Powers
contiguous. This partition aélually took place fome years af-
terward. I have fince endeavoured to deferve well of my coun-
try by my fervices, both military, in the Weft-Indies, in my ca-
pacity of Captain of the royal engineers, and literary, in France,
and I add, with confidence, by my conduft likewife : but I
have not, hitherto enjoyed the felicity of experiencing, in my
fortune, that flie has been pleafed gracioufly to accept the va-
rious facriiices which I faw it my duty to make to her.

fants

STUDY VII. 119

*' fants on thefe coarfe milk beverages. When I
*' am travelling, and have got to a diftance from
*' great towns, on coming near a country village,
*' 1 fend on my fervants and carriages before j
** and then my great delight is to go unattended,
*' and carefully muffled up in my cloak, into the
*' houfe of the firft peafant on the road, and de-
*^ vour an earthen pot-full of curdled milk, fluffed
*' full of brown bread. On my laft journey into
'' Livonia, on one of thefe occafions, I met with
" an adventure, which amufed me very highly.
" While I was breakfafting in this fliyle, in comes
*' a man fmging cheerly, and carrying a parcel on
" his flioulder. He fat down by me, and defired
" the landlord to give him a breakfaft fuch as
*' mine. I afked this traveller fo gay, whence he
'* came, and which way he was going. / am a
''Jailor, fays he, and jitfi arrived from a voyage to
" India j / difembarked at Riga, and am on my re-
" iurn to Her land, zvhich is my native country , zvhere
*' / have not been thefe three years. I f jail fay
'' there till I have fpent thefe hundred crowns, pul-
*' ling out a leathern bag, and chinking the mo-
** ney. T afked him feveral queftions about the
" countries he had feen, which he anfwered very
** pertinently. But, faid 1 to him, zvhat will you
** do, zvhen your hundred crowns are gone f — Oh !
'* fays he, / will return to Holland, embark again
*' for India f earn another bag of crozvns, come back

14 *' and

I20 STUDIES OF NATURE.

" and enjoy myfelf in Her land, in Franconia, my na-
** tive country^ The good humour and thought-
" leflhefs of this fellow diverted me exceedingly,"
continued the Grand Mafter. " To confefs the
*' truth, I envied his fituation."

Wife Nature, in giving fo much force to early-
habits, intended that our happinefs fliould depend
on thofe, who are moft concerned to promote it,
that is, our parents ; for on the afFeâiions which
they, at that feafon, infpire, depends the affeélion
which we are one day to be called upon to return.
But, with us, as foon as the child is born, he is
transferred to a mercenary nurfe. The firft bond
which Nature intended (liould attach him to his
parents, is burft afunder before it is formed. The
day will come, perhaps, when he will behold the
funeral proceffion of thofe who gave him birth,
leave his father's door, with as much indifference
as they faw his cradle turned out. He may be re-
called home, it is true, at the age when the graces,
when innocence, when the neceffity of having an
objedt of afFeftion fhould fix him there for ever.
But he is permitted to tafte thofe fweetSj only to
make him feel, in a little while, the bitternefs of
having them taken away from him. He is fent to
fchool ; he is put to board far from home. There
he is doom.ed to (hed tears which no maternal
hand is ever more to wipe away. It is there he is

to

STUDY VII. 121

to form friend (hips with ftrangers, pregnant witii
regret and repentance ; and there he muft learn
to extinguifh the natural affedions of brother, of
lifter, of father, of mother, which are the moft
powerful, and the fweeteft chains by which Nature
attaches us to our Country.

After this firft horrid outrage committed on his
young heart, others equally violent are offered to
his underftanding. His tender memory muft be
loaded with ablatives, with conjundions, with
conjugations. The bloffom of human life is fa-
crificed to the metaphyfical jargon of a dead lan-
guage. What Frenchman could fubmit to the
torture of learning his own in that manner ? And
if there bethofewho have exercifed fuch laborious
patience, do they fpeak better than perfons who
have never endured fuch drudgery ? Who writes
beft, a lady of the Court, or a pedantic gramma-
rian ? Momagne, fo repleniflied with the ancient
beauties of the Latin tongue, and who has given
io much energy to our own, congratulates himfelf
en never having under Jlood what the zvord vocative
iueant. To learn to fpeak by grammar rules, is
the fame thing with learning to walk by the laws
of equilibrium. It is pradice that teaches the
grammar of a language, and the paffions are our
beft inftrudors in the rhetoric of it. It is only
at the age, and in places where they expand, that

the

122 STUDIES OF NATURE.

-the beauties of Firgil and Horace are feir, a thing
which our mod celebrated college tranilators never
dreamt of.

.1 recoiled that when I was at ichool, I was for
a long time ftunned, as other boys are, by a chaos
of barbarous terms ; and that, when I happened
to catch a glimpfe, in the Author I was ftudying,
of any ftroke of genius which met my reafon, or
any fentiment which made it's way to my heart,
I kiffed the book for joy. It filled me with afto-
nifhment to find that the Ancients had common
fenfe. I imagined that there muft be as great a
difference between their reafon and mine, as there
was in the conftru6lion of our two languages. I
have known feveral of my Ichool- fellows fo dif-
gufhed at I^atin Authors, by thofe college expla-
nations, that, long after they had bidden farewel
to the feminary, they could not bear to hear their
names mentioned. But when they came to be
formed by acquaintance with the world, and by
the operation of the paffions, they became perfeâly
fenfible of their beauties, and reforted to them as
the mofl delightful of all companions. It is thus
that children, with us, become ftupifiedj and that
an unnatural conflraint is ufed to reprefs a period
of life all fire and activity, transforming it into a
ftate, fad, fedentary, and fpeculative, which has a
difmal influence on the temperament, by ingraft-

STUDY VII. 322

ing maladies without number upon it. But thefe,
after all, amount only to the production of lan-
guor, and phyfical evils. But they are trained to
vice ; they are decoyed into ambition under the
guife of emulation.

Of the two paffions which are the moving prin-
ciples of the human heart, namely, love and am-
bition, the laft is by far the moft durable, and the
mofl dangerous. Ambition is the laft that dies in
the aged, and our mode of education puts it pre-
maturely in motion in the young. It would be
infinitely better to affift them in directing their
early tender afFeftions toward an amiable objeél.
Moft are deftined, one time or another, to feel the
power of this gentle paffion. Nature has, befides,
made it the firmeft cement of Society. If their
age, or, rather, if our financial manners forbid a
commerce of early love, their young affections
ought to be directed into the channel of friend-
fhip, and thus, as Plato propofes in his Republic,
and as Pelopidas effected at Thebes, bataillons of
friends might be formed among them, at all feafons
prepared to devote themfelves in the fervice of
their Country *.

But

* Divide tîj i?npera (divide and govern) is a faying, I believe,
i){ Machiaver^. Judge of the goodnefs of this maxim, from the

mifera^le

124 STUDIES OF NATURE.

But ambition never rifes except at the expenfc
of another. Give it whatever fpecious name you
pleafe, it is ever the fworn enemy of all virtue. It
is the fource of vices the moft dangerous and de-
teftable ; of jealoufy, of hatred, of intolerance,
and cruelty ; for every one is difpofed to gratify
it in his own way. It is forbidden to all men by
Nature and Religion, and to the greateft part of
fubjefts by Government. In our colleges, a lad
is brought up to empire, who muft be doomed,
for life, to fell pepper. The young people, the
hope of a great Nation, are there employed, for,
at leaft, feven years, in learning to be the firft in
the art of declamation, of verfification, of prat-

miferable ftate of the country which gave it birth, and where
it has been reduced into pradice.

Children, at Sparta, were taught only to obey, to love virtue,
to love their country, and to live in the moft intimate union,
till they were divided in their fchools into two claffes, of Lovers
and Belonged. Among the other Nations of Greece, education
was arbitrary ; it confifted of a great variety of exercifes, of
eloquence, of wreftling, of running, of pythian, of Olympic,
of ifthmian prizes, &c. Thefe frivolities foftered undue par-
tialities. Lacedemon gave Law to them all : and while the
fii-ft, on going to engage in the battles of their country, needed
the ftimulus of pay, of harangues, of trumpets, of clarions, to
excite their courage, it was neceflary, on the contrary, to reprefs
the ardor of the Lacedemonians. They Went to battle, unfti-
mulated by mercenary confiderations, by eloquent addrefles, to
the found of the flute, and finging in one grand concert, the
hymn of the two twin brothers, CaJIor and Pollux.

tllng.

STUDY VII. 125

tling. For one who fucceeds in thefe trivial pur-
fuits, how many thoufands lofe, at once, their
health and their Latin !

It is emulation, we are told, which awakens ta-
lents. It would be an eafy tafk to demonftrate,
that the moft celebrated Writers, in every walk of
literature, never were brought up at college, frorti
Homer, who was acquainted with no language but
his own, down to John James Ronjfeau, who was a
very indifferent Latin fcholar. How many young
men have made a brilliant figure in the run of the
claffes, who were by and by totally eclipfed in the
vaft fphere of Literature Î Italy is crouded with
colleges and academies ; but can (he boaft, at this
day, of fo much as one man eminently diflin-
guilhed ? Do we not fee there, on the contrary,
talents diftrafted, by ill-afforted focieties, byjea-
loufies, by cabals, by intrigues, and by all the
reftlefsnefs of ambition, become enfeebled, and
melt away ?

I think I am able to perceive flill another rea-
fon of this decline ; it is, that nothing is fludied
in thofe feminaries but the methods and forms of
learning, or what, in the Painter's phrafe, is called
manner. This ftudy, by fixing us in the track of
a mafter, forces us out of the path of Nature,
which is the fource of all talents. Look to France,

and

120 STUDIES OF NATURE.

and obferve what are the arts brought there to the
higheft perfedion j and you will find that they
are thofe for which there is no public fchool, no
prize, no academy : fuch as milliners, jewellers,
hair-dreffers, cooks, &c. We have, it is true,
men of high reputation in the liberal arts, and
in the fciences ; bnt thefe men had acquired iheir
talents before they were introduced into academies.
Befides, will any one venture to affirm, that they
are equal to thofe of preceding ages, who appeared
before academies exiiled r* After all, admitting
that talents are formed in colleges, they would not
for that be lefs prejudicial to the Nation ; for it is
of inconceivably more importance that a Country
fliould poflefs virtue rather than talents, and men
happy, rather than men renowned. A treacherous
glare covers the vices of thofe who fucceed in our
Colleges. But in the multitude who never fuc-
ceed, fecret jealoufies, malicious whifpers, mean
flatteries, and all the vices of a negative ambition
are already in a ftate of fermentation, and ready
to burft forth, at the command of their leader,
upon the World.

While depravity is thus taking pofleffion of the
hearts of children, fome branches of education go
diredly to the perverfion of their reafon. Thefe
two abufes always walk hand in hand. Firft, they
are taught to deduce falfe confequences. The

Regent

STUDY VII. 127

Regent informs them that Jupiter, Mercury, and
Apollo, are gods : the Parifli-minifler tells them
that they are demons. The profelTor affures his
pupil, that Virgil, who has fo nobly fupported the
dodrine of a Providence, is got at lead to the Ely-
fian Fields, and that he enjoys in this world the
efteem of all good men : The Curé informs him,
that this fame Virgil was a pagan, and muft cer-
tainly be damned. The Gofpel holds a contradic-
tory language, in another refpe6t ; it recommends
to the young man to be the laft j his college urges
him by all means to be the firft : virtue commands
him to defcend ; education bids him rife. And
what renders the contradiction ftill more glaring
to the poor lad, it frequently proceeds, efpecially
in the country, from one and the fame mouth :
for the fame good Ecclefiaftic, in many places,
teaches the claffics in the morning, and the cate-
chifm at night.

I can very eafily conceive how the matter may
be arranged, and contradiflions reconciled, in the
head of the Regent j but they mufh of neceffity
confound and perplex all the ideas of the Learner,
who is not paid for comprehending, as the other
is, for retailing them.

The cafe is much worfe, when fubjeâ:s of terror
are employed, where nothing ought to be admi-

niftred

128 STUDIES OF NATURE.

niftred but confolation : when application, is made
to them, for example, at the age of innocence, of
the woes pronounced by Jesus Christ, againfl
the Pharifees, the do6tors, and the other tyrants
of the Jewifli nation ; or when their tender organs
are fliocked by certain monftrous images fo com-
mon in our churches. I knew a young man who,
in his infancy, was fo terrified with the dragon of
St. Marguerite, with which his preceptor had
threatened him in the village-church, that he ac-
tually fell fick of horror, believing that he favv
the monfter conftantly at his pillow, ready to de-
vour him. His father, in order to quiet his dif-
turbed imagination, was under the neceffity of
appearing fword in hand to attack the dragon, and
of pretending that he had killed him. Thus, as
our method is, one error was driven out by an-
other. When grown up, the firft ufe which he
made of his reafon was to refledt, that the perfons
intruded with the formation of that faculty, had
impofed upon him twice.

After having elevated a poor boy above his
equals, by the title of Emperor, and even above the
whole Human Race, by that of Son of the Church,
he is cruelly brought low by rigorous and degrading
punifliments. " Among other things," fays Mon-
tagne *, '' that part of the police of moft of our

* Eflays, book i. chap. 25.

fchools.

STUDY VII. 129

^' fchools bas always given me much offence.
" They ought, at all hazards, certainly with much
" lefs difadvantage, to have adopted the ext erne
" of indulgence. Youth immured prtfents the
*' moft horrid of all gaols. To punifh a child be-
*' fore he is debauched, is an infallible method to
" debauch him. If you happen to pafs when the
'* leflbn is delivering, you hear nothing but the
*' cries of poor children undergoing chaftifemenr,
" and the ftorming of mafters intoxicated with
*' rage. What a method to infpire with the love
*' of learning, thofe tender and timid fpirits, ta
*' drive them to it with furly looks, aiid birchen-
'* armed hand! Unjuft, pernicious proceeding!
*' Add to this, what §luintilian has well remarked
*' on the fubjedl, that this imperious authority is
*' pregnant with the moft dangerous confequences,
*' particularly from the mode of chaftifemenr.
" How much more decent an appearance would
*' their clafles exhibit, ftrewed with flowers and
" verdant boughs, than with the f agments of
** bloody rods ! I would have portrayed in them,
" Joy, Gaiety, Flora, the Graces, as the Philofo-
" pher Speufyppm had in his fchool. Where fliould
" their improvement be looked for, but where
" their pleafure is * ?"

* Michael Montagne is, likewifq, one of thofe men who were

not educated at college ; the time of his continuance there, at

VOL. Ik K leaft.

130 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I have feen, at college, many a pretty creature
ready to fall into a fwoon with pain, receive on
their little hands, up to a dozen of fharp ftrokes.
I have feen, by the infli(5tion of this punifhment,
the fkin feparated from the tip of their fingers,
and the bare flefli expofed. What (hall be faidof
thofe infamous punifhments, which produce a
difgraceful efFeâ:, at once, on the morals of both
fcholars and regents, and of which a thoufand ex-
amples might be adduced ? It is impoffible to enter
into any detail, on this fubjefV, without putting
modeily to the blufli. And yet they are employed
by priefls. They reft on a palTage from Solomons
writings, of this import, "He that fpareth the rod
" hateth the child." But who knows whether the
Jews themfelves pradlifed corporal punifliment af-
ter our falhion? The Turks, who have retained a
great part of their ufages, hold this in deteftation.
It has been diffufed over Europe only by the cor-
ruption of the Greeks of the Lower Empire, and
it was introduced there by the Monks. If the
Jews actually employed it, who can tell but their

lead, was very fliort. He was inftrufted without tafling corpo-
ral puniftiment, and without emulation, under the paternal
roof, by the gentleft of fathers, and by preceptors whofe me-
mory he has precioufly embalmed in his writings. He became,
by means of an education fo diametrically oppofite to ours, one
of the beft, and one of the moft intelligent men of the Nation.

ferocity

STUDY VII. 131

ferocity might proceed from this part of their
education ?

Befides, there are in the Old Teftament many
advices never intended for our ufe. We find in
it paflages of very difficult explication, examples
dangerous, and laws impradli cable. In Leviticus,
for example, the ufe of fwine's fleQi is prohibited.
It is reprefented as a crime worthy of death, to
violate the Sabbath-day, by working upon it;
that of killing an ox * without the camp is for-
bidden under a like punifhment, &c. St. Faiil,
in his Epiftle to the Galatians, fays pofitively, that
the Law of Mofes is a Law of fervitude ; he com-
pares it to the Have Hagar^ whom Abraham repu-
diated. Whatever refped may be due to the
Writings of Solomon, and to the Laws of Mo/es^
we are not their difciples,butthedifciplesof Him,
who faid, " fuffer little children to come to Me;
" forbid them not;" who bleffed them, and faid
that in order to enter into the kingdom of Hea-
ven, we muft become like them.

Our children, fubverted by the vices of a faulty
education, become falfe reafoners, knavifli, hypo-

* In what part of the Mofaic Inllitution, could our Author
poffibly find this penal ftatute ? It is, furely, unnecefTary to give
infidelity a groundlefs triumph. H. H.

K 2 critical.

132 STUDIES OF NATURE.

critical, envious, ugly, and wicked. In propor-
tion as they increafe in age, they increafe alfo in
malignity, and the fpirit of contradiélion. There
is not a lingle fchool-boy who knows any thing of
the laws of his Country, but there are fome who
may have heard talk about thofe of the Twelve
Tables. No one of them can tell how our own
wars are conduced j but many are able to enter-
tain you with fome account of the wars of the
Greeks and Romans. Not one of them but knows
that fingle combat is prohibited j and many of
them go to the fencing-fchools, where the only
thing taught is to fight duels. They are fent thi-
ther, we are told, merely to learn a graceful car-
riage, and to walk like gentlemen ; as if a gentle-
man muft walk in the pofitions oï tierce and quarte,
and as if the gait and attitude of a citizen ought
to be that of a gladiator.

Others, deftined to fundions more peaceful,
are put to fchool to learn the art of difputation.
Truth, they gravely tell us, is ftruck out of the
collifion of opinions. There may be fomething
like wit in the expreffion. But for my own part,
I (liould find myfelf incapable of diflinguifhing
truth, if I met with her in the heat of a difpute.
I fliould fufped that I was dazzled either by my
own paflion, or that of another man. Out of dif-
putations havearifenfophifms, herefies, paradoxes,

errors

STUDY VII. 133

errors of every kind. Truth never fhcvvs her face
before tyrants ; and every man who difputes would
be a tyrant if he could. The light of truth has no
refemblance to the fatal corufcations of the thun-
der, produced by the clafhing of the elements, but
to the brightnefs of the Sun, which is perfeâily
pure only when Heaven is without a cloud.

I fhall not follow our youth into the World,
where the greateft merit of ancient times could be
of no manner of fervice to him. What fliould he
make of his magnanimous republican fentiments
under a defpotifm ; and of thofe of difinterefted-
nefs in a country where every thing is bought and
fold ? What ufe could he make even of the im-
pafTible philofophy of a Diogenes^ in cities where
beggars are taken up, and fent to the houfe of
corredion ? Youth would be fufficiently unhappy,
even fuppofing it to have preferved only that fear
of blame, and that defire of commendation, under
which it's fludies were conduced. Influenced
from firft to laft by the opinion of another, and
having in itfelf no fteady principle, the fillieft of
women will rule over him with more unbounded
empire than his profeffbr. But, let us fay what
we will, the colleges will be always full. All I
pretend to plead for is, that children (liouldbe de-
livered, at lead, from that tedious apprenticed! ip
to mifery, by which they are depraved, at the

K 3 happieft

134 STUDIES OF NATURE.

happiefl and moft amiable period of their exift-
ence, and which has afterward fo much influence
on their charaders. Man is born good. It is
fociety that renders him wicked j and our mode
of education prepares the way for it.

As my tcftimony is not of fufficient weight to
bear out an affertion of fo much importance, I
ftiall produce feveral which are not liable to fuf-
picion, and which I fhall extraâ. at random from
the Writings of Ecclefiaftics, not in conformity
to their opinions, which are diflated by their con--
dition, but refulting from their perfonal experi-
ence, which, in this refpeâ:, abfolutely deranges
their whole theory.

Here is one from Father Claude d^ Abbeville, a
Capuchin Miffionary, on the fubjeft of the chil-
dren of the inhabitants of the Ifland of Maragnan,
on the coaft of Brafil ; where we had laid the
foundations of a colony, whofe fate has been llmi-
lar to that of fo many others, which have been
loft by our want of perfeverance, and by our un-
happy divifions, the ufual and natural confequence
of injudicious education. " Farther, I know not
*' whether it be from the fingular affedion which
*' fathers and mothers here bear to their children,
*^ but certain it is, they never fay a word which
^- Ççin poffibly give them the flighteft uneafinefs 5

" they

STUDY VII. 135

'' they are left at perfed liberty to do juft what
" they pleafe, and to take their own way in every
** cafe, without any apprehenfion of reproof what-
" ever. It is, accordingly, a moft aflonifhing ap-
" pearance, and what has often excited admira-
*' tion in myfelf, and many others," (and with
good reafon) " the children hardly ever do any
** thing that can difpleafe their parents; on the
*^ contrary, they are at pains to do every thing
" which they know, or imagine, will be agree-
" able to them *" He afterwards prefents a very
favorable portrait of their phyfical and moral
qualities.

His teftimony is confirmed by John de Lery^ as
far as it refpeds the Brafilians, whofe manners
arc the fame, and who are in the near neighbour-
hood of that illand. I beg leave to produce an-
other, that of Anthony Biet^ Superior of the Mif-
fionary Priefts, who, in the year 1652, went over
to Cayenne, another colony loft to us from the
fame caufes, and fince indifferently fettled. It is
on the fubjeâ: of the children of the Galibis
Savages -f-.

* Hiftory of the miflion of Capuchin Fathers to the Ifland
of Maragnan, chap, xlvii.
t Voyage to the Equinoftial Countries, book iii. page 390.

K 4 *« The

Ij6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

*' The mother takes great delight in nurfing her
'^ child. There is no fuch thing known am-ng
" them as giving out their children to '>e nurfed
" by a ftranger. They are fond of their children
"to excefs. They bathe them regularly every
" day in a fountain or river. They do not (waddle
" them, but put them to fieep in a little bed of
*' cotton, made exprefsly for the purpofe. They
" always leave them quite naked : their progrefs
*' in growth is perfe6lly wonderful ; fome are able
" to walk alone at the age of eight otnine months.
" When grown to a certain age, if they are inca-
*' pable of walking upright, they march along on
*' tlieir hands and feet. Thofe people love their
•' children to diftradion. They never chide nor
*' beat them, but permit them to enjoy perfeét li-
*' berty ; which they never abufe by doing ^y
*' thing to vex their parents. They exprefs great
** afto ni (liment, when they fee any of our people
*' correal their children."

Here is a third, cxtrafted from the work of a
Jefuit, 1 mean Father Charlevoix^ a man of various
and extenfive learning. It is a paflage from his
Voyage to New Orleans, another colony which we
have fuffcred to fall to nothing, through our divi-
fions, a confequence of our moral confliturion, and
of our fyftem of education. He is fpeaking, in

general^

STUDY Vil. 137

general, of the children of the Savages of North-
America.

^' Sometimes, ■■■ as the means of correding their
** faults, they employ prayers and tears, but never
^* threatenings....A mother, who fees her daughter
*' behave improperly, falls a crying. The daughter
" naturally afks what is the matter with her, and
*' flie fatisfies herfelf with replying, Ton dijhonour
" me. This mode of reproof feldom fails to pro-
** duce the effect intended. Since, however, they
*' have had a little more commerce with the
** French, fome of them begin to chaftife their
*' children ; but fcarcely any except among thofe
*' who are Chrijiians, or who are fixed in the co-
" lony. The fevereft punifhment ufually inflifted
*Vby the Savages, for correéling their children, is

** to throw a little water in their face Young

■* women have been known to hang themfelves,
*' for having received from a mother fome flight
" reprimand, or a few drops of water thrown in
^* the face ; after giving warning of what they were
*^ going to do, in thefe words, Ton Jhall m longer
f have a daughter "

It is very amufing, to obferve the embar-
raffment of this Author, in attempting to recon-

■H- Hiftorical Journal of North -America. Lett, xxiii. Aug. 172 1.

cile

138 STUDIES OF NATURE.

cile his European prejudices with his remarks as
a traveller ; which produces perpetual contra-
didions in the courfe of his Work. *' It would
" feem,'* fays he, " that a childhood fo badly
" difciplined, mufl be fucceeded by a very turbu-
*' lent and very corrupted youth." He admits that
reafon direds thofe people earlier than it does
other men ; but he afcribes the caufe of it to their
temperament, which is, as he alleges, more tran-
quil. He recolledls not the pathetic reprefenta-
tions which he himfelf has exhibited of the fccnes
that their paffions prefent, when they expand
and exalt themfelves in the bofom of peace, in
their national aifemblies, where their harangues
leave all the art of our Orators far behind, as to
juftnefs and fublimity of imagery j or amidft the
fury of war, where they brave, in the face çf
fire and faggots, all the rage of their enemies. He
does not choofe to fee, that it is our European
education which deftroys our temper, for he ac-
knowledges, in another place, that thefe fame Sa-
vages, brought up after our manner, become more
wicked than others. There are paffages in his
Work, in which he prcfents the moft affeding
elogium of their morality, of their amiable quali-
ties, and of their happy life. He fometimes feems
jo envy their condition.

Time

STUDY VII. 139

Time permits me not to give at large thofe dif-
ferent palTages that may be read in the Book from
which the above extraâ: is made, nor to produce
a multitude of other teftimonies, refpedling the
different Nations of Afia, which demonftrate the
perceptible influence that gentlenefs of education
has on the phyfical and moral beauty of mankind,
and which muft be, in every political conftitution,
the mofl powerful bond of union among the mem-
bers of the State.

I fliall conclude thefe foreign authorities by a
touch which good John James Roiijfeau could not
have given with impunity, and which is extrad;ed
word for word from the work of a Dominican ; I
mean the agreeable Hiftory of the Antilles, by
Father du Tertre, a man replete with tafte, with
good fenfe, and humanity. Hear what he fays of
the Caraïbs, whofe education refembles that of
the Nations which I have been defcribing '^.

" On mentioning the word Savage," fays he,
** moft people will figure to tbemfelves a fpecies of
** men, barbarous, cruel, inhuman, deftitute of
** reafon, deformed, tall as giants, hairy like bears;
*Mn a word, rather monfters than rational beings ;

* Natural Hiflory of the Antilles, vol. ii. treatife vii. chap, ir
fe^. I.

*' though

140 STUDIES OF NATURE.

*' though, in truth, our Savages are fuch only in
" name, juft as the plants and the fruits which
" Nature produces without culture in forefts and
*' deferts ; for thefe too we denominate wild or
*' favage, though the)'- poffefs the real virtues and
" properties in their native force and vigor, which
*' we frequentlj^ corrupt by art, and caufe to de-

" generate by tranfplantation into our gardens

*' It is of importance," adds he afterwards, *' to
" demonftrate in this treatife, that the Savages in
" thefe iflands, are the mofl content, the happieft,
'^ the leajl viciouSy the moft fociable, the lead de-
" formed, and the leaft tormented by difeafe of
*' any people in the world."

If we trace among ourfelves the hiftory of a vil-
lain's life, we fliall find that his infancy was always
very miferable. Wherever I have found children
unhappy, I always obferved they were wicked and
ugly ; and wherever I faw them happy, there
likewife they were beautiful and good. In Hol-
land and Flanders, where they are brought up
with the greatefl; gentlenefs, their beauty is Angular-
ly remarkable. It is from them that the famous
fculptor, Francis the Flemilh, borrowed his charm--
ing models of children j and Rubens that frefhnefs
of colouring which glov/s on thofe of his piftures.
You never hear them, as in our cities, uttering
loud and bitter cries ; flill lefs do you hear them

threatened

STUDY VII. , 141

threatened with the rod by their mothers and nurfes,
as with us. They are not gay, but they are con-
tented. You obferve on their countenance an air
of tranquility and fatisfadion which is perfeflly
enchanting, and infinitely more interefting than
the boifterous mirth of our young people when
they are no longer under the eye of their fathers or
preceptors.

This calmnefs is difFufed over all their adions, and
is the fource of a happy compofure which charac-^
terizes their whole future life. I never faw any coun-
try where parental lendernefs was fo ftrikingly ex-
prefled. The children, in their turn, repay them,
in their old-age, the indulgence with which they
were treated in helplefs infancy. By bonds fo en-
dearing are thefe people attached to their country,
and fo powerfully that we find very few of them fet-
tling among fhrangers. With us, on the contrary,
fathers like better to fee their children fprightly
than good, becaufe in a conftitution of ambitious
fociety, fpirit raifes a man to the head of a party,
but goodnefs makes dupes. They have colledions
of epigrams compofed by their children ; but wit
being only the perception of the relations of fociety,
children fcarcely ever have any but what is bor-
rowed. Wit itfelf is frequently, in them, the proof
of a miferable exiftence, as may be remarked in the
fchool-boys of our cities, who ufually are fpright-

lier

Î42 STUDIES OF NATURE*

lier than the children of the peafantry ; and in
fuch as labour under fome natural defed, as lame-
nefs, hunch-backednefs, and the like, who, in ref-
ped of wit, are ftill more premature than others.
But, in general, they are all exceedingly forward
in point of feeling ; and this refleds great blame
on thofe who degrade them, at an age when they
frequently feel more delicately than men.

Of this I fliall produce fome inftances, calculated
to demonflrate that, notwithftanding the defeds of
our political conftitutions, there ftill exift, in fome
families, good natural qualities, or well-informed
virtues, which leave, to the happy afFedions of chil-
dren, the liberty of expanding.

I was at Drefden, in 1765, and happened to go
to the Court-Theatre : the piece performed was
"itbe Father. In came the Eleftrefs, with one of her
daughters, who might be about five or fix years of
age. An officer of the Saxon guards, who had
introduced me, faid in awhifper, " That child will
" intereft you much more than the play." In fad,
as foon as (lie had taken her feat, (he refted both
hands on the front of the box, fixed her eyes on
the ftage, and remained, with open mouth, im-
moveably attentive to the performers. It was a
truly affeding exhibition ; her face, like a mirror,
reflcded all the different paffions which the drama

was

STUDY VII. 143

was intended to excite. You could fee, in fuccef-
fion, depiéled upon it, anxiety, furprize, melan-
choly, forrow J at laft, as the intereft increafed
from fcene to fcene, the tears began to trickle co-
pioufly down her little cheeks ; accompanied with
fliivering, fighing, fobbing : till it became necef-
fary at length to carry lier out of the box, for fear
of her being ftifled. My companion informed me,
that as often as this young princefs attended the
reprefentation of a pathetic piece, (he was obliged
to retire, before it came to the crifis.

I have witneffed inftancesoffenlibility ftill more
affefting, in the children of the common people,
becaufe they were not produced by any theatrical
effeifl. As I was taking my walk, fome years ago,
through the Pré St. Gervais, about the fetting-in
of winter, I obferved a poor woman, lying along
the ground, employed in weeding a bed of forrel ;
clofe by her was a little girl, of fix years old at
mod, ftanding, motionlefs, and quite impurpled
with the cold, I addrefled myfelf to the woman,
who betrayed evident fymptoms of indifpofition,
and enquired into the nature of her malady. " Sir,"
faid fhe to me, " for three months paft, I have fuf-
" fered very feverely from the rheumatifm ; but
" my difeafe gives me much lefs pain than that
" poor child : fhe will not quit me a fingle mo-
*' ment. If I fay to her, fee, you are quite be-

** numbed

144 STUDIES OF NATURE.

**= numbed with cold, go within doors and warm
** yourfelf ; fhe repHes : alas ! mother, if I leave
*' you, your complaints will be your only com-
" panion."

Another time, being at Marly, I went into that
magnificent park, and amufed myfelf in the woods
with looking at the charming group of children
who are feeding, with vine boughs and grapes, a
flie-goat which feems at play with them. At no
great diftance is an inclofed pavilion, where Louis
XV. in fine weather, fometimes went to enjoy a
collation. Being caught in a fudden fhower, I
went in for a few moments to ihelter myfelf. I
there found three children, who interefted me
much more than the children in marble without
doors. They were two little girls, uncommonly
handfome, employed with fingular adivity, in
picking up, round the arbour, the fcattered flicks
of dry wood, which they depofited in a baiket that
flood on the King's table, while a little boy, all
in tatters, and extremely lean, was devouring a
morfel of bread in a corner. I alked the talleft^
who might be about eight or nine years old, what
fhe intended to do with that wood, which fhe was
fo bufily coUeéling. She replied, " Look, Sir, at
** that poor boy, there ; he is very miferable ! He
*' is fo unfortunate as to have a flep-mother, who
" fends him out, all day long, to pick up wood :

if

STUDY VII. 145

" if he carries none home, he is beaten feverely;
" when he happens to have got a litrle, and is car-
*' rying it off, the Swifs at the park-gate takes it
*' from him, and appHes it to his own ufe. He is
*' half dead with hunger, and we have given him
*' our breakfaft." Having thus fpoken, flie and
her companion filled the little bafket ; helped
him up with it on his back, and run away before
their unhappy friend to the gate of the park, to
fee if he could pafs unmoleHed.

Foolifh Inftrudlors ! Human nature, you tell us,
is corrupted : yes, but you are the perfons who cor-
rupt it by contradidions, by unprofitable ftudies,
by dangerous ambition, by fhameful chaftifements :
and by an equitable re-a6tion of divine Juftice,
that feeble and unfortunate generation will one day
give back to that which opprefles it, in jealoufies,
in difputes, in apathies, and in oppofitions of taftes,
of modes, and of opinions, all the mifchief which
it firft received.

I have explained, to the beft of my ability, the
caufes, and the re-adions of our evils, in the view
of vindicating Nature from the charge of having
produced them. I propofe, at the clofe of this
Work, to exhibit the palliatives and the remedies.
They will, no doubt, prove vain and inefficient
fpeculations : but if fome Miniiler ihali have the

VOL, II. L courage.

146 STUDIES OF NATURE.

courage, one day, to undertake to render the Na-
tion internally happy, and powerful abroad, I can
venture to predict, that this will be effected neither
by plans of economy, nor by political alliances,
but by reforming it's manners, and it's plan of
education. He never will make good this revo-
lution, by means of punifliments and rewards, but
by imitating the procefl'es of Nature, who always
carries her point by re-a6lion. It is not to the
apparent evil that the remedy muft be applied,
but to it's caufe. The caufe of the moral power
of gold, is in the venality of public offices;
that of the exceffive fuperabundance of indolent
tradefmen in our cities, is in the impofts which
degrade the inhabitants of the country ; that of
the beggary of the poor, is in the overgrown pro-
perty of the rich ; that of the proflitution of
young women, is in the celibacy of the men ; that
of the prejudices of the Nobility, in the refent-
ments of the vulgar ; and that of all the evils of
fociety, in the torments inflided on children.

For my own part, I have fpoken out ; and if I
could have fpoken to the Nation in one vaft af-
fembly, from fome point of the Horizon where
Paris is difcernible, 1 would have pointed out to
my Country, on the one part, the monuments of
the rich ; the thoufands of voluptuous palaces in
the. fuburbs, eleven theatres, the ileeples of a

hundred

STUDY VII, 147

hundred and thirty-four convents, among which
arife eleven wealthy abbeys ; thofe of a hundred
and fixty other churches, twenty of whirh are
richly endowed chapters : and, on the other p 'tr,
I would have pointed out the monuments of the
wretched ; fifty-feven colleges, fixteen courts of
juftice, fourteen barracks, thirty guard-houfes,
twenty- fix hofpitals, twelve prifons or houf^s of
correclion. I would have difplayed the magaiii-
cence of the gardens, of the courts, of the gr-ens,
of the inclofures, and of the dependencies,. of all
thefe vaft edifices, accumulated on a fpace of
ground lefs than a league and a half in diameter.
1 would have demanded, whether the ref^. of the
Kingdom is diftributcd in the fame proportion as
the Capital : where are the properties of thofe
who fupply it with food, with clothing, with the
means of lodging, of thofe who defend it ; and
v,'hat, at laft, is left for the multitude, to maintain
citizens, fathers of families, and happy men ? Oh !
ye moral and political Powers, after having Ihewn
you the caufes and theeffedls of our evils, I would
have proftrated m.yfelf at your feet, and would
have expeded, as the reward of truth, the fam.e
recompenfe which the peafant of the Danube ex-
pelled from the infatiable powers of Rome "^.

* As a fequel to this Study, may be read that which termi-
nates the fourth Volume of this Work.

L 2 STUDY

STUDY VIII. •I4<;

STUDY EIGHTH.

REPLIES

TO THE OBJECTIONS AGAINST A DIVINE PROVIDENCE,
AND THE HOPES OF A LIFE TO COME, FOUNDED ON
THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD, AND
THE MISERIES OF A PRESENT STATE.

*^ TTTHAT avails it me," fome one vyill fay,
V V " that my tyrants are puniflied, if I
" am ftill to be the viflim of tyranny ? Is it pof-
** fible that fuch compenfations (hould be the
*' work of GOD ? Great Philofoohers, who have
** devoted their whole life to the fludy of Nature,
*' have refufed to acknowledge it's Author. Who
** hath feen GOD at any time? What is it that
** conftitutes GOD ? But taking it for granted
" that an intelligent Being direds the affairs of
** this Univerfe, Man alTuredly is abandoned to
*' himfelf : no hand has traced his career: as far
" as he is concerned, there are, apparently, two
*' Deities; the one inviting him to unbounded
" enjoyment, and the other dooming him to end-

L ^ " lef%_

150 STUDIES OF NATURE.

*' lefs privation ; one God of Nature, and anoiher
*' God of Religion. He is totally uncertain whe-
*' ther of the two he is bound to pleafe ; and
*' whatever be the choice which he is determined to
*' make, how can he tell whether he is rendering
" himfelf an objcift of love or of hatred ?

** His virtue itfelf fills him with doubts and
*' fcruples ; it renders him miferable, both in-
" wardly and outwardly ; it reduces him to a ftate
*' of perpetual warfare with himfelf, and v.'ith the
" world, to the intcrtfts of which he is obliged
" to make a facrihce of himfelf. If he is chafle,
*' the world calls hirn impotent; if he is religious,
" he is accounted filly ; if he difcovers benignity
*' of difpofition to thofe around him, it is becaufe
*^ he wants courage ; if he devotes himfelf for the
*' good of his country, he is a fanatic; if he is
** limple, he is duped; if he is modeft, he is fup-
*' planted ; he is every where derided, betrayed,
'^ defpifed, now by the philofopher, and now by
" the devotee. On what foundation can he build
" the hope of a recompenfe for fo many ftrugo^les
'' and mortifications ? On a life to come? What
** aflurance has he of it's exiflence ? Where is the
*' traveller that ever returned from thence ?

*' What is the foul of man ? Where was it a
*' hundred years ago ? Where will it be a century

" hence ?

STUDY VIII.

I^

" hence ? It expands with the fenfes, and expires
" when they expire. What becomes of it in lleep,
" in a lethargy ? It is the illufion of pride to ima-
" gine that it is immortal : Nature univerfally
*' points to death, in his monuments, in his appe-
*' tites, in his loves, in his friendfl-iips : man is
" univerfally reduced to the neceffity of drawing
" a veil over this idea. In order to live lefs mi-
*' ferable, he ought to divert himfelf, that is, as
" the word literally imports, he ought to turn qfide
" from that difmal perfpeftive of woes which Na-
" ture is prefenting to him on every fide. To what
*♦ hopelefs labours has (he not fubjecfted his mife-
" rable life ? The beafts of the field are a thou-
** fand times happier; clothed, lodged, fed by the
" hand of Nature, they give themfelves up with-
*' out folicitude to the indulgence of their paf-
*^ fions, and finifli their career without any pre-fen-
*^ timent of death, and without any fear of an
^ hereafter.

** If there be a GOD Vv'ho prefides over the dcf-
" tiny of all, he mufi: be inimical to the felicity of
*' the Human Race. What is it to me that the
*' Earth is clothed with vegetables, if I have not the ,
*' fliade of a fmgle tree at my difpofal ? Of what
** importance are to me the laws of harmony and
*' of love, which govern Nature, if I behold
" around me only objecls faithlefs and deceiving;

L 4 *' or

1^2 STUPIES OF NATURE.

"or if my fortune, my condition, my religion,
** impofe celibacy upon me ? The general felicity
*' diffufed over the Earth, ferves only as a bitter
** aggravation of my particular vvretchednefs.
" What interefl: is it polTible for me to take in the
*' wifdom of an arrangement which renovates all
" things, if, as a ccnfequence of that very arrange-
" ment, I feel myfelf finking, and ready to be loft
" for ever ? One fingle wretch might arraign Pro-
*' vidence, and fay with yol^, the Arabian : *
** IVherefore is light given to him that is in mifery ;
.^^ and life imto the bitter in foul f' Alas! The ap-
" pearanccs of happinefs have been difclofed to
*^ the view of Man, only to overwhelm him with
" defpair of ever attaining it. If a GOD, intelli-
" gent and beneficent, governs Nature, diabolical
" fpirits direft and confound, at lead the affairs
" of the children of men.'*

I (hall, firft, reply to the prmcipal authorities,
on which fome of thofe objcftions are fupported.
They are extrafted, in part, from a celebrated
Poet, and a learned Philofopher, namely Lucretius ,
and from Pliny.

»

Lucretius has clothed the Philofophy of Empe-
docles and Epicurus in very beautiful verfes. His

* Job, chap. iii. ver. 20.

imagery

STUDY VIÎT.

153

imagery is enchanting ; but that Philofophy of
atoms, which adhere to each other by chance, is
fo completely abfurd, that wherever it appears,
the beauty of the poetry is impaired. For the
truth of this, I confidently refer to the judgment
of his partifans themfelves. It fpeaks neither to
the heart nor to the underftanding. It offends
equally in it's principles, and in the confequences
deduced from them. To what, wç may afic him,
do thofe primary atoms, out of which you con-
ftruft the elements of Nature, owe their exiftence?
Who communicated to them the firfl movement ?
How is it pofïible they fliould have given to the
aggregation of a great number of bodies, a fpirit
of life, a fenfibility, and a w^ll, which they them-
felves poffeffed not ?

If you believe, with LeibnitZy that thofe monads,
or unities, have, in truth, perceptions peculiar to
themfelves, you give up the laws of chance, and
are reduced to the neceffity of allowing to the ele-
ments of nature, the intelligence which you refufe
to it's Author. Defcartes has, in truth, fubjeded
thofe impalpable principles, and, if I may be al-
lowed the exprefTion, thatmetaphyfical duft, to the
laws of an ingenious Geometry ; and after him,
the herd of Philofophers, feduced by the facility of
ereding all forts of fyflems with the fame mate-
rials, have applied to them, by turns, the laws of

attraction,

154 STUDIES OF NATURE.

attraftlon, of fermentation, of cryftallization ; in
a word, all the operations of Chemiftry, and all
the fubtilities of dialectics : but all, with equal
fuccefs, that is, with none whatever. We Ihall
demonftrate, in the article which follows this,
when we come to fpeak of the weaknefs of Human
Reafon, that the method adopted in our Schools,
of riling up to firfh caufes, is the perpetual fource
of the errors of our Philofophy, in phyfics as well
as in morals. Fundamental truths refemble the
ftars, and our reafon is like the graphometer. If
this inftrument, conftruded for the purpofe of
obferving the heavenly bodies, has been deranged
however flightly ; if from the point of departure,
we commit a miftake of the minuted angle ima-
ginable, the error, at the extremity of the vifual
rays, becomes abfolutely incommenfurable.

There is fomething flill more ftrange, in the
method which Lucretius has thought proper to pur-'
fue : namely that, in a Work, the profelfed object
of which is to materialize the Deity, he fets out
v>^ith deifying matter. In this he has himfelf given
way to an univerfal principle, Vvhich we fliall en-
deavour to unfold, when we come to adduce the
proofs of the Divinity from feeling; it is this,
that we find it impoffible powerfully to intcrcft
mankind, whatever be the objed, without prefent-
ing to the Mind, fome of the attributes of Deity,

Before

STUDY VIII. 155

Before he attempts, therefore, to dazzle the iin-
derftanding, as a Philofopher, he begins with fet-
ting the heart on fire, as a Poet. Here is a part
of his exordium.

Hominum djvûmque voluptas,

Alma F'enusy cœli fubter labentia fijna
Quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentes
Concélébras, per te quoniam genus omne animantûm
Concipitur, vifitque exortum liimina folis,
Te dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila cocli,
Adventuque tuo, tibi fuaves daedala tellus
Submittit flores, tibi rident a:quora ponti,
Placatumque nitet difFufo lumine cœlum.

Quœ quoniam rerum naturam fola gubernas,
Kec, fine te, quidquam dias in luminis oras
Excritur, neque fit lastum, neque amabile quidquam,
Te fociam ftudeo fcribendis verfibus efie,
Quos ego de rerum naturâ pangere conor.

Quo magis zeternum, da dicîlis, diva, leporem.

Effice ut in terra fera munera militia'i
Per maria ac terras omnes fopita quiefcant ;
Nam tu fola potes tranquilla pace juvare
Mortales, quoniam belli fera munera Mavors.
Armipotens regit, in gremium qui fspe tuum fe
Kejicit, œteriio deviftus vulnere amoris.

Kunc, tu diva, tuo recubantem corpore fanfto

Circumfufa fuper, fuaves ex ore loquelas

Funde, petens placidam Romanis, inclyta pacem :

Nam neque nos agere, hoc patriaï tempore iniquo,

Pofilimus sequo animo.

De Rernin Naturâ, lib. i.

I ûiall

156 STUDIES OF NATURE,

I fliall endeavour, as well as I can, to give a
plain profe tranflation of thofe beautiful verfes,

*' — — Delight of men and gods, gracious
" Fenus ! who prefideft over the fail-bearing
"^ Ocean, and the fertile Earth, while the hods
^* of Heaven glide majeftically filent around ;
" fince by thy prolific virtue, the whole animal
" creation teems with life, and turns the opening
*' eye-ball to the light of the Sun ; at thy ap-
" proach, O Goddefs, the winds are hulhed, the
" vapours that obfcure the face of the iky dif-
'^ perfe, the variegated ground fpreads a carpet
** of enamelled flowers underneath thy feet ; the
" waters of the deepfmile with joy, and the placid

** fky is overfpread with a milder light Seeing,

*' then, that thou reigneft, fole Emprefs of Na-
*' ture ; fmce without thee no living creature
" arifes into day, or poffefTes the capacity of re-
" ceiving or communicating delight, how gladly
*' would I affume thee as my aflbciate in the ar-
*' duous undertaking on which I now enter — an

*' enquiry into the nature of things Give, then,

*' O Goddefs, fomewhat of thy unfading grace to
*' my flrains. And grant, meanwhile, that the
" din of battle may ceafe over every land, over
" every fea : for with thee it refis to reduce the
'' troubled world to peace ; fince Mars, all-power-
^* ful in arms, direds the thunder of war^ who

*' frequently

STUDY VIII. i^y

" frequently retires well-pleafed from the enfan-
*' guined plain, to folace himfelf in the foft dalli-
" ance of thy uncloying love. ...In thofe fond mo-
** ments, when affeélion can deny nothing, intreat
'^ him to have compaffion on his own Rome and
** thine, and beflovv on it lafling tranquillity j for
" how can the voice of the philofophic Mufe be
" heard amidft the confufed noife of civil dif»
" cord ?"*

Lucretius

* Mr. Creech and Mr. Bryden have both tranflated this paf-
fage of Lucretius. It would have faved me a little labour, had
I dared to tranfcribe from either of their poetical vei-fions. But,
every thing confidered, I have ventured rather to hazard one of
my own. If it Ihall be deemed deficient in poetical merit, two
qualities, at leafl, it poflefles ; it conveys enough of the fenfe
of the Original, to anfwer the purpofe of it's being quoted in
this Work, and it cannot poflibly give offence to any modeft
ear.

Venus, all hail ! of Gods and men the pride ;
Mov'd by whofe pow'r, the heav'nly bodies glide^
In myftic round ; thine is the teeming Earth,
To thee the fwelling Ocean owes his birth :
Source of all life ! thou breath'ft the living foul.
And kindleft joy " from Indus to the Pole."
At thy approach the noify tempefts ceafe.
The air grows pure, and all the World is peace ;
For thee the Spring her fiow'ry mantle weaves.
For thee Autumnus piles his golden flieaves i

The

é.- '

153 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Lucretius is, in truth, conftrained to admit, in
the fequel of his Poem, that this goddefs, fo
wonderfully beneficent, is diredly chargeable with
the ruin of health, of fortune, of parts, and, fooner
or later, with the lofs of reputation : that, from
the very lap of the pleafures which (he beftows,
there ifllics a fomething which embitters enjoy-
ment, which torments a man, and renders him mi-

The placid Deep reflefts a clearer ray,

And Sol emits through Heaven a brighter day,

- Since, Goddefs, thus all own thy fov'reign pow'rj
Since, without thee, none fees the natal hour j
Without thee nought of fair, offweet, is feen,
Delight of Nature ! Univerfel Queen !
Vifit thy bard with fome celeflial dream ;
Be thou, my Mufe, for Nature is my theme.

Around my lays thy winning graces Ihed,
So (liall immortal honours crown my head.

Meanwhile, command a troubled world to reft.
Bid the fierce foldier calm his angry breaft.
Let Sea and Land thy genial influence feel ;
Let placid Nations at thine altar kneel.
Befmear'd with blood, and Tick of war's alarms.
Soothe back fierce Mars to thy all-conq'ring arms :
Tell him how Rome now bleeds at every vein j
Let thy fweet voice reftore the gentle reign,
Of golden Saturn. Bid the trumpet ceafe,
Let all in Rome ; and all the World be peace.

H.H.

ferable.

STUDY VIII. 159

ferable. The unfortunate Bard himfelf fell a vic-
tim to this, for he died in the very prime of life,
either from exceffive indulgence, according to
fome, or poifoned, according to others, by an
amorous potion adminiftred by the hand of a
woman.

In the paffage above quoted, he afcribes to
Fenus the creation of the world; he addreffes
prayers to her ; he bellows on her perfon the epi-
thet of facred ; he invefts her with a charaâ:er of
goodnefs, of juftice, of intelligence, and of power,
which belongs to GOD only; in a word, the at-
tributes are fo exactly the fame, that, fupprcffing
only the word Fenns^ in the invocation of his
Poem, you may apply it almoft entirely to the
Divine Wifdom. There are even points of re-
femblance, fo ftriking, to the reprefentation given
of it in the Book of Ecclefiafticus, that I cannot
refrain from exhibiting the counterpart, that the
Reader may have it in his power to mxake the
comparifon.

Ecclefiaft. chap. xxiv.
Vulgate Lailn Ferjion. Co-mmon Englifo Verfion.

3, 4, 5. Ego ex ore Altiffinni 3 I came out of the mouth

prodivi, primogenita ante om- of the Moil High, and covered

nem creaturam ; ego feci in the earth as a cloud.

ccelis ut oriritur lumen indefi- 4. I dwelt in high places,

cicns, and

t6ô

STUDIES OF NATURE.

ciens, &• ficut nebula texi om-
nem terram. Ego in altiffimis
habitavi, & thronus meus in
columna nubis.

6, 7, 8, g. Gyrum cœli cir-
cuivi fola, & profundum abyffi
penetravi ; in fludibus ambu-
lavi, & in omni terra fteti & in
omni populo ; & in omni populo
primatum habui. Et omnium
excellentium & humilium cor-
da virtute calcavi, & in his om-
nibus requiem quafivi, & in
hasreditate domini morabor.

and my throne is in a cloudy
pillar.

5. I alone compafled the cir-
cuit of Heaven ; and walked in
the bottom of the Deep.

6. In the waves of the fea,
and in all the earth, and in
every people and nation, I got
a pofleffion.

7. With all thefe I fought
reft : and in whofe inheritance
fliall I abide ?

13. Quafi cedrus exaltata
fum in Libano, & quafi cy-
prefllis in Monte Sion.

14. Quafi palma exaltata
fum in Cades, &: quafi planta-
tio rofae in Jericho. Quafi oli-
va fpeciofa in campis, & quafi
platanus exaltata fum juxta
aquam in plateis.

13. I was exalted like a ce-
dar in Libanus, and as a cy-
prefs-tree upon the mountains
of Hermon.

14. I was exalted like a
palm-tree in Engaddi, and as a
rofe-plant in Jericho, as a fair
olive-tree in a pleafant field,
and grew up as a plane-tree by
the water.

16. Ego quafi terebinthus
extendi ramos meos, & rami
mei honoris & gratias,

17. Ego quafi vitis fruclifi-

16. As the turpentine tree^

I ftretched out my branches,

and my branches are the

branches of honour and grace^

17. As the vine brought I

cavi fuavilatem odoris, et flores forth pleafant favour, and my
mei fruflu s honoris & honef- flowers are the fruit of honour
tatis. and richei.

18. Ego

18. I api

STUDY VIII.

l6l

18. Ego mater pulchrae di-
leAionis, & timoris, &: agniti-
onis, & fanftae fpei. In me
gratia omnis viœ & veritatis,
in me omnis fpes vitae & virtu-
tis.

ig. Tranfite ad me, omnes
■qui concupifcitis me, & gene-
rationibus meis implemini.

20. Spiritus enim mens fu-
per mel dulce, & haereditas
mea fuper mel & favum.

18. I am the mother of fair
love, and fear, and knowledge,
and holy hope : I therefore be-
ing eternal, am given to all my
children which are named of
him.

19. Come unto me, all ye
that be defirous of me, and fill
yourfelves with my fruits.

20. For my memorial is
fweeter than honey, and mine
inheritance than the honey-
comb.

" Out of the mouth of the Almighty pro-
" ceeded I. Before any created being knew that
" it exifted, I was. If there be in Heaven a light
" never to be extinguilhed, I commanded it to
" arife. If the Earth is involved in clouds, I
" commanded the vapour to afcend. The lofty
" places of the Earth are my habitation ; and my
" throne is in the cloudy pillar. In folitude I
*' make the round of the ftarry Heavens ; I plunge
" to the bottom of the vaft abyfs, and walk ma-
" jeftic under the waves of the Sea. On every
" land the fole of my foot alights, and I travel
" from fliore to fliore. Wherever I appear, my
** fovereignty is acknowledged. In the greatnefs
" of my might, I have fubdued the heart of the
" humble and of the proud. I have fought for a
*^ place of habitation in the midft of them ; but

VOL. II. M 1 will

102 STUDIES OF NATURE.

" I will fix mine abode only in the heritage of Je-
*' H0VAH....I have lifted up myfelf as a cedar upon
*^ Mount Lebanon, and as the cyprefs-tree on the
*' hills of Zion, My branches have been exalted
*' to the Heavens, like the palm-trees of Kadefh,
** and as the bloffbms of the rofe which furroiind
" Jericho. I am beautiful as the olive on the
** brow of the hill, and majeftic as the plane-tree,

" in an open place, by the fountains of water

*' I have extended my boughs as the terebinthus ;
*' my branches are branches of honour and grace.
** I have put forth, as the vine, bloflbms of the
** fweeteft perfume, and my buds have produced
" the fruits of glory and abundance. I am the
*' parent of holy love, of fear, of knowledge, and
** of facred hope ; I alone point out the road that
" is fafe and eafy ; and unfold truths that give de-
*' light Î in me repofes all the expeftation of life
** and virtue. Come to me, all ye who love me }
** and my never-ceafing produdlions fliall fill you
** with rapture ; for my fpirit is fweeter than ho-
" ney, and my diflribution of it far fuperior to the
'* cells of the honeycomb."

This feeble tranflation. is after the Latin profe
verfion, itfelf a tranflation from the Greek, and it
again from the Hebrew. It is not to be doubted,
therefore, that in pafTmg through fo many flrain-
crs^ much of the grace of the original muft have

evaporated.

STtTDY VIII. 163

evaporated. But even as it is, it poffefles a de-
cided fiiperiority, in refped of pleafantnefs and
fublimity of imagery, over the verfes of Lucretius,
who appears to haVe borrowed his principal beau-
ties from this paflage. And here I difmifs that
Poet : the exordium of his performance is a com-
plete refutation of it.

Tliny takes the diredlly oppofite courfe. In the
Very threfhold of his Natural Hiftory, he affirms
that there is no God, and the whole of that
Wor^' is an elaborate demonftration of the being
of GOD. His authority muft neceffarily be of
confiderable weight, as it is not that of a Poet, to
whom opinions are a matter of indifference, pro-
vided he can produce a ftriking pidure ; nor that
of a fedary, obftinately determined to fupport a
party, whatever violence may be done to con-
fcience ; nor, finally, that of a flatterer, making
his court to vicious Princes. Pliny wrote under
the virtuous TituSy and has dedicated his Book to
him. He carries to fuch a height, the love of
truth, and contempt of the glory of the age in
which he lived, as to condemn the vidories of
Cejar^ in Rome itfelf, and when addreffing a Ro-
man Emperor. He is replete with humanity and
virtue. He frequently expofes to cenfure the
cruelty of mafters to their flaves, the luxury of the
great, nay, the dilTolute condud of feveral Em-

M 2 preiTes.

164 STUDIES OF MATURE.

preffes. He fometimes pronounces the panegyric
of good men ; and exalts even above the inventors
of arts, perfons who have rendered themfelves il-
luftrious by their continency, their modefty, and
their piety.

His Work, in other refpedts, is a combination
of briUiancies. It is a real Encyclopedia, which
contains, as it ought, the hiftory of the knowledge,
and of the errors of his time. Thefe laft are fome-
times imputed to him very unjuftly, for he fre-
quently brings them forward, merely in the view
of refuting them. But he has been abufed by the
Phyficians, and the [Apothecaries, who have ex-
trafted the greateft part of their prefcriptions from
him, becaufe he finds fault with their conjedural
art, and with their fyftematic fpirit. He abounds,
beiides, in curious information, in profound views,
and interefting traditions j and, what renders his
performance invaluable, he uniformly expreffes
himfelf in a piclurefque manner. With all this
tafte, judgment, and knowledge, Pliny is an
atheift. Nature, from whofe capacious flores, he
has derived fuch various intelligence, may addrefs
him in the words of Cejar to Brutus : J-Vhat, you
too, my Jon !

Pliny I love, and I efleem : and if I may be per-
mitted to fay, in his juflificàtion, what I think of

his

STUDY VIII. 165

his immortal Work, I believe it to be falfified in
the paflage where he is made toreafon as an atheift.
All his commentators agree in thinking, that no
one Author has fuffered more from the unfaithful-
nefs of tranfcribers, than he has done ; and this
to fuch a degree, that copies of his Natural Hif-
tory exift, in which there are whole chapters en-
tirely different. Confult, among others, what
Mathiola fays on the fubjeél, in his commentaries
on Diojcorides. I fliall here take occafion to ob-
ferve, that the Writings of the Ancients, on their
way to us, have pafled through more than one
unfaithful language, and what is much worfe,
through more than one fufpicious hand. They
have met with the fateof their monuments, among
which their temples have been moft of all degrad-
ed. Their books have, in like manner, been mu-
tilated chiefly in thofe paflages which are favour-
able to religion, or the reverfc. An inftance of
this we have, in the tranfcription of Cicero's Trea-
tife on the Nature of the Godsy in which the objec-
tions againft Providence are omitted.

Montagne upbraids the firft Chriflians with hav-
ing fuppreffed, on account of four or five articles
which contradiâed their creed, a part of the
Works of Cornelius Tacitus, " though," fays he,
*' the Emperor Tcicittis, his relation, had, by ex-

M 3 prefs

l66 STUDIES OF NATURE.

*' prefs edifls, furniflied all the libraries in the
" World with them *."

In our own days, do we not fee how every party
exerts itfelf to run down the reputation, and the
opinions of the party which oppofes it ? Mankind
is, in the hands of religion and philofophy, like
the old man in the fable, between two dames of
different ages. They had both a mind to trim
his locks, each in her own way. The younger
picked carefully out all the white hairs, which (he
could not bear ; the old one, for an oppofite rea-
fon, as carefully removed the black : the confe-
quence was, his head was fpeedily reduced to
complete baldnefs.

It is impoffible to adduce a more fatisfa(flory
deraonftration of this ancient infidelity of the two
parties, than an interpolation to be found in the
Writings of Flavins Jofepbus, who was contempo-
rary with Pliny. He is made to fay, in fo many
words, that the MeflTiah was juft born y and he
continues his narration, without referring, fo
much as once, to this wonderful event, to the end
of a voluminous hiftory. How can it be believed
that Jofephns, who frequently indulges himfelf in

* Eflays, book ii. chap. xix.

a tedious

STUDY VIII. 167

a tedious detail of minute circumftances, relating
to events of little importance, (hould not have
reverted a thoufand and a thoufand times, to a
birth fo deeply interefting to his Nation, confi-
dering that it's very deftiny was involved in that
event, and that even the deftrudtion of Jerufalem
was only one of the confequences of the death of
Jesus Christ ? He, on the contrary, perverts
the meaning of the prophecies which announce
Him, applying them to Fefpajian and to littis ; for
he, as w^ll as the other Jews, ex peeled a Mefliah
triumphant. Befides, had Jofephiis believed in
Christ, would he not have embraced his Reli-
gion ?

For a fimilar reafon, is it credible that Pliny
fhould commence his Natural Hiftory with de-
nying the exiftence of GOD, and afterwards fill
every page of it, with expatiating on the wifdom,
the goodnefs, the providence, the majefty of Na-
ture ; on the prefages and pre-monitions, fent ex-
prefsly from the Gods; and even on the miracles
divinely operated through the medium of dreams?

Certain favage tribes have likewife been ad-
duced as affording examples of atheifm, and every
fequeftered corner of the Globe has been for this
purpofe explored. But obfcure remote tribes
were no more intended to ferve as an example to

M 4 the

l68 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the human race, than certain mean and obfcurc
famihes, among ourfelvcs, could be propofed as
proper models to the Nation ; efpecially when the
profefl'ed obje6t is to fupport, by authority, an
opinion which is neceflarily fubverfive of all
fociety. Befides, fuch aflertions are abfolutely
falfe. I have read the hiftory of the voyages from
which they are extraâ:ed. The travellers acknow-
ledge, that they had but a tranfient view of thofe
people, and that they were totally unacquainted
with their languages. They took it for granted,
that there could be no religion among them, be-
caufe they faw no temples j as if any other temple
were neceflary to a belief in GOD than the temple
of Nature ! Thefe fame travellers likewife contra-
divfl themfelves ; for they relate, that thofe Na-
tions, whom they elfewhere reprefent as deftitute
of all religion, make obeifance to the Moon, at
the change, and when full, by proftrating them-
felves to the Earth, or by lifting up their hands
to Heaven : that they pay refpeâ: to the memory
of their fore-fathers, and place viands on their
tombs. The immortality of the foul, admitted in
whatever manner you will, neceflarily fuppofes
the exidence of GOD.

But if the firft of all truths ilood in need of tef-
timony from men, we could colledl that of the
whole Human Race, from geniufes the moft ex-
alted,

STUDY VIII. 169

alted, down to the loweft {late of Ignorance. This
unanimity of teftimony is of irrefiftible weight ;
for it is impoffible that fuch a thing fliould exill
on the Earth as univerfal error.

Hear what the fage Socrates faid to Euthydemus,
who exprefled a wi(li to have a complete alTurance
that the Gods exifted :

" Know, affuredly, that I told you the truth *,
" when I declared the exiftence of the Gods, and
«■^ afferted, that Man is their peculiar care: but
*^ expeâ: not that they (hould aflume a fcnfible
" appearance, and prefent themfelves before you ;
" fatisfy yourfelf with the contemplation of their
" works, and with paying them adoration j re-
** member that this is the way in which they make
** themfelves known unto men : for of all the hea-
" venly powers whofe liberality towards us is fo
" great, no one ever becomes the vifible difpenfer
*^ of his own bounty; and the great GOD him-
" felf, who created the Univerfe, and who fuf-
" tains that vaft fabric, all the parts of which are
" adjufted in perfed beauty and goodnefs ; He
" who conftantly watches oyer it, and takes care
" that it (hall not wax old, and fall into decay
" through length of duration, but always fubfift

»

XenophoTis Memorable Things of Socrates, book iv,

a

m

17© STUDIES OP NATURE.

*' in immortal vigor * ; He who alfo, v/ith power
*' uncontrolable, conftrains the whole to obey his
'' willi and that with a promptitude which far

" furpafles

* Socrates had made a particular ftudy of Nature ; and al-
though his judgment, refpeéling the duration and prefervation
of her works, may be contrary to that of our philofophy, which
confiders the Globe of the Earth, efpecially, as in a progreffive
Hate of ruin, it is in perfect harmony with that of the Holy
Scriptures, which give us pofitive afllirances that GOD upholds
it, and with our own experience on the fubjeét, as I have al-
ready fliewn. We have little I'cafon to undervalue the phyficai
knowledge of the i'î^ncients, except in fo far as it was reduced to
fyitcm. We ought to recollect that they had made mofi: of the
difcoveries which the Moderns boaft as all their own. The Tuf-
can Philofophers underftood the art of conjuring down the
thunder. Good King Numa made experiments on this fubje<5l.
Tullus Hfjlilius took a fancy to imitate, but fell a viftim to his
attempt, fiom want of underflanding how to conduct the expe-
riments in a proper manner. (Confult Plutarch.) Pbilolausy
the Pythagorean, advanced long before Copernicus, that the Sun
was the centre of the World ; and before Cbrijlopher Columbus,
that our Earth confifted of two Continents, that on which we
are placed, and the one oppofite to it. Several Philofophers of
Antitjuity maintained, that comets were ftars which purfued a
regular courfe. Pliny himfelf fays, that they all move in a nor-
therly direélion, which is generally true. It is not yet, how-^
ever, two hundred years, fmce comets were believed, in Eu-
rope, to be vapors which caught fire in the intermediate re-
gions of the air. The general belief, about that period, like-
wife, was, that the Sea furnifhed a fupply of water to the foun-
tains and rivers, by a procefs of filtration through the pores of
the Earth, though it is faid in a hundred paflages of Scripture^

that

STUDY YIII. 171

'* rurpafles our imagin;^tion : He, I fay, is abun-
" dantly vifible in all thofe wonders of which He
** is the Author. But let our eyes attempt to
" penetrate to his throne, and to contemplate all
" thefe mighty operations in their fource, here He
" muft be ever invifible.

*' Obferve, for a moment, that the Sun, who
" feems defignedly expofed to the view of the
'' whole Creation, permits no one, however, ftea-
" dily to behold him ; the man who dares to
*' make the ralh attempt, is inftantly puniflied
" with blindnefs. Nay, more, every inftrument
** employed by the Gods is invifible. The thun-
*' der is darted from on high ; it dalhes in pieces

that by the rains their fources are kept flowing. Of this wc
HOW have the moft complete conviftion, by accurate obferva-
tions on the evaporations of the Ocean. The monuments
which the Ancients have tranfmitted to us in Architeélure,
Sculpture, Poetry, Tragedy, Hiftory, will ever ferve as models
lo us. We are indebted to them befides for the invention of al-
moft all the other Arts ; and it is prefumable that thefe Arts
had the fame fuperioi ity over ours, which their liberal Arts
have. As to the natural Sciences, they have not left us any
objeél of comparifon ; befides, the Priefts, who were chiefly-
employed in the cultivation of them, carefully concealed their
knowledge from the People. There is little room to doubt,
that they poflefl"ed, on this fubjeft, an illumination far tran-
fcending ours. Confult what the judicious ^\t I'VilUatn Temple
has faid of the magic of the ancient Egj-ptian^s.

" every

172, STUDIES OF NATURE.'

" every thing it meets : but no one can fee it fall,
" can fee it ftrike, can fee' it return. The winds
*' are invifible, though we fee well the ravages
" which they every day commit, and feel their in-
*' fluence the moment that they begin to blow. If
" there be any thing in Man that partakes of the
" divine Nature, it is his foul. There can be no
*' doubt that this is his direfting, governing prin-
*' ciple, neverthelefs, it is impoffible to fee it. From
*' all this be inftrufted not to defpife things invi-
*' fible: be inftruded to acknowledge their powers
*' in their eiïeâ:s, and to honour the Deity.'*

Neivton, who purfued his refearches into the
Laws of Nature fo profoundly, never pronounced
the name of GOD, without moving his hat, and
otherwife expreflfing the moft devout refpeft.
He took pleafure in recalling this fublime idea,
even in his moments of conviviality, and con-
fidcred it as the natural bond of union among all
Nations. Corneille le Briiyn, the Dutch Painter,
relates, that happening to dine one day at his
table, in company with feveral other foreigners,
Newton, when the defert was.ferved up, propofed
a health to the Men of every Country who believe
in GOD. This was drinking the health of the
Human Race. Is it poffible to conceive, that fo
many Nations, of languages and manners fo very
different, and, in many cafes, of an intelligence fo

contradedj

STUDY VIIT. 1^3

contraéled, (liould believe in GOD, if that belief
were the refuk of fome tradition, or of a profound
metaphyfical difquifition ? It arifes from the fpec-
tacle of Nature fimply. A poor Arabian of the
Defert, ignorant as mod of the Arabians are, was
one day afked, How he came to be allured that
there was a God ? " In the fame way," replied
he, " that I am able to tell, by the print impreffed
" on the fand, whether it was a man or a bead
** which paffed that way *.'*

It is impoffible for Man, as has been faid, to
imagine any form, or to produce a fingle idea of
which the model is not in Nature. He expands
his reafon only on the reafons which Nature has
fupplied. GOD mufb, therefore, neceffarily exift,
were it but for this, that Man has an idea of Him.
But if we attentively confider, that every thing,
neceflary to Man, exiftsin a moft wonderful adap-
tation to his neceffities, for the ftrongeft of all
reafons, GOD like wife muft exift. He who is the
univerfal adaptation of all the focietics of the Hu-
man Race.

But I fhould wiaQi to know, In what way, the
perfons who doubt of his exiftence, on a review
of the Works of Nature, would defire to be af-

* Travels through Arabia, by Monf. d ^iwieux.

fured

i74 STUDIES OF NATURE.

fured of it ? Do they wifli that he fhould appeat
ùnder a human form, and affume the figure of an
old man, as he is painted in our churches ? They
would fay, This is a man. Were He to invcft
himfelf with fome unknown and celeftial form,
could we in a human body fupport the fight? The
complete and unveiled difplay of even a fingle one
of his works on the Earth, would be fufficient
to confound our feeble organs. For example, if
the Earth wheels around it's axis, as is fuppofed,
there is not a human being in exifhence, who,
from a fixed point in the Heavens, could view
the rapidity of it's motion without horror ; for he
would behold rivers, oceans, kingdoms whirling
about under his feet, with a velocity almoft thrice
as great as that of a cannon-ball. But even the
fwiftnefs of this diurnal rotation is a mere nothing:
for the rapidity with which the Globe defcribes
it's annual circle, and hurls us round the Sun, is
feventy-five times greater than that of a bullet fhot
from the cannon. Were it but poITible for the eye
to view through the ikin, the mechanifm of our
own body, the fight would overwhelm us. Durft
we make a fingle movement, if we faw our blood
circulating, the nerves pulling, the lungs blowing,
the humors filtrating, and all the incomprehen-
fible afi^emblage of fibres, tubes, pumps, currents,
pivots, which fufl:ain an exiftence, at once ïo frail
and (o prefumptuous .''

Would

STUDY VIII, 175

Would we wifh, on the contrary, that GOD
fliould manifefl; himfelf in a manner more adapted
to his own nature, by the direâ: and immediate
communication of his intelligence, to the exclufion
of every intervenient mean ?

Archimedes, who had a mind capable of fuch in-
tenfe application, as not to be diflurbed from his
train of thought, by the fack of Syracufe, in which
he loft his life, went almoft diftraded, from the
fimple perception of a geometrical truth, of which
he fuddenly caught a glimpfe. He was pondering,
while in the bath, the means of difcoverins: the
quantity of alloy which a rafcally goldfmith had
mixed in Hiero's golden crown ; and having found
it, from the analogy of the different weight of his
own body, when in the water, and out of it, he
fprung from the bath, naked as he was, and ran
hke a madman through the ftreets of Syracufe,
calling out, / have found it ! I have found it !

When fome ftriking truth, or fome affeding
fentiment, happens to lay hold of the audience at a
theatre, you fee fome melted into tears, others
almoft choked withanoppreffed refpiration,, others
quite in a tranfport, clapping their hands, and
ilamping with their feet; the females in the boxes
a6tually fainting away. Were thefe violent agita-
tions of fpirit to go on progrefllvely but for a few

m>inutes

176 STUDIES OF NATURE.

minutes only, the perfons fubjeâ: to them might
lofe their reafon, perhaps their life. What would
be the cafe, then, if the Source of all truth, and
of all feeling, were to communicate himfelf to us
in a mortal body ? GOD has placed us at a fu it-
able diftance ftom his infinite Majefty ; near
enough to have a perception of it, but not fo near
as to be annihilated by it. He veils his intelligence
from us under the forms of matter ; and He re-
flores our confidence refpeding the movements of
the material world by the fentiment of his intelli-
gence. If at any time He is pleafed to communi-
cate himfelf in a more intimate manner, it is not
through the channel of haughty Science, but
through that of our virtue. He difclofes himfelf
to the fimple, and hides his face from the proud,

*' But," it is aiked, " What made GOD ?
" Why fhould there be a God ?" Am I to call in
queftion his exiftence, becaufe I am incapable of
comprehending his origin ? This ftyle of reafoning
would enable us to conclude, that man does not
exift : for. Who made men ? Why fhould there
be men ? Why am I in the world in the eighteenth
century ? Why did I not arrive in fome of the ages
which went before ? and, Wherefore fliould I not
be here in thofe which are to come? The exiftence
of GOD is at all times neceflary, and that of Man
is but contingent. Nay, this is not all j the ex-
iftence

STUDY VIII. lyy

iftence of Man is the only exiftence apparently
fuperfluous in the order eflablilhed upon the
Earth. Many iilands have been difcovered with-
out inhabitants, which prefented abodes the mod
enchanting, from the difpolition of the valleys, of
the waters, of the woods, of the animals. Man
alone deranges the plans of Nature : he diverts the
current from the fountain ; he digs into the fide
of the hill ; he fets the forefl on fire ; he maflacres
without mercy every thing that breathes ; every
where he degrades the Earth, which could do very
well without him.

The harmony of this Globe would be partially
deftroyed, perhaps entirely fo, were but the fniall-
efl, and, feemingly, moft infignificant, genus of
plants to be fapprefTed ; for it's annihilation would
leave a certain fpace of ground deftitute of ver-
dure, and thereby rob of it's nourifhment the fpe-
cies of infed which there found the fupport of
life. The deftrudtion of the infecfl, again, would
involve that of the fpecies of bird, which in thefe
alone finds the food proper for their young; and
fo on to infinity. The total ruin of the vegetable
and animal kingdoms might take it's rife from the
failure of a fingle mofs, as we may fee that of an
edifice commence in a fmall crevice. But if the
Human Race exifted not, it would be impoflibie
to fuppofe that any thing had been deranged :

VOL. II. N every

lyS STUDIES OF NATURE.

every brook, every plant, every animal, would al-
ways be in it's place. Indolent and halighty Phi-
lofopher, who prefumeft to demand of Nature,
wherefore there fhould be a God, why demanded
thou not rather wherefore there fliould be men ?

All his Works fpeak of their Author. The
plain which gradually efcapes from my eye, and
the capacious vault of Heaven which encompaffes
me on every fide, convey to me an idea of his im-
menfity ; the fruits fufpended on the bough within
reach of my hand, announce his providential care;
the voice of the temped proclaims his power ; the
conftant revolution of the feafons difplays his wif-
dom ; the variety of provifion which his bounty
makes, in every climate, for the wants of every
thing that lives, the Itately port of the foTefts, the
foft verdure of the meadow, the grouping of
plants, the perfume and enamel of flowers, an in-
finite multitude of harmonies, known and un-
known, are the magnificent languages which fpeak
of Him to all men, in a thoufand and a thoufand
difterent dialeds.

Nay, the very order of Nature is fuperfluous :
GOD is the only Being whom diforder invokes,
and whom human weaknefs announces. In order
to attain the knowledge of his attributes, we need
only to have a feehng of our own imperfedions.

Oh 5

STUl)Y VIII.

179

Oh ! how fublime is that prayer *, how congenial
to the heart of Man, and dill in ufe among People
whom we prefume to call Savages ! " O Eternal !
" Have mercy upon me, becaufe I am paffing
" away: O Infinite! becaufe I am but a fpeck :
" O Moft Mighty ! becaufe I am weak ; O Source
*' of Life ! becaufe I draw nigh to the grave : O
*' Omnifcient ! becaufe I am in darknefs : O AU-
*' bounteous ! becaufe I am poor : O AU-fuffi-
*' cient ! becaufe I am nothing.'*

Man has given nothing to himfelf : he has re-
ceived all. And " He who planted the ear, fhall
*' He not hear ? He who formed the eye, (hall
'* He not fee ? He who teacheth Man knowledge,
*' fliall not He know ?" I fhould confider myfclf
as offering an infult to the underftanding of my
Reader, and Qiould derange the plan of my Work,
were I to infill longer on the proofs of the exift-

* See Flacourf% Hiftoiy of the Ifland of Madagafcar, chap,
xliv. page 182. You will there find this prayer, embarrafled
with many circumlocutions, but conveying the meaning which
I have exprelfed. It is wonderfully ftrange that Negros flaould
have difcovered all the attributes of Deity, in the imperfections
of Man. It is with juft reafon that the Divine Wifdom has
faid of itfelf, that it refted on all Nations : Et in of?ini terra Jîetiy
&" 171 omni populo ; &" in omni populo pri?t!atu?n habui. In every
land, among every people, I fixed my flation ; and obtained
the chief place amidft the Nations. Ecci.es, chap. xxiv.

N % ence

l8o STUDIES OF NATURE.

ence of GOD. It remains that I reply to the
objedions raifed againU his goodnefs.

It needs muft be, we are told, that the God of
Nature fhould differ from the God of Religion,
for their Laws are contradidory. This isjuft the
fame thing with faying, that there is one God of
metals, another God of plants, and another of
animals, becaufe all thefe beings are fubjeded to
laws peculiar to themfelves. Nay, in all the king-
doms of Nature, the genera and the fpecies have
other Laws belldes, which are particular to them,
and which, in many cafes, are in oppofition among
themfelves J but thofe different Laws conftitute
the happinefs of each fpecies in particular ; and
they concur, in one grand combination, in a moft
admirable manner, to promote the general feli-
city.

The Laws which govern Man are derived from
the fame plan of Wifdom which has conftruded
the Univerfe. Man is not a being of a nature
perfe6tly fimple. Virtue, which ought to be the
great objeèl of his purfuit on the Earth, is an ef-
fort which he makes over himfelf, for the good of
Mankind, in the view of pleafing GOD only. It
propofes to him, on the one hand, the Divine
Wifdom as a model ; and prefentsto him, on the
other, the moft fecure and unerring path to his

own

STUDY VIII. loi

own happinefs. Study Nature, and you will per-
ceive that nothing can be more adapted to the fe-
licity of Man, and that Virtue carries her reward in
her bofom, even in this world. A man's conti-
nency and temperance fecure his health ; con-
tempt of riches and glory, his repofe : and con-
fidence in GOD, his fortitude. What can be
more adapted to the condition of a creature ex-
pofed to fo much mifery, than modefly and humi-
lity Whatever the revolutions of life may be, he
has no farther fear of falling, when he has taken
his feat on the loweft ftep.

Let us not complain that GOD has made an
unfair diftribution of his gifts, when we fee the
abundance and the ftate in which fome bad men
live. Whatever is on the Earth moil ufeful,
mod beautiful, and the beft, in every kind of
thing, is within the reach of every man. Obfcu-
rity is much better than glory, and virtue than
talents. The Sun, a little field, a wife and chil-
dren, are fufficient to fupply a confiant fucceflion
of pleafures to him. Mud he have luxuries too ?
A flower prefents him colours more lovely than
the pearl dragged from the abylTes of the Ocean ;
and a burning coal on his hearth has a brighter
ludre, and, beyond all difpute, is infinitely more
ufeful, than the famous gem which glitters on the
head of the Grand Mogul.

N 3 After

iS'z STUDIES OF NATURE.

Afcer all, What did GOD owe to every man ?
Water from the fountain, a little fruit, wool to
clothe him, as much land as he is able to culti-
vate with his own hands. So much for the wants of
his body. As to thofe of the foul, it is fufficient for
him to poflefs, in infancy, the love of his parents;
in maturity, that of his wife; in old age, the gra-
titude of his children ; at all feafons, the good-
will of his neighbours, the number of whom is re-
ftrided to four or five, according to the extent
and form of his domain j fo much knowledge of
the Globe as he can acquire by rambling, half a
day, fo as to get home to his own bed at night,
or, at moft, to the extremity of his domeftic hori-
zon; fuch a fenfe of Providence as Nature be-
ftows on all men, and which will fpring up in his
heart fully as well after he has made the circuit of
his field, as after returning from a voyage round
the World.

With corporeal enjoyments, and mental grati-
fications like thefe, he ought to be content ; what-
ever he defires beyond thefe, i-s above his wants,
and inconhftent with the diftributions of Nature.
It is impoffible for him to acquire fuperfluity but
by the facrifice of foipe necefTary ; public confide-
ration he muft purchafe at the price of domeftic
happinefs ; and a name in the world of Science,
by renouncing his repofe. Belides, thofe honours,

thofe

STUDY VIII. 183

thofe attendants, thofe riches, that fubmiffion
which men To eagerly hunt after, are defired un-
juftly. A man cannot obtain them but by plun-
dering and enflaving his fellow-citizens. The ac-
quifition of them expofes to incredible labour and
anxiety, the pofleffion is difturbed by inceflant
care, and privation tears the heart with regret. By
pretended bleffings fuch as thefe, health, reafon,
confcience, all is depraved and loft. They are as
fatal to Empires as to families ; it was neither by
labour, nor indigence ; no, nor even by wars, that
the Roman Empire fell into ruin j but by the ac-
cumulated pleafures, knowledge, and luxury of
the whole Earth.

Virtuous perfons, in truth, are fometimes defti-
tute not only of the bleffings of Society, but of
thofe of Nature. To this 1 anfwer, that their ca-
lamities frequently arc produdive of unfpeakable
benefit to them. When perfecuted by the world,
they are frequently, they are ufually, incited to en-
gage in fome illuftrious career. Afflidiion is the
path of great talents, or, at leaft, that of great vir-
tues, which are infinitely preferable. " It is not
** in your power," faid Marcus Aurelius, " to be a
*' Naturalift, a Poet, an Orator, a Mathematician;
*' hut it is in your power to be a virtuous man,
*' which is the beft of all."

N 4 I have

184 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I have remarked, befides, that no tyranny flarts
up, of whatever kind, refpeding either fadts or
opinions, bat a rival tyranny inflantly flarts up in
oppofition, which counterbalances it ; fo that vir-
tue finds a protection from the very efforts made
by vice to opprefs and cruQi it. The good man
frequently fuffers : it is admitted ; but if Provi-
dence were to interpofe for his relief, as foon as
he needed it, Providence would be at his difpofalj
in other words, Man would have the diredion of
his Maker. Befides, virtue, in this cafe, would
merit no praife : but rarely does it happen that
the virtuous man does not fooner or later behold
the dovvnfal of his tyrant. Or fuppofing, the
worfh that can happen, that he falls a vidim to ty-
ranny, the boundary of all his woes is death.
GOD could owe Man nothing. He called him
from non-exiftence into life; in withdrawing life.
He only refumes what He gave ; we have nothing
whereof to complain.

An entire refignation to the will of GOD ought,
in every fituation, to foothe the foul to peace. But
if the illufions of a vain world fliould chance to
ruffle our fpirit, let me fuggefl a confideration
which may go far toward refloring our tranquil-
lity. When any thing in the order of Nature
bears hard upon us, and kfpires miflruft of it's

AUTH0R3

STUDY VIII.

185

Author, let us fuppofe an order of things con-
trary to that which galls us, and we (hall find a
multitude of confequences refulting from this hy-
pothefis, which would involve much greater evils
than thofe whereof we complain. We may em-
ploy the contrary method, when fome imaginary
plan of human perfeftion would attempt to feduce
us. We have but to fuppofe it's exiftence, in
order to fee innumerable abfurd confequences
fpring up out of it. This twofold method, em-
ployed frequently by Socrates, rendered him viâ:o-
rious over all the fophifts of his time, and may dill
be fuccefsfuUy employed to confute thofe of the age
in which we live. It is at once a rampart which de-
fends our feeble reafon, and a battery which levels
with the duft all the delufion of human opinions.
If you wifli to juftify the order of Nature, it is
fufficient to deviate from it ; and, in order to re-
fute all human fyftems, nothing more is neceffary
than to admit them.

For example, complaints are made of death :
but if men were not to die, what would become of
their pofteriiy ? Long before now there would not
have been room for them on the face of the Earth.
Death, therefore, is a benefit. Men complain of
the necefîîty of labouring : but unlefs they labour-
ed, how could they pafs their time ? The reputedly
happy of the age, thofe who have nothing to do,

arc

lS6 STUDIES OF NATURE,

are at a lofs how to employ it. Labour, therefore,
is a benefit. Men envy the beafts the inftindt
which guides them : but if, from their birth, they
knew, hke them, all that they ever are to know,
what (hould they do in the World ? They would
faunter through it without intereft, and without
curiofity. Ignorance, therefore, is a benefit.

The other ills of Nature are equally neceffary.
Pain of body, and vexation of fpiiit, which fo
frequently crofs the path of life, are barriers
ereded by the hand of Nature, to prevent our de-,
viating from her Laws. But for pain, bodies
would be broken to pieces on the flighted Ihock :
but for chagrin, fo frequently the companion of
our enjoyments, the mind would become the vic-
tim of every fickly appetite. Difeafes are the ef-
forts of temperament to purge off fome noxious
humour. Nature employs difeafe not to deftroy
the body, but to preferve it. In every cafe, it is
the confequence of fome violation of her I^aws,
phyfical or moral. The remedy is frequently ob-
tained by leaving her to aâ: in her own way. The
regimen of aliments reftores our health of body,
and that of men, tranquillity of mind. Whatever
may be the opinions which difturb our repofe in
fociety, they almofl always vanifh into air in foli-
tude. Sleep itfelf fimply difpels our chagrin more
gently, and more infallibly, than a book of morals.

If

STUDY viir. 187

If our diftrefles are immoveable, and fuch as break
our reft, they may be mitigated by having re-
courfe to GOD. Here is the central point toward
which all the paths of human life converge. Prof-
perity, at all feafons, invites us to his prefence,
but adverfity leaves us no choice. It is the means
which GOD employs to force us to take refuge in
Himfelf alone. But for this voice, which addreffes
itfelf to every one of us, we fliould foon forget
Him, efpecially in the tumult of great cities,
where fo many fleeting interefts clafli with thofe
which are eternal, and where fo many fécond
caufes fwallow up all attention to the First.

As to the evils of Society, they are no part of
the plan of Nature ; but thofe very evils demon-
ftrate the exiftence of another order of things :
for is it natural to imagine, that the Being good
and juft, who has difpofed every thing on the
Earth to promote the happinefs of Man, will per-
mit him to be deprived of it, without punilhing
the wretch who dared to counteraft his gracious
defigns ? Will He do nothing in behalf of the
virtuous, but unfortunate, man, whofe conftant
ftudy was to pleafe Him, when He has loaded with
bleffings fo many mifcreants who abufc them ?
After having difplayed a bounty which has met
with no return, will He faij in executing neceflary
juft ice ?

But

I8S STUDIES OF NATURE.

*^ But," we are told, " every thing dies with
** us. Here we ought to believe our own expe-
" rience ; we were nothing before our birth, and
" we fliall be nothing after death." 1 adopt the
analogy ; but if I take my point of comparifon
from the moment when I was nothing, and when
I came into exiftence, What becomes of this argu-
ment ? Is not one pofitive proof better than all
the negative proofs in tne world ? You conclude
from an unknown paft to an unknown future, to
perpetuate the nothingnefs of Man ; and I, for
my part, deduce my confequence from the pre-
fent, which I know, to the future, which I do not
know, as an affurancie of this future exiftence. I
proceed on the prefumption of a goodnefs and a
juftice to come, from the inftances of goodnefs
and juftice which I adtually fee diffufed over the
Univerfe.

Befides, if we have, in our prefent flate, the
(iefire and the pre-fentiment only of a life to
come ; and if no one ever returned thence to give
us information concerning it, the rcafon is, a
proof more fenfible would be inconfiftent with the
nature of our prefent life on the Earth. Evidence
on this point muft involve the fame inconveni-
ences with that of the exiftence of GOD. Were
we affured by fome fenfible demonftration, that a
world to come was prepared for us, I have the

fuUeft

STUD"^ VIÎI. 189

fullefl conviélion that all the purfuits of this world
would from that inftant be aban,doned. This
perfpeftive of a divine felicity, here below, would
throw us into a lethargic rapture.

I recoiled: that on my return to France, in a
veflel which had been on a voyage to India, as foon
as the failors had perfedly diftinguilhed the land
of their native country, they became, in a great
meafure, incapable of attending to the bufmefs of
the fhip. Some looked at it wiftfully, without
the power of minding any other objedt ; others
drefled themfelves in their beft clothes, as if they
had been going that moment to difembark j fome
talked to themfelves, and others wept. As we ap-
proached, the diforder of their minds increafed.
As they had been abfent feveral years, there was
no end to their admiration of the verdure of the
hills, of the foliage of the trees, and even of the
rocks which Ikirted the (hore, covered over with
fea-weeds and moffes j as if all thefe objeds had
been perfeflly new to them. The church fpires
of the villages where they were born, which they
diftinguiflied at a diftance up the country, and
which they named one after another, filled them
with tranfports of delight. But when the veflel
entered the port, and when they faw on the quays,
their friends, their fathers, their mothers, their
wives, and their children, ftretching out their arms

to

igà STUDIES Of NATURE.

to them with tears of joy, and calling them by
their names, it was no longer poffible to retain a
fingle man on board ; they all fprung afhore, and
it became neceflary, according to the cuflom of
the port, to employ another fet of mariners to
bring the vefTel to her iiioorings.

What, then, would be the cafe, were we in-
dulged with a fenfible difcovery of that Heavenly
Country, inhabited by thofe who are moft dear to
us, and who alone are moft worthy of our fublime
affeftions ? All the laborious and vain folicitudes
of a prefent life would come to an end. The paf-
fage from the one world to the other being in every
man's power, the gulf would be quickly fliot :
but Nature has involved it in obfcurity, and has
planted doubt and apprehenfion to guard the paf-
fage.

It would appear, we are told by fome, that the
idea of the immortality of the foul, could arife only
from the fpecuLations of men of genius, who, con-
lidering the combination of this Univerfe, and the
connection which prefent fcenes have with thofe
which preceded them, muft have thence conclud-
ed, that they had a neceflary connexion with fu-
turity ; or elfe, that this idea of immortality was
introduced by Legiflators, in a ftate of poliflied
fociety, as furnifliing a diftant hope, tending to

confole

STUDY Vllt. 191

confole Mankind under the preffiire of their po-
litical injuftice. But, if this were the cafe, how
could it have found it's way into the deferts,
and entered the head of a Negro, of a Caraïb, of
a Patagonian, of a Tartar ? How could it have
been diffufed, at once, over the iflands of the
South-Seas, and over Lapland ; over the volup-
tuous regions of Afia, and the rude Climates of
North-America; among the inhabitants of Paris,
and thofe of the new Hebrides ? How is it pof-
fible that fo many Nations, feparated by vaft
Oceans, fo different in manners and in language,
fhould have unanimoufly adopted one opinion;
Nations which frequently affeâ:, from national ani-
mofity, a deviation from the moft trivial cuftoms
of their neighbours ?

All believe in the immortaHty of the foul.
Whence could they have derived a belief fo flatly
contradiifled by their daily experience ? They
every day fee their friends die ; but the day never
comes when any one re-appears. In vain do they
carry victuals to their tombs ; in vain do they fuf-
pend, with tears, on the boughs of the adjoining
trees, the objects which in life were moft dear to
them ; neither thcfe teftimonies of an inconfol-
able friendfhip, nor the vows of conjugal affedion
challenged by their drooping mates, nor the la-
mentations of their dear children, poured out over

the

192 STUDIES OF NATURE.

earth which covers their remains, can bring them
back from the land of fhadows. What do they
expeâ: for ihemfelves, from a hfe to come, who
exprefs all this unavailing regret over the afhes of
their departed favourites ? There is no profpeft fo
inimical to the interefls of moft men ; for fome,
having lived a life of fraud, or of violence, have
reafon to apprehend a (late of piinifliment ; others,
having been opprefTed in this world, might juftly
fear, that the life to come was to be regulated con-
formably to the fame deftiny which prefided over
that which they are going to leave.

Shall we be told. It is pride which cheriflies
this fond opinion in their breads ? What, is it
pride that induces a wretched Negro, in the Weft-
Indies, to hang himfelf, in the hope of returning
to his own country, where a fécond ftate of llavery
awaiis him ? Other Nations, fuch as the iflanders
of Taïti, reftridl the hope of this immortality, to
a renovation of precifely the fame life which they
are going to leave. Ah ! the pafïïons prefent to
Man far different plans of felicity ; and the mife-
ries of his exiftence, and the illumination of his
reafon, would long ago have deftroyed the life
that is, had not the hope of a life to come been,
in the human breaft, the refult of a fupernatural
feeling.

But

STUDY VIII. 193

But wherefore is man the only one of all ani-
mals fubjeded to other evils than thole of Na-
ture? Wherefore fhould he have been abandoned
to himfelf, difpofed as he is to go aflray ? He is,
therefore, the vidim of fome malignant Being.

It is the province of Religion to take us up
where Philofophy leaves us. The nature of the
ills which we endure, unfolds their origin. If
man renders himfelf unhappy, it is becaufe he
would, himfelf, be the arbiter of his own felicity.
Man is a god in exile. The reign of Saturn^ the
Golden Age, Pandoras box, from which ifTued
every evil, and at the bottom of which hope alone
remained ; a thoufand fimilar allegories, difFufed
over all Nations, atteft the felicity, and the fall, of
a firft Man.

But there is no need to have recourfe to foreign
teftimonies. We carry the mod unqueftionable
evidence in ourfelves. The beauties of Nature
bear witnefs to the exiftence of GOD, and the mi-
feries of Man confirm the truths of Religion.
There exifts not a lingle animal but what is
lodged, clothed, fed, by the hand of Nature,
without care, and almoft without labour. Man
alone, from his birth upward, is overwhelmed with
calamity. Firft, he is born naked ; and pofTefTed
of fo little inftinâ:, that if the mother who bare

VOL. II. o him,

194 STUDIES OF NATURE.

him, were not to rear him for feveral years, he
would perifli of hunger, of heat, or of cold. He
knows nothing but from the experience of his pa-
rents. They are under the neceffity of finding
him a place where to lodge, of weaving garments
for him, of providing his food for eight or ten
years. Whatever encomiums may have been paffed
on certain countries for their fertility, and the
mildnefs of their climate, I know of no one in
which fubfiftence of the fimpleft kind does not
coft Man both folicitude and labour. In India,
he muft have a roof over his head to fhelter him
from the heat, from the rains, and from the infers.
There, too, he muft cultivate rice, weed it, threQi
it, (hell it, drefs it. The banana, the moft ufeful
of all the vegetables of thofe countries, ftands in
need of being watered, and of being hedged
round, to fecure it from the attacks of the wild
beafts by night. Magazines muft likewife be pro-
vided, for the prefervation of provifions during
thofe feafons when the Earth produces nothing.
When Man has thus colleded around him every
thing neceflary to a quiet and comfortable life,
ambition, jealoufy, avarice, gluttony, inconti-
nency, or languor, take poffeffion of his heart.
He periflies almoft always the vidim of his own
paffions. Undoubtedly, to have funk thus below
the level of the beafts, Man muft have afpired at
an equality with the Deity.

Wretched

STUDY VIII. 195

Wretched mortals ! Seek your happinefs in
virtue, and you will have no ground of complaint
againft Nature. Defpife that ufelefs knowledge,
and thofe unreafonable prejudices, which have cor-
rupted the Earth, and which every age fubverts
in it*s turn. Love thofe Laws which are eternal.
Your deftiny is not abandoned to chance, nor to
mifchievous demons. Recal thofe times, the re-
colledlion of which is ftill frefh among all Na-
tions. The brute creation every where found the
means of fupporting life ; Man alone had neither
aliment, nor clothing, nor inftinâ:.

Divine wifdom left Man to himfelf, in order to
bring him back to GOD. She fcattered her blef-
lings over the whole Earth that, in order to gather
them, he might explore every different region of
it; that he might expand his reafon by the
infpedion of her works, and that he might be-
come enamoured of her from a fenfe of her bs-
nefits. She placed between herfelf and him,
harmlefs pleafures, rapturous difcoveries, pure
delights, and endlefs hopes, in order to lead
him to herfelf, ftep by ftep, through the path
of knowledge and happinefs. She fenced his way
on both fides, by fear, by languor, by remorfe,
by pain, by all the ills of life, as boundaries def-
tined to prevent him from wandering and lofing
himfelf. The mother, thus, fcatters fruit along

o 2 the

1^6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the ground to induce her child to learn to walk i
(he keeps at a little diflance ; fmiles to him, calls
him, ftretches ont her arms towards him : but if
he happens to fall, Ihe flies to his affiftance, (he
wipes away his tears, and comforts him.

Thus Providence interpofes for the relief of
Man, fupplying his wants in a thoufand extraor-
dinary ways. What would have become of him
in the earlieft ages, had he been abandoned to his
own reafon, flill unaided by experience ? Where
found he corn, which at this day conftitutes a prin-
cipal part of the food of fo many Nations, and
which the Earth, while it fpontaneoufly produces
all forts of plants, no where exhibits ? Who taught
him agriculture, an art fo fimple, that the mofk
ftupid of Mankind is capable of learning it, and
yet fo fublime, that themoft intelligent of animals
never can pretend to pradife it ? There is fcarcely
an animal but what fupports it's life by vegetables,
but what has daily experience of their re-produc-
tion, and which does not employ, in queft of thofe
that fuit them, many more combinations than
would have been neceflary for re-fowing them.

But, on what did Man himfelf fubfift, till an
JJÏS or a Ceres revealed to him this blefling of the
Ikies ? Who (hewed him, in the firft ages of the
World, the original fruits of the orchard, fcattered

over

STUDY VIII. 197

over the forefts, and the alimentary roots con-
cealed in the bofom of the Earth ? Muft he not, a
thoufand times, have died of hunger, before he had
colleded a fufficiency to fupport life, or of poifon,
before he had learned to feledt, or of fatigue and
reftlefsnefs, before he had formed round his habi-
tation grafs-plots and arbours ? This art, the
image of creation, was referved for that Being
alone who bare the impreffion of the Divinity.

If Providence had abandoned Man to himfelf,
on proceeding from the hands of the Creator, what
would have become of him ? Could he have faid
to the plains : Ye unknown forefts, (hew me the
fruits which are my inheritance? Earth, open, and
difclofe, in the roots buried under thy furface, my
deftined aliment ? Ye plants, on which my life
depends, manifeft to me your qualities, and fup-
ply the inftinft which Nature has denied ? Could
he have had recourfe, in his diftrefs, to the com-
paflion of the beads, and, ready to perilh with
hunger, have faid to the cow : Take me into the
number of thy children, and let me (hare, with thy
offspring, the produce of one of thy fuperfluous
teats ? When the breath of the North-wind made
him fhiver with cold, would the wild goat and ti-
mid flieep have run at his call to warm him with
their fleeces ? Wandering, without a proteftor,
and without an afylum, when he heard by night

o q . the

198 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the bowlings of ferocious animals demanding dieir
prey, could he have made fupplication to the ge-
nerous dog, and faid to him : Be thou my de-
fender, and I will make thee my flave ? Who
could have fubjeéled to his authority fo many
animals which flood in no need of him, which
furpafled him in cunning, in fpeed, in ftrength,
unlefs the hand which, notwithftanding his fall,
deflined him flill to empire, had humbled their
heads to the obedience of his will ?

How was it poffible for him, with a reafon lefs
infallible than their inftindb, to raife himfelf up to
the very Heavens, to meafure the courfe of the
ftars, to crofs the Ocean, to call down the thun-
der, to imitate moft of the Works and appearances
of Nature? We are ftruck with aftoni (liment at
thefe thing's now : but I am much rather aftonilh-
ed, that a fenfe of Deiry (hould have fpoken to
his heart, long before a comprehenfion of the
Works of Nature had perfefted his underftanding.
View him in the ftate of naiure, engaged in per-
petual war with the elements, with beafts of prey,
with his fellow- creatures, with himfelf; frequently
reduced to fituations of fubjedtion which no other
animal could poffibly fupport ; and he is the only
being who difcovers, in the very depth of mifery,
the charadler of infinity, and the reftlefsnefs of im-
mortality. He eredts trophies 3 he engraves the

record

STUDY VIII. 199

record of his atchievements on the bark of trees ;
he celebrates his funeral obfequies, and puts reve-
rence on the aflies of his forefathers, from whom
he has received an inheritance fo fatal.

He is inceffantly agitated by the rage of love or
of vengeance. When he is not the vidim of his
fellow-men, he is their tyrant : and he alone knows
that Jufhice and Goodnefs govern the World, and
that Virtue exalts Man to Heaven. He receives,
from his cradle, none of the prefents of Nature, no
foft fleece, no plumage, no defenfive armour, no
tool, for a life (o painful and fo laborious ; and
he is the only being who invites the Gods to his
birth, to his nuptials, and to his funeral obfequies.

However far he may have been mifled by ex-
travagant opinions, whenever he is (truck by un-
expeded burfts of joy or grief, his foul, by an in-
voluntary movement, takes refuge in the bofom of
Deity. He cries out : Ah, my GOD ! He raifes
to Heaven fuppliant hands, and eyes bathed with
tears, in hope of there finding a Father. Ah ! the
wants of Man bear witnefs to the providence of a
Supreme Being. He has made Man feeble and
ignorant, only that he may ftay himfelf on his
flrength, and illuminate himfelf by his light ; and
fo far is it from being true, that chance, or malig-
nant fpirits, domineer over a World, where every

0 4 thinor

200 STUDIES OF NATURE.

thing concurred to deftroy a creature (o wretched,
his prefervation, his enjoyments, and his empire,
demonflrate, that, at all times, a beneficent GOD
has been the friend, and the protedor of human
hfe.

SIUDY

STUDY IX. 201

STUDY NINTH.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE METHODS OF OUR REA-
SON, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF OUR SCIENCES.

T HAVE difplayed, from the beginning of this
-*- Work, the immenfity of the fludy of Nature»
I there propofed new plans, to affift us in forming
an idea of the order which fhe has eflablifhed in
all her various kingdoms : but, checked by my
own incapacity, all that I could prefume to pro-
mife was, to trace a flight fketch of what exifts in
the vegetable order. However, before I proceeded
to lay down new principles on this fubjeét, I
thought myfelf called upon to refute the prejudices
which the World, and our Sciences themfelves,
might have diffufed over Nature, in the minds of
my Readers. I have, accordingly, exhibited a
faint reprefentation of the goodnefs of Providence
to the age in which we live, and the objeâiions
which have been raifed againft it. I have replied
to thofe objeâiions, in the fame order in which I
bad ftated them, pointing out, as I went along,

the

202 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the wonderful harmony which prevails in the di-
ilrlbution of the Globe, abandoned, as fome would
have it, to the limple Laws of motion and of
chance»

I have prefented a new theory of the courfes of
the Tides, of the motion of the Earth in the
Ecliptic, and of the Univerfal Deluge : and I am
now going to attack, in my turn, the methods of
our Reafon, and the Elements of our Sciences,
before I proceed to lay down fome principles,
which may indicate to us a certain path to the dif-
çovery of Truth.

But let it be underftood, that if, in the courfe of
this Work, and particularly in this article, I have
combatted our natural Sciences, it is only fo far
as fyfiem is concerned : 1 give them full credit on
the fide of obfervation. Bcfides, I highly refpeft
the perfons who devote themfelves to the purfuit
of Science. I know nothing in the world more
eftimable, next to the virtuous man, than the man
of real knowledge, if, however, it be poffible to
feparate the Sciences from Virtue. What facrifices
and privations does not the cultivation of them de-
mand ! While the herd of Mankind is growing
rich and renowned by agriculture, commerce,
navigation, and the arts, it has been frequently
feen, that thofe who cleared the way for all the

reft.

STUDY IX. 203

reft, lived in indigence themfelves, unknown to,
and difregarded by, their contemporaries. The
man of Science, like the torch, illuminates all
around him, and remains himfelf in obfcurity.

I have attacked, then, neither the Learned,
whom I honour, nor the Sciences, which have
been my confolation through life ; but had time
permitted, I would have difputed every inch of
ground with our methods and our fyftems. They
have thrown us into fuch a variety of abfurd opi-
nions, in every branch of fcientific refearch, that,
I do not hefitate to affirm, our Libraries, at this
day, contain more of error than of information.
Nay, Î could venture to wager, that were you to
introduce a blind man * into the King's Library,

and

* The word in the original is, a ^inze-vingt. The Quinze-
vingt at Paris is a royal foundation of Saint Louis, for the relief
aï fifteen fcore^ that is, three hundred blind perfons : hence, in
the Parifian phrafe, any one, in general, afflidled with the want
of fight is denominated a Quinze- vingt.

The King' S' Library is another eftablifhment, which reflefts
the higheft honour on the French Government. It was founded
by the famous Cardinal de Richlieu ; who, however, transferred
the credit of it to the Prince. The building is creeled in the
very centre of the Metropolis, and contains a moft magnificent
colleftion of books and manufcripts, in all languages, and rela-
tive to every art and fcience; of drawings, models, mathema-
îical ioftruments, &c. It is opened on certain days of the week,

and

204 STUDIES OF NATURE.

and let him take out any book at a venture, the
jhrfl: page of that book on which he may chance to
lay his hand, fliall contain an error. How many
probabilities Hiould 1 have in my favour, among
romance-writers, poets, mythologifts, hiftorians,
panegyrifls, moralifts, naturaliils of ages paft, and
metaphyficians of all ages and of all countries ?
There is, in truth, a very fimple method to check
the mifchief which their opinions might produce;
it is to arrange all the books which contradiâ:
themfelves, by the fide of each other ; as thefe
are, in every walk of literature, almoR infinite in
number, the refult of human knowledge, as far
as they convey it, will be reduced almoft to no-
thing.

By our very methods of acquiring knowledge,
we are deluded into error. Firft, to fucceed in the
fearch of Truth, we ought to be entirely exempted
from the influence of paflionj and yet, from our
earlieft infancy, the paffions are wilfully fet afloat,
and thus reafon receives an improper bias from the
very firft. This maxim is laid down as the funda-
mental bafis of all conduél, and of all opinion,

and for a confidcrable part of the day, for the infpee^ion and
life of ftrangers as well as natives. And, even in Paris, I faw
no petty officer, on duty at the Library, hold out his hand for
a fee. ' H. H.

Make

STUDY IX. 20^

Make yoiii' fortune. The effeâ; of this is, we no
longer prize any thing but what has fome relation
to this appetite. Even natural truths vaniQi out
of fight, becaufe we no longer contemplate Na-
ture, except in machines or books.

In order to our believing in GOD, fome perfon
of confequence muft aflure us there is one. If
Fenelon fays it is fo, we admit it, becaufe Fenelon
was preceptor to the Duke of Burgundy^ an Arch-
bifliop, a man of quality, and addreffed by the
title of My Lord. We are fully convinced of the
exiftence of GOD by the arguments of Fenelon,
becaufe his credit refleéls fome upon ourfelves. I
do not mean to affirm, however, that his virtue
contributed nothing to the force of his reafoning :
but no farther than as it ftands in connexion with
his reputation and his fortune; for were we to meet
this fame virtue in a water-porter, it's luftre would
fade in our eyes. To no purpofe would fuch a
one furnifh proofs of the exiftence of a GOD,
more unanfwerable than all the fpeculations of
Philofophy, in a life labouring under contempt,
hard, poor, laborious, exhibiting uniform probity
and fortitude, and pafTed in perfed refignation to
the will of the Supreme : thefe teftimonies fo po-
fitive are of no confideration at all with us ; we
eftimate their importance from the celebrity which
they have acquired. Let fome Emperor be dif-

pofed

ZOS STUDIES OF NATURE.

pofed to adopt the Philofophy of this obfcure man,
his maxims will be immediately extolled in every -
book that is publifhed, and quoted in every aca-
demical thefis ; engraved portraits of the Author
would decorate every pannel, and his bufb in
plafter of Paris grace every chimney; he fliould
be an Epidelus^ a Socrates^ a John James RouJJeau.

But fhould a period come, in which arofe men
of as high reputation as thefe, in favour with
powerful Princes, whofe intereft it might be, that
there (hould be no GOD, and who, in order to
make their court to fuch Princes, denied his ex-
iftence ; from the fame efFeft of our education,
which engaged us to believe in GOD, on the faith
of Fenelon, EpidetuSy Socrates, and John James Rouf-
feau, we would renounce our belief, on the credit
of the others, being men of fuch high confidera-
tion, and, befides, fo much nearer to us. It is
thus our education warps us : it difpofes us indif-
ferently to preach the Gofpel or the Alcoran, ac-
cording as our intereft is concerned in the one or
in the other.

Hence arofe this maxim fo univerfal and fo per-
nicious : Frimo vivere, de'inde fhilofophari — *' To
*' live firft, and feek wifdom afterward." The
man who is not ready to give his life in exchange
for wifdom, is unworthy of knowing her. Juve-

naVs

STUDf IX. 20^

mPs fentiment is much more rational, and de-
ferves rather to be adopted :

Summum crede nefas vitani praïferre pudori ;
Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere caufas *.

*' The blacked of crimes, believe it, is to pre-
'** fer life to honour ; and for the fake of a few
** paltry years of mere exiftence, to {licrifice that
•* which alone makes life defirable.'*

I fay nothing of other prejudices which oppofc
themfelves to the inveftigation of truth, fuch as
thofe of ambition, which ftimulate every one
among us to diftinguifh himfelf ; and this can hardly
be done except in two ways; either by fubverting
maxims the mod undoubted, and the mofl: firmly
eftablilhed, in order to fubftitute our own in their
place ; or by making an effort to pleafe all par-
ties, from uniting opinions the mod contradic-
tory ; and this, taking the two cafes together,
multiplies tlie ramifications of error to infinity.
Truth has, farther, to encounter a multitude of
other obftacles on the part of powerful men, who
can make an advantage of error. I fliall confine

* Imitated thus :

The worft of crimes, believe it, generous youth,
Is to buy life, by felling facred truth :
Virtue's the gem of life, the Sage's ftore ;
Unt life is death, when honour is no more.

myfelf

S08 STUDIES OF NATURE.

myfelf to thofe which are to be imputed to the
weaknefs of our reafon, and (hall examine their
influence on our acquirements in natural know-
ledge.

It is eafy to perceive, that mofl of the Laws
which we have prefumed to affign to Nature, have
been deduced fometimes from our weaknefs,
fometimes from our pride. I (hall take a few in-
ftances, as they happen to occur to my thoughts,
and which are conlidered as moft indubitably cer-
tain. For example, we have fettled it, that the
Sun mufl be in the centre of the planets, in order
to regulate their motion, becaufe we are under the
neceffity of placing ourfelves in the centre of our
perfonal concerns, for the purpofe of keeping an
eye over them. But if, in the cafe of the celeftial
fpheres, the centre naturally belongs to the mofl
confiderable bodies, how comes it about that
Saturn and Jupiter, which greatly exceed our Globe
in magnitude, fhould be at the extremity of our
vortex ?

As the fhorteft road is that which fatigues us
leaft, we have taken upon us to conclude, that, in
like manner, this muft be the plan of Nature.
Confequently, in order to fpare the Sun a journey
of about ninety millions of leagues, which he muft
every day perform, in giving us light, we fet the

Earth

STUDY IX. 209

Earih a fpinning round it's own axis. It may be
fo ; but if the Earth revolves round itfelf, there
muft be a great difference in the fpace pafled
through by two cannon-balls, fliot off at the fame
inftant, the one toward the Eaft, and the other to-
ward the Weft ; for the firft goes along with the
motion of the Earth, and the fécond goes in the
oppofite diredion. While both are flying in the
air, and removing the one from the other, each
proceeding at the rate of fix thoufand fathoms in
a minute, the Earth, during that fame minute, is
outflying the firft, and removing from the fécond,
with a velocity which carries it along at the rate
of fixteen thoufand fathoms j this ought to put
the point of departure twenty-two thoufand fa-
thom behind the ball which is flying to the Weft,
and ten thoufand fathom before that which is fly-
ing to the Eaft.

I once propofed this difficulty to a very able
Aftronomer, who confidered it as almoft an infult.
He replied, as the cuftom of our Dodlors is, that
the objeélion had been made long before, and re-
folved. At length, as I intreated him to have com-
paflion on my ignorance, and to give me the folu-
tion, he retailed to me the pretended experiment, of
a ball dropped from the top of a (hip's maft, when
under fail, and which falls on deck clofe to the
rnaft, notwithftanding the fhip's progreffive mo-

voL. ij. P tion.

210 STUDIES OF NATURE.

tion. " The Earth," faid he, " carries along, rn
" like manner, the rotation of the two balls, m
^' it's own movement. Were they to be (hot off
" in a perpendicular diredion, they would fall
** back precifely on the point from whence they
*' were emitted." As axioms are not very expen-
live, and ferve to cut fhort all diinculties, he fub-
joined this as one : " The motion of a great body
abforbs that of a fmall." If this axiom be founded
in truth, replied I, the ball dropped from the-
top of the maft of a fliip under fail, ought not to
fall back clofe to the bottom of the maft; it's
motion ought to be abforbed, not by that of the
veffel, but by that of the Earth, which is far
the greater body. It ought to obey only the di-
reftion of gravity ; and, for the fame reafon, the
Earth ought to abforb the motion of the bullet
which is going along with it toward the Eaft, and
force it back into the cannon from which it if-
fued.

1 was unwilling to pu (h this difficulty any far-
ther ; but I remained, as has frequently happened
to me, after the moft luminous folutions of ouï
fchools, ftill more perplexed than I was before. I
began to call in queftion the truth of not only a
fyftem and of an experiment, but what is worfe»
of an axiom. Nvot that 1 rejed; our planetary fyf-
tem, fuch as it is given us; but I admit it for the

fame

STUDY IX. ait

fame reafon which at firfl: fuggefted it. It is from
it's being the bed adapted to the weaknefs of my
body, and of my mind. I find, in fa6t, that the
rotation of the Earth, every day, faves the Sun a
prodigious journey : but, in other refpefts, I by
no means believe that this fyftem is that of Na-
ture, and that (he has difclofed the caufes of mo-
tion to men, who are incapable of accounting for
the movement of their own fingers.

I beg leave to fugged fome farther probabiHties
in favour of the Sun's motion round the Earth.
" The Aflronomers of Greenwich, having difco-
** vered that a flar of Taurus has a declination of
" two minutes, every twenty-four hours ; that this
" ftar not being dim, and having no train, cannot
" be confidered as a comet, communicated their
*^ dbfervations to the Aftronomers of Paris, who
" found them accurate. M. Mejfier was appointed
** to make a report of this to the Academy of
" Sciences, at their next meeting *."

If the Stars are Suns, here then is a Sun in mo-
tion, and that motion is a prefumption, at leaft,
that ours may move.

* Extract from the Courier de l'Europe, Friday, 4th May,
1781.

p 2 The

212 STUDIES OF NATURE.

The {lability of the Earth may be prefumed,
on the other hand, from this circumftance, that
the diftance of the Stars never changes with re-
fpecl to us, which muft perceptibly take place, if
we performed every year, as is alleged, a round of
fixty-four millions of leagues in diameter through
the Heavens; for in a fpace fo vaR, we muft, of
neceffity, draw nigher to feme, and remove from
others.

Sixty-four millions of leagues, we are told,
dwindle to a point in the Heavens, compared to
the diftance of the Stars, I am much in doubt as
to the truth of this. The Sun, which is a million
of times greater than the Earth, prefents an appa-
rent diameter of only fix inches, at the diftance of
thirty-two millions of leagues from us. If this
diftance reduces to a diameter fo fmall, a body fo
immenfe, it is impoffible to doubt, that double the
diftance, namely, fixty-four millions of leagues,
would diminiQi it ftill much more, and reduce ic,
perhaps, to the apparent magnitude of a Star; and
it is far from being impoffible, that, on being thus
diminiftied, and on our ftill removing fixty-four
millions of leagues farther, he would entirely dif-
appear. How comes it to pafs, then, that when
the Earth approaches, or removes to this diftance
fiom the Stars in the Firmament, in performing

it's

STUDY IX. 213

it*s annual circle, no one of thofe Stars increafes or
diminiflies in magnitude witli refpedt to us.

I fubmit fome farther obfervations, tending to
prove, that the Stars have, at lead, motions pecu-
liar to themfelves. The ancient Aftronomers have
obferved, in the neck of the Whale, a Star which
prefented much variety in it's appearances ; fome-
times it appeared for three months together, fome-
times during a longer interval ; fometimes it's ap-
parent magnitude was greater, fometimes fmaller.
The time of it's appearances was irregular. The
fame Aftronomers report, that they had obferved a
new Star in the heart of the Swan, which from time
to time difappeared. In the year 1600, it was
equal to a Sjar of the hi ft magnitude ; it gradually
dirninifhed, and at length difappeared. M. CaJJini
perceived it in 1655. It increafed for five years
fucceflively ; it then began to decreafe, and re-
appeared no more. In 1670 a new Star was ob-
ferved near the head of the Swan. Father Anjdniy
a Carthufian friar, and feveral other Aftronomers,
made the obfervation. It difappeared, and be-
came again vifible in 1672. From that period, it
was feen no more till 1709, and in 1713 it totally
difappeared.

Thefe examples demonftrate, that the Stars not
only have motions, but that they defcribe curves

p 3 very

214 STUDIES OF NATURE.

very different from the circles and the ellipfes
which we have affigned to the heavenly bodies. I
am fully perfuaded, that there is among thefe the
fame variety of motion, as between thofe of many
terreftrial bodies ; and that there are Stars which
defcribe cycloids, fpirals, and many other curves,
of which we have not fo much as an idea.

I muft proceed no farther on this ground, for
fear of appearing better informed refpeding the
affairs of Heaven, than thofe which are much
nearer to us. All that 1 intended was to expofe my
doubts and my ignorance. If Stars are Suns, then
there mufl be Stars in motion; and, furely, ours
may be in motion as well as they are *.

It

* I now leave the Reader to refleél on the total difappearance
of thofe Stars. The Ancients had obferved feven Stars in the
Pleiades. Six only are now perceptible. The l'çventh difap-
peared at the fiege of Troy. Ovid fays, it was fo affefted by the
fate of that unfortunate city, as, from grief, to cover it's face
with it's hand. I find, in the book of j^o^, a curious pafTage,
which feems to prefage this difappearance : it is chap, xxxviii.
vei". 31. Nitmquid co7ifimg€re malebis jnicaiifesjlrllaspkiadas, ant
gynim avBuri poteris dijppare ? "Will it be in thy power to
" unite the brilliant Stars, the Pleiades ; and to turn afide the
" great Bear from it's courfe ?" This is the import of the tranf-
iation of M. le Maître de Sacy. However, if I might venture to
give an opinion after that learned man, I would put a different
fenfe "on the conclufion of the paflage. Gyrum arSlmi dijpparey
means, in my opinion, ♦' to diffipate the attradion of the arftic

pole."

STUDY IX. ^ 215

It is thus that our general maxims become the
Sources of error ; for we never fail to charge with
diforder whatever feems to recede from our pre-
tended order. That which I formerly quoted,
namely, that Nature, in her operations, takes al-
ways the fhorteft road, has filled our Fhyfics with
falfe views innumerable. There is nothing, how-
ever, more flatly contradifted by experience. Na-
ture makes the waters of the rivers to meander
through the Land, in their progrefs to the Sea, in-
flead of tranfmitting them in a ftraight line. She
caufes the veins to perform a winding courfe
through the human body ; nay, fhe has perforated
certain bones exprefsly, in order to afford a pafTage
to fome of the principal veins into the interior of
the ftronger limbs, to prevent their being expofed
to injury by external concuflions. In a word, fhe
expands a mufliroom in one night, but takes a
century to bring an oak to perfeâiion. Nature
very feldom takes the neareft road, but fhe al-
ways takes that which is bed adapted to the pur-
pofe.

This rage for generalizing has di<ftated to us,
in every branch of Science, an infinite number of

pole." I here repeat what I have ah-eady obferved, that the
Book of Job is repleniflied with moll profound knowledge of
Nature. ;

p 4 maxims.

2l6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

maxims, fentences, adages, which are inceffantly
contradiéling themfelves. It is one of our maxims,
that a man of genius catches every thing at a
glance, and executes all by one fingle Law. For
my own part, I confider this fublime method of ob-
ferving and executing, as one of the ftrongeft proofs
of the vveaknefs of the human mind. Man never
can proceed with confidence but in one fingle
path. As foon as a variety prefent themfelves, he
becomes perplexed, and goes afl:ray ; he is at a lofs
to afcertain which he ought to purfue : that he
may make fure of not deviating, he admits only
one to be right ; and, once engaged, right or
wrong, pride fhimulates him forward. The Au-
thor of Nature, on the contrary, embracing in
his infinite intelligence, all the fpheres of all beings,
proceeds to their produdionby Laws as various as
his own inexhauftible conceptions, in order to the
attainment of one fingle end, which is their gene-
ral good. Whatever contempt Philofophers may
exprefs for final caufes, they are the only caufes
which he permits us to know. All the reft He is
pleafed to conceal from us ; and it is well worthy
of being remarked, that the only end which He
difclofes to our underftanding, is alfo the fame
with that which he propofes to our virtues.

One of our moft ordinary methods, when we
catch fome effed in Nature, is to dwell upon it,

at

STUDY IX. 217

at firft, from weaknefs, and afcerwards, to deduce
from it an univerfal principle,, out of vanity. If
after tiiis we can find means, and it is no difficult
matter to apply to it a geometrical theorem, a
triangle, an equation, were it but a.n a -\- 1>, this is
fufficient to render it for ever venerable. It was
thus that, in the laft age, every thing was ex-
plained on the principles of the corpufcular philo-
fophy, becaufe it was perceived that fome bodies
were formed by intus-fufception, or an aggrega-
tion of parts. A feafoning of Algebra, which they
found means to add to it, had invefted it with fo
much the more dignity, that moft of the reafoners
of thofe times underftood nothing of the matter.
But being indifferently endowed, it's reign was of
fliort duration. At this day, we do not fo much
as mention the names of a long lifl of learned and
illuflrious gentlemen, whom all Europe then con-
curred in covering with laurels.

Others having found out that air prefïed, fet to
work with every fpecics of machinery to demon-
flrate that air pofTefibd gravity. Our books refer-
red every thing to the gravity of the air ; vegeta-
tion, the human temperament, digeftion, the cir-
culation of the blood, the phenomena, the afcen-
fion, of fluids. They found thetnfelves fomewhat
embarraffed, it is true, by capillary tubes, in
which the fluid afcends^ independently of thp ac-
tion

£lS STUDIES OF NATURE.

tion of the air. But a folution was found for this
likevvife; and woe betide thofe, in the phrafe of
certain Writers, who do not comprehend it ! Others
apphed themfelves to the inveftigation of it's elaf-
ticity, and have explained, equally well, all the
operations of Nature, by this quality of the air.
The unlverfal cry was, now the veil is removed ;
u'e have caught her in the faft. But did not the
Savage know, when he walked againft the wind,
that air had both gravity and elafticity ? Did he
not employ both thofe qualities in managing his
canoe when under fail ? I do not objed to invefti-
gation, if natural effeds are applied, after exadt
calculation, and unequivocal experiment, to the
neceffities of human life ; but they are, for the
moft parr, introduced for the purpofe of regulating
the operations of Nature, and not our own.

Others find it ftill more commodious to explain
the fyftem of the Univerfe, without deducing any
confequence from it. They afcribe to it Laws
which have fo much accuracy and precifion, that
they leave to the divine Providence nothing more
to do. They reprefent the Supreme Being as a
Geometrician, or a Mechanift, who amufes him-
fclf with making fpheres, merely for the pleafure
of fetting them a fpinning round. They pay no
regard to harmonies, and other moral caufes.
Though the exadnefs of their obfervations

may

STUDY IX. 219

may do them honour, their refults are by no
means fatisfadory. Their manner of reafoning
on Nature refembles that of a Savage, who, on
obferving, in one of our cities, the motion of
the indexes of a public clock, and feeing, that on
their pointing in a certain direftion upon the
hour-plate, the turrets fell a lliaking, crowds if-
fued into the flreets, and a confiderable part of the
inhabitants were put in motion, fliould thence
conclude, that a clock was the principle of all Eu-
ropean occupations. This is the defed to be im-
puted to moft of the Sciences, v/hich, without con-
fulting the end of the operations of Nature, per-
plex themfelves in an unprofitable inveftigation of
the means. The Aftronomer confiders only the
courfe of the Stars, without paying the flighteft
attention to the relations which they have with the
feafons. Chemiftry, having difcovered in the ag-
gregation of bodies only faline particles, which
mutually aflîmilate, fees nothing but fait as the
principle and the objed. Algebra having been
invented, in order to facilitate calculation, has de-
generated into a Science which calculates only
imaginary magnitudes, and which propofes to it-
felf theorems only, totally inapplicable to the de-
mands of human life.

From all this refults an infinity of diforders, far
beyond what I am able to exprefs. The view of

Nature,

220 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Nature, which fuggefts to Nations the mod fa-
vage, not only the idea of a GOD, but that of an
infinity of Gods, prefents to the Philofophers of
the day only the idea of furnaces, of fpheres, of
ftills, and of cryflallizations.

The Nai'ads, the Sylvans, Apollo, Neptune, Ju-
piter, imprefîed upon the Ancients fome refpedl,
at leafk, for the Works of Creation, and attached
them ft ill farther to their Country by a fentiment
of religion. But our machinery deftroys the har-
monies of Nature and of Society. The firft is to
us nothing but a gloomy theatre, compofed of le-
vers, pulleys, weights, and fprings; and the fé-
cond merely a fchool for difputation. Thofe fyf-
tems, we are told, give exercife to the mental fa-
culties. It may be fo ; but may they not likewife
miflead the underftanding ? But the heart is in no
lefs danger of being depraved. While the head is
laying down principles, the heart is frequently
deducing confequences. If every thing is thepro-
dudion of unintelligent powers, of attrapions, of
fermentations, the play of fibres, of maffes, we
then are fubjeded to their laws, as all other bodies
are. Women and children deduce thefe confe-
quences. What, in the mean time, becomes of
virtue ? You mufl: fubmit, fay thefe ingenious
gentlemen, to the Laws of Nature. So then, we
mull obey the power of gravity ; fit down, and

walk

STUDY IX. 221

walk no more. Nature fpeaks to us by a hundred
thoufand voices. Which of thefe is now founding
in our ears ? What, will you adopt as the rule of
your life, the example of filhes, of quadrupeds, of
plants, or even of the heavenly bodies ?

There are Metaphyficians, on the contrary, who
without paying regard to any one Law of Phyfics,
explain to you the whole fyftem of the Univerfe,
by means of abftraâ: ideas. But this is a proof
that their fyftem is not the fyftem of Nature,
namely, that with their materials and their me-
thod, it would be an eafy matter to fubvert their
order, and to frame another totally different from
it, provided one were difpofed to take the fmall
trouble which it requires. Nay, a reflexion arifes
out of this, which levels a mortal blow at the pride
of human underftanding ; it is this, that all thefe
efforts of the genius of Man, fo far from being
able to conftrud a World, are incapable of fo
much as putting a grain of fand in motion.

There are others, who confider the ftate in
which we live as a ftate of progreffive ruin and ot
punifliment. They proceed on the fuppofition,
conformably to the authority of the Sacred Writ-
ings, that this Earth once exifted with other har-
monies. I readily admit what Scripture fays on
this fubjed, but I objed to the explanations of

Commentators.

222 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Commentators. Such is the weak nefs of oiir irt-
telleftual powers, that we are incapable of con-
ceiving or imagining any thing beyond what Na-
ture aftually exhibits to us. They are grofsly
miftaken^ accordingly, when they affirm, for in-
ftance, that, when the Earth was in a flate of
perfection, the Sun was conftantly in the Equa-
tor j that the days and nights were perpetually
equal ; that there was an eternal Spring ; that the
whole face of the ground was fmooth and level,
and fo on.

Were the Sun conftantly in the Equator, I
queftion whether a fingle fpot of the Globe would
be habitable. Firfl, the Torrid Zone would be
burnt up by his fervent heat, as has been already
demonftrated ; the two icy Zones would extend
much farther than they do at prefent ; the tempe*
rate Zones would be at leafl as cold toward their
middle, as they are with us at the vernal Equinox;
and this temperature would prevent the greatefl
part of fruits from coming to maturity. I know
not where the perpetual Spring would be; but,
if it could any where exift, never could Au-
tumn there exift likewife. The cafe would be ftill
worfe were there neither rocks nor mountains on
the furface of the Globe, for not one river, nay
not a brook of water would flow over the whole
Earth. There would be neither Ihelter nor reflex,

to

STt/DY IX. 223

to the Norih, to cherifli the germination of
plants, and there would be neither (liade nor moif-
ture, to the South, to prefer ve them from the hear.
Thefe wonderful arrangements adually exift in
Finland, in Sweden, at Spitzberghen, and over
the whole northern regions, which become loaded
with rocks in proportion as the latitude increafes ;
and they rife, in like manner, in the Antilles, in
the lile of France, and in all the other illands and
diftriâs comprehended between the Tropics,
where the face of the ground is covered over with
rocks, efpecially toward the Line; in Ethiopia,
the territory of which Nature has overfpread with
vail and lofty rocks, almoft perpendicular, which
form all around them deep valleys, delightfully
fhady and cool. Thus, as was before obferved,
in order to refute our pretended plans of perfec-
tion, it is fufEcient to admit them.

There is another clafs of Literati, on the con-
trary, who never deviate from their track, and
who abftain from looking at any thing beyond it,
however rich in fafts they may be : fuch are the
Botanifts. They have obferved the fexual parts
in plants, and employ themfelves entirely in col-
lefting and arranging them, conformably to the
number of thofe parts, without troubling them-
felves about knowing any thing farther of them.
When they have claifed them in their heads and in

their

224 STUDIES OF NATURE.

their herbals, into umbellated, into rofe- formed, of
into tubulous, with the number of their flamina;
if to this they are able to affix a parcel of Greek
terms, they are poflefled, as they imagine, of the
complete fyllem of vegetation.

Others of them, to do them juftice, go fome-
what farther. They ftudy the principles of
plants ; and in order to attain their objeâ:, pound
them in mortars, or diflblve them in their alem-
bics. The procefs being completed, they exhibit
faits, oils, earths ; and tell you gravely, thefe are
the principles of fuch and fuch a plant. For my
own part, I no more believe that any one can fhew
me the principles of a plant in a phial, than he
can difplay thofe of a wolf, or of a fheep, in a
kettle. Irefpecl the myfterious operations of Che-
miftry ; but whenever they aft on vegetables, the
procefs deftroys them. Permit me to quote the
decifion which an eminent Phyfician has pro-
nounced on his own experiments. I mean Doftor
y. B. Chomely in the preliminary difcourfe to his
ufeful Abridgment of the Hiftory of common
Plants *. *' Two thoufand analyfes nearly," fays
he, " of different plants, made by the Chemifts
<' of the Royal Academy of Sciences, have afford -
*' ed us no farther information than this, that

* Vol. i. page 37,
« *' from

STUDY IX» Z2^

" from all vegetables may be extraded a certain
" quantity of an acid liquor, more or lefs of ef-
** fential or fetid oil, of fait fixed, volatile, or,
'* concrete, of infipid phlegm, and of earth ; and,
** in many cafes, almoft the fame principles, and
** in the fame quantities, from plants whofe vir-
" tues are extremely different. This very tedious,
" and very painful purfuit, accordingly, has
" turned out a merely ufelefs attempt towatd a
*' difcovery of the effeéls of plants ; and has ferved
" only to undeceive us, refpefting the prejudices
" which might have been entertained in favour of
" fuch an analyfis." He adds, that the celebrated
Chemift Hombergy having fovvn the feeds of the
fame plants in two frames, filled with earth, im-
pregnated with a flrong lye, the one of which was
afterwards watered with common water, and the
other with water in which nitre had been diflblved,
thefe plants re-produced very nearly the fame
principles. Here, then, is our fyftematic Science
completely overturned ; for it can difcover the ef-
fential qualities of plants, neither by their compo-
fition nor their decompofition.

Many other errors have been adopted refped-
ing the Laws of the expanfion and the fecunda-
tion of plants. The Ancients had diftingviifhed,
in many plants, males and females; and a fecunda-
tion, by means of emanations of the feminal pow-

VOL. II, Q., der.

226 STUDIES OF NATURE.

der, fuch as in the date-bearing palm-tree. We
have apphed this Law to the whole vegetable
kingdom. It embraces, no doubt, a very exten-
five field J but how many vegetables, befides, pro-
pagate themfelves by fuckers, by flips, by knit-
tings, by the extremities of their branches I Here
are, then, in the fame kingdom, various methods
of re-produdion. Neverthelefs, when we per-
ceive no longer in Nature, the Law which has once
been adopted in our books of Science, we are
weak enough to imagine that (he has gone aftray.
We have only one thread, and when it fnaps, we
conclude, that the fyftem of the Univerfe muft be
on the point of diflblution. The Supreme Intel-'
ligence difappears from before our eyes, the mo-
ment that our own happens to be a little difturbed.
1 entertain no doubt, however, that the Author
of Nature has eftabliflied Laws for the vegetable
World, «now fo generally fludied, which are ftill
to us entirely unknown. I take the liberty to fub-
join on this fubjed, an obfervation which I fubmit
to the experience of rpy Readers,

Having tranfplanted, in the month of February
of the year 1783, fome fimple violet plants, which
had begun to pulh out fmall flower-buds j this
tranfplantation checked their expanfion in a man-
ner very extraordinary. Thefe fmall buds never
came into flower, but their ovary having fwelled,
» attained

STUDY ix:. 227

attained the ufual fize, and changed into a capfula
filled with feeds, without difplaying, outwardly or
inwardly, either petal, or anthera, or fligma, or
any part whatever of the flower. All thefe buds
prefented fucceffively the fame phenomena in the
months of May, of June, and of July, but no one
of thofe violet plants prefented the lead femblance
of a flower. I only perceived in the fhooting buds
which I opened, the parts which fliould have com-
pofed the flower withered within the calix. I fowed
again their feeds which had not been fecundated,
and hitherto they have not fprung up. This ex-
periment fo far is favourable to the Linn^cin fyf-
tem J but it is in another refpe6t a deviation, as
it demonftrates the poflîbility of a plant's pro-
ducing fruit without having flowered.

It may be here proper to remark, once for all,
that phyfical Laws are fubordinate to the Laws of
utility, that is, to give an inftance, the Laws of
vegetation are adapted to the prefervation of fen-
fible beings, for whofeufethey were defigned. Ac-
cordingly, though the flowering of my violet may
have been interrupted, this prevented not the pro-
duction of it's feeds, which were deflined to be the
fubfiftence of fome animal, whofe natural food it
is. For this reafon, too, the moft ufeful plants,
fuch as the gramineous, are thofe which have the
greateft variety of methods to re-produce them-

(4^ a felves.

22$ STUDIES OF NATURE.

felvcs. If Nature, with refpefl to them, had con-
fined herfelf rigidly to the Law of florification,
they could not multiply, when paftured upon by
animals which continually browze on their fum-
mits. The fame thing takes place with regard to
fuch as grow along the water courfes, as reeds and
the aquatic trees j willows, alders, poplars, ofiers,
mangliers, when the waters fwell, and bury them
in fand, or totally fubvert them, as is frequently
the cafe. The (bores would remain deftitute of
verdure, if the vegetables, which are native there,
had not the faculty of re-produdion by means of
their own fhoots. But the cafe is different with
refpedt to the vegetable inhabitants of the moun-
tains, as palm-trees, firs, cedars, larches, pines,
which are not expofed to fmiilar accidents, and
which cannot be propagated by flips. Nay, if
you crop off the fummit of the palm-tree, it dies.

We likewife find thefe fame laws of adaptation
and utility in the generation of animals, to which
we afcribe uncertainty, as foon as we perceive va-
riety ; or when we apprehend an approximation
to the vegetable kingdom by means of imaginary
relations, fuggefted by the perception of effects
common to both. Thus, for example, if fome oi
our more delicate plant-infecls are viviparous in
Summer, it is becaufe their young find, at that
feafon, the temperature and the food which are
* adapted

STUDY IX, 229

adapted to them on coming into the world ; and
if they are oviparous in Autumn, it is becaufe the
pofterity of creatures fo dehcate could not have
furvived the Winter, without having been fliut up
in eggs. For fimilar reafons, if you tear off a claw
from a live crab or lobfter, it puQies out another,
which fprings out of it's body, as a branch out of
a tree. Not that this animal re-prod uftion is the
effed: of any mechanical analogy between the two
kingdoms : but thofe animals being deftined to
live on the ihores, among the rocks, where they
are expofed to the agitation of the waves, Nature
has beftowed on them the faculty of re-producing
the limbs expofed to be bruifed, or broken off, by
the rolling about of rocky fubftances, as ihe has
given to vegetables, which grow by the waters, the
power of re-produâ:ion by (hoots, becaufe they
are expofed to the danger of being overwhelmed
by inundations.

Medicine has deduced a multitude of errors
from thofe apparent analogies of the vegetable and
animal kingdoms. It is fufficient to examine the
train of her ftudies, to be fatisfied that they are
liable to ftrong fufpicions. She purfues the ope-
rations of the foul through the flruélure of a
corpfe, and the functions of life in the lethargy of
death. If (lie happens to perceive fome valuable
property in a vegetable, (lie exalts it into an uni-

CL 3 verfal

230 STUDIES OF NATURE.

verfal remedy. Liften to her aphorifms. Plants
are ufeful to human life : hence fhe concludes,
that a vegetable diet will make a man live for
feveral ages. Who is able to enumerate the
books, the treatifcs, the panegyrics, which have
been compofed on the virtues of plants ! Multi-
tudes of patients die, notwithftanding, with their
ftomachs full of thofe wonderful fmiples. Not
that I undervalue their qualities when judicioufly
applied ; but I abfolutely rejeâ; the reafonings
which attempt to conned the duration of human
life with the ufe of a vegetablç regimen.

«

The life of Man is the refult of all the moral
adaptations, and depends much more on fobriety,
on temperance, and the other virtues, than on the
nature of aliments. The animals which live en-
tirely on plants, do they attain even fo much as
the age of Man ? The deer and wild goats, which
feed on the admirable vulnerary herbs of Switzer-
land ought never to die ; neverthelefs, they are
very fliort-lived. The bees which fuck the neftar
of their flowers, likewife die, and feveral of their
fpecies, in the fpace of one year. There is a li-
mited term fixed for the life of every kind of ani-
mal, and a regimen peculiar to itj that of Man
alone extends to every variety of aliment. The
Tartar lives on raw horfe-flefli, the Dutchman on
fifli, another nation on roots, another on milk

diet J

STUDY IX. 231

diet; and in all countries you meet with old
people. Vice alone, and mental uneafmefs, Ihorten
human life ; and I am perfuaded, that the moral
affeélions are of fuch extenfive influence, with re-
fped to Man, that there is not one in the whole
catalogue of difeafes but what owes it's origin to
them.

Hear what Socrates thought of the fyftematic
Philofophy of his age ; for in all ages, flie has
abandoned herfelf to the fame extravagancies.
*' He did not amufe himfelf," fays Xenopbon *,
'^ with refearches into the myfteries of Nature ;
** or with enquiring in whar manner, that which
*' the Sophifts call the World was created ; nor
*' what irrefiftible elaftic force governs all celeftial
'* things : on the contrary, he expofed the folly
" of thofe who addidl themfelves to fuch contem-
** plations, and demanded, if it was after having
*' acquired a perfect knowledge of human things,
" that they undertook the inveftigation of thofe
*' which are divine ; or whether they confidered
*^ it as a charafter of true wifdom, to negledt
" what was within their reach, in order to grafp
** at objeds far above them. He exprefled flill
^' farther aftonifliment, that they did not difcern
''^ the impoflibility of Man's comprehending all

* Xenopbon s "M-CmovshXc T\nng% oi Socrates ^ book i.

CL 4 " thofe

232 STUDIES OF NATURE.

** thoie wonders, confidering that the perfons who

*' had the reputation of being moft profoundly

*' ikilled in fuch matters, maintained opinions

" contradiftory to each other, and quarrelled like

** madmen. For as among madmen, there are

** fome undaunted at the approach of the moft

'* formidable calamities, and others affrighted

** where there is no appearance of danger; in

*' like manner, among thofe Philofophers, fome

*' have maintained, that there is no aétion which

" may not be performed in public, nor a word

" which may not be freely fpoken in the prefence

*' of the whole World ; others, on the contrary,

" have taught, that all intercourfe with men ought

** to be broken off, and perpetual folitude prefer-

** red to fociety : fome have poured contempt on

" temples and altars, and decried the worfhip of

" the Gods ; others are fuch Haves to fuperftition,

*' as to adore wood, and ftone, and irrational ani-

" mais. And as to the Science of natural things,

*' fome have acknowledged but one fingle being ;

** others have admitted an infinite nnmber : fome

" infift, that all things are in a ftate of perpetual

*' motion ; others, that there is no fuch thing as

** motion : fome tell you that the World is filled

" with inceffant generations and diffolutions ; and

*' others afTure you that nothing is generated or

*' deftroyed. He faid farther, that he would be

*' gladly informed by thofe ingenious gentlemen,

" whether

STUDY IX. 233

" whether they entertained the hope of fome time
<* or other reducing to pradice what they taught,
" as perfons inftruded in any art, have it in their
" power to exercife it at pleafure, either for their
*' own private emohiment, or for the benefit of
" their friends ; and whether they likewife ima-
" gined, after they had difcovcred the caufes of
»' every thing that comes to pafs, that they fliould
** be able to difpenfe winds and rains, and difpofe
" of times and feafons, in fubferviency to their
** neceffities ; or if they fatisfied themfelves with
<* the bare knowledge of thofe things, without any
" expedation of advantage from them."

Not that Socrates WHS unacquainted with Nature,
for he had ftudied her thoroughly ; but he had
relinquiflied the inveftigation of the caufes, en-
tirely in the view of rifmg into admiration at the
refults. No one ever had collected more obferva-
tions on this fubjed than he had done. He made
frequent ufe of thefe in his converfations on the
divine Providence.

Nature prefents to us, on every fide, nothing
but harmonies, and adaptations to our neceflTities ;
and we will obfl:inately perfifl; in vain efforts to
trace her up to the caufes which fhe employs; as
if we meant to extort from her the fecrets of her
power. We do not fo much as know the mod

common

234 STUDIES OF NATURE.

common principles which (he fets a working in
our hands, and in our feet. Earth, water, air, and
fire, are elements, as we fay. But under what
form muft Earth appear, in order to be an ele-
ment ? That ftratum called humus^ which almoft
every where covers it, and which ferves as a bafis
to the vegetable kingdom, is a refufe of all forts
of fubftances, of marl, of fand, of clay, of vege-
tables»

Is it the fand which conftitutes it's elementary
part ? But fand appears to be a fecretion from the
rock. Is it the rock, then, which is an clement ?
But it has the appearance, in it's turn, of being an
aggregation of fand, as we fee it to be in mafles of
free-ftone. Whether of the two, fand or rock,
was the principle of the other ? and which took
the precedency in the formation of the Globe ?
Suppofing us poffefled of authentic information as
to this particular, what ground have we gained ?
There are rocks formed of aggregations of all
foris. Granite is compofed of grains ; marbles
and calcareous ftones, of the pafte of (liells and
madrepores. There are likewife banks of fand,
compofed of the wreck of all ihefe ftones : 1 have
feen the fand of cryftal.

Shell fifh, which feem to give us fome light re-
fpeding the nature of calcareous ftone, by no

means

STUDY IX. 235

means indicate to us the primitive origin of that
fubftance ; for they themfelves form their (hells
of the refufe that fwims in the Seas. The difficul-
ties increafe as you attempt to explain the forma-
tion of fo many various bodies illuing out of the
Earth, and nouriflied by it. In vain you call to
your affiftance analogies, affimilations, homoge-
neities, and heterogeneities. Is it not flrange,
that thoufands of fpecies of refinous, oily, elaftic,
foft, and combuftible vegetables, Qiould differ fo
entirely from the rugged and flony foil which pro-
duces them ?

The Siamefe Philofophers eafily get rid of all
cmbarralTment on the fubjed, for they admit, in
Nature, a fifth element, which is wood. But this
fupplement is incapable of carrying them very
far; for it is flill more aftoniOiing, that animal
fubftance fhould be formed of vegetable, than that
this laft ftiould be formed of foffil. Which way
does it become fenfible, living, and impaffioned ?
They adm.it, I grant, the interpoficion of the Sun's
adion. But how is it poffible that the Sun fliould
be, in animals, the caufe of any moral affedion ;
or, if you like the phrafe better, of any paffion,
when we do not fee it exercifing a difpofing in-
fluence even on the component parts of plants ?
For example, it's general effed is to dry that
which is humid. How comes it to pafs, then,

that

236 STUDIES OF NATURE.

that in a peach expofed to it's adion, the pulp ex-
ternally (hould be meltingly plump, and the nut
within extremely hard ; whereas the contrary takes
place in the fruit of the cocoa-tree, which is reple-
nifhed with milk inwardly, and clothed externally
with a (hell as hard as a ftone ?

Neither has the Sun more influence on the me-
chanical conflrudion of animals : their interior
parts, which are mod conftantly moiftened with
humours, with blood and marrow, are frequently
the hardeft, fuch as the teeth and the bones ; and
the parts moft expofed to the adion of his heat
are often very foft, as hair, feathers, the flelh, and
the eyes. Once more, how comes it to pafs, that
there is fo little analogy between plants tender,
ligneous, liable to putrefadion, and the Earth
which produces them ; and between the corals
and the madrépores of ftone, which form banks fo
extenfive between the Tropics, and the fea-water
in which they are formed ? To all appearance, the
contrary ought to happen : the water ought to
have produced lofc plants, and the earth folid
plants. If thingsrexift thus, there mud, undoubt-
edly, be more than one good reafon for it ; I
think I have a glimpfe of a very tolerable one :
it is this, that if thefe analogies adually took place,
the two elements would in a fliort time become
uninhabitable ; they would foon be overwhelmed

by

STUDY IX.

^37

by their own vegetation. The Sea would be inca*
pable of breaking madrépores of wood, and the
air of dilTolving forefts of ftone.

The fame doubts might be ftarted, refpeding
the nature of Water. This element, we allege, is
formed of fmall globules, which roll one over an-
other; that it is to the fpherical form of it's ele-
mentary particles we ought to afcribe it's fluidity.
But if thefe are globules, there muft be between
them intervals and vacuities, without which they
could not be fufceptible of motion. How comes
it to pafs, then, that water is incompreflible ? If
you apply to it a flrong comprcffing power in a
tube, it will force it's way through the pores of
that tube, though it be of gold j and will burfl it, if
of iron. Employ wliat efforts you pleafe, you will
find it impoffible to reduce it to a fmaller fize*
But fo far from knowing the form of it's compo-
nent parts, we cannot fo much as determine that
of the combined whole. Does it confift in being
expanded into invifible vapours in the air, as the
dew, or colledted into mift in the clouds, or con-
folidated into mafTes in the ice, or finally, in a
fluid flate, as in the rivers. Fluidity, it is faid,
forms one of it's principal characters. Yes, be-
caufe we drink it in that ftate, and becaufe, under
this relation, it intercfts us the moft. We deter-
mine it's principal character, as we do that of all

the

4^8 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the objeds of Nature, for the reafon which I hate
already fuggefted, from our own moll craving ne-
ceffity ; but this very charadler appears foreign to
it : for it owes it's fluidity only to the adlion of the
heat j if you deprive it of this, it changes into
ice. It would be v&ry fingular, fhould it be made
to appear, after all our fundamental definitions,
that the natural (late of water was to be folid, and
that the natural ftate of earth was to be fluid :
now this muft adtually be the cafe, if water owes
it*s fluidity only to heat, and if earth is nothing
but an aggregation of fands united by different
glues, and attrafted to a common centre, by the
general adlion of gravity.

The elementary qualities of air, are not of more
eafy determination. Air, we fay, is an elaftic
body : when it is fhut up in the grains of gun-
powder, the adlion of fire dilates it to fuch a de-
gree, as to communicate to it the power of hurling
a globe of iron to a prodigious diftance. But how
could it have been, with all this elafticity, com-
prefTed into the grains of a crumbling powder ?
If you put even any liquid fubftance into a ftate
of fermentation in a flafk, a thoufand times more
air will be feparated from it, than you could force
into the veflel without breaking it. How could
this air be confined in a fubftance foft and fluid,
without difengaging itfelf by its own adion ?

The

STUDY IX. 239

The air when loaded with vapours, we farther
fay, is refrangible. The farther we advance to the
North, the more elevated does the Sun appear
over the Horizon, above the place which he ac-
tually occupies in the Heavens. The Dutch ma-
riners, who pafled the Winter of 1597, in Nova-
Zembla, after a night of feveral months, faw the
Sun re-appear fifteen days fooner than they ex-
pecfted his return. All this is very well. But if
vapours render the air refrangible, why is there no
Aurora, nor twilight, nor any durable refradion of
light whatever, between the Tropics, not even on
the Sea, where fo many vapours are exhaled, by
the confiant adion of the Sun, that the Horizon
is fometimes quite involved in mift by them.

The light is not refraâ;ed,-fays another Philo-
fopher, by the vapours, but by the cold ; for the
refradion of the Atmofptiere is not fo great at the
end of Summer, as at the end of Winter, at the
autumnal Equinox, ns at the vernal.

I admit the truth of this obfervation ; however,
after very hot days in Summer, there is refradion to
the Norths as well as in our temperate Climates,
and there is none between the Tropics : the cold,
therefore, does not appear to me to be the mecha-
nical caufe of refradion, but it is the final caufe of

it.

240 STUDIES OF NATURE. *

it. This wonderful multiplication of light, which
increafes in the Atmofphere, in proportion to the
intenfenefs of the cold, is, in my apprehenfion,
a confequence of the fame Law which tranfmits
the Moon into the northern figns, in proportion as
the Sun forfakes them, and which caufes her to il-
luminate the long nights of our Pole, while the
Sun is under the Horizon j for light, be of what
fort it may, is warm. Thefe wonderful harmonies
are not in the nature of the Elements, but in the
will of Him who has eftablifhed them in fubordi-
nation to the neceflities of beings endowed with
fenfibility.

Fire prefents to us phenomena ftill more incom-
prehenfible. Firfl of all, Is fire matter ? Matter,
according to the definitions of Philofophy, is that
which is divifible in length, breadth, and depth*
Fire is divifible only in perpendicular length.
Never will you divide a flame, or a ray of the Sun,
in it's horizontal breadth. Here, then, is matter
divifible only in two dimenfions. Befides, it has
no gravity, for it continually afcends ; nor levity,
for it defcends, and penetrates bodies ever fomuch
below it. Fire, we are told, is contained in all
bodies. But, being of a confuming nature. How
does it not devour them ? How can it remain ia
water without being extinguiflied ?

Thefe

STUDY IX. 241

Thefe difficulties, and fcveral others, induced
Newton to believe that fire was not an element,
but certain fubtile matter put in motion. Fric-
tion, it is true, and coilifion, elicit fire fi-om feveral
bodies. But how comes it, that air and water,
though agitated ever fo much, never catch fire ?
Nay, How comes it that water even gets cold by
motion, though it's fluidity is entirely owing to
it's being impregnated by fire ? Contrary to the
nature of all other motions, Wherefore does that
of fire goon in a confiant ftate of propagation, in-
ftead of meeting a check. All bodies lofe their
motion by communicating it. If you ftrike feveral
billiard balls with one, the motion is communi-
cated among them, it is divided and loft. But a
fmgle fpark of fire difengages from a piece of
wood, the igneous particles, or the fubtile matter
if you will, which are contained in it, and the
whole together increafe their rapidity to fuch a
degree, as to make one vaft conflagration of a
whole forefl;.

We are not better acquainted with the negative
qualities. Cold, they tell us, is produced by the
abfence of heat : but if cold is merely a negative
quality. How is it capable of producing pofitive
efFeds ? If you put into water a bottle of iced
wine, as I have {^tn done in Ruflia, oftencr than

VOL. II. R once.

242 STUDIES OF NATUHE.

once, you fee, in a fhort time, ice of an ifich
in thicknefs cover the outfide of the bottle. A
block of ice diffufes cold all over the furrounding
atmofphere. Darknefs, neverthelefs, which is a
privation of lights ditfufes no obfcurity over fur-
rounding light. If you open, in a day of Sum-
mer, a grotto at once dark and cool, the furround-
ing light will not be in the leaft impaired by the
darknefs which it contained -, but the heat of the
adjacent air will be perceptibly diminiflied by the
cold air which iffbes from it. I am aware of the
reply j it will be faid, if there is no perceptible
obfcuration in the firfl: cafe, it is owing to the ex-
treme rapidity of light, which replaces the dark-
nefs ; but this would be increafing the difficulty,
inftead of removing it, by fuppofmg that darknefs,
too, has pofitive effects, which we have not time
now to animadvert upon.

It is, however, on fuch pretended fundamental
principles, that moft of our fyftems of Phyfics are
reared. If vve are in an error, or in a ftate of ig-
norance, at the point of departure, it cannot be
long before we go aftray on the road ; and it is
really incredible with what facilitj', after having
laid down our principles fo flightly, we repay our-
felves in confequences, in vague terms, and in
contradidory ideas.

I have

STUDY IX.

243

î havefeen, for example, the formation of thun-
der explained, in highly celebrated phyfical rradls.
Some demonftrate to you, that it is produced by
the coliifion of two clouds, as if clouds, or foggy
vapours, ever could produce a coliifion ! Others
gravely tell you, that it is the effeél of the air di-
lated by the fudden inflammation of the fulphur
and of the nitre which float in the air. But, in
order to it's being capable of producing it's tre-
mendous explofions, we are under the neceffity of
fuppofing, that the air was confined in a body
which made fome refiftance. If you fet fire to a
great mafs of gun-powder in an unconfined fitua-
tion, no explofion follows. I know very well that
the detonation of thunder has been imitated, in
the experiment of fulminating powder ; but the
ipaterials employed in the compoficion of it have a
fort of tenacity. They undergo, on the part of the
iron ladle which contains them, a refiftance againft:
which they fometimes ad with fo much violence
as to perforate it. After all, to imitate a pheno-
menon is not to explain it. The other effefts of
thunder are explained with fimilar levity. As the
air is found to be cooler after a thunder-ftorm, the
nitre, we are told, which is diffufed through the
Atmofphere, is the caufe of it -, but was not that
nitre there before the explofion, when we were al-
moft fuffocated with heat ? Does nitre cool only
when it is fet en fire ? According to this mode of
R 2 reckoning,

244 STUDIES OF NATURE.

reckoning, our batteries of cannon ought to be-
come glaciers in the midft of a battle, for a world
of nitre is kindled into flame on fuch occafions ;
they are under the neceffity, however, of cooling
the cannon with vinegar ; for, after having been
fired off twenty times, in quick fucceffion, it is-
impoffible to apply your hand to the piece. The
flame of the nitre, though infl:antaneous, power-
fully penetrates the metal, notwithftanding it's
thicknefs and folidity.

The heat, it is true, may likewife be occafioned
by the interior vibration of the parts. Whatever
may be in this, the cooling of the air, after a
thunder-ftorm, proceeds, in my opinion, from that
ftratum of frozen air which furrounds us, to the
height of from twelve to fifteen hundred fathoms;
and which, being divided and dilated at it's bafe,
by the fire of the fl:ormy clouds, flows haftily into
our Atmofphere. It's motion determines the fire of
the thunder, to dired itfelf, contrary to it's nature,
toward the Earth. It produces ftill farther efFeds,
which neither time nor place permit me at prefent
to unfold. •

It was affirmed, in the lad age, that the Earth
was drawn out at the Poles ; and we are now po-
fitively told, that it is flattened there. 1 fhall not
at prefent enter into an examinatio» of the prin-
ciples

STUDY IX. 245

ciples from which this laft condufion has been de-
duced, and the obfervations on which it has been
fupported. The flattening of the Earth at the
Poles has been accounted for fron^. a centrifugal
force, to which likewife it's motion through the
He»vens has been afcribedj though this pretended
force, which has increafed the diameter of the
Earth at the Equator, has not the power of raifing
io much as a ftraw into the air.

The flattening of the Poles, they tell us, has
been afcertained, by the meafurement of two tcr-
r^ftrial degrees, made at a vaft expenfe, the one in
Peru, near the Equator, and the other in Lapland,
bordering upon the polar Circle ^. Thofe expe-
riments were made, undoubtedly, by men of very
great capacity and reputation. But perfonsofat
ieafl equal capacity, and of a name as high in the
republic of Science, had demonftrated, upon other
principles, and by other experiments, thai the
Earth was lengthened at the Poles. Cajfini efti-
mates at fifty leagues, the length by which the
axis of the Earth exceeds it's diameters, which
gives to each of the Poles twenty-five leagues of
elevation over the circumference of the Globe. We

* It is evident, that the conchifion, from thofe veiy meafure-
«lents, ought to have been, that the Earth is lengthened at the
Poles. See the Explanation of the Plates ia vol. i.

. ' R ^ fliall

246 STUDIES OF NATURE.

fhall certainly enlift under the banner of this illuf-
trious Aftronomer, if we confider the teflimony of
the eye as of any weight ; for the fliade of the
Earth appears oval over it's Poles, in central
eclipfes of the Moon, as was obferved by Tycho
Brhaé and Kepler. Thefe names are a hoft in
themfelves.

Bur without confidering any name as an autho-
rity, where natural truths are concerned, we may
conclude, from fimple analogies, the elongation of
the axis of the Earth. If we confider, as has been
already laid, the two Hemifpheres as two moun-
tains, whofe bafes are at the Equator, the fummits
at the Poles, and the Ocean, which alternately
flows from one of thefe fummits, as a great river
defcending from a mountain, we fliall have, under
this point of view, objeds of comparifon which
may alTift us in determining the point of elevation
from which the Ocean takes it's rife, by the dif-
tance of the place where it's courfe terminates.
Thus the fum.mit of Chinxboraco, the moft ele-
vated of the Andes of Peru, out of which the ri-
ver of the Amazons iffues, having a league and
one- third nearly of elevation, above the mouth of
that river, which is diftant from it, in a ftraight
line, about twenty-fix degrees, or fix hundred and
fifry leagues, it may be thence concluded, that the
fummit of the Pole muft be elevated above the

circumfereticç

^

STUDY IX. 247

circumference of the Earth nearly five leagues, in
order to have a height proportioned to the courfe
of the Ocean, which extends as far as the Line,
ninety degrees diftant, that is to fay, two thou-
fand, two hundred and fifty leagues, in a fiiraight
line.

If we farther confider, that the courfe of the
Ocean does not terminate at the Line, but that
when it defcends in Summer from our Pole, it ex-
tends beyond the Cape of Good-Hope, as far as
to the eaftern extremities of Afia, where it forms
the current known by the name of the wefterly
Monfoon, which almoft encompaffes the Globe,
under the Equator, we fhall be under the neceffity
of affigning to the Pole, from which it takes it's
departure, an elevation proportioned to the courfe
which it is deftined to perform, and of tripling,
at leaft, that elevation, in order to give it's waters
a fufficient declivity. I put it down, then, at fif-
teen leagues : and if to this height we add that of
the ices which are there accumulated, the enor-
mous pyramids of which over icy mountains,
have fometimes an elevation of one-third above
the heights which fupport them, we fliall find that
the Pole can hardly have lefs than an elevation of
the twenty- five leagues above the circumference
which Cqfmi affigned to it.

R 4 Obelillcs

24S STUDIES OF NATURE.

Obclilks of ice ten leagues high, are not dlfpro-
portioned to the centre of cupolas of ice two thou-
fand leagues in diameter, which, in Winter, cover
our northern Hemifphere ; and which have like-
wife, in the fouthern Hemifphere, in the month
of February, that is, in the very Midfummer of
that Hemifphere, prominent borders, elevated like
promontories, and three thoufand leagues, at leaft,
in circumference, according to the relation of Cap-
tain Cooky who coafted round them in the years
1773 and 1774.

The analogy which I eflablifh between the two
Hemifpheres of the Earth, the Poles, and the
Ocean which flows from them, and two mountains,
their peaks, and the rivers which there have their
fources, is in the order of the harmonies of the
Globe, which exhibits a great number of fimilar
harmonies on a faialler fcale in the Continents,
and in moft iflands, which are Continents in mi-
niature.

It would appear, that Philofophy has, in all
ages, affeéled to find out very obfcure caufes, in
order to explain the moft common effeéls, in the
view of attrading the admiration of the vulgar,
who, in fact, fcarcely ever admire any thing but
what they do not comprehend. She has not failed

to

STUDY IX.

249

to take the advantage of this weaknefs of mankind,
by infolding herfelf in a pompofity of words, or
in the myfteries of Geometry, the better to carry
on the deception. For how many ages did flie
ring in our fchools, the horror of a vacuum which
flie afcribed to Nature ? How many fagacious
pretended demonftrations of this have been given,
which were to crown their authors with never-
fading laurels, but which are now gone to the
land of forgetfulnefs ?

She difdains, on the other hand, to dwell on
fimple obfervations, which bring down to the level
of every capacity, the harmonies which unite all
the kingdoms of Nature. For example, the Phi-
lofophy of our day refufes to the Moon all influ-
ence over vegetables and over animals. It is, ne-
verthelefs, certain, that the moft confiderable
growth of plants takes place in the night-time;
nay, that there are feveral vegetables which flower
only during that feafon ; that numerous clafl^es of
infedls, birds, quadrupeds, and fiflies, regulate
their loves, their hunting matches^ and their pere-
grinations according to the different phafes of the
orb of night. But what, degrade Philofophers
to the experience of gardeners and fifliermen !
What, condefcend to think and talk like fuch
groundlings !

If

250 STUDIES OF NATURE.

If Philofophy denies the influence of the Moon
over the minuter objedls of the Earth, flie makes
it up amply, by conferring on her a very extenfive
power over the Globe itfelf, vviihout being over-
fcrupulous about the felf-contradi6tion. She af-
firms, that the Moon, in paffing over the Ocean,
prefles upon it, and thus ocçafions the flux of the
tides on it's fliores. But how is it poflîble that
the Moon fliould comprefsour Atmofphere, which
only extends, they fay, to a fcore of leagues, at
moft, from us ? Or, admitting a fubtile matter,
and pofleffed of great elafticity, which fliould ex-
tend from our Seas as far as to the globe of the
Moon, how could this matter be comprefl^ed by
it, unlefs you fuppofe it confined in a channel ?
Mufl: it not, in it's aâiualflate, extend to the right
and to the left, while the aftion of the planet found
it inipoffible to make itfelf felt on any one deter-
minate point of the circumference ot our Globe ?

Befides, why does not the Moon acl on lakes,
and feas of fmall extent, where theie are no tides ?
Their fmallnefs ought no more to exempt thera
from the influence of her gravitation, than depriye
them of the benefit of her light. Why are tides
almoft imperceptible in the Mediterranean ?
Wherefore do they undergo, in many places, in-
termittent movements, and retardations of two or
three days ? Wherefore, in a word, toward the North,

do

STUDY IX.

251

do they come from the North, from the Eaft, or
from the Weft, and not from the South, as was
obferved, with furprize, by Martens, Barents, Lin-
fchotten and Ellisy who expeded to fee them come
from the Equator, as on the coafts of Europe ?

The principal movements of the Sea, it muft
be allowed, take place, in our Hemifphere, at the
fame times with the principal phafes of the Moon ;
but we ought not from thence to conclude their
necelfary dépendance, and ftill lefs explain it by
Laws which are not demonftrated. The Currents
and the Tides of the Ocean proceed, as I think I
have proved, from the effulion of the ices of the
Poles; which depend, in their turn, on the va-
riety of the courfe of the Sun, as he approaches
lefs or more toward either Pole : and as the phafes
of the Moon are themfelves regulated by -the
courfe of the Orb of Day, this is the reafon why
both take place at the fame time.

Farther, the Moon when full has, as we have
already obferved, an efiediive and evaporating
warmth : (lie muft a<fl, therefore, on the polar
ices, efpecially when at the full *. The Academy

* This obfervation was made more than fixteen hundred
years ago, " The Moon produces thaw ; dillblvuig all ices
" and frofts by the humidity of her influence." Flinys Natural
H'ijîory. Book it. chap. 10 1,

of

2^Z STUDfÈS OF NATURE.

of Sciences formerly maintained that her light did
not warm, after experiments made on her rays,
and on the ball of a thermometer, with a burning
mirror. But this is not the firft error into which
we have been betrayed by our books and our ma-
chinery, as we fhall fee when we come to fpeak of
the decompofition of the folar ray by the prifm.
Neither is it the firft time that an affembly of Li-
terati have, without examination, adopted an opi-
nion on the authority of perfons who made expe-
riments with much formality and ftatelinefs. And
this is the way that errors get into vogue. The
one in queflion has, however, been completely re-
futed, firft at Rome, and afterward at Paris, by a
very fimple experiment. Some one took a fancy
to expofe a velfel full of water to the light of the
Moon, and to place one fimilar to it in the ftjade.
The water in the firft veflel was evaporated much
fooner than that in the fécond.

To no purpofe do we exert all our induftry and
ingenuity ; we can lay hold of nothing in Nature,
except refults and harmonies : firft principles uni-
verfally efcape us. And, what is worft of all, the
n>ethods of our Sciences have exercifed a perni-
cious influence on our morals and on religion. It
is very eafy to miflead men with refpedl to an in-
telligence which governs all things, when nothing
is prefented to them as firft caufes but mechanical

means.

STtJDV IX, 253

means. Alas ! It is not by thefe that we (hall be
able to find our way toward that Heaven, which
we pretend to know fo well. The greateft of
Mankind have cad an eye thitherward as their laft
afylum. Cicero flattered himfelf with the hope of
being, after death, an inhabitant of the Stars; and
Ce/ar, from that elevation, to prefide over the def-
tiny of Rome. An infinite number of other men
have limited their future happinefs to a fuperin-
tendance of maufoleums, groves, fountains j and
others to a re-union with the objeds of their loves.
As for us, what are we now hoping for from Earth
and from Heaven, where we fee nothing beyond
the levers of our pitiful machines?

How ! as the reward of our virtues, is our def-
tination to mount no higher than this, to be con-,
founded with the elements ! What, thy foul, O
fublime Fenelon! to be exhaled in inflammable
air; and to have had on the Earth the fenti-
ment of an order which did not exift even in
the Heavens ! How, among thofe Stars fo lumi-
nous, is there nothing but material Globes ; and
in their motions, fo confiant and fo varied, nothing
but blind attrapions ? How ! Every thing around
us infenfible matter and no more ; and intelligence
given to Man, who could give himfelf nothing,
only to render him miferable ! How ! and can we
have been deceived by the involuntary fentiment

which

254 STUDIES OF NATURE.

which makes us raife our eyes to Heaven, in the
agony of form w, there to folicit relief! The ani-
mal on the point of clofing his career, abandons
himfelf to his natural inftinfts. The flag at bay
feeks refuge in the moft fequeftered fpot of the
forefls, content to yield up the roving fpirit which
animates him, under their hofpitable Ihades. The
dying bee forfakes the flowers, returns to expire
at the door of her hive, and to bequeath her focial
inftind to her beloved Republic. And Man, fol-
lowing the bent of his reafoning powers, can he
no where find, in the widely extended univerfe,
any thing v^'orihy of receiving his departing fighs;
not even inconftant friends, nor felfilh kindred,
nor an ungiateful Country, nor a foil ftubborn to
all his labours, nor a Heaven indifferent to crimes
and to virtue ?

Ah ! it is not thus that Nature has apportioned
her gifts. We bewilder ourfelves with our vain
Sciences. By driving the refearches of our under- •
ftanding up to the very principles of Nature, nay,
of Deity, we have fhi fled, in the heart, all feel-
ing of both the one and the other. The fame
thing has befallen us which once befel a peafant
who was living happily in a little valley in the
heart of the Alps. A brook, which defcended
from ihofe mountains, fertilized his garden. For
a long time he adored, in tranquillity, the benefi-
cent

STUDY IX. 255

tent Naïad who kept his ft ream perpetually flow-
ing ; and who increafed it's quantity and it's cool-
nefs as the Summer's heat increafed. One day a
fancy ftruck him, that he would go and difcover
the place where (lie concealed her inexhauftible
urn. To prevent his going aftray, he begins with
purfuing upward the track of his rivulet. By little
and little he rifes upon the mountain. Every ftep
he takes, in afcending, difcovers to him a thoufand
new objedls ; plains, forefts, rivers, kingdoms,
boundlefs Oceans. Tranfported with delight, he
proceeds in fl,attering hope of fpeedily reaching
the bleffed abode where the Gods prefide over the
deftiny of this World. Bur, after a painful
fcramble, he arrives at the bottom of a tremendous
glacier. He no longer fees any thing around him
but mifts, rocks, torrents, precipices. All, all
has vaniflied. Sweet and tranquil valley, humble
roof, beneficent Naiad ! his patrimony is now re-
duced to a cloud, and his divinity to an enormous
mafs of ice.

It is thus that Science has conduded us through
fedudive paths, to a termination fo fearful. She
drags after her, in the train of her ambitious re-
fearches, that ancient malediftion pronounced
againft the firft man who (hould dare to eat the
fruit of her forbidden tree ^^, " Behold, the man

* Genefis, chap, iiii, ver. 22.

is

256 STUDIES OF NATURE.

*' is become as one of us, to know good and evil.'-
He fliall not, therefore, " put forth his hand,
" and take alfo of the tree of lifejand eat, and live
" for ever." What literary, political, and religious
fquabbles have our pretended Sciences excited !
How many men has (he prevented from living
even a fmgle day 1

The fublime genius and the pure fpirit of Nezv-
ion, affuredly, could not have ftood flill at the
boundary prefcribed to a vulgar mind. On ob-
ferving the clouds reforting from every quarter to
the mountains which feparate Italy from the reft of
Europe, he would have inferred the attra6lion of
their fummits, and the diredion of their chains,
conformably to the bafons of the Seas, and to the
courfes of the winds : he would thence have in-
ferred equivalent difpofitions for the different fum-
mits of the Continent and of the Iflands : he would
have feen the vapours arifing out of the bofom of
the Seas of America, and conveying, through the
air, fecundity to the centre of Europe, fixing them-
felves in folid ice on the lofty pinnacles of the
rocks, in order to cool the Atmofphere of hot
countries ; undergoing new combinations, to pro-
duce new effe61:s ; and returning in a fluid ftate,
to wafli their former Ihores, diffufing, in their myf-
terious progrefs, unlimited abundance, in a thou-
fand different channels. He would have obferved,

with

STUDY IX. 257

•with admiration,, the confiant impulfion commu-
nicated to fo many various movements, by the ac-
tion of one fingle luminary, the Sun, placed at the
diftance of thirty-two millions of leagues : and,
inftead of fruitlefsly rambling after the habitation
of a Naïad, at the fummit of the Alps, he would
have proftrated himfelf before that GOD, whofe
providence embraces the concerns of a whole
Univerfe.

In order to fludy Nature with underftanding,
and to advantage, all the parts mufl be viewed in
their harmony and connedtion. For my part, I,
who do not pretend to be a Newton^ am deter-
mined never to leave the borders of my rivulet,
I fliall fet up my reft in my humble valley, and
employ myfelf in culling fome herbs and flowers;
happy if I am able to form of them fome garlands
to decorate the entrance of that ruftic Temple,
which my feeble hands have prefumed to rear to
the Majefty of Nature ! *

* The fyftem of the harmonies of Nature, which I am pro=
ceeding to unfold, is, in my opinion, the only one which is
within the reach of Man. It was firft difplayed by Pythagoras
of Samos, who was the father of Philofophy, and the founder
of that feel of Philofophers who have been tranfmitted to us
by the name of Pythagoreans. Never did a fucceflion of men
arife fo enlightened, as thofe Sages were, in the natural
Sciences ; and none whofe difçoveries refle<ft higher honour on

VOL. II. s the

•

258 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the human nnderftanding. There exifted, at that time, Philof-
Ibphers, who maintained that water, fire, air, atoms, were the?
principles of things. Pythagoras infilled, in oppofition to thi»
doctrine, that the principles of things were the adaptations and
the proportions of which the harmonies were compofed, and
that goodnefs and intelligence conftituted the nature of GOD.

He was the firft who gave to the Univerre the epithet of
Koff/M,©', ?nundus^ becaufe of it's order. He maintained that it
was governed by a Providence ; a fentiment perfeftly conforni--
able to the tenor of our Sacred Books, and to experience. He
invented the five Zones, and the obliquity of the Zodiac. He
taught that the Torrid Zone was habitable. He afcribed earth-
quakes to the water. In faft, their focufes, as well as thofe of
volcanos, as we have already indicated, are always in the vicinity
of the Sea, or of fome great lake. He believed that each of the
Stars was a World, containing an Earth, an Air, and a Heaven ;•
and even in his time, this had been an anciently received opi-
nion ; for it is to be found in the verfes of Orpheus. Finally,
he difcovered the fquare of the hypothenufe, which has ferveJ
as a bafis to an infinite number of geometrical theorems and
folutions.

Ph'dolaus, of Crotana, one of his difciples, maintained, that
the Sun received the fire difFufed over the Univerfe, and rever-
berated it, which affords a better explanation of his nature than
the perpetual emanations of light and heat which we afcribe to
him, without reparation, and without exhauftion. He held
that Comets were Stars, which re-appeared after a certain in-
volution. JEcetes, another Pythagorean, maintained the exift-
ence of two Continents, that which we inhabit, and one oppo-
lite to it ; an idea applicable only to America.

Thefe Philofophers believed, that the foul of Man was a har-
mony compofed of two parts ; the one reafonable, the other

irrational.

O

STUDY IX. 2^9

Irrational. They placed the firft in the head, and the other
round the heart. They contended for it's immortaHty ; and
taught, that at the death of the man, his foul returned to the
Soul of the Univerfe. They approved of divination by dreams
and augury, and condemned that which is performed by means
of facrifices. They had fuch a ftrong fenfe of humanity, that
they abftained from fhedding the blood even of animals, and
from eating their flefh.

Nature rewarded their virtues, and the gentlenefs of their
manners, by innumerable difcoveries, and beftowed on them the
glory of having as followers, Socratesy PlcUoy Anhytas of Ta-
rentum, who invented the fcrew, Xenophon, Epaminondas^ who
was educated by Lyjis the Pythagorean, and the good King
Ntima, who taught the Tufcan priefts to conjure down the thun-
der : in a word, flie conferred on them all the luftre that Philo-
fophy. Literature, the Military Art, or Royalty itfelf, can com-
municate to the moft favoured of mortals.

Pythagoras has been calumniated, as having given encourag(r»
ment to certain unmeaning fuperftitions ; among others, abfti-
nence from the ufe of beans, &c. But, as truth is frequently
under the neceflity of prefenting herfelf to men under a veil, the
great Philofopher, under this allegory, conveyed to his difciples
an advice to abftain from public employments, becaufe it was
then the cuftom to make ufe of beans, in voting at the eleétioa
of Magiftrates.

A very celebrated Writer, of modern times, who feems to
look with an evil eye on every man of illuftrious reputation, has
prefumed to attack the character oï Xenophon^ in whom were
united almoft all the eminent qualities which can dignify hu-
man nature ; piety, purity of manners, military fkill and va-
bur, and eloquence. His ftyle is fo fweetly flowing, that the
Greeks beftowed on hin? the appellation of the Athenian Bee.

s a This

z6o STUDIES OF NATURE.

Tliis great man has been lately cenfured, on the ground of that
celebrated retreat, by which he brought back ten thoufand
Greeks into their own Country, from the very extremity of
Peifia, ha\ ing performed a march of eleven hundred leagues
through a hoftile country, and amidft foes innumerable.

It has been aflerted, by a man of great learning, that the
retreat of this renowned General, was an etfeél of the good-
nature, or the pietv, oï Artaxerxes ; and he has, of confequence,
treated the route which Xenophon purfued, by the north of

Perfia, as a fuperfluous precaution. But is it credible that

the King of Perfia, intentionally, fliewed indulgence to the
Greeks, when we know, that, by a perfidious piece of cruelty,
he had put to death twenty-five of their chief men r How was it
pofiible for thofe Greeks to have returned by the fame road which
thev went, confidering that every thing in this track had been
put in motion to intercept them, and that the Perfians had,
through it's whole extent, deftroyed the villages? Xejwphon de-
feated all their precautions, by direéling his march through a
track of which they had no forefight.

î'or my own part, I confider this military expedition as the
mofl illuftrious that ever was atchieved ; not only from the in-
numerable conflids, croffings of rivers, forced marches over
mountains, in the face of myriads upon myriads of enemies,
through which it was accompliflied : but becaufe it was not
fullied by a fingle acft of injuftice, and had no other objeft iu
view but the prefervation of citizens. All that is held in high
renown among the Warriors of Antiquity, have confidered the
retreat of the ten thoufand as a maffer-piece in the military art.
There is a fingle expreflion tranfmitted to us, which will for ever
cover it with glory, uttered in an age, and among a People, by
which the Science of War was carried to the height of perfec-
tion, and in a fituation which admitted not of difi^mulation : I
mean an exprefTion of Anthony^ when entangled in the country

of

STUDY IX. 261

of the Parthians. That General, who poflefled great military
talents, and had at that time the command of an army of a
hundred and thirteen thoufand men, of whom fixty thoiifand
were actually Roman citizens, obliged, as Xenophon was, to
make a retreat in the face of the Parthians, and twenty times on
the point of failing in his attempt, frequently exclaimed, with a
figh ! 0 the ten thoufand! (See Plutarch.)

S 3 STUDY

STUDY X. 2&$.

STUDY TENTH.

OF SOME GENERAL LAWS OF NATURE,

AND, FIRST,

OF PHYSICAL LAWS.

WE fhall divide thefe Laws into Laws phy-
fical, and Laws moraU We fhall firft
examine, in the fequel of this Volume, fome phy-
fical Laws common to all the Kingdoms of Na-
ture; and, in the following Study, (hall make the
application of them to plants, in conformity to the
Plan propofed in the commencement of this
Work. We Ihall, afterwards, proceed to the con-
iideration- of moral Laws ; and Ihall endeavour to
unfold in thefe, as well as in the phyjical Laws,
the means of diminilhing the fum of human
wretchednefs.

I mud make frequent appeals to the candor of
my Readers. I am prefuming to open a path hi-
therto unattempted. I dare not flatter myfelf with
the belief, that my progrefs and fuccefs keep pace

s 4 with

264 STUDIES OF ÎÎATURE.

with the ardor of my imagination, and the antici-
pations of my heart. But the imperfedt materials,
which I have bufied myfelf in colledling, may,
perhaps, one day, affift men of greater ability,
and in a happier fituation, in railing to Nature a
temple more worthy of her. Recolledl, my dear
Reader, that all I promifed you was the frontif-
piece and the ruins of it.

OF CONFORMITY. *

Though Conformity be a perception of our rea-
fon, I place it at the head of phyfical Laws, be-

• * I do not know any fingie word in our langaage which ex-
prefTes clofely the import of the French word convenance. It
fignifies fuitablenefs^ correfpondence^ the exa^ adaptation of one
thing to another. I employ the term conformity, as coming the
nearefl: to our Author's idea of any one that occurred to my
mind. Whoever has attempted tranflation muft, frequently,
have felt the difficulty of rendering certain ivords by exaftly
equivalent words, though he was at no lofs where general
meaning and expreffion were concerned ; for there is no perfeft
convenance between language and language. I wifh it to be un-
derllood, then, that wherever the word conforjnity occurs, in the
immediate fequel of this Tranflation, the meaning is, a com-
plete coincidence, congruity, or tallying of objeâ: with objeft,
as a bone fitted to it's focket, as the undulations of a paper
check to thofe of it's counter-check, as eye to eye, hand to
hand, foot to foot ; and it applies equally to natural and to
pioral objeds. . H. H.

caufe

STUDY X. 265

caufe it is the firft; feeling which we endeavour to
gratify in examining natural objedts. Nay, there is
a connediion fo intimate between tiie phyfical cha-
radter of thofe objeds, and the inftinct of every
being poflefTed of fenfibihty, that a colour, fimply,
is fufficient to roufe the paffions of animals. A
red objed puts the bull into a rage, and fuggefts
to moft fowls and filhes the idea of prey. The
objedls of Nature difplay, in Man, a feeling of a
higher order, indépendant of his wants ; it is that
of conformity. It is by means of the multiplied
conformities of Nature that Man has formed his
own reafon ; for reafon means nothing elfe bun
the relation, or conformity, of things that exift.
Thus, for example, if I examine a quadruped,
the eye-lids, which it can raife or let fall, at
pleafure, prefent to me conformities with light;
when I look at the form of his feet, I fee a con-
formity to the foil which he is defigned to inhabit.
It is impoffible for me to conceive a determinate
idea of thefe, without combining, on the fubjed:,
various feelings of conformity, or of the want of
it. Nay, the moft material objeds, and fuch as
have not, in ftridnefs of fpeech, any decided form,
cannot prefent themfelves tous without thofe intel-
ledual relations. A ruftic grotto, or a fteep rock,
pleafe or give pain, according as they prefent to
us the ideas of repofe or of obfcurity, of perfpec-
tive or oï precipice.

Animals

a66 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Animals have a fenfibility only of objeds which
have particular conformities to their wants. It
may be affirmed that they have, in this refpeft, a
ihare of reafon as perfed as our own. Had New-
ton been a bee, he could not, with all his geo-
metry, have conflruded his cell in a hive, without
giving it, as the honey-bee has done, fix equal
partitions. But Man differs from animals, in his
capacity of extending this fentiment of conformity
to all the relations of Nature, however foreign
they may be to his perfonal demands. It is this,
extenfion of reafon which has procured for him,^
by way of eminence, the denomination of a ra-
tional, animal.

It is unqueflionabiy true, that if all the parti-
cular rationality of all animals were united, the.
fum would probably tranfcend the general reafon
of Man ; for human reafon has devifed moft of
it's arts and crafts, entirely from an imitation of
their produdions ; befides, all animals come into
the world with their peculiar induflry, whereas
Man is under the neceffity of acquiring his, at the
expenfe of much time and refledion ; and, as I
have juft obferved, by imitating the induftry and
fkill of another. But Man excels them, not only
by uniting, in himfelf alone, the intelligence feat-
tered over all the reft, but by his capability of rif-
ing upward to the fource of all conformities,

namely.

STUDY X. 267

namely, to GOD himfelf. The only charafter,
which effentially diftinguifhes Man from the ani-
mal, is this. He is a religious Being.

No one animal partakes with him of this fu-
blime faculty. It may be confidered as the prin-
ciple of human intelligence. By it Man is ex-
alted above the inftinct of the beafts, fo as 10 be
enabled to form a conception of the general plans
of Nature ; and which led him to fuppofe an or-
der of things, from having caught a glimpfe of an
Author. By it he was emboldened to employ firs
as the firfl of agents, to crofs the Ocean, to give a
new face to the Earth by agriculture, to fubjeâ:
all animals to his empire, to eftablifli Society on
the bafis of a religion, and to attempt to raife him-
felf up to Deity by his virtues. It was not Na-
ture, as is commonly believed, which firft pointed
out GOD to Man, but it is a fenfe of the Deity,
in Man, which has indicated to him the order of
Nature. The Savages are religious, long before
they are Naturalifts.

Accordingly, by the fentiment of this univerfal
conformity, Man is ftruck with all poflible con-
formities, though they may be foreign to him.
He takes an intereft in the hiflory of an infeâ: ;
and if his attention is not engaged in behalf of all
the infeds which furround him, it is becaufe he

perceives

268 STUDIES OF NATURE.

perceives not their relations, unlefs there be fome
Reaumur at hand to difplay them to him ; or elfc,
the confiant habit of feeing them renders them in-
fipid ; perhaps it may be fome odious or con-
temptible prejudice ; for he is affefled flill more
by moral than by phyfical ideas, and by his paf-
fions more than by his reafon.

We fhall farther remark, that all the fentiments
of conformity fpring up in the heart of Man, at
the fight of fome ufeful end, which, frequently,
has no manner of relation to his own perfonal
wants : it follows, that Man is naturally good, for
this very reafon, that he is rational ; feeing the
afpeâ: alone of a conformity, though entirely fo-
reign to him, communicates a fenfe of pleafure.
It is from this natural fentiment of goodnefs, that
the fight of a well-proportioned animal conveys
to us agreeable fenfations, which increafe in pro-
portion as the creature unfolds it's inftinâ:. We
love to fee a turtle, even in an aviary ; but that
bird pleafes ftill more, when at larg^e in the foreft,
uttering the murmurs of love from the top of an
elm, or when we perceive her bufily conftrufting
in it a neft for her young, with all the fulicitude
of maternal tendernefs.

Once more, it is from a refult of this natural
goodnefs that want of conformity communicates a

painful

STUDY X. 269

painful fenfation, which is always excited at fight of
any thing incongruous. Thus we are fliocked on
looking at a monfter. It gives us pain to fee an
animal wanting a foot or an eye. This feeling is
indépendant of every idea of pain relatively to
ourfelves, let Philofophers fay what they will ; for
we fuffer in fuch a cafe, though we are affured that
the animal came into the world in that defedive
ftate. We are pained at the fight of incongruity,
even in infenfible objeds. Withered plants, muti-
lated trees, an ill-aflbrted edifice, hurt our feel-
ings. Thefe fenfations are perverted, or fuppreffed,
in Man, only by prejudice, or by education.

OF ORDER.

A feries of conformities, which have a common
centre, conftitutes order. There are conformities
ill the members of an animal ; but order exifls
•only in the body. Conformity re ers to the detail,
and order to the combination. Order extends our
pleafure, by colleding a great number of confor-
mities, and it fixes them, by giving them a deter-
mination toward one centre. It difcovers to us at
once, in a fingle objed, a fucceffion of particular
conformities, and the leading conformity to which
they all refer. Thus, order gives us pleafure, as
beings endowed with a reafon which embraces all

Nature ;

270 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Nature ; and it pleafes us flill more, perhaps, as
being weak and limited creatures^ capable of tak-
ing in only a fingle point at once.

It gives us.pleafure, for example, to view the
relations between the probofcis of a bee, and the
neftareous juices of flowers ; between thofe of her
thighs, hollowed into fpoons, and briflled with
hairs, to the fine powder of the ftamina which (he
there coUefts 5 between thofe of her four wings,
to the booty with which (lie is loaded, (a refource
by Nature denied to flies which travel without a
burthen, and which, for this reafon, are furniflied
with two only * ;) finally, the ufe of a long ftingj
which fhe has received for the defence of her pro-
perty, and all the conformities of the organs of
this fmall infeft, which are more ingenious, and
in much greater number, than thofe of the largeft
animals.

But the intereft grows upon us, when we fee her
covered all over with a yellow powder, her thighs
pendent, and half opprefTed with her burden, di-
reâiing her flight through the air, acrofs plains,
rivers, and iliady groves, under points of the

* The iclineumon, or aquatic dragon-fly, is, in like manner
provided vVith four wings, becaufe fhe too was intended to fly
under a load. I have feen her catch butterflies in the air.

wind.

STUDY X. 271

wind, witk which ihe is well acquainted, and
alighting, with a humming found, on the cavern-
ous trunk of fome aged oak. Here again we per-
ceive a fucceffive order, on feeing a great multi-
tude of little individuals, fimilar to her, coming
out, and going in, according as the bufrnefs of
the hive may require. That one, whofe particular
conformities we have been admiring, is only a
lingle member of a numerous Republic; and this
Republic itfelf is but a fmall Colony, of the im-
menfe Nation of bees, fpread over the whole
Earth, from the Line up to the (hores of the frozen
Ocean.

This Nation, again, is frbdivided into different
fpecies, conformably to the various fpecies of
flowers; for there are fome which, being deftined
to live on flowers which have no depth, fuch as the
radiated, are armed with five hooks, to prevent
their Aiding on the petals. Others, on the con-
trary, fuch as the bees of America, have no flings,
becaufe they conftrud their hives in the trunks of
prickly trees, which are very common in that pare
of the world : fuch trees, accordingly, are their
protedion. There are many other conformities,
among the other fpecies of bees, with which we
are totally unacquainted. Neverthelefs, this vafl
Nation, fo varied in it's Colonies, and whofe pof-
feffions are fo extenfive, is but one little family of

the

272. STUDIES OF NATURE.

the clafs of flies, of which we know, in our own
Climate alone, near fix thoufand fpecies, moft of
them as diftinft from each other, as to forms and
inftinds, as bees themfelves are from other flies.

If we were to compare the relations of this vo-
latile clafs, fo numerous in itfelf, with ail the parrs
of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we fliould
find an innumerable multitude of different orders
of conformity ; and were we to add to them, thofe
which are prefented to us in the legions of butter-
flies, fcarabs, locufts, and other infedts which like-
wife fly, we fliould multiply them to infinity. AU
this, ftill, would be but a fmall matter, compared
to the various induftry of the other infeds which
crawl, which leap, which fvvim, which climb,
which walk, which are motionlefs ; the number
of thefe is incomparably greater than that of the
firfl: : and the hiftory of thefe laft, added to that of
the others, would, after all, be the hiftory of only-
one puny race of this great Republic of the
World, replenilfied as it is with innumerable flioals
of fiflies, and endlefs legions of quadrupeds, am-
phibious animals, and birds.

All their clafles, with their divifions, and fub-
divifions, the minuteft individual of which prefents
a very extenfive fphere of conformities, are them-
felves only particular conformities ; only rays and

points

STUDY X. 273

|)omts in the general fphere, of which Man alone
occupies the centre, and apprehends the immen-
fity.

From a fenfe of the general order, two other
fentiments obvioufly refult ; the one which throws
us imperceptibly into the bofom of the Deity,
and the other, which recals us to the perception of
our wants ; the one which exhibits to us, as the
original caufe, a Being infinitely intelligent, with-
out us, and the other, as the ultimate end, a very
limited being, in our own perfon. Thefe two fen-
timents charaderize the two powers of which Man
is conftituted, the fpiritual and the corporeal.
This is not the place to unfold thefe : it is fuffi-
cient for my purpofe to remark, that thefe two
natural fentiments are the general fources of the
pleafure which we derive from the order of Nature.
Animals are afFeded only by the fécond, and that
in a very limited degree.

A bee has a fentiment of the order of her hive ;
but Hie knows nothing beyond that. She is to-
tally ignorant of the order which regulates the
ants in their nefl, though fhe may have frequently
feen them profecuting their labours. To no pur-
pofe would file refort, in the event of her hive's
being deflroyed, to feek refuge, as a republican,
in the midft of their Republic. To no purpofe,

VOL. II. T in

272^ STUDIES OF NATURE.

the clafs of flies, of which we know, in our owiï
Climate alone, near fix thoufand fpecies, moft of
them as diftind from each other, as to forms and
inftinfls, as bees themfelves are from other flies.

If we were to compare the relations of this vo-
latile clafs, fo numerous in itfelf, with all the parts
of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we fliould
find an innumerable multitude of different orders
of conformity ; and were we to add to them, thofe
which are prefented to us in the legions of butter-
flies, fcarabs, locufts, and other infedts which like-
wife fly, we fliould multiply them to infinity. All
this, ftill, would be but a fmall matter, compared
to the various induftry of the other infects which
crawl, which leap, which fvvim, which climb,
which walk, which are motionlefs ; the number
of thefe is incomparably greater than that of the
firft : and the hiftory of thefe lafl, added to that of
the others, would, after all, be the hiftory of only-
one puny race of this great Republic of the
World, replenilhed as it is with innumerable fhoals
of fifhes, and endlefs legions of quadrupeds, am-
phibious animals, and birds.

All their clafTes, with their divifions, and fub-
divifions, the minuteft individual of which prefents
a very extenfive fphere of conformities, are them-
felves only particular conformities ; only rays and

points

STUDY X. 273

joints in the general fphere, of which Man alone
occupies the centre, and apprehends the immen-
fity.

From a fenfe of the general order, two other
fentiments obvioufly refult ; the one which throws
us imperceptibly into the bofom of the Deity,
and the other, which recals us to the perception of
our wants ; the one which exhibits to us, as the
original caufe, a Being infinitely intelligent, with-
out us, and the other, as the ultimate end, a very
limited being, in our own perfon. Thefe two fen-
timents charaderize the two powers of which Man
is conftituted, the fpiritual and the corporeal.
This is not the place to unfold thefe : it is fuffi-
cient for my purpofe to remark, that thefe two
natural fentiments are the general fources of the
pleafure which we derive from the order of Nature,
Animals are afFeded only by the fécond, and that
in a very limited degree.

A bee has a fentiment of the order of her hive ;
but (lie knows nothing beyond that. She is to-
tally ignorant of the order which regulates the
ants in their neft, though fhe may have frequently
feen them profecuting their labours. To no pur-
pofe would file refort, in the event of her hive's
being deftroyed, to feek refuge, as a republican,
in the midft of their Republic. To no purpofe,

VOL. II. T in

274 STUDIES OF NATURE.

in the hour of diftrefs, would fhe attempt to avail
herfelf of the qualities which fhe has in common
with them, and which make communities to flou-
rifli, temperance, a difpofition to induftry, the love
of Country, and, above all, that of equality,
united to fuperior talents : (lie would meet, from
them, with no hofpitality, no confideration, no
compaflion. Nay, (he would not find an afylum
even among other bees of a different fpecies : for
every fpecies has it's proper fphere afîigned to it,
and this by an effeft of the wifdom of Nature ;
for if it were otherwife, the befl organized fpecies,
or the flrongeft, would expel the others from their
domains. Hence it follows, that the fociety of
animals could not fubfifl independent of the paf-
fions, nor human fociety independent of virtue.
Man alone, of all animals, pofTefTes the fèntiment
of univerfal order, which is that of the Deity
himfelf J and by carrying over the whole Earth,
the virtues which are the fruits of it, whraever
may be the differences which prejudice interpofes
between man and man, it is fure of alluring all
hearts to itfelf. It was by this fentiment of uni-
verfal order which governed your life, that you
have become the men of all Nations, and that you
intereft us flill, even when you are no ionger with
us, Arijiides, Socrates, Marcus- AiireHus, divine
Fenelon, and you, likewife, unfortunate John-
James !

HAR.

STUDY X. 275

HARMONY.

Nature oppofes beings to each other, in order
to produce between them agreeable conformities.
This Law has been acknowledged from the higheft
Antiquity. It is to be found in many paffages of
the Holy Scriptures. I produce one from the
Book of Ecclefiallicus * : Omnia dupUcia, unum
contra unum, & non fecit quidquam deejje. "All
" things are double, one againft another; and He
" hath made nothing unperfeâ: : one thing efta-
" bliflieth the good of another."

I confider this great truth as the key of all Phi-
lofophy. It has likevvife been fruitful in difco-
very, as well as that other -, Nothing has been cre-
ated in vain. It has been the fource of tafte in
the arts and in eloquence. Out of contraries arife
the pleafures of vifion, of hearing, of touching,
of tailing, and all the attrapions of beauty, of
whatever kind it may be. But from contraries,
likewife, arife uglinefs, difcord, and all the fenfa-
tions which fill us with difguft. In this there is
fomething very wonderful, that Nature fhould
employ the fame caufes to produce effeds fo dif-

* Ecclefiafticus, chap. xlii. ver. 24, 25.

T 2 ferent.

276 STUDIES OF NATURE.

ferent. When (he oppofes contraries to each
other, painful affedions are excited in us; but
when (he blends them, we are agreeably affefled.
From the oppofition of contraries fprings difcord,
and from their union refults harmony.

Let us endeavour to find in Nature fome proofs
of this great Law, Cold is the oppofite of heat^
light of darknefs, earth of water ; and the har-
mony of thefe contrary elements produces effesfls
the moft delightful : but if cold fucceeds rapidly
to heat, or heat to cold, moft vegetables and ani-
mals, expofed to fuch fudden revolutions, are in
danger of perifhing. The Hght of the Sun is
agreeable ; but if a black, cloud fuddenly inter-
cepts, or bears upon, the luftre of his rays, or if a
gleaming flame, fuch as that of lightning, burfls
from the bofom of a very dark night, the eye, in
both thefe cafes, undergoes a painful fenfation.
The horror of a thunder- ftorm is greatly increaf-
ed, if the tremendous cxplofions are interrupted
by intervals of profound (ilence ; and it is height-
ened inexprefTibly, if the oppofitions, of thofe ce-
leftial fires and obfcurities, of that tumult and
tranquillity, make themfelves fdt in the gloom
and filence of night.

Nattire oppofes, in like manner, at fea, the
white foam of the billows to the black colour of

the

STUDY X. 277

die rocks, in order to announce to the mariners
from afar the danger of fliallows. She frequently
prefents to them forms analagous to deftrudion,
fuch as thofe of ferocious animals, of edifices in
ruins, or of the keels of (hips turned upward. She
even extradbs from thefe awful forms hollow noifes
refembling groans, and broken off by long inter-
vals of filence. The Ancients believed that they
faw in the rock of Scylla, a female of a hideous
form, whofe girdle was furrounded by a pack of
dogs, which barked inceflantly. Mariners have
given to the rocks of the Bahama channel, fo noted
for fhipvvrecks, the name of the Martyrs, becaufe
they prefent, through the fpray of the billows
which break on them, the horrid fpeftacle of men
impaled, and expofed on wheels. You would even
imagine, that you heard fighsand fobbings ifluing
from thefe difmal fhallows.

Nature employs, in like manner, thofe clafliing
oppofitions, and thofe ominous figns, to exprefs
the characters of favage and dangerous animals of
all kinds. The lion ftroUing, by night, through'
the folitudes of Africa, announces his approach
from a great diftance, by roarings, which have a
ftriking refemblance to the rolling of thunder.
The vivid and inftantaneous flaflies of fire which
dart from his eyes in the dark, exhibit, befides, the
appearance of that formidable meteor, lightning.

T 3 During

278 STUDIES OF NATURE.

During the Winter feafon, the howlings of the
wolves in the forefts of the North referable the
whiftling of the winds as they agitate the trees ;
the cries of birds of prey are fhrill, piercing, and
now and then interrupted by hollow notes. Nay,
there are fome which emit the founds of a human
being in pain. Such is the lom, a fpecies of
fea-fowl, which feeds on the Ihelvy coaft of Lap-
land *, on the dead bodies of animals which are
there put aQiore : he cries like a man a-drowning.

Noxious infe(51:s exhibit the fame oppofitions,
and the fame fignals of deftruélion. The gnat,
thirfting after human blood, announces himfelf to
the eye, by the white points with which his brown-
coloured body is ftudded, and to the ear, by his
flirill notes, which difturb the tranquillity of the
grove. The carnivorous wafp is fpeckled, like the
tiger, with black ftripes on a yellow ground. You
frequently find in our gardens, about the roots of
trees which are decaying, a fpecies of bug, of
a longilh form, which bears on it's red body mar-
bled with black, the mafk of a death's head.
Finally, the infeds which attack our pcrfons more
immediately, however fmall they may be, diftin-
guifli themfelves by glaring oppofitions of colour
to the field on which they fettle.

* See John Scb^ffer^s Hiflory of Lapland.

But

STUDY X. 279

But when two contraries come to be blended, of
whatever kind, the combination produces pleafure,
beauty, and harmony. I call the inftant, and the
point, of their union : harmonic exprej/ton. This is
the only principle which I have been able to per-
ceive in Nature ; for the elements themfelves, as
we have feen, are not fimple : they always prefent
accords formed of two contraries to analyfes mul-
tiplied without end. Thus, to refume fome of the
inftances already adduced, the gentleft; tempera-
tures, and the moft favourable, in general, to
every fpecies of vegetation, are thofe of the feafons
in which cold is blended with heat, as in the
Spring and Autumn. They are then produdive
of two faps in trees, which the ftrongeft heats of
Summer do not effeft. The moft agreeable pro-
dudlion of light and darknefs are perceptible at
thofe feafons when they melt into each other, and
form what Painters call the clear -objciire and half-
lights. For this reafon it is, that the moft inte-
refting hours of the day are thofe of morning and
evening : thofe hours, when, in the beautiful ima-
gery of La Fontaine, in his charming fable of
Pyramus and Thi/be, the fliade and the light ftrive
for the maftery in the azure fields. The moft
lovely profpedls are thofe in which land and water
are loft in each other ; this fuggefted that obferva-
tionofhoneft Plutarch; natr.ely, that the plea-
fanteft land-journies are thofe which we make

T 4 along

28o STUDIES OF NATURE.

along the fhore of the fea ; and the moft delightful
voyages thofe which are a coafling along the
land. You will obferve ihefe fame harmonies
refult from favours and founds the moft oppofite,
in the pleafures of the palate, and of the ear.

Yf e fliall proceed to examine the uniformity of
this Law, in the very principles by which Nature
gives us the firft fenfations of her works, which
are colours, forms, and motions.

Of Colours*

I fhall be carefully on my guard not to give ^
definition of colours, and ftill more, not to at-
tempt an explanation of their origin. Colours are,
as Naturalifts tell us, refradlions of the light on bo-
dies, as is demonftrated by the prifm, which, by
breaking a ray of the Sun, decompounds it into
feven coloured rays, which difplay themfelves in
the following orders red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, and violet. Thefe are, as they will
have it, the feven primitive colours. But, as has
been already obferved. We do not know what is
primitive in Nature. I might objeâ: to them^
that if the colours of objeds are produced only
from the refraction of the light of the Sun, they
ought to difappear at the light of a taper, for the

light

STUDY X. 2811

iight of a taper is not decompounded by the
prifm : but I (hall confine myfelf to a few reflec-
tions refpeding the number, and the order of
thofe feven pretended primitive colours.

Firft, it is evident that four of thefe are com-
pounded ; for orange is made up of yellow and
red ; green, of yellow and blue ; violet, of blue
and red ; and indigo is nothing more than a tint
of blue furcharged with black. This reduces the
folar colours to three primordial ; namely, yellow,
red, and blue; to which if we add white, which
is the colour of light, and black, which is the
privation of it, we (hall have five fimple colours
with which may be compounded all imaginable
ftiades of colour.

I muft here obferve, that our philofophical ma-
chinery deceives us with it's afFedtation of fuperior
intelligence, not only becaufe it afcribes falfe ele-
ments to Nature, as when the prifm difplays com-
pound for primitive colours, but by ftripping her
of fuch as are true ; for how many white and black
bodies muft be reckoned colourlefs, confidering
that this fame prifm does not exhibit their tints in
the decompofition of the folar ray !

This inftrument leads us farther into an error
refpeding the natural order of thefe very colours,

by

282 STUDIES OF KATURE.

by making the red ray the firft in the feries, and
the violet ray the laft. The order of colours in
the prifm, therefore, is only a triangular decompo-
fition of a ray of cylindrical light, the two extremes
of which, red and violet, participate the one of
the other, without terminating it ; fo that the
principle of colours, which is the white ray and
it's progreffive decompofition, is no longer mani-
fefted in it. I am very much difpofed to believe,
that it is even poflible to cut a cryftal with fuch a
number of angles, as would give to the refradions
of the folar ray an order entirely different, and
would multiply the pretended primitive colours
far beyond the number of feven. The authority
of fuch a polyedron would become altogether as
refpeftable as that of the prifm, if the Algebraifts
were to apply to it a few calculations, fomewhat
obfcure, with a feafoning of the ratiocination of
the corpufcular philofophy, as they have done
with regard to the effeds of the triangular inftru-
ment.

We fhall employ a method, not quite fo learn-
ed, to convey an idea of the generation of colours,
and of the decompofition of the folar ray. Inftead of
examining them in a prifm of glafs, we fhall con-
fider them in the Heavens, and there we fhall be-
hold the five primordial colours unfold themfelves
in the order which we have indicated.

In

STUDY 3C. 283

In a fine Summer's night, when the Iky is fe-
rene, and loaded only with fome light vapours,
fufficient to flop, and to refraft, the rays of the
Sun, as they traverfe the extremities of our Atmo-
fphere, walk out into an open plain, where the
firft fires of Aurora may be perceptible. You will
firft obferve the Horizon whiten at the fpot where
fhe is to make her appearance; and this kind of
radiance, from it's colour, has procured for it, in
the French language, the name of mibe (the dawn)
from the Latin word alba, which fignifies white.
This whitenefs infenfibly afcends in the Heavens,
and aflumes a tint of yellow, fome degrees above
the Horizon ; the yellow, as it rifes fome degrees
higher, pafles into orange; and this fliade of
orange rifes upward into the lively vermilion,
which extends as far as the Zenith. From that
point you will perceive in the Heavens, behind
you, the violet fucceeding the vermilion, then the
azure, after it the deep blue or indigo colour,
and, lafb of all, the black quite to the weftward.

Though this difplay of colours prefents an in-
finite multitude of intermediate fhades, which
fucceed each other with confiderable rapidity, ne-
verthelefs, there is a moment, and, if my recollec-
tion of it be accurate, it is the moment when the
Sun isjuft going to exhibit his difk, that the daz-
zling white is vifible in the Horizon, the pure

yellow.

284 STUDIES OF NATURE.

yellow, at an elevation of forty-five degrees ; the
fire colour, in the Zenith 3 the pure blue, forty-
five degrees under it, toward the Weft ; and, in the
very Weft, the dark veil of night ftill lingering on
the Horizon. At leaft, I think, I have remarked
this progreffion between the Tropics, where there
is fcarcely any horizontal refraâ:ion to make the
light prematurely incroach on the darknefs, as in
our Climates.

J. y. Ronjfeau obferved to me one day, that
though the field of thofe celeftial colours be blue,
the yellow tints which melt away into it, do not
produce by that mixture the colour of green, as is
the cafe in our material colours, when thefe two
(hades are blended. But I replied, that I had fre-
quently perceived green in the Heavens, not only
between the Tropics, but over the Horizon of Pa-
ris. That colour, in truth, is hardly ever feen
with us, but in fome fine Summer evenings. I
have likewife feen, in the clouds of the Tropics,
all the colours perceptible on the earth, particu-
larly at fea, and in ftormy weather. You may
then fee fome of them copper-coloured, fome of
the colour of the fmoke of a tobacco-pipe, fome
brown, reddilh, black, gray, chefnut, livid, the
colour of a heated oven's mouth. As to thofe
which appear there in fine weather, fome are fo
lively and brilliant, that no palace can exhibit any

thing

STUDY X.

285

thing to vie with them, were it enriched with all
the gems of the Great Mogul.

Sometimes the trade-winds, from the North-
eaft, or South-eafl, which conftantly blow there,
card the clouds through each other, like fo many
tufts of filk ; then fweep them away to the Weft,
croffing and re-croffing them over one another,
like the ofiers interwoven in a tranfparent bafket.
They throw over the fides of this chequered work,
the clouds which are not employed in the contex-
ture, and which are in no fmall number, roll them
up into enormous mafles, as white as fnow, draw
them out along their extremities in form of a
crupper, and pile them upon each other, like the
Cordeliers of Peru, moulding them into the Ihape
of mountains, of caverns, and of rocks 3 after-
wards, as evening approaches, they grow fome-
what calm, as if afraid of deranging their own
workmanfliip. When the Sun comes to fet be-
hind this magnificent netting, you fee a multitude
of luminous rays tranlmitted through each parti-
cular interftice, which produce fuch an effeâ:, that
the two fides of the lozenge illuminated by them,
have the appearance of being begirt with a fillet
of gold, and the other two, which are in the
fhade, feem tinged with a fuperb ruddy orange.
Four or five divergent ftrcams of light, emanated
from the fetting Sun up to the Zenidi, clothe with

fringes

286 STUDIES OF NATURE.

fringes of gold, the undeterminate fummits of this
celeflial barrier, and proceed to flrike with the
reflexes of their fires the pyramids of the collateral
aerial mountains, which then appear to conlift of
filver and vermilion. At this moment of the
evening are perceptible, amidft their redoubled
ridges, a multitude of valleys extending into infi-
nity, and diftinguifhing themfelves at their open-
ing by fome fhade of flefli, or of rofe-colour.

Thofe celeflial valleys prefent, in their different
contours, inimitable tints of white, melting away
into white, or fliades lengthening themfelves out,
without mixing over other fliades. You fee, here
and there, ifiuing from the cavernous fides of
thofe mountains, tides of light precipitating them-
felves in ingots of gold and filver, over rocks of
coral. Here it is a gloomy rock, pierced through
and through, difclofing, beyond the aperture, the
pure azure of the firmament ; there it is an exten-
fivc ftrand, covered with fands of gold, flretching
over the rich ground of Heaven^ poppy-coloured,
fcarlet, and green as the emerald.

The reverberation of thofe weftern colours dif-
fufes itfelf over the Sea, whofe azure billows it
glazes with faffron and purple. The mariners,
leaning over the gunwale of the fliip, admire in
filence thofe aerial landfcapes. Sometimes this

fublime

STUDY X. 287

fublime fpeftacle prefents itfelf to them at the
hour of prayer, and feems to invite them to lift up
their hearts with their voices to the Heavens. It
changes it's appearance every inftant : what was
jufl now luminous, becomes in a moment coloured
limply J and what is now coloured, will, by and
by, be in the (hade. The forms are as variable as
the (hades ; they are, by turns, iflands, hamlets,
hills clothed with the palm-tree ; vaft bridges
ftretching over rivers, (lelds of gold, of amethyfts,
of rubies, or rather, nothing of all this j they are
celeflial colours and forms which no pencil can
pretend to imitate, and which no language can
defcribe.

It is very remarkable, that all travellers who
have, at various feafons, afcended to the fummits
of the higheft mountains on the Globe, between
the Tropics, and beyond them, in the heart of the
Continent, or in Iflands, never could perceive, in
the clouds below them, any thing but a gray and
lead- coloured furface, without any variation what-
ever as to colour, being always (imilar to that of a
lake. The Sun, notwithftanding, illuminated
thofe clouds with his whole light ; and his rays
might there combine, without obftruftion, all the
laws of refraftion to which our fyftems of Phyfics
have fubjeded them. From this obfervation it

follows,

288 STUDIES OF NATURE*

follows, and I fhall repeat it in another place, be!>
caufe of it's importance, that there is not a fingle
Ihade of colour employed in vain, through the
whole extent of the Univerfe ; that thofe celeftial
decorations were made for the level of the Earth,
and that their magnificent point of view is taken
from the habitation of Man.

Thefe admirable concerts of lights and forms,
which manifefl themfelves only in the lower re-
gion of the clouds, the leaft illuminated by the
Sun, are produced by laws with which T am to-
tally unacquainted. But let their variety be what
it may, the whole are reducible to five colours :
yellow appears to be a generation from white ; red
a deeper fhade of yellow; blue, a tint of red
greatly ftrengthened ; and black, the extreme tint
of blue. It is impoffible to entertain a doubt re-
fpefting this progreffion, if you obferve, in the
morning, as 1 have mentioned, the expanfion of
light in the Heavens. You there fee thofe five
colours, with their intermediate (hades, gene-
nerating each other nearly in this order : white,
fulphur yellow, lemon yellow, yolk of egg yellow,
orange, Aurora colour, poppy red, full red, car-
mine red, purple, violet, azure, indigo, and black.
Each of thofe colours feems to be only a ilrong
tint of that which precedes it, and a faint tint of

that

STUDY X. 289

tiiat which follows ; thus the whole together
appear to be only modulations of a progreffion,
of which white is the firft term, and black the laft.

In this order, whereof the two extremes, white
and black, that is, light and darknefs, produce,
in harmonizing, fo many different colours, you
will remark, that the red colour holds the middle
place, and that it is the mod beautiful of the whole,
in the judgment of all Nations. The Ruffians,
when they would defcribe a beautiful girl, fay (he
is red. They call her craftna dévitfa : red and
beautiful being with them fynonimous terms. In
Mexico and Peru, red was held in very high efti-
mation. The moft magnificent prefent which the
Emperor Montezenma could devife for Cortez, was
a necklace of lobfters, which naturally had that
rich colour *. The only demand made upon the
Spaniards by the King of Sumatra, on their firft
landing in his country, and prefenting him with
many famples of the commerce and induftry of
Europe, was fome corals, and fcarlet-coloured
fluffs -j- ; and he promifed to give them, in return,
all the fpiceries, and other merchandize, of India,
for which they might have occailon.

* See Herrera.
t See General Hiftory of Voyages by the Abbé Prevajî.

VOL. II. u There

290 STUDIES OF NATURE,

There is no fuch thing as carrying on trade, to
any advantage, with the Negros, the Tartars, the
Americans, and the Eafl-Indians, but through
the medium of red cloths. The teftimonies of
travellers are unanimous refpefting the preference
univerfally given to this colour. Of this I could
produce proofs innumerable, were I not afraid of
being tedious. 1 have indicated the univerfality
of this tafte, merely in the view of demonftrating
the falQiood of the philofophic axiom which af-
ferts, that taftes are arbitrary, or, which amounts
to the fame thing, that there are in Nature no
laws for beauty, and that our taftes are the effeds
of prejudice. The direâ: contrary of this is the
truth ; it is prejudice that corrupts our natural
taftes, which would othervvife be the fame over the
whole Earth. From a prejudice of this kind,
the Turks prefer green to every other colour, be-
caufe, according to the tradition of their Theolo-
gians, this was the favourite colour of Mahomety
and his defcendants alone, of all the Turks, have
the privilege of wearing the green turban.

But from a (îmilar, though oppofire prejudice,
the Perfians, their neighbours, deipife green, be-
caufe they reject the traditions of thofe Turkilh
Theologians, and, accordingly, do not acknow-
ledge that confanguinity of their Prophet, being
followers of Ali,

From

STUDY X. 291

iFrom another chimera, yellow appears to the
Chinefe the moft diftinguiflied of all colours, be-
caufe it is that of their emblematical dragon. Yel-
low is, in China, the imperial colour, as green is
in Turkey. The Chinefe, neverthelefs, if we may
depend on the authority of IJbrants-Ides reprefent
their Gods and Heroes, on the ftage, with their
faces ftained a blood colour *. All thefe Nations,
.the political colour excepted, confider red as the
mofh beautiful, which is fufficient to eftablifli,
with refped to it, an unanimity of preference.

But, without dwelling longer on the variable tef-
timony of Man, we have only to appeal to that of
Nature. It is with red that Nature heightens the
moft brilliant parts of the moft beautiful flowers.
She has given a complete clothing of it to the rofe,
the Queen of the Garden : (lie has beftowed this
tint on the blood, which is tl|e principle of life in
animals : fhe inverts moft of the feathered race,
in India, with a plumage of this colour, efpecially
in the feafon of love. There are very few birds,
on which flie does not then beftow fome (liades,
at leaft, of this rich hue. Some have their heads
covered with it, fuch as thofe which are called
Cardinals ; others have a breaft-plate of it, a-
necklace, a capuchin, a fhoulder-knot. There

* Journey from Mofcow to China, page 141.

u 2 are

292 STUDIES OF NATURE.

are fome which preferve entirely the gray, or
brown ground of their plumage, but glazed over
with red, as if they had been rolled in carmine.
Others are befprinkled with red, as if you had
blown a fcariet powder over them. Together
with this, fome haiVe a mixture of fmall white
points, which produces a charming effeâ:. A little
bird of India, called Bengali, is painted in this
manner.

But nothing can be more lovely tlian a turtle-
dove of Africa, who bears on her pearl-gray plu-
mage, precifely over the place of the heart, a
bloody fpot confiding of different kinds of red
blended, perfedly refembling a wound : it feems
as if this bird, dedicated to Love, was deftined to
wear her mafter's livery, and had ferved as a mark
to his arrows. What is ftill more wonderful,
thefe rich coraHne ti»ts difappear in mofl. of thofe
birds as foon as the feafon of love is over, as if
they were robes of ceremony, lent them by the be-
nevolence of Nature, only during the celebration
of their nuptials.

The red colour, lituated in the midft of the
five primordial colours, is the harmonic expref-
fion of them, by way of excellence; and the re-
luit, as has been faid, of the union of two con-
traries, light and darknefs. There are, befides,

tints

STUDY X. 293

tints extremely agreeable, compounded of the op-
pofitions of extremes. For example, of the fécond
and fourth colour, that is, of yellow and blue, is
formed green, which conftitutes a very beautiful
harmony, and which ought, perhaps, to polTefs
the fécond rank in beauty, among colours, as it
poffeffes the fécond in their generation. Nay,
green appears, in the eyes of many perfons, if not
the mofl beautiful tint, at leaft the moft lovely,
becaufe it is lefs dazzling than red, and more con.
genial to the eye *.

I fiiall

* It is harmony which renders every thing perceptible, juft
as monotony makes every thing to difappear. Not only are
colours the harmonic confonances of light : but there is no one
coloured body whofe tint Nature does not heighten by the con-
trail: of the two extreme generative colours, which are white and
black. Every body detaches itfelf by means of light and fliade,
the firft of which is a-kin to the white, and the fécond to the
black. Every body, accordingly, bears upon it a complete har-
mony.

This is not the efFe<^ of chance. Were we enlightened, for
example, by a luminous air, we flïould not perceive the form
of bodies; for their outlines, their profiles, and their cavities,
would be overfpread with an uniform light, which would caufe
their prominent and retreating parts to difappear. With a pro-
vidence, therefore, completely adapted to the weaknefs of our
vifion, the Author of Nature has made the light to iffue from
a fingle point of Heaven : and with an intelligence that equally
challenges our admiration. He has given a motion of progreffion
to the Sun, who is the fourcc of that light, in order to form,
with the fhades, harmonies varying every inftant. He has like-

u ^ wife

294 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I fhall infift no longer on the other harmonic
(hades which may be deduced, in conformity to
the huvs of their generation, from colours the moft
oppofite ; and of which might be formed accords
and concerts, fuch as Father Caftel produced from
his celebrated Harpfichord. I muft, however,
remark, that colours may have a powerful influ-
ence on the paflions ; and that they, as well as
their harmonies, may be referred to the moral af-

wlfe modified that light, on terreftrial objefts, in fuch a man-
ner, as to illuminate both immediately and mediately, by refrac-
tion and by refleftion, and to extend it's tints, and it's harmo-
nies, with thofe of fhade, in a way that no words can exprefs.

J. J. Roujffcau one day made this obfervation : •' Painters.
*' can give the appearance of a body in relief, to a fmooth fur-
" face ; I fliould be very glad to fee them give the appearance of
*' a fmooth furface to a laifed body." I made no reply at the
moment ; but having fince reflecfled on the folution of this pro-
blem in optics, I by no means confider the thing as impoflible.
The whole that is neceflary, according to my idea, is to deftroy
one of the harmonic extremes which render bodies prominent.
For inftance, if the objeft aimed at were to flatten a bafs-relief,
it would be neceflary to paint the cavities white, or the promi-
nent parts black. Accordingly, as they employ the harmony of
the clare-obfcure, to give the appearance of a folid body to a
plane furface, they might employ the monotony of one fingle
tint, to make what is aftually raifed and folid to difappear, and
become to the eye a plane furface. In the firfl: cafe, painting
renders th-.it vifible which is not tangible ; in the fécond, we
fliould have a body that might be touched, without being vi-
fible. Thii li^ft deception would be fully as furprizing as the
other,

feflions.

STUDY X. 295

feélions. For example, making red the point of
departure, which is the harmonic colour fuper-
eminently, and proceeding toward white in an
afc€nding progreffion, the nearer you approach to
this firfl tei'm, the more lively and gay are the co-
lours. You will have in fucceffion the poppy, the
orange, the yellow, the lemon, the fulphur, the
white. On the contrary, the farther you proceed
from red toward black, the fadder and more lu-
gubrious are the colours ; for this is the progref-
fion ; purple, violet, blue, indigo, and black.

In the harmonies which may be formed, on
both fides, by the union of oppofite colours, the
more that the tints of the afcending progreffion
predominate, the more lively will be the harmo-
nies produced ; and the contrary will take place,
in proportion as the colours of the defcending
harmony fhall prevail. From this harmonic ef-
fe(ft it is, that green, being compounded of yel-
low and blue, is fo much more gay, as the yellovv
has the afcendanc, and fad in proportion as the
blue predominates.

Farther, from this harmonic influence it is,
that white transfufes moft gaiety into all other
tints, becaufe it is light itfelf. Nay, it produces,
from oppofition, a moft delightful effed in the
harmonies, which I call melancholy; for, blended

u 4 with

296 STUDIES OF NATURE.

with violet, it gives the delicious hue of the lilach
flower J mixed with blue, it makes azure; and
with black, produces pearl-gray ; but melted
away into red, it exhibits the rofe colour, that en-
chanting tint, which is the flower of life. On the
other hand, according to the predominance of
black in colours which are gay, the effeft pro-
duced is more mournful than would have refulted
from unmixed black. This becomes perceptible
on blending it with yellow, orange, and red,
which are thereby rendered dull and gloomy co-
lours. Red gives life to every tint into which it
is infufed, as white communicates gaiety, and black
-fad nefs.

If you would wifli to produce efFeds entirely
oppofite to mod of thofe which I have been juft
•indicating, you have only to place the extreme co-
lours clofely by each other, without mingling
them. Black, oppofed to white, produces the
moft mournful, and the harfheft efied. Their
oppofition is a badge of mourning among mofb
Nations, as it is the lignai of impending deftruc-
tion in the tempeftuous appearances of the Hea-
vens, and in the commotions of the Ocean. The
yellow too, oppofed to black, is the charaâ:erifl:ic
of many dangerous animals, as the wafp, the ty-
ger, and feveral others....! do not pretend to infi-
nuate, that the women have not the fkill of em-
ploying

STUDY X. 297

ploying to advantage, in their drefs, thofe oppo-
fite colours ; but they are called in as an embel-
lifhment only on account of the contrails which
they form with the colour of their complexion ; and
as the red predominates there, it follows that the
oppofite colours are advantageous to them, for
harmonic expreffion is never ftronger, than when
found between the two extremes which produce
it. We fhall offer a few thoughts hereafter on
this part of harmony, when we come to fpeak of
contrafts, and of the human figure.

It would be ridiculous to afFeft ignorance of
the objeâiions which may be flatted againfl the
univerfality of thefe principles. We have repre-
fentcd white as a gay, and black as a fad colour.
Neverthelefs, certain Negro Nations reprefent the
Devil as white : the inhabitants of the Peninfula
of India, in token of mourning, rub their fore-
head and temples with the powder of fandal-
wood, the colour of which is a yellowifh white.
The Navigator La Barbinois, who, in his voyage
round the world, has as well defcribed the manners
of China, as thofe of our fea-officers, and of feve-r
ral European Colonies, fays, that white is the co-
lour of mourning among the Chinefe. From
thefe inftances it might be concluded, that the
feeling of colour mud be arbitrary, as it is not the
fame in all Nations.

I venture

298 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I venture to offer the following reply to thefe
objeélions. It has already been proved by evi-
dence, that the Nations of Africa and Afia, how-
ever black they may be, prefer white women to
thcfe of every other tint. If there be any Negro
Nations who paint the Devil white, this may be
eafily accounted for, from the flrong feeling which
they have of the tyranny which the whites exercife
over them. White, accordingly, having become
with them a political colour, ceafes to be a natural
one. Befides, the white in which they paint their
Devil is not a white, beautifully harmonious, like
that of the human figure : but a dead white, a
chalk white, fuch as that with which our painters
illuminate the figures of phantoms and ghofts in
their magical and infernal fcenes.

If this dazzling colour is the expreffion of
mourning among the Indians and Chinefe, therea-
fon is, it contrails hardily with the black fkin of
thofe Nations. The Indians are black. The
ikin of the fouthern Chinefe is much fun-burnt.
They derive their religion and their leading cuf-
toms from India, the cradle of the Human Race,
the inhabitants of which are black. Their out-
ward garments are of a gloomy colour ; a great
part of their drefs confifts of black fattin ; the co-
vering for their under extremities is black boots ;
the ornamental furniture of their houfes confifts,

in

STUDY X.

299

in a great meafure, of that beautiful black var-
nilhed ware, which we import from their country.
White muft, thereforcj produce a harfh diflbnance
with their furniture, their drefs, and, above all,
with the dufky colour of their ikin.

If thofe Nations were to wear a black habit, in
mourning, as we do, be their colour ever fo deep,
it would not form a clafhing oppofition in their
drefs. The expreffion of grief, accordingly, is
precifely the fame with them as with us. For if
we, in a feafon of mourning, oppofe the black
colour of our clothes to the white colour of our
ikin, in order thence to produce a funereal diflb-
nance, the fouthern Nations oppofe, on the con-
trary, the white colour of their garments to the
dufky colour of their fkin, in order to produce
the fame efFeâ:,

This variety of tafte admirably confirms the
univerfality of the principles which we have laid
down refpeéting the caufes of harmony and diflb-
nance. It farther demonftrates, that the agree-
ablenefs, or difagreeablenefs of a colour, refides
not in one fingle Ihade, but in the harmony, or
in the clafliing contraft, of two oppofite colours.

We might find proofs of thofe laws multiplied
without end, in Nature, to which Man ought ever

to

30O STUDIES OF NATURE.

to have recourfe in all his doubts. She oppofes
harfhly, in hot countries as in cold, the colours
of dangerous and deftrudive animals. Venemous
reptiles are univerfally painted in gloomy colours.
Birds of prey are univerfally of an earthy hue op-
pofed to yellow, and white fpecks on a dark
ground, or dark fpotson alight ground. Nature
has given a yellow robe, ftriped with duiky
brown, and fparkling eyes, to the tyger lying in
ambufli under the fhade of the fcrefts of the
South : and (lie has tinged with black the fnouc
and paws, and with blood-colour the throat and
eyes, of the white bear, and thereby renders him
apparent, notvvithftanding the whitenefs of his fur,
amidft the fnows of the North.

Of Forms.

Let us now proceed to the generation of forms,
]f I am not miftaken, the principles of thefe, like
thofe of colours, are reducible to five, namely,
the line, the triangle, the circle, the ellipfe, and
the parabola.

The line generates all forms, as the ray of light
does all colours. It goes on progreffively, like
the other, in it's generations, flep by ftep, pro-
ducing

STUDY X. 301

ducing firll, by three fradions, the triangle, which
of all figures, contains the fmalleft of furfaces
under the greateft of circuits. The triangle after-
ward, compofed itfelf of three triangles at the
centre, produces the fquare, which confifts of four
triangles from the central point ; the pentagon,
which confifts of five; the hexagon, which confifta
of fix ; and fo of the reft of the polygons, up to
the circle, which is compofed of a multitude of
triangles, whofe fummits are at it's centre, and
the bafes at it's circumference : and which, con-
trary to the triangle, contains the greateft of fur-
faces under the fmalleft of peripheries. The form
which has, hitherto, always been going on pro-
greffively, commencing with the line, relatively to
a centre, up to the circle, afterwards deviates from
it ; and produces the ellipfe, then the parabola,
and finally all the other widened curves, the equa-
tions of which may all be referred to this laft.

So that under this afped, the indefinite line
has no common centre : the triangle has three
points in it's bounding lines, which have a com-
mon centre; the fquaie has four; the pentagon
five; the hexagon fix: and the circle has all the
points of it's circumference regulated conformably
to one common and only centre. The ellipfe be-
gins to deviate from this regulation, and has two
centres ; and the parabola, as well as the other

curves.

302 STUDIES OF NATURE.

curves, which are analogous to ir, have centfeâ
innumerable contained in their feveral axes, from
which they remove farther and farther, forming
fomething like funnels.

On the fuppofition of this afcending generation
of forms, from the line, through the triangle, up
to the circle ; and their defcending generation,
from the circle, through the ellipfe, to the para-
bola, I deduce, from thefe five elementary forms,
all the forms of Nature ; as, with the five primordial
colours I compofe all the poffible (hades of colour.

The line prefents the flendereft form, the circle
prefents the fulleft, and the parabola the mod
obliquely fluted. In this progreffion it may be
remarked, that the circle, which occupies the
middle between thefe two extremes, is the moft
beautiful of all the elementary forms, as red is
the mod beautiful of all the primordial colours.
I prefume not to fay, with certain ancient Philo-
fophers, that this form muft be the moft beautiful,
becaufe it is the figure of the Srars, which, how-
ever, would be no fuch contemptible reafon ; but,
to employ only the teftimony of our fenfes, it is
the moft grateful to both the eye and the touch ;
it is, likewife, the moft fufceptible of motion ;
finally, what is no mean authority in the cafe of
natural truths, it is confidered as the moft con-
formable

STUDY X. 303

formable fo the tafte of all Nations, who employ-
it in their ornaments, and in their architefture ;
and it is particularly conformable to the tafte of
children, who give it the preference to every other,
in the inftruments of their amufement.

It is very remarkable, that thefe five elementary
forms have the fame analogies to each other which
the five primordial colours have among them-
felves ; fo that if you proceed to their afcending
generation, from the fphere toward the line, you
will have forms angular, lively, and gay, which
fhall terminate in the ftraight line, and of which
Nature compofes fo many radiations and expan-
fions of figure, in the Heavens and on the Earth,
fo agreeable to behold. If, on the contrary, you
defcend from the fphere to the excavations of the
parabola, you will be prefented with a gradation
of cavernous forms, which are fo frightful in
abyfles' and precipices.

Farther, if you join the elementary forms to
the primordial colours, term for term, you willob-
lerve their principal charafter mutually ftrengthen
each other, at leaft in the two extremes, and in
the harmonic expreffion of the centre : for the
two firft terms will give the white ray, which is
the ray of light itfelf ; the circular form, united
' to the red colour, will produce a figure analogous

to

304 STUDIES OF NATURE.

to the rofe, compofed of fpherical portions, with
carmine tints, and, from the efFeft of this double
harmony, deemed, in the judgment of all Nations^
the moft beautiful of flowers. Finally, black,
added to the vacuity of the parabola, increafes
the gloom of retreating and cavernous forms.

With thefe five elementary forms may be com-
pofed figures as agreeable as the (hades which are
produced from the harmonies of the five primor-
dial colours. So that the more there (hall enter,
into thofe mixed figures, of the two afcending
terms of the progreffion, the more light and gay
fuch figures will be ; and the more that the two
defcending terms (hall predominate, the more
heavv and dull will be the forms. Thus, the form
will be fo much the more elegant, as the firft
term, which is the ft:raight line, fhall have the pre-
dominance. For example, the column gives us
pleafure, becaufe it is a long cylinder, which has
the circle for it's bafis, and two ftraight lines, or
a quadrilateral figure of confiderable length, for
it's elevation. But the palm-tree, of which it
is an imitation, pleafes ftill more, becaufe the
ftellated and radiating forms of it's palms, likewife
taken from the ftraight line, conititute a very
agreeable oppofition with the roundnefs of it*s
Item ; and if, to this, you unite the harmonic
form by way of excellence, namely, the circular,

you

STUDY X. 305

you will add inexprefllbly to the grace of this
beautiful tree. This, likewife. Nature, who
knows much more of the matter than we, has
taken care to do, by fufpending, at the balls of
it's divergent boughs, fometimes the oval date,
and fometimes the rounded cocoa-nut.

In general, as often as you employ the circular
form, you will greatly enhance the agreeablenefs
■of it, by uniting it with the two contraries of
which it is compofed j for, you will then have a
complete elementary progreflion. The circular
form alone, prefents but one expreflion, the mofl:
beautiful of all, in truth ; but united to it's two
extremes, it forms, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, an
entire thought. It is from the effeâ: which thence
refults, that the vulgar confider the form of the
heart to be fo beautiful, as to compare to it every
other beautiful and interefting objeét. That is beau-
tiful as a heart, fay they *. This heart-form con-
fifls, at it's balis, of a projeding angle, and above,
of a retreating angle ; there we have the extremes :

* Is not our Author here indulging fancy, rather than fol-
lowing Nature ? If this be an idea and expreflion of the com-
mon people, it muft be the commonalty of a particular country.
Heart is, perhaps, univerfally ufed to exprefs fondnefs, affeélion,
délire ; but to reprefent xheform of that organ as beautiful, nay,
yhtijlJence of beauty is, furely, a violent ftretch of imagination.

H.H.

VOL. II. X and

306 STUDIES OF NATURE.

and in it's collateral parts, of two fpherlcal por-
tions ; there is the harmonic expreffion.

It is, farther, from thefe fame harmonies, that
long ridges of mountains, overtopped by lofty
peaks of a pyramidical form, feparated from each
other by deep valleys, delight us by their grace-
fulnefs and majefty. If to thefe you add rivers
meandering below, radiating poplars waving on
their banks, flocks of cattle and fhepherds, you
will have vales fimilar to that of Tempe. The cir-
cular forms of the mountains, in fuch a landfcape,
are placed between their extremes, namely, the
prominency of the rocks, and the cavity of the
valleys. But if you feparate from it the harmonic
expreffions, that is, the circular vvavlngs of thofe
mountains, together with their peaceful inhabi-
tants, and allow the extremes only to remain, and
you will then have the dreary profpeâ: of Cape-
Horn ; angular, perpendicular rocks, hanging over
fluhomlefs abyfîes.

If to thefe you add oppofitions of colour, as
that of fnow on the fummits of the duiky rocks,
the foam of the billows breaking on the lurid
fhore, a pale fun in a glocmy fky, torrents of rain
in the midft of Summer, tremendous fqualls of
wind fucceeded by fullen calms, a European vef-
fel, on her way to fpread defolation over the iilands

of

STUDY X. 307

of the South-Sea*, running upon a rock when it
is beginning to grow dark, firing, from time to
time, guns, the fignal of diftrefs, the noife of
which the echos of thofe horrid deferts reverberate,
the terrified Patagonian running in amazement to
his cave ; and you will have a complete view of
that land of defolation, covered over with the
(hades of death.

Of Movements,

It remains that I fuggeft a iQ\^ refledlions on the
fubjed of motions. Of thefe we fliall, in like
manner, difl;ingui(li five which are fundamental :
felf-motion, or the rotation of a body round ir-
felf, which fuppofes no change of place, and
which is the principle of all motion ; fuch is, per-
haps, that of the Sun J after that, the perpendi-
cular, the circular, the horizontal, and the ftate of

* Would not the efFe£l of this dreadful piélure have been
conflderably ftrengthened, had our Author reprefented his Eu-
ropean veflel as attempting to double Cape-Horn, on her return
from fpreading dévaluation over the South-Seas, and making
Ihipwreck on that dreary coaft, after the fcene of blood was
aded ? In this cafe we flaould have had the rtriking and inftruc-
tive reprefentation of the conneélion between Human Guilt
and Divine Juftice ; of the clafliing coliifion of criminality and
vengeance. H. H.

X 2 reft.

30B STUDIES OF NATURE,

reft. All movements whatever may be referred to
thefe five. Nay, you will remark that Geometri-
cians, who reprefent them likewife by figures,
fuppofe the circular motion to be generated of the
perpendicular and the horizontal, and, to make
ufe of their language, produced by the diagonal
of their fquares.

I fliall not infifl on the analogies of the genera-
tion of colours and forms, to thofe of the genera-
tion of movements ; and which aftually exift, be-
tween the white colour, the ftraight line, and felf-
motion, or rotation ; between the red colour, the
fpherical form, and circular motion ; between
darknefs, vacuity, and left. I ihall not pretend
to unfold the infinite combinations which might
refuk from the union, or oppofition, of the corre-
fponding terms of each generation, and of the fili-
ations of thefe fame terms. I leave to the Reader
the pleafure of following up this idea, and of
forming to himfelf, with thefe elements of Nature,
harmonies the moft enchanting, with the addi-
tional charm of novelty. I fhall confine myfelf,
at prefent, to a few hafty obfervations refpeding
motion.

Of all movements, the harmonic, or circular
motion, is the moft agreeable. Nature has dif-
fufed it over moft of her works, and has rendered

even

STUDY X. 309

even the vegetables, which are faftened down to
the earth, fiifceptible of it. Our plains prefent
frequent images of this, when the winds form, on
the meadow, or on the corn-field, a feries of undu-
lations, refembling the waves of the fea ; or when
they gently agitate, on the fides of the lofty
mountains, the towering tops of the trees, waving
them about in fegments of a circle. Mod birds
form portions of great circles as they play through
the airy expanfe, and feem to take pleafure in
tracing, as they fly, an infinite variety of curves
and fpiral motions. It is remarkable that Nature
has beftowed this agreeable ftyle of flying on
many of the inoffenfive fpecies of the feathered
race, not otherwife to be prized for the exquifite-
nefs of either their fong or their plumage. Such,
among others, is the flight of the fvvallow.

The cafe is very different with refpecl to the
progreffive movements of ferocious or noxious ani-
mals. They advance leaping, fpringing, and join to
movements fometimes extremely flow, others vio-
lently rapid : this is obfervable in the motion of
the cat lying in wait to catch a moufe. Thofe of
the tiger are exaâ:ly fimilar, in his approaches
upon his prey. The fame difcordancy is obferv-
able in the flight of carnivorous birds. The fpe-
cies of owl called the grand-duke floats through
the midfl: of a tranquil flcy, as if the wind carried

X q him

3IO STUDIES OF NATURE,

hini this way and that. Tempefls prefent, in the
Heavens, the fame charafters of deftruftion. You
fometimes perceive the ftormy clouds moving in
oppofite direftions, and with various degrees of
velocity ; now they fly with the rapidity of light-
ning, while others remain immoveable as the rock.
In the tremendous hurricanes of the Weft-Indies,
the explofion is always preceded and followed by
a dead calm.

The more that a body poflefles of felf-motion,
or of rotation, the more agreeable it appears, efpe-
cially when to this movement is united the har-
monic, or circular, motion. It is for this reafon,
that trees whofe leaves are moveable, fuch as the
afpin and poplar, have more grace than other fo-
reft trees, when agitated by the wind. They pleafe
the eye by the balancing of their tops, and by
prefenting, in turns, the two furfaces of their fo-
liage, which difplay two different greens. They
are likewife agreeable to the ear, from their imi-
tation of the bubbling of water. From the effedt
of felf-motion it is, that, every moral idea out of
the queflion, animals intcreft us more than vege-
tables, becaufe they have the principle of motion
within themfelves.

I do not believe there is a fingle fpot on the
Earth in which there is not fome body in motion.

Frequently

STUDY X. 311

Frequently have I been in the midft of vaft foli-
tudes, by day and by night, and in feafons of per-
fedi tranquiUity, and I have always heard fome
noife or another. Often, in truth, it was only the
found of a bird flying, or of an infeâ: ftirring a
leaf i but found always fuppofes motion.

Motion is the expreflion of life. In this you
fee the reafon why Nature has multiplied the
çaufes of it in all her works. One of the great
charms of a landfcape is to fee objects in motion ;
and this is the very thing which the pictures of
moft of our great Matters frequently fail to ex-
prefs. If you except fuch of them as reprefent
tempefts, you will find, every where elfe, their fo-
refts and their meadows motionlefs, and the water
of their lakes congealed. Neverthelefs, the inver-
fion. of the leaves of trees prefenting a gray or
white under-fide ; the undulations of the grafs in
the vallies, and on the ridges of the mountains ;
thofe which ruffle the fmooth furface of the waters,
arid the foam which whitens the Ihores, recal,
with inexpreffible pleafure, in a burning fummer-
fcene, the breath fo gentle and fo cooling of the
zephyrs. To thefe might be added, with infinite
grace, and with powerful effeâ;, the movements pe-
culiar to the animals which inhabit them; for ex-
ample, the concentric circles which the diving-
bird forms on the furface of the water j the flight

X 4 of

312, STUDIES OF NATURE.

of a fea-fowl taking it's departure from a hillock,
with neck advancing, and legs thrown back-
ward J that of two white turdes fkimming fide by
fide, in the fliade, along the fkirts of a forefl: j the
balancing of a wagtail on the extremity of the fo-
liage of a rufli, bending under his weight. It
might be poffible even to reprefent the motion
and the weight of a loaded carriage toiling up a
hill, by expreffing the dufl of the crufhed pebbles
which rifes up behind it's wheels. Nay, I will go
fo far as to fay, that 1 think the efFefts of the fing-
jng of birds, and of the echos, might be rendered
perceptible, by the expreffion of certain charaders
which it is not neceflary here to unfold.

So far are mod of our Painters, even among
thofe whofe talents are mofl confpicuous, from
paying attention to acceflbries fo agreeable, that
they omit them in fubjeds of which thofe accef-
fories form the principal charafter. For example,
if they reprefent a chariot at full fpeed, they take
pains to exhibit every fpoke of the wheels. The
horfes, indeed, are gallopping, but the chariot is
immoveable. The wheels of a carriage, however,
that is running with a rapid motion, prefent but
one fingle furface ; all their fpokes are confounded
to the eye. It was not thus that the Ancients,
our maflers in every branch of Art, imitated Na-
ture. P/iny^4c\h us, that Jpe/ks had fo exadly

painted

STUDY X. 313

painted chariots with four horfes, that the wheels
appeared to be turning round. In the curious
lift which he has tranfmitted to us of the moft ce-
lebrated pictures of antiquity, and ftill viewed
with admiration at Rome, in his time, he particu-
larly mentions one which reprefented women fpin-
ning wool, whofe fpindles feemed ad:ually to whirl.
Another was held in high eftimation *, *' in which
'^ were reprefented two light-armed foldiers, the
** one of whom is fo heated with running in bat-
" tie, that you fee him fweat, and the other, who
" is laying down his arms, appears fo exhaufted,
" that you imagine you hear him panting." I
have feen, in many modern pidures, machines in
motion, wreftlers and warriors in aflion, but in no
one of them did I ever find attention paid to thefe
effeds fo fimple, and fo expreflive of the truth of
Nature. Our painters confider them as petty de-
tails, beneath the notice of a man of genius. Ne-
verchelefs thefe petty details are traits of cha-
radter.

Marcus AureliuSi who pofTeiTed fully as much
genius as any modern whatever, has very judici-
oufly obferved, that, in many cafes, it is on fuch
minutenefles the attention fixes, and from the
contemplation of thefe the mind derives the moft

* /"/.«y's Natural Hiftory. Bookxxxvii. chap. 10 and 11.

pleafure.

314 STUDIES OF NATURE.

pleafure. " The fight of the fhriveUing of ripe
" figs," fays he, ** the bufhy eye-brows of a lion,
" the foaming of an enraged wild-boar, the red-
" difli fcales which rife on the crufl of bread
" coming out of the oven, give pleafure." This
pleafure may be accounted for in various ways :
firfl, from the weaknefs of the human mind,
which, in contemplating any objed whatever,
fixes on fomc one principal point ; and then,
from the defign of Nature, who, likewife, in all
her works, prefents to us one fingle point of con-
formity, or of difcordancy, which is, as it were,
it's centre. The mind increafes it's afFeâ.ion, or
it's averfion, for this charaderiftic trait, the more
fimple that it is, and, in appearance, contemptible.
This is the reafon that, in eloquence, the fhorteft
expre fiions always convey the firongeft paflions ;
for all that is requifite, as we have hitherto feen,
in order to excite a fenfation of pleafure, or of
pain, is to determine a point of harmony, or of
difcord, between two contraries : now, when ihefe
two contraries are oppofites in nature, and are fo,
befides, in magnitude and in weaknefs, their op-
pofition redoubles, and confequently their effeâ:.

The effed is farther heightened, if to this is
joined, efpecially, the furprize of feeing flriking
occafions of hope, or of fear, produced by objefts
of apparently fmajl imrportance ; for every phy-

fical

STUDY X. 315

fical efFeâ: produces, in Man, a moral feeling. For
example, I have feen many pidures, and read
many defcriptions, of battles, which attempted to
infpire horror, by reprefenting an infinite variety
of inftruments of deftrudtion, and a multitude of
dying and dead perfons, wounded in every poffible
manner. The lefs did I feel myfelf moved, the
more I perceived the machinery employed to move
me : one effefb deftroyed the other. But I have
been greatly affedled by reading, in Plut arch y the
death of Cleopatra,

That great Painter of calamity, reprefents the
Queen of Egypt meditating, in the tomb of An-
thony, on the means of eluding the triumph of
Augujlm. A peafant brings her, with permiffion
of the guards on duty at the entrance of the
tomb, a balket of figs. The moment that the
clown has retired, (he haftens to uncover the baf-
ket, and perceives the afpic, which, by her con-
trivance, had been introduced among the figs, to
put a period to her miferable life. This contraft,
a woman being the fubjedl, of liberty and llavery,
of royal power and annihilation, of voluptuoufnefs
and death ; thofe leaves and fruits amidft which
llie perceives only the head and fparkling eyes of
a puny reptile, prepared to terminate interefls of
fuch *^ great pith and moment;" and which flie

thus

3l6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

thus addrcffes, There you are ! all thefe oppofitionSy
one after another, make you fhudder.

But, in order to render the perfon itfelf of Cleo-
-patra interefting, there is no occafion to reprefent
her to yourfelf, as our Painters and Sculptors exhi-
bit her, an academic figure deftitute of expreffion ;
a ftrapping virago, robuft, and replete with health»
with large eyes, turned toward Heaven, and wearing
round her large and brawny arm a ferpent twifted,
like a bracelet. This is by no means a reprefenta-
tion of the little, voluptuous, Queen of Egypt,
who had herfelf carried, as 1 before mentioned,
packed up in a bundle of goods, on the fhoulders
of ApollodoruSj to keep a ftolen afîîgnation with
Julius Cefar ; at another time walking the ftreets
of Alexandria by night, with Anthony, difguifed as
a fempftrefs, rallying him, and infifting that his
jefts, and ftyle of humour, fmelt (Irongly of the
foldier. Still lefs is it a reprefentation of the un-
fortunate Cleopatra, reduced to the extreme of ca--
Jamity, dragging up, by means of cords and
chains, with the affiftance of two of her women,
through the window of the monument in which
fhe had taken refuge, with her head downward,
without ever letting go her hold, fays Plutarch^
that very Anthony, covered over with blood, who
had run himfelf through with his own fword, and

who

STUDY X. 317

who ftruggled with all his remaining ftrength to
get up, and expire in her arms.

Details are by no means to be defpifed ; they
are frequently traits of charader. To return to
our Painters and Sculptors ; if they with-hold the
expreffion of motion to landfcapes, to wreftlers,
and to chariots in the courfe, they bellow it on the
portraits and the ftatues of our great Men and
Philofophers. They reprefent them as Angels
founding the alarm to judgment, with hair flying
about, with wild wandering eyes, the mufcles of
the face in a ftate of convulfion, and their gar-
ments fluttering in the wind. Thefe, they tell us,
are the exprefllons of genius. But perfons of ge-
nius, and great Men, are not bedlamites. I have
feen fome of their portraits, on antiques. The
medals of Firpl, of Plato, of Scipioy of Epaminon-
das, nay, of Alexander, reprefent them with a fe-
rene and tranquil air. It is the property of inani-
mate matter, of vegetables, and of mere animals,
to obey all the movements of Nature; but it is
that of a great Man, in my opinion, to have his
emotions under command, and it is only in fo far
as he exercifes this empire, that he merits the
name of Great.

1 have made a fliort digreflion from my fubjed,
in order to fugged a few leflbns of conformity to

Artifts,

3l8 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Artifls, who, I am well aware, will find it much
more difficult to execute, than it is eafy for me to
criticize. God forbid that any thing I have faid
fhould give a moment's pain to men whofe works
have fo frequently given mc exquifite pleafure. It
was fimply my wifli, to caution the ingenious
againfl the academic manner which fetters them,
and to {limulate them to tread in the fteps of Na-
ture, and to purfue that track as far as genius can
carr}' them.

This would be the place to fpeak of Mufic, for
founds are movements merely : but perfons of
much greater ability than I dare pretend to, have
treated this noble Art with confummate fkill. If
any foreign teftimony could farther confirm me in
the certainty of the principles which I have hitherto
laid down, it is that of Muficians of the higheft
reputation, who have reftrided harmonic expref-
fion to three founds. I might, as they have done,
reduce to three terms the elementary generations
of colours, of forms, and of motions ; but if I am
not miftaken, they themfelves have omitted, in
their fundamental bafis, the generative principle,
which is found properly fo called, and the nega-
tive term, which is (ilence; efpecially as this laft
produces eiTefts fo powerful in the movements of
Mufic.

Thefe

STUDY X. 319

Thefe proportions might be extended to the
progreffions of tafting, and it might be demon-
(Irated, that the moft agreeable of them have fimi-
lar generations ; as we know, by experience, to be
the cafe with regard to moft fruits, whofe different
ftages of maturity fucceflively prefentfive favours,
namely, the acid, the fweet, the fugary, the vi-
nous, and the bitter. They are acid while grow-
ing, fweet as they ripen, fugary in a ftate of per-
feét maturity, vinous in their fermentation, and
bitter in a ftate of drynefs. Farther, we ftiould
find that the moft agreeable of thefe favours,
namely, the fugary, is that which occupies the
middle place in this progrefTion, of which it is the
harmonic term ; that, from it's nature, it forms
new harmonies, by a combination with it's ex-
tremes; for the beverages which are moft grateful
to the palate, confift of acid and fugar, as the re-
frefliing liquors prepared with citron-juice ; or of
fugar and bitter, fuch as coffee. But while I am
endeavouring to open new paths to Philofophy,
it is no part of my intention to- prefent new com-
binations to voluptoufnefs.

Though I have a thorough convidion of the
truth of thefe elementary generations, and am able
to fupport them with a multitude of proofs which
I have colleded, in the taftes of polifiied, and of
fava^e, Nations, but which time permits me not, at

prefent,

320 STUDIES OF NATURE.

prefent, to exhibit ; it would, however, be a mat-
ter of no furprize to me, Ihould many of my
Readers diffent from what I have advanced. Our
natural taftes are perverted from our infancy, by
prejudices which determine our phyfical fenfations,
much more powerfully than thefe lafl give direc-
tion to our moral affedions. More than one
Churchman confiders violet as the moil beautiful
of colours, becaufe his Bifliop wears it : more Bi-
fhops than one give fcarlet the preference, becaufe
it is the Cardinal's colour ; and more than one
Cardinal, undoubtedly, would rather be drefled in
white, becaufe this colour is appropriated to the
Head of the Church. A foldier, frequently,
looks upon the red as the moft beautiful of all
ribbons ; but his fuperior officer prefers the blue.
Our temperaments, as well as our conditions, have
an influence upon our opinions.

Gay people prefer lively colours to every other ;
perfons of fenfibility, thofe which are delicate j
the melancholy afllime the duiky. Though I my-
felf confider red as the moft beautiful of colours,
and the fphere as the moft perfed of forms j and
though I am bound more than any other man,
ftrenuoufly to adhere to this order, becaufe it is that
of my fyftem, I prefer to the full red, the carmine
colour, which has a flight fliade of violet ; and to
the fphere, the oval, or elliptical form. It likewife

appears

STUDY X. 321

appears to me, if I may venture to fay fo, that
Nature has beftowed, by way of preference, both
of thefe modifications on the rofe, at leafl before
it is completely expanded. Farther, I like violet
flowers better than white, and {till much better
than fuch as are yellow. I prefer a branch of li-
lach in bloom to a pot of gilly-flower*, andaChi-
nefe daify, with it's difk of a fmoky yellow, it*s
rumpled fliaggy down, it's violet and grave petals,
to the mod fialhy clufter of fun-flowers in the
Luxemburg.

I am perfuaded that I have thefe taftes in com-
mon with many other perfons, and that, if we
form a judgment of men from the colour of their
clothes, by far the majority is rather ferious than
gay. I am likewife of opinion, that Nature, for
to her we muft ever have recourfe in order to be
afl'ured that we are right, gives mod of her phy-
fical beauties a tendency to melancholy. The
plaintive notes of the nightingale, the deep fliades
of the foreft, the fober luftre of the Moon, infpire

* Dr. yohnfon tells us that Gilly-flo'wer is a corruption in or-
thography for July-fioToer. With clue refpeft to fo great an
Etymologift, this I take to be a miflake. The flowering of the
plant is by no means limited to the month of July. The Englifh
teim is derived from the French word Girofiier^ (the clove-
plant) ; every one knows the ftriking analogy between the fa-
vour of that fpicc, and the fmell of the Gilly-flower. H. H.

VOL, 11. * Y no

322 STUDIES OF NATlTRE.

no gaiety, neverthelefs they interefl us, and thaï

deeply. I feel much more emotion in contem-
plating the fetting than the rifing Sun. In gene-
ral, we are pleafed by gay and fprightly beauties,
but we are melted and touched only by thofc
which are melancholy.

I fhall endeavour, in another place, to unfold
the caufes of thefe moral affedlions. They ftand
in connexion with laws more fublime than any
phyfical laws : while thefe laft amufe our fenfes>
the others fpeak to the heart, and calmly admo-
nifh us, that Man is ordained to a much higher
deftination.

It is very poffible that 1 may be miftaken in the
order of thofe generations, and may have tranf-
pofed their terms. But all that I, from the be-
ginning, propofed, was to open fome new paths
into the Study of Nature. It is fufficient for my
purpofe, that the effeft of thefe generations is ge-
nerally acknowledged. Men more enlightened
will eftablifli the filiations of them in a more lu-
minous order. All that I have hitherto faid on
this fubjedl, or hereafter may fay, is reducible to
this great Law : Every thing in Nature is formed
of contraries : it is from their harmonies that the
fentiment of pleafure refults, and out of their op-
politions iifues the fentiment of pain.

This

STUDY X. 523

"This Law, as we fliall fee, extends alfo to mo-
sals. Every truth, the truths of fad excepted, is
the refuk of two contrar)'- ideas. From this it fol-
lows, that as often as we decompound a truth, by
dialedtics, we divide it into the two ideas of which
it is conftituted; and if we confine ourfelves to
one of it*s elementary ideas, as to a detached prin-
ciple, and deduce confequences from it,' we fliall
convert it into a fource of endlefs difputation -, for
the other elementary idea will abundantly fupply
confequences diametrically oppofite to the perfon
who is difpofed to purfue them; and thefe confe-
quences are themfelves fufceptible of contradidory
decompofitions, which go on without end. The
Schools are admirably adapted to inftrud us how
to manage this procefs ; and thither are we fent to
form our judgment. There are we taught to fe-
parate the moft evident truths not only into two,
but, as Hudibras fays, into four. If, for example,
fome one of our Logicians, obferving that cold
had an influence on vegetation, fliould think pro-
per to maintain, that cold is the only caufe of it,
and that heat is even inimical to it, he would take
care, no doubt, to quote the efflorefcenccs and the
vegetations of ice, the growth, the verdure, and
the flowering of moflfes in Winter ; plants burnt
up by the heat of the Sun, in Summer, and many
other effeCls relative to his thefis. But his antago-
nifl:, availing himfeif, on his fide, of the influences

Y 2 of

324 STUDIES OF NATUI^Ë.

of Spring, and of the ravages of Winter, wouM
clearly demonftrate, that heat alone gives life to'
the vegetable world. But the truth is, after b.U,
that heat and cold combined form one of the prin-
ciples of vegetation, not only in temperate cli-
mates, bul to the very heart of the Torrid Zone.

It may con^fidently be affirmed, that ali the dif-
orders, in both Phyfics and Morals, are neither
more no-r lefs than the clalhing oppofition of two
contraries. If men would pay attention to this
Law, there would be a fpeedy end put to moft of
their wranglings and miflakesj for it may be
urged, that, every thing beirig compofed of con-
traries, whoever affirms a fimple propofition, is only
half right, as the contrary propofition has ec^ually
an exiftence in nature.

There is, perhaps, in the World but one intellec-
ual truth, pure, fimple, and which does not admit
of a contrary idea ; it is the exiftence of GOD. lE
is very remarkable, that thofe who have denied it,
adduce no other proofs to fupport their negation,
but the apparent diforders of Nature, the extreme
principles of which alone they contemplated : fo
that they have not demonftrated, that no God
exifted, but that He was not intelligent, or thac
He was not good. Their error, accordingly, pro-
ceeds from their ignorance of natural kaws. Be-

fides.

STUDY X, 325

lîdes, their arguments have been founded, for the
mod part, on the diforders of men, who exift in
^an order widely different from that of Nature, and
who alone, of all beings endowed with perception,
have been committed to their own diredion.

As to the nature of GOD, I know that faith it-
feif prefents Him to us, as the harmonic principle
by way of fupreme excellence, not only with rela-
tion to all that furrounds Him, of which He is
the Creator and Mover, but even in his eflence
divided into three perfons. BoJJuet has extended
thefe harmonies of Deity to Man, by tracing in
the operations of the human Soul, fome confo-
nancy to the Trinity, of which it is the image.
Thefe lofty fpeculations are, I acknowledge, infi-
nitely above my reach. Nay, I am filled with ad-
miration to think, that the Divinity Ihould have
permitted beings fo weak, and fo tranfitory, as we
are, to take fo much as a glimpfe of his omnipo-
tence on this Earth ; and that he Ihould have
veiled, under combinations of matter, the opera-
tions of his infinite Intelligence, in order to adapt
it to our perception. A fingle aft of his will was
fufiicient to call us into being ; the flightefl com-
munication of his works is fufEcient to illuminate
our reafon ; but I have a thorough perfuafion, that
if the fmallefl ray of his divine efTence were to
communicate itfelf directly to us, in a human
body, we muft be annihilated.

y 3 OF

326 STUDIES OF NATURE,

OF CONSONANCES.

Confonances are repetitions of the fame harmo-
nies. They increafe our pleafures by multiplying
them, and by transferring the enjoyment of them
to new fcenes. They farther communicate plea-
fure, by rendering it perceptible to us, that the
fame Intelligence has prefided over the different
plans of Nature, as it prefents to us, throughout,
fimilar harmonies. Confonances, accordingly, con»
fer more pleafure than fimple harmonies, becaufe
they convey to us the fentimentsof extenfion, and
of Divinity, fo congenial to the nature of the hu-
man Soul. Natural objects excite in us a certain
degree of fatisfadion, only in fo far as they awaken
and difplay an intelledlual feeling.

We find frequent examples of confonances in
Nature. The clouds of the Horizon frequently
imitate, on the Sea, the forms of mountains, and
the afpedls of land, and this fo exadly, as often to
deceive the moft experienced mariners. The waters
refleét from their heaving bofom, the heavens, the
hills, the forefts. The echoing rocks, in their turn,
repeat the murmuring of the waters. As I v/as
walking one day, in the Pais de Caux, along the
fe^-fide, and coi^fidering the reflexes of the Ihore

in

STUDY X. 327

in the bofom of the water, I was not a little afto-
nifhed to hear other waves emitting a dying found
behind me. I turned round, and perceived only
a high and fteep fhore, the echos of which were
repeating the noife of the waves. This double
confonance appeared to me wonderfully agreeable.
You would have faid there was a mountain in the
fêa, and a fea in the mountain.

Thofe tranfpofitions of harmony, from one ele-
ment to another, communicate inexprefTible plea-
fure. Nature has multiplied them, accordingly,
with boundlefs liberality, not only in fugitive
images, but by permanent forms. She has repeat-
ed, in the midft of the Seas, the forms of Conti-
nents, in thofe of Iflands ; mod of which, as we
have feen, have peaks, mountains, lakes, rivers,
and plains, proportioned to their extent, as if they
were little Worlds. On the other hand, (lie repre-
fents in the midft of the Land, the bafons of the
yaft Ocean, in mediterraneans, and in great lakes,
which hav« their fliores, their rocks, their ifles,
their volcanos, their currents, and, fometimes, a
iiux and reflux peculiar to themfelves, and which
is occafioned by the effufions from icy mountains,
at the bafis of which they are commonly fituated,
as the currents and tides of the Ocean are, by
thofe of the Poles.

Y 4 It

32S STUDIES OF NATURE.

It is fingularly remarkable, that the moft beauti-
ful harmonies are thofe which have the moft con-
fonances. Nothing in the World, for example,
is more beautiful than the Sun, and nothing in
nature is fo frequently repeated as his form, and
his light. He is refleded in a thoufand different
manners by the refradions of the air, which every
day exhibit him above all the horizons of the
Globe, before he is adlually rifen, and for fome
time after he has fet ; by the parhelia which refleft
his difk, fometimes twice or thrice, in the mifty
clouds of the North ; by the rainy clouds, in
which his refradted rays trace an arch fhaded with
a thoufand various colours j and by the waters,
whofe reflexes exhibit him in an infinite number
of places where he is not, in the bofom of mea-
dows, amidft flowers befprinkled with dew, and in
the fliade of green forefts. The dull and inert
earth, too, reflefts him in the fpecular particles of
gravels, of micas, of cryftals, and of rocks. It
prefents to us the form of his dilk, and of his rays,
in the difks and petals of the myriads of radiated
flowers with which it is covered. In a word, this
beautiful fl:ar has multiplied himfelf to infinity,
with varieties of which we know nothing, in the
innumerable fl:ars of the firmament, which he dif-
covers to us, as foon as he quits our Horizon ;
as if he had withdrawn himfelf from the confo-

nances

STUDY X. 329

nances of the earth, only to difplay to the delight-
ed eye thofe of Heaven.

From this Law of confonance it follows, that
what is beft and moft beautiful in Nature, is like-
wife mod common, and the mofb frequently re-
peated. To it we muft afcribe the varieties of
fpecies in each genus, which are fo much the more
numerous, in proportion as that genus is ufeful.
For example, there is no family in the vegetable
kingdom fo neceffary as that of the gramineous,
on which fubfift not only all the quadrupeds, but
endlefs tribes of birds and infedts ; and there is
no one, accordingly, whofe fpecies are fo varied.
We fhall take notice, in the Study on Plants, of
the reafons of this variety. I (hall only remark, in
this place, that it is in the gramineous families
Man has found the great diverfity of nutritious
grains, from which he derives his chief fubfiftence;
and that from reafons of confonance, not only the
fpecies, but feveral of the genera, nearly approach
to each other, in order that they may prefent fimi-
]ar fervices to Man, under Latitudes entirely dif-
ferent. Thus, the millet of Africa, the maize of
Brafil, the rice of Afia, the palm-fago of the Mo-
luccas, the trunks of which are filled with alimen-
tary flower, are in confonance with the corns of
Europe. We fhall find confonances of another
kind in the fame places, as if it had been the in-
tention

330 STUDIES OF NATURE.

tention of Nature to multiply her benefits, by va-
rying only the form of them, without changing
almoft any thing of their qualities. Thus, in our
gardens, what a delightful and beneficial confo-
nancy between the orange and citron trees, the
apple and the pear, the walnut and the filbert ;
and in our farm-yards, between the horfe and the
afs, the goofe and the duck, the cow and the flie-
goat.

Farther, each genus is in confonancy with it-
felf, from difference of fex. There are, however,
between the (exes, contrails which give the greatefl
energy to their loves, from the very oppofition of
Contraries, from which, as we have feen, all har-
mony takes it's birth : but without the general
confonancy of form which is between them, (en-
fible beings of the fame genus never would have
approached each other. Without this, one fex
would have for ever remained a ftranger to the
other. Before each of them could have obferved
what the other pofTefled that correfponded to it's
neceffities, the time of reflexion would have ab-
forbed that of love, and, perhaps, have extin-
guilhed all defire of it. It is confonancy which
-attrads, and contrail which unites them. I do not
believe that there is in any one genlis, an animal
of one fex entirely different from one of the other,
in exterior forms; and if fuçh differences are ac-
tually

STUDY X. 33 1

tually found, as certain Naturalifls pretend, in fe-
veral fpecies of filhes and infeds, I am fully per-
fuaded, that Nature placed the habitation of the
male and of the female very clofe to each other,
and planted their nuptial couch at no great dif-
tance from their cradle.

But there is a confonancy of forms, much more
intimate ftill than even that of the two fexes, I
mean the duplicity of the organs which exifts in
each individual. Every animal is double. If you
confider his two eyes, his two noflrils, his two ears,
the number of his legs and arms difpofed by pairs,
you would be tempted to fay, here are two animals
glued the one to the other, and united under the
(àme fkin. Nay, the parts of his body which are
fingle, as the head, the tail, and the tongue, ap-
pear to be formed of two halves, compaded toge-
ther by feams. This is not the calê with regard
to the members properly fo called : for example,
one hand, one ear, one eye, cannot be divided into
two fimilar halves ; but the duplicity of form in
the parts of the body, diftinguifhes them elfentially
from the members : for the part of the body is
double, and the member is fingle : the former is
always fingle and alone, and the latter always re-
peated. Thus, the head, and the tail, of an ani-
mal are parts of it's body, and the legs and ears of
it arc members.

This

332 STUDIES OF NATUilE.

This Law of Nature, one of the moft wonder-
ful, and one of the lead obferved, deftroys, at one
blow, all the hypothefes which introduce chance
into the organization of beings ; for, indepen-
tUntly of the harmonies which it prefents, it
doubles at once the proofs, of a Providence, which
did not deem it fufficient to give one principal
organ to each animal, adapted to each element in
particular, fiich as the eye, for the light of the
Sun ; the ear, for the founds of the air j the foot,
for the ground which is to fupport it : but deter-
mined, befides, that every animal fhould Iiave each
of thofe organs by pairs.

Certain Sages have confidered this admirable
duplication as a pre-difpofition of Providence, in
order that the animal might have a fubftitute always
at hand, to fupply the lofs of one of the double
organs, expofed as they are to fo many accidents;
but it is remarkable, that the interior parts of the
body, which, at firft light, appear to be fingle,
prefent, on clofer examination, a fimilar duplicity
of forms, even in the human body, where they
are more confounded than in other animals. Thus
the five lobes of the lungs, one of which has a kind
of diviiion ; the fiflure of the liver ; the fupernal
feparation of the brain, by the reduplication of
the dura-mater ; the Jeptim hicidum, fimilar to a
leaf of talc, which feparates the two anterior yea-

tricles

STUDY X. 333

Sriclcs of it ; the two ventricles of the heart ; and
the divifions of the other vijcera announce this
double union, and feem to indicate, that the 'very
principle of ii/e, is the confonance of two fimilar har-
monies *.

There farther refults from this duplicity of or-
gans, a much more extenfive range of utility than
if they had been fingle. Man, by the affiftance of

* Each organ is itfelf in oppofition with the element for
which it is deftined ; fo that from their mutual oppofition arifes
a harmony which conftitutes the pleafure enjoyed by that organ.
This is very remarkable, and confirms the principles which we
have laid down. Thus, the organ of vifion, adapted princi-
pally to the Sun, is a body fingularly oppofite to him, in that it
is almoft entirely aqueous. The Sun emits luminous rays j the
eye, oil the contraiy, is furrounded by a d jfky eye-brow which
overfhadows it. The eye is, befides, veiled with a lid which
can be raifed and dropped at pleafure ; and it farther oppofts
to £he whitenefs of the light, a tunic entirely black, called the
wwa^ which clothes the exti cmity of the optic nerve.

The other parts of the body prefent, in like manner, oppofitions
to the aétion of the elements to which they are adapted. Accord-
ingly, the feet of animals which fcrambleamong rocks are provided
with pincers, as thofe of tygers and lions. Animals which inha-
bit cold countries, are clothed with warm furs, and fo on. But,
with all this, we mull not always reckon on finding thefe con-
Éraries of the fame fpecies in every animal. Nature pofiefTes au
infinite variety of means, for producing the fame etfe(îls, con-
fofflpably to the neceflities of every individual. ,

two

334 STUDIES OF NATURE.

two eyes, can take in, at once, more than half of
the Horizon ; with a lingle one, he could fcarcely
have embraced a third part. Provided with two
arms, he can perform an infinite number of ac-
tions which he never could have accompliflied with
one only ; fuch as raifing upon his head a load of
confiderable fize and weight, and clambering up a
tree. Had he been placed upon one leg, not only
would his pofition be much more unfteady than
upon two, but he would be unable to walk ; his
progreflive motion would be reduced to crawling,
or hopping. This method of advancing would
be entirely difcordant to the conflitution of the
other parts of his body, and to the variety of foils
over which he is deftined to move.

If Nature has given 3, fingle exterior organ to
animals, fuch as the tail, it is becaufe the ufe of
it, being extremely limited, extends but to a fingle
aélion to which it is fully equivalent. Befides, the
tail, from it's fituation, is fecured againfl almoft
every danger. Farther, hardly any but the very
powerful animals have a long tail, as bulls, horfes,
and lions. Rabbits and hares have it very fhorr.
In feeble animals, which have one of confiderable
length, as the thornback, it is armed with prickles,
or elfe it grows again, if it happens to be torn off
by an accident, as in the cafe of the lizard. Fi-
nally,

STUDY X.

\SB

nally, whatever may be the fimplicity of it's ufe,
this is remarkable, it is formed of two fimilar
halves, as the other pans of the body.

There are other interior confonances, which
colleâ: diagonally, if I may ufe the expreffion, the
different organs of the body, in order to form but
one only and fingle animal of it's two halves. I
leave to Anatomifls the inveftigation of this in-
comprehenfible connedion : but, be their know-
ledge ever fo extenfive, I much doubt whether
they will ever be able to trace the windings of this
labyrinth. Why, for inftance, (hould the pain
which attacks a foot, make itfelf felt, fometimes,
in the oppofite part of the head^ and vice versa F
I have feen a very aftonilhing proof of this confo-
nance in the cafe of a ferjeant, who is ftill living,
I believe, in the Hofpital of Invalids. This man
having a fencing bout one day with a comrade,
who, as well as himfelf, made ufe of his undrawn
fword, received à thruft in the lacrymal angle of
the left eye, which immediately deprived him of
his fenfes. On coming to himfelf, which did not
happen till feveral hours afterward, he was found
to be completely paralytic in his right leg and
right arm, and no medical affiftance has ever been
able to reflore the ufe of them *.

* This foldier was of Franche-Comté. I never faw him but
once> and I have forgotten his name, as well as that of the regi-
ment

2^6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

I muft here obferve, that the cruel experiments
every day made on brutes, in the vievv of difco-
vcring thefe fecret correfpondencies of Nature,
ferve only to fpread a thicker veil over them ; for
their mufcles, contraded by terror and pain, de-
range the courfe of the animal fpirits, accelerate
the velocity of the blood, put the nerves into a
ftate of convulfion, and tend much rather to un-
hinge the animal economy, than to unfold it.
Thefe barbarous means, employed by our modern
Phyfics, have an influence flill more fatal on the
morals of thofe who pradife them ; for, together
with falfe information, they infpire them with the
mofl atrocious of all vices, which is cruelty.

If Man may prefume to put queflions to Na-
ture refpecling the operations which flie is pleafed
to conceal, I fliould prefer the road of pleafure to

ment to which he belonged ; but I have not loft the recolle(5lion
of his virtuous conduft, which was reported to me on undoubt-
ed authority. When the accident above related fent him to the
Invalids, he remembered that, in his capacity of ferjeant, he
had inveigled, at the inftigation of his captain, in a country
village, a young fellow to enlift, who was the only fon of a poor
widow, and who was killed three months afterward in an en-
gagement. The ferjeant recolleéling this a£V of cruelty and in-
juftice, formed the refolution of abftaining from wine. He fold
his allowance as a penfioner in the Hofpital of the Invalids, and
remitted the amount every fix months tp the mother whom he
had robbed of her fon

that

STUDY X. 337

that of pain. Of the propriety of this fentiment,
I was witnefs to an inftance, at a country- feat
in Normandy. Walking in one of the adjoining
fields, with a young gentleman, who was the pro
prietor of them ; we perceived bulls a-fighting.
He ran up to them, with his flaff brand ilhed, and
the poor animals inftantly gave up their conten-
tion. He prefently went up to the moft ferocious
of the tribe, and began to tickle him, with his fin-
gers, at the root of the tail. The animal, whofe
eyes were flill inflamed with rage, became motion-
lefs, with outftretched neck, expanded noftrils,
tranfpiring the air with a fatisfadtion which moft
amufingly demonftrated the intimate correfpon-
dence between this extremity of his body and his
head.

The duplicity of organs is farther obfervable,
even in vegetables, efpecially in their eflential
parts, fuch as the anther a of the flowers, which are
double bodies ; in their petals, one half of which
correfponds exadly to the other ; in the lobes of
their feed, &c. A fingle one of thefe parts, how-
ever, appears to me fufficient, for the expanfion
and the generation of the plant. This obferva-
tion might be extended to the very leaves, the
two halves of which are correfpondent in mod ve-
getables ; and if any one of them recedes from this

VOL. II. z order.

^^S STUDIES OF NATURE.

order, it is, undoubtedly, for Tome particular rea*
fbn, well worthy of inveiligation.

Thefe fads confirm the diftindion which we
have made between the parts and the members of
a body ; for in the leaves where this duplicity oc-
curs, the vegetative faculty is ufually to be found,
which is diffufed over the body of the vegetable
itfelf. So that if you carefully replant thofe leaves,
and at the proper feafon, you will fee the complete
vegetable thence re-produced. Perhaps, it is be-
caufe the interior organs of the tree are double,
that the principle of vegetative life is diffufed even
over it's flips, as we fee it in a great number which
fprout again from one branch. Nay, there are
fome which have the power of perpetuating them-
felvcs by cuttings fimply. Of this we have a noted
inflance in the memoirs of the Academy of Sci-
ences. Two fiflers, on the death of their mother,
became heireflcs of an orange-tree. Each of them
infided on having it throv/n into her allotment.
At length, after much wrangling, and neither be-
ing difpofed to refign her claim, it was fettled that
the tree fliould be cleft in two, and each take her
half. The orange -tree, accordingly, underwent
the judgment pronounced by Solomon on the child.
It was cleft afunder ; each of the fiflers replanted
her own half, and, wonderful to be told ! the tree,

which,

STUDY X. 339

which had been feparated by fifterly animofity,
received a new clothing of bark from the benig-
nant hand of Nature.

It is this univerfal confonance of forms which
has fuggefted to Man the idea of fymmetry. He
has introduced it into moft of his works of art,
and particularly into Architefture, as an effential
part of order. To fuch a degree, in fad, is it the
work of intelligence and of combination, that I
confider it as the principal charadler by which we
are enabled to diftinguifli all organized bodies
from fuch as are not fo, and are only refults of a
fortuitous aggregation, however regular their af-
femblage may appear ; fuch as thofe which pro-
duce cryftallizations, efflorefcences, chemical ve-
getations, and igneous effufions.

It was in conformity to thefe refleflions that,
on conlidering the Globe of the Earth, I obferved,
with the greateft furprize, that it too prefented,
like every organized body, a duplicity of form.
From the beginning it had been my thought, that
this Globe being the produdion of an Intelligence,
order muft of neceflity pervade it. I had dif-
cerned, and admired, the utility of iHands, and
even of that of banks, of flielves, and of rocks, to
proted: the parts of the Continents which are moft
expofed to the Currents of the Ocean, at the ex-

z 2 tremities

340 STUDIES OF NATURE,

tremities of which they are always fituated. Î
had, in like manner, difcerned the utility of bays,
which are, on the contrary, removed from the
Currents of the Ocean, and hollowed into deep
retreats to (helter the difcharge of rivers, and to
ferve, by the tranquillity of their waters, as an:
afylum to the fiflies, which in all feas retire thither
in (hoals, to colleft the fpoils of vegetation, and
the alluvions of the Land, which are there dif-
gorged by the rivers. I had admired, in de-
tail, the proportions of their different fabrics, but
had formed no conception of their combination.
My mind was bewildered amidft fuch a multipli-
city of cuttings and carvings, of land and fea>
and I fhould, without hefitation, have afciibed
the whole to chance, had not the order, which I
perceived in each of the parts, fuggefted to me the
poffibility, that there might exift order alfo, in the
totality of the Work.

I am now going to difplay the Globe under a
new afped. The Reader will, I hope, forgive
this digreffion, which exhibits to him one little
fragment of the materials I had laid up, for a geo-
graphical ftrudure, but which tends to prove the
univerfality of the natural Laws, whofe exiftence I
am endeavouring to eftablini. 1 (hall be, as ufual,
rapid and fuperficial : but it is a matter of very
inferior importance to myfelf, fhould I enfeeble

ideas.

STUDY X. 341

ideas, which 1 have not been permitted to arrange
in their natural order, provided I am enabled to
tranfmit the germ of them into a head fuperior to
my ov/n.

I firft endeavoured to find out confonances be-
tween the northern and Tout hern halves of the
Globe. But Co far from difcovering refemblances
between them, I perceived nothing but oppofi-
tions ; the northern being, if I may fo exprefs my-
felf, a terreftrial Hemifphere only, and the fouthein
a maritime ; and fo different from each other, that
the Winter of the one is the Summer of the other ;
and that the feas of the firft Hemifphere feem to
be oppofed to the lands, and to the iflands, which
are fcattered over the fécond. This contraft pre-
sented to me another analogy with an organized
body : for, as we fhall fee in the following ar-
ticles, every organized body has two halves in
contraft, as there are two in confonance.

I found in it then, under this new afpeft, fome-
thing like an analogy with an animal, the head of
which (hould have been to the North, from the
attraction of the magnet, peculiar to our Pole,
which feems there to fix 3./enJorium, as in the head
of an animal : the heart under the Line, from the
conftant heat which prevails in the Torrid Zone,
and which feems to determine this as the region of

z 3 the

342. STUDIES OF NATURE.

the heart; finally, the excretory organs in the
fouthern part, in which the greateft Seas, the vafl
receptacles of the alluvions of Continents, are fitu-
ated; and where wc, likewife, find the greatefb
number of volcanos, which may be confidered as
the excretory organs of the Seas, whofe bitumens
and fulphurs they are inceffantly confuming. Be-
fides, the Sun, who fojourns five or fix days lon-
ger in the Northern Hemifphere, feemed to pre-
fent to me a farther, and a more marked, refem-
blance to the body of an animal, in which the
heart, the centre of heat, is fomewhat nearer to
the head, than to the lower extremities.

Though thefe contrafis appeared to me fuffi-
ciently determinate to manifeft an order on the
Globe, and though I perceived fomething fimilar
in vegetables, diftinguiflied as they are into two
parts, oppofite in functions and in forms, fuch aa
the leaves and the roots ; I was afraid of giving
fcope to my imagination, and of attempting to ge-
neralize, through the weaknefs of the human
mind, the Laws of Nature peculiar to each exift-
cnce, by extending them to kingdoms, which were
not fufceptible of the application.

But 1 ceafed to doubt of the general order of
the Globe, when, with two halves in contraft, 1
found two others in confonance. I was flruck

with

STUDY X. 343

with aftonifliment, I mufl confefs, when I obferved,
in the duplicity of forms which conflitute it, mem-
bers exadly repeated on that fide and on this.

Tlie Globe, if we confider it from Eafl to Weft,
is divided, as all organized bodies are, into two fmii-
lar halves, which are the Old and the New World.
Each of their parts mutually correfponds in the eaf-
tern and weftern Hemifpheres ; fea to fea, ifland to
ifland, cape to cape, peninfula to peninfula. The
lakes of Finland, and the gulf of Archangel, corre-
fpond to the lakes of Canada and Baffin's-bay ^ Nova
Zembla to Greenland ; the Baltic to Hudfon's-bay ;
the Ifland s of Great-Britain and Ireland, which cover
the firft of thefe mediterraneans, to the Iflands of
Good-Fortune and Welcome, which proteâ: the fé-
cond; the Mediterranean, properly fo called, to the
gulf of Mexico, which is a kind of mediterranean,
formed, in part, by iflands. At the extremity of
the Mediterranean, we find the ifthmus of Suez
in confonance with the ifthmus of Panama, placed
at the bottom of the gulf of Mexico. Conjoined
by thofe ifthmufes, the peninfula of Africa prefents
itfelf in the Old World, and the peninfula of
South- America in the New. The principal rivers
of thefe divifions of the Globe front each other in
like manner; for the Senegal difcharges itfelf into
the Atlantic, diredly oppofite to the river of the
Amazons» Finally, each of thefe peninfulas, ad-

z 4 vancing

344 STUDIES OF NATURE.

vancing toward the South Pole, terminates in a
cape equally noted for violent tempefts, the Cape
of Good-Hope, and Cape-Horn.

There are, befides, between thefe two Hemi-
fpheres, a variety of other points of confonance,
on which I fliall no longer infift. Thefe different
particulars, it is admitted, do not correfpond in ex-
aftly the fame Latitudes : but they are difpofed in
the diredion of a fpiral line winding from Eafl to
Weft, and extending from North to South, fo
that thefe correfponding points proceed in a regu-
lar progrefTion. They are nearly of the fame
height, fetting out from the North, as the Baltic
and Hudfon's-bay ; and they lengthen in America,
in proportion as it advances toward the South.
This progrefTion makes itfelf farther perceptible
along the whole length- of the Old Continent, as
may be feen from the form of it's Capes, which,
taking the point of departure from the Eaft,
lengthen fo much the more toward the South, as
they advance toward the Weft ; fuch as the Cape
of Kamchatka, in Afia ; Cape Comorin, in Ara-
bia; the Cape of Good-Hope, in Africa; and,
finally, Cape-Horn, in America.

Thefe differences of proportion are to be ac-
counted for from this, that the two terreftrial He-
mifpheres are not projected in thc fame manner;

for

STUDY X. 34^

for the Old Continent has it's greatefl breadth
from Eaft to Weft, and the New has it*s greater
extent from North to South ; and it is manifefl:,
that this difference of projection has been regu-
lated by the Author of Nature, for the fame rea-
fons which induced Him to beftow double parts
on animals and on vegetables, in order that, if
neceffity required, the one might fupply what was
deficient in the other, but principally that they
might be of mutual affiftance.

If, for example, there exifted only the Ancient
Continent, with the South-Sea alone, the motion
of that Sea being too much accelerated, under the
Line, by the regular winds from the Eaft, would,
after having furrounded the Torrid Zone, advance
with incredible fury, and attack tremendoufly the
Land of Japan : for the fize of the billows of a
Sea, is always in proportion to it's extent. But
from the difpofition of the two Continents, the
billows of the great eaftern Current of the Indian
Ocean, arc partly retarded by the archipelagos of
the Moluccas and Philippine Iflands; they are
ftill farther broken by other illands, fuch as the
Maldivia, by the Capes of Arabia, and by that of
Good-Hope, which throws them back toward the
iSouth. Before they reach Cape-Horn, they have
to encounter new obftacles, from the Current of
the South Pole, which then croiTes their courfe,

and

34^ STUDIES OF NATURE.

and the change of the monfoon, which totally de-
stroys the caufe of the commotion at the end of
fix months. Thus, there is not a fingle Current,
be it «aflerly or northerly, which pervades fo much
as a quarter of the Globe, in the fame diredion.
Befides, the divifion of the parts of the Globe into
two, is fo necefTary to it's general harmony, that
if the channel of the Atlantic Ocean, which fepa-
rates them, had no exiftence, or were in part filled
up, according to a fuppolition once entertained, by
the great ifland Atlantis *, all the oriental rivers
of America, and all the occidental of Europe
would be dried up ; for thofe rivers owe their fup-
plies only to the clouds which emanate from the
Sea. Befides, the Sun enlightening, on our fide,
only one terreftrial Hemifphere, the mediterra-
neans of which would difappear, muft burn it up
with his rays; and at the fame time, as he warmed,
on the other fide, a Hemifphere of water only,
moil of the illands of which would fink of courfe,
becaufe the quantity of that Sea muft be increafed
by the fubtradtion of ours, an immenfity of va-
pour would arife, and go merely to wafte.

It would appear that, from thefe confiderations.
Nature has not placed in the Torrid Zone the

* A fabulous ifland imagined by Plato, as has been demon^
ftrated by many learned men, allegorically to reprefent the
Athenian Government.

greatefl

STUDY X. 347

greateft length of the Continents, but only the
mean breadth of America and of Africa, becaufe
the îîftion of the Sun would there have been too
vehement. She has placed there, on the con-
trary, the longeft diameter of the South-Sea, and
the greateft breadth of the Atlantic Ocean, and
there Ihe has collecled the greateft quantity of
illands in exiftence. Farther, (lie has placed in
the breadth of the Continents, which flie has there
lengthened out, the greateft bodies of running
water that are in the World, all iffuing from
mountains of ice ; fuch as the Senegal and the
Nile, which iffue from the mountains of the
Moon in Africa ; the Amazon and the Oroonoko,
which have their fources in the Cordeliers of
America.

Again, it is for this reafon that Ihe has multi-
plied, in the Torrid Zone, and in it's vicinity,
lofty chains of mountains covered with fnow, and
that file directs thither the winds of the North
Pole and of the South Pole, of which the Trade-
winds always partake. And it is very remarkable,
that feveral of the great rivers which flow there,
are not fituated precifely under the Line, but in
regions of the Torrid Zone, which are hotter than
the Line itfelf. Thus, the Senegal rolls it's ftream
in the vicinity of Zara, or the Defert, which, if

wc

348 STUDIES OF NATURE.

we may credit the concurring teftimony of all
travellers, is the hotteft part of Africa.

From all this taken together, we have a glimpfe
of the necefllty of two Continents, to ferve mutu-
ally as a check to the movements of the Ocean,
It is impoflibleto conceive how Nature could have
difpofed them otherwife, than by extending one
of them lengthways, and the other in breadth, in
order that the oppofed Currents of their Ocean
might balance each other, and that there might
thence refult a harmony, adapted to their fliores,
and to the iflands contained in their bafons.

Were we to fuppofe thefe two Continents pro-
jefted circularly, from Eafl to Weft, under the
two temperate Zones, the circulation of the Sea
contained between the two, would be, as we have
feen, too violently accelerated by the conftant ac-
tion of the Eaft-wind. There could be no longer
any communication by Sea, from the Line toward
the Poles ; confeqiiently, no icy effufions in that
Ocean, no tides, no cooling, and no renovation,
of it's waters. If we fuppofe, on the contrary,
both Continents extended from North to South,
as America is, there would be no longer any ori-
ental Current in the Ocean ; the two halves of
each Sea would meet in the midft of their channel,

and

STUDY X. 349

and their polar effufions would there encounter
each other with an impetuofity of commotion, of
which the icy efFufions precipitated from the Alps,
with all the dreadful ravages which they commit,
convey but a faint idea. But by the alternate and
oppofite Currents of the Seas, the icy efFufions of
our Pole proceed, in Summer, to cool Africa,
Brafil, and the fouthern parts of Afia, forcing it's
way beyond the Cape of Good-Hope, by the
Monfoon which then carries the Current of the
Ocean toward the Eaft; and, during our Winter,
the effufions of the South-Pole proceed toward the
Weft, to moderate, on the fame fliores, the aélion
of the Sun, which is there unremitting. By means
of thefe two fpiral motions of the Seas, fimilar to
thofe of the Sun in the Heavens, there is not a
Cngle drop of water but what may make the tour
of the Globe, by evaporation under the Line, dif-
folution into rain in the Continent, and congelation
under the Pole. Thefe univerfal correfpondencies
are fo much the more worthy of being remarked,
that they enter into all the plans of Nature, and
prefent themfelves in the reft of her Works.

From any other imaginable order would refuk
other inconveniencies, which I leave the Reader to
find out. Hypothefes ab abjiirdoy are at once
amufmg and ufeful ; they change, it is true, na-
tural proportions into caricatures ; but they have

this

350 STUDIES OF KATURE,

this advantage, that, by convincing us of the weak-
nefs of our own underflanding, they imprefs us
with a deep fenfe of the wifdom of Nature. Let
us recoiled the Socratic method of ratiocination.
Do not let us wafte our time in overturning fyf-
tems which prefent to us plans different from ihofe
we fee. Let us only deduce confequences from
them : to admit them is complete refutation.

I could farther demonftrate, that mod iilands
themfelves conlifl: of double parts, as the Conti-
nents, of which, as I have elfewhere faid, they are
abridgments, from their peaks, their mountains,
their lakes, and their rivers, proportioned to their
extent. Many of thofe which are fituated in the
Indian Ocean, have, if I may fo exprefs myfelf,
two Hemifpheres, the one oriental, the other occi-
dental, divided by mountains which go from North
to South, fo that when it is Winter on one fide.
Summer reigns on the other, and reciprocally j
fuch are the iflands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and
mofl of the Philippines and Moluccas; fo that
they are evidently conflrufted for the two Mon-
foons of the Ocean in which they ar£ placed.

Did time permit, the varieties of their conftruc-
tion, would furnifh me with many curious re-
marks, tending to confirm, in particular, what I
have faid, in general, refpeclingthe confonancies of

the

STUDY X. 3^1

the Globe. For my own part, I believe thefe prin-
ciples of order to be fo certain, that I am per-
fuaded it might be poffible, on feeing the plan of
an ifland, with the elevation and the diredion of
it's mountains, to afcertain it's longitude, it's la-
titude, and what are the winds which mofl regu-
larly blow there. Nay, I farther believe, that with
thefe laft given, we might, vice verjâ^ trace the
plan and fliape of an ifland, fitiiated in whatever
part of the Ocean. From this, however, I except
fluvialic iflands, and fuch as, being too fmall of
themfelves, are colleéted into archipelagos, as the
Maldivias j becaufe fuch iflands have not the centre
of all their adaptations in themfelves, but are fub-
ordinated to the adjoining rivers, archipelagos, and
continents.

It is indubitably certain that I advance no para-
dox, when I compare, between the Tropics, the
general form of the iflands which are expofed to
the two Monfoons, and that of the iflands which
are under the regular Eaft wind. We have juft
obferved, that Nature had given, in a certain fenfe,
two Hemifpheres to the firft, in dividing them
through the middle by a chain of mountains run-
ning North and South, in order that they might
receive the alternate influences of the Eaft and
Weft winds, which blow there, by turns, fix

months

352- STUDIES OF NATURE.

months of the year ; but in the iilands fituated in
the South-Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, where the
Eaft-wind blows inceflantly from the fame quar-
ter, fhe has placed the mountains at the extremity
of the Land, in the part mofl remote from the
wind, that the brooks and rivers formed from the
clouds, which are accumulated by that wind on
their peaks, may flow through the whole extent of
thefe ifles.

I am fenfible that I have elfewhere related thefe
laft obfervations, but I here prefent them in a new
light. Befides, (hould I fometimes fall into repe-
tition, there can be no great harm in repeating new
truths, and fome indulgence is due to the weak-
nefs of him who announces them.

OF PROGRESSION.

Progreflion is a feries of confonances, afcending
or defcending. Wherever we meet progreflion,
it produces exquifite pleafure, becaufe it excites
in our foul the fentiment of infinity, fo conform-
able to our nature, I have already faid, and it
cannot be repeated too frequently : Phyfical fen-
fations delight us only in fo far as they awaken an
intelledual fentiment»

When

STUDY X. 353

When the leaves of a vegetable are arranged
round it's branches, in the fame order that the
branches themfelves are round the flem, there is
confonancy, as in pines ; but if the branches of
that vegetable are farther difpofed among them-
felves, on limilar plans, which go on diminifhing
in magnitude, as in the pyramidical form of firs,
there is progreffion ; and if thefe trees are them-
felves difpofed in long avenues, decreafing in
height and in colouring, like their particular
mafs, our pleafure is heightened, becaufe the pro-
greffion becomes infinite.

From this inftinft of infinity it is that we take
pleafure in viewing every objeâ; which prefents us
with a progreffion ; as nurfery- grounds, containing
plants of different ages, hills flying off to the Ho-
rizon in fucceffive elevations, perfpedtives without
a termination.

Montefquieu has, neverthelefs, remarked that, if
the road from Peterfburg to Mofcow is in a
flraight line, the traveller mufb die upon it with
languor. I have performed that journey, and can
confidently affirm, from perfonal knowledge, that
the road is very far from being in a firaight line.
But admitting it to be fo, the languor of the tra-
veller would arife from the very fentiment of infi-
nity, joined to the idea of fatigue. It is this fame

VOL. II. A a fentiment.

354 STUDIES OF NATURE.

fentiment, fo delicious when it blends with our
pleafures, which overwhelms us with anguifli un-
utterable when connefted with calamity ; as we
but too frequently experience. Hov/ever, I believe
that we (hould fmk, at length, under the weight
of an unbounded perfpedive, from it's prefenting
infinity to us, always in the fame manner ; for our
foul has not only the inftind: of it, but likewife
that of univerfality, that is, of every poffible mo-
dification of infinity.

Nature has not formed, after our limited man-
ner, perfpedives with one or two confonances;
but flie compofes them of a multitude of différent
progreffions, by introducing that of plans, magni-
tudes, forms, colours, movements, ages, kinds,
groups, feafons, latitudes; and by combining with
thefe an infinity of confonances, deduced from re-
flexes of light, of waters, of founds.

Let me fuppofe that fiie had been limited to
the plantation of an avenue from Paris to Madrid,
with one fingle genus of trees, fay the fig ; I do
not apprehend I fliould tire on performing that
journey. I fliould fee upon it one fpecies of the
fig-tree bearing the fruit called by the Latins
mamillana *, becaufe it had a refemblance to a

* See PUti/s Natural Hiftory, book xv. chap. i8.

woman's

STUDY X. 355

woman's bread, in Latin mamilla : another fpecies,
with figs quite red, and not bigger than an olive,
fuch as thofe of Mount Ida; another with white
fruit; with black; of the colour of porphyry,
and thence called, by the Ancients, porphyrita. In
the courfe of this track would likewife occur the
fig-tree of Hyrcania, loaded with more than two
hundred bufhels of fruit; the ruminai fig-tree, the
fpecies under the fhade of which Romulus and Re-
mus were fuckled by a (he-wolf; the fig-tree of
Hercules ; in a word, the nineteen fpecies enume-
rated by Pliny, and a great variety of others, un-
known to the Romans and to us. Each of thefe
fpecies of trees would exhibit vegetables of various
magnitude; young, old, folitary, in clufters ; fome
planted by the brink of rivulets, fome iffuing
from the clefts of rocks. Each tree would pre-
fent the fame variety in it's fruits expofed, on
one fingle foot, if I may ufe the expreffion, to
different Latitudes, to the South, to the North,
to the Eaft, to the Weft, to the Sun, and under
fliade of the leaves : fome of them would be green,
and juft beginning to fhoot, others violet, and
cracked, their crevices ftored with honey. On
the other hand, we fhould find fome, under diffe-
rent Latitudes, in the fame degree of maturity, as
if they hung upon the fame tree^ thofe which grow
to the North being, in the bottom of valleys,
fometimes as forward as thofe which, though

A a 2 much

356 STUDIES OF NATURE.

much farther to the South, ripen more ilovvlf;,
from their fituation on the tops of mountains.

Thefe progreffions are to be found in the mi-
nuteft of the works of Nature, and of which they
conftitute the principal charm. They are not the
efFedt of any mechanical Law. They have been
apportioned to each vegetable, for the purpofe of
prolonging the enjoyment of it's fruit, conform-
ably to the wants of Man. Thus the aqueous and
cooling fruits, fuch as thofe of a ruddy hue, ap-
pear only during the feafon of heat ; others, which
were neceflary in the Winter time, from their nu-
trimental flours, and their oils, as chefnuts and
walnuts, are capable of being preferved a confider-
able part of the year. But thofe which are de-
figned to fupply the accidental demands of Man-
kind, thofe of travellers and navigators, for in-
ilance, remain on the earth at all times. Not
only are thefe lad inclofed in (hells, adapted to
their prefervation, but they appear upon the tree,
at all feafons, and in every degree of maturity.
In^tropical countries, on the uninhabited (hores
of the iflands*, the cocoa-tree bears, at once,
twelve or fifteen clufters of cocoa-nuts, fome of
which are ilill in the bud ; others are in flower ;
others are knit ; others are already full of milk ;

* See Fra?ids Pyrard\ Voyage to the Maldivias.

and.

STUDY X. 357

and, finally, fome are in a ftate of perfed matu-
rity. The cocoa is the feaman*s tree.

It is not the heat of the Tropics which gives to
this tree a fecundity fo confiant, and fo varied ;
for the fruits of the trees have, in the Indies, as
in our climates, feafons of ripening, and after
which they are feen no more till the feafon re-
turns. I know of no other, except the cocoa-
tree and the banana, which are in fruit all the year
round. This laft mentioned plant is, in my opi-
nion, the moft ufeful in the World, becaufe it's
fruit makes excellent food, without any art of
cookery, having a moft agreeable flavour, and
poffeffing very nutrimental qualities. It produces
a clufter, or aggregation, of fixty or fourfcore
fruit, which come to maturity all at once ; but it
puihes out (hoots of every degree of magnitude,
which bear in fucceffion, and at all*times. The
progreffion of fruits in the cocoa, is in the tree,
and that of the fruits of the banana is in the plan-
tation. Univerfally, that v/hich is moft ufeful,
is likewife moft common.

The productions of our corn-fields and vine-
yards prefent difpofitions ftill more wonderful ;
for, though the ear of corn has feveral faces, it's
grains come to maturity at the fame time, from
the mobility of it's ftraw, which prefents them to

A a 3 ail .,

$^^ STUDIES OF NATURE.

all the afpeds of the Sun. The vine does not
grow in form of a bufh, nor of a tree ; but in
hedge-rows ; and though it's berries be arranged
in form of clufters, their tranfparency renders
them throughout penetrable by the rays of the
Sun. Nature thus lays men under the neceflity,
from the fpontaneous maturity of thefe fruits,
deftined to the general fupport of human life,
to unite their labours, and mutually to affift each
other in the pleafant toils of the harveft and of the
vintage. The corn-field and the vineyard may be
confidcred as the moft powerful cements of fo-
ciety. Bacchus and Ceres, accordingly, were re-
garded, in ancient times, as the firft Legiflators
of the Human Race. The Poets of antiquity
frequently diftinguiHi them by this honourable
appellation. An Indian, under his banana and his
cocoa tree,candoextremely well without his neigh-
bour. It is for this reafon, I believe, rather than
from the nature of the climate, which is there very
mild, that there are fo few republics in India, and fo
many governments founded in force. One man can
there make an impreffiou on the field of another,
only by the ravages which he commits : but the
European, who fees his harvefl:s grow yellow, and
his grapes blacken all at once, haftens to fummon
to his afiiilance, in reaping his crop, not only his
neighbours, but the traveller who happens to be
paffing that way. Befides, Nature, while fhe has

refufed

STUDY X. 359

refufed to the corn-plant and the vine the power
of yielding their fruits at all feafons of the year,
has beftowed on the flour of the one, and on the
wine of the other, the quality of being prefervable
for ages.

All the Laws of Nature have a refpedl to our
neceflities; not only thofe which are evidently
contrived to minifter to our comfort ; but others
frequently concur to this end fo much the better,
the more that they feem to deviate from it.

OF CONTRASTS.

Contrafts differ from contraries in this, that con-
traries ad: but in one lingle point, and contrafts in
their general combination. An objed has but
one contrary, but it may have many contrafts.
White is the contrary of black ; but it contrafts
with blue, green, red, and various other colours.

Nature, in order to diftinguifh the h:irmonies,
the confonances, and the progreffions of bodies,
from each other, makes them exhibit contrafts.
This Law is fo much the lefs obferved, the more
common it is. We trample under foot truths the
moft wonderful, and of the higheft importance,
without paying the flighteft attention to them.

A a 4 All

360 STUDIES OF NATURE.

All Naturalifts confider the colours of bodies as
fimple accidents ; and mofl" of them look on their
very forms as the effedt of fome attradtion, incu-
bation, cryftallization, &c. Books are every day
compofed, the objedt of which is to extend, by
analogies, the mechanical effeds of thofe Laws to
the different produdions of Nature ; but if they
really poffefs fo much power, How comes it that
the Sun, that univerfal agent, has not long ere now
filled the waters, the dry land, the forefts, the
heavens, the plains, and all the creatures over
which he exercifes fo much influence, with the
uniform and monotonous effeds of his light ? All
thefe objeds ought to affume his appearance, and
prefent only white or yellow to our eyes, and be
diftinguifhed from each other only by their (hades.
A landfcape ought to exhibit to us no other effeds
but thofe of a cameo, or of a print. Latitudes,
we are told, diverfify the colour of them. But if
Latitudes have this power. How comes it to pafs,
that the produdions of the fame climate, and of
the fame field, have not all the fame tints? Whence
is it that the quadrupeds, which are born and die
in the meadow, do not produce young ones green
as the grafs on which they feed ?

Nature has not fatisfied herfelf with eflablifhing
particular harmonies in every fpecies of beings, in
order to charaderize them ; but that they might

not

STUDY X. 361

not be confounded among themfelves, (he exhi-
bits them in contrails. We fhall fee, in the fol-
lowing Study, for what particular reafon (lie has
beftowed upon herbs a green hue, in preference to
every other colour. In general (he has made herbs
green, to detach them from the earth ; and then
(he has given the colour of the earth to animals
which live on herbage, to diftinguilh them, in
their turn, from the ground over which they ftray.
This general contraft may be remarked in the her-
bivorous quadrupeds, fuch as the domeftic ani-
mals, the yellow beads of the forefts, and in all the
granivorous birds, which live among herbage, or
in the foliage of trees, as the hen, the partridge,
the quail, the lark, the fparrow, and many others,
which are of earthy colours, becaufe they live
among verdure. But thofe, on the contrary, who
live on dingy grounds are clad in brilliant colours,
as the bluilh tom-tit, and the wood-pecker, which
fcramble along the rind of trees in purfuit of in-
fedts, and many others.

Nature univerfally oppofes the colour of the
animal to that of the ground on which it is def-
tined to live. This mofb admirable Law admits
not of a fmgle exception. I fhall here produce a
few examples of it, to put my Reader in the way
of obferving thofe delightful harmonies, of which

he

362 STUDIES OF NATURE.

he will find abundant proofs in every climate.
There is feen, on the (hores of India, a large and
beautiful bird, white and fire- coloured, called the
flamingo., not that it is of Flemijh extraction , but
the name is derived from the old French word
flambant, (flaming) becaufe it appears, at a dif-
tance, like a flame of fire. He generally inhabits
in fwampy grounds, and fait marfhes, in the wa-
ters of which he conftrufts his neft, by railing out
of the moifture, of a foot deep, a little hillock of
mud, a foot and a half high. He makes a hole
in the fummit of this little hillock ; in this the
hen depofits two eggs, and hatches them, with
her feet funk in the water, by means of the ex-
treme length of her legs. When feveral of thefe
birds are fitting at the fame time on their eggs, in
the midfl of a fvvamp, you would take them, at a
diftance, for the flames of a conflagration, burfting
from the bofom of the waters.

Other fowls prefent contrafts of a different kind,
on the fame fliores. The pelican, or wide-throat,
is a bird white and brown, provided with a large
bag under it's beak, which is of exceflive length.
Out he goes every morning to ftore his bag with
filh : and, the fupply of the day having been ac-
compUflied, he perches on fome pointed rock, on
a level with the water, where he flands immove-
able

STUDY X. 363

able till the evening, fays Father Du Tertre*,
" as in a ftate of profound forrow, with the head
" drooping, from the weight of his long bill, and
'' eyes fixed on the agitated Ocean, as motionlefs
" as a flatue of marble." On the dulTcy ftrand of
thofe feas may frequently be diftinguifhed herons
white as fnow, and in the azure plains of the fky,
the paillencu of a filvery white, fkimming through
it almofl out of fight : he is fometimes glazed
over with a bright red, having likewife the two
long feathers of his tail the colour of fire, as that
of the South-Seas,

In many cafes, the deeper that the ground is,
the more brilliant are the colours in which the
animal, deftined to live upon it, is arrayed. We
have not, perhaps, in Europe, any infeft with
richer and gayer clothing than the ftercoraceous
fcarab, and the fly which bears the fame epithet.
This lafl: is brighter than burniflied gold and
fteel ; the other, of a hemifpherical form, is of a
fine blue, inclining to purple : and, in order to
render the contrail complete, he exhales a fl:rong
and agreeable odour of mufk.

Nature feems, fometimes, to deviate from this
Law, but then it is from other reafons of confor-

* Hiftory of the Antilles.

mity,

364 STUDIES OF NATURE.

mity, according to which all her plans are adjuft-
ed. Thus, after having contrafled, with the
ground on which they live, the animals capable
of making their efcape from every danger by their
ftrength, or their agility, fliehas confounded thofe
whofe llownefs, or weaknefs, would expofe them to
the affaults of their enemies. The fnail, which is
deftitute of fight, is of the colour of the bark of
the trees which he gnaws, or of the wall in which
he takes refuge.

Flat fiflies, which are indifferent fwimmers, fuch
as the turbot, the flounder, the plaice, the burt,
the fole, and feveral others, which are cut out, as
it were, from a thin plank, becaufe they were def-
tined to a fedentary life, clofe to the bottom of the
Sea, are of the colour of thefands where they find
their nourifhment, being fpotted, like the beach,
with gray, yellow, black, red, and brown. They
are thus fpeckled, I admit, only on one fide ; but
to fuch a degree are they poffeffed of the feeling of
this refemblance, that when they find themfelves
inclofed within the parks formed on the ftrand to
entrap them, and obferving the tide gradually re-
tiring, they bury their fins in the fand, expefting
the return of the tide, and prefent to the eye only
their deceitful fide. It has fuch a perfeâ; refem-
blance to the ground on which they fquat, to con-
ceal themfelves, that it would be impoflible for

the

STUDY X. 365

the fifliermento diftinguifli them from it, without
the help of lickles, with which they trace fmall
foffes, in every diredion, along the furface of the
fand, to deted by the touch what the eye could
not difcern. Of this I have been a witnefs oftener
than once, much more highly amufed at the dex-
terity difplayed by the fiflies, than at that of the
fifliermen.

The thornback, on the contrary, which is alfo
a flat fifli, and a bad fwimmer, but carnivorous, is
marbled with white and brown, in order to be per-
ceived at a diftance by other fifhes ; and to pre-
vent their being devoured, in their turn, by their
enemies, which are very alert, fuch as the fea-dog,
or by their own companions, for they are ex-
tremely voracious, Nature has clad them in a
prickly mail, particularly on the pofterior part of
the body, as the tail, which is moft expofed to at-
tack when they fly.

Nature has beftowed at once, in the colours of
innoxious animals, contrafts with the ground on
which they live, and confonances with that which
is adjacent, and has fuperadded theinftind of em-
ploying thefe alternately, according as good or
bad fortune prompts. Thefe wonderful accom-
modations may be remarked in moft of our fmall
birds, whofe flight is feeble, and of ftiort dura-
tion.

366 STUDIES OF NATURE.

tion. The gray lark finds her fubfiftence among
the grafs of the plains. Does any thing terrify
her ? She glides away, and takes her ftation be-
tween two little clods of earth, where (he becomes
invifible. On this poft fhe remains in fuch perfedt
tranquillity, as hardly to quit it, when the foot of
the fowler is ready to crulh her.

The fame thing is true of the partridge. I
have no doubt that thefe defencelefs birds have a
fenfe of thofe contrafls and correfpondencies of co-
lour, for I have remarked it even in infefts. In
the month of March laft, I obferved, by the brink
of the rivulet which waQies the Gobelins *, a but-
terfly of the colour of brick, repofing with ex-
panded wings on a tuft of grafs. On my approach-
ing him, he flew off*. He alighted, at fome paces
diftance, on the ground, which, at that place, was
of the fime colour with himfelf. I approached
him a fécond time ; he took a fécond flight, and
perched again on a fimilar ftripe of earth. In a
word, I found it was not in my power to oblige
him to alight on the grafs, though I made frequent
attempts to that effed, and though the fpaces of
earth which feparaied the turfy foil were narrow,
and few in number.

* A fmall village in the fuburbs of Paris, noted for it's ma-
nufaftures in fine tapeftry, and fiiperb mirrors. H H.

This

STUDY X. 367

This wonderful inftind is, likewife, confpicu-
oufly evident in the caméléon. That fpecies of li-
zard, whofe motion is extremely flow, is indemni-
fied for this, by the incomprehenfible faculty of
affuming, at pleafure, the colour of the ground
over which he moves. With this advantage, he
is enabled to elude the eye of his purfuer, whofe
fpeed would foon have overtaken him. The fa-
culty is in his will, for his fkin is by no means a
mirror. It refleds only the colour of objeds, and
not their form. What is farther fingularly re-
markable in this, and perfedly afcertained by Na-
tural ifts, though they affign no reafon for it, he
can affume all colours, as brown, gray, yellow,
and efpecially green, which is his favourite co-
lour, but never red. The caméléon has been
placed, for weeks together, amidft fcarlet fluffs,
without acquiring the flighteft Ihade of that colour.
Nature (eems to have with -held from the creature
this fliining hue, becaufe it could ferve only to
render him perceptible at a greater diflance; and,
farther, becaufe this colour is that of the ground
of no fpecies of earth, or of vegetable, on which
he is defigned to pafs his life.

But, in the age of weaknefs and inexperience.
Nature confounds the colour of the harmlefs ani-
mals, with that of the ground on which they inhabit,
without committing to them the power of choice.

The

:>

68 STUDIES OF NATURE.

The young of pigeons, and of mod granivorous
fowls, are clothed with a greenilh fhaggy coat,
refembling the moffes of their nefts. Caterpillars
are blind, and have the complexion of the foliage,
and of the barks, which they devour. Nay, the
young fruits, before they come to be armed with
prickles, or inclofed in cafes, in bitter pulps, in
hard (hells, to protedl their feeds, are, during the
feafon of their expanfion, green as the leaves
which furround them. Some embryons, it is true,
fuch as thofe of certain pears, are ruddy or brown;
but they are then of the colour of the bark of the
tree to which they belong. When thofe fruits
have inclofed their feeds in kernels, or nuts, fo
as to be in no farther danger, they then change
colour. They become yellow, blue, gold-colour-
ed, red, black, and give to their refpeâ:ive trees
their natural contrafts. It is ftrikingly remark-
able, that every fruit which has changed colour has
feed in a flate of maturity.

The infefls, in like manner, having depofited
their robes of infancy, and now committed to
their own experience, fpread abroad over the
World, to multiply the harmonics of it, with the
attire and the inftinds which Nature has conferred
upon them. Then it is that clouds of butterflies,
which, in their caterpillar (late, were confounded
with the verdure of plants, now oppofe the colours

and

STUDY X. 369

and the forms of their wings, to thofe of the
flowers ; the red to the bhie, the white to the red,
the antenn-a to the Jiamina, and fringes to the roro//^.
I was one day ftruck with admiration at one of
thefe, whofe wings were azure, and befprinkled
with fpecks of the colour of aurora, as he repofed
in the bofom of a full-blown rofe. He feemed to
be difputing beauty with the flower. It would
have been difficult to determine which way to ad-
judge the prize, in favour of the butterfly or of
the rofe ; but, on feeing the flower crowned with
wings of /apis lazuli, and the azure infc6l depo-
fited in a goblet of carmine, it was obvious, on
the flighted glance, that their charming contrail:
greatly enhanced their mutual beauty.

Nature does not employ thofe agreeable corre-
fpondenciés and contrafts in the decoration of noxi-
ous animals, nor even of dangerous vegetables. Of
whateverkind thecarnivorous, or venemous animals,
maybe, they form, at every age, and wherever they
are, oppofitions hardi and difgufting. The white-
bear of the North announces his approach over
the fnow, by a hollow noife, by the blacknefs of
his fnout and paws, and by a throat and eyes the
colour of blood. The ferocious beafts, which
hunt for their prey in the gloom of darknefs, or
in thé folitude of the forefts, give notice of their
prefence by loud roarings, lamentable cries, eyes

VOL. n. B b inflamed.

370 STITDIES OF NATURE.

inflamed, urinous or fetid fmells. The crocodile,
in ambufli among the flags, upon the fliores of
the rivers in Afia, where he afllimes the appearance
of the trunk of a tree turned upfide down, be-
trays himfelf from afar, by flrong exhalations of
the fmell of mufk. The rattle-fnake, concealed
in the grafly fwamps of America, cannot fl:ir with-
out founding his ominous alarm. The very in-
fefts which make war on others, are clad in fable
attire, in which colours are harfhly oppofed, and
in which black, particularly, predominates, and
clafties difagreeably with white, or yellow. The
humble-bee, independantly of his buzzing noife,
announces himfelf by the blacknefs of his breafl-
plate, and his large belly briftled over with yellow
hairs. He appears amidft the flowers, like a burn-
ing coal half extinguifhed. The carnivorous wafp
is yellow, and fl:riped with black, like the tiger.
But the ufeful bee is of the complexion of the
JIamina and of the calices of the flowers, among
which flie reaps her innocent harvefts.

Poifonous plants prefent, like noxious animals,
difgufting contrafl:s, from the livid colours of their
flowers, in which black, deep blue, and a fmoky
violet, are in harlh oppofition with the tender
fliades; from their naufeoiis and virulent fmells;
from their prickly foliage, of a black green hue,
and clafliing widi white on the under-fide : fuch

are

STUDY X. 571

are the aconite tribes. I am acquainted with no
piant of an afpedt fo hideous as thofe of this fa-
mily, and, among others, that which the French
denominate napel^ the mod venemous vegetable of
our chmates. I fhall not take upon me to deter-
mine, whether the embryons of their fruits do not
difclofe, from the very firft moments of their ex-
panfion, harfh oppofitions, which give warning of
their malefic charaders : if it be fo, they have this
farther refemblance in common to them with the
young of ferocious animals.

Such of the brute creation as are intended to
live on two different grounds, are impreffed with a
double contrail in their colours. Thus, for ex-
ample, the king-fifher, which Ikims along rivers,
is at once mufk-coloured, and glazed over with
azure j fo as to be detached from the dufky (hores
by his azure colour, and from the azure of the
waters by his mufk-colour. The duck, which
dabbles on the fame (liores, has the body tinged
of an afh-colour, while the head and neck are of
an emerald-green ; fo that he is perfecftly diftin-
guifliable , by the gray colour of his body, from
the verdure of the aquatic plants among which he
waddles, and by the verdure of his head and neck,
from the dark coloured mud where he finds part
of his food, and in which, by another moft afto-i
nilhing contrail, he never foils his plumage.

B b 2 The

372 STUDIES OF NATURE,

The fame contrafts of colour are obfervable In
the wood-pecker, who Hves on the trunks of trees,
along which he fcrambles in queft of the infects
that are lodged under their rind. This bird is
at once green- coloured and brown j fo that,
though he lives, properly fpeaking, in the fliade,
he is always perceptible, however, on the trunk of
trees ; for he detaches himfelf from their dufky
rind, by means of that part of his plumage which
is of a brilliant green ; and from the verdure of
their mofles and hchens, by thofe of his feathers,
which are brown.

Nature oppofes, then, the colours of every ani-
mal to thofe of the refpedive ground on which it
is to be placed ; and what confirms the truth of
this Law is, that the greateft part of birds which
live on one ground only, have but a fingle colour,
and that one ftrongly contrafted with the colour
of the ground. Accordingly, the birds which live
aloft in the air, on the azury ground of the Hea-
vens, or on the bofom of the waters, in the midft
of lakes, are moflly white, which, of all colours,
forms the moft ftriking contraft with blue, and is,
confequently, moft adapted to render them per-
ceptible at a diftance. Such are, between the
Tropics, the paillencu, a bird of a glofly white,
whofe flight is through the fuperior regions of the
air, the heron, the gull, the fea-mew, which fkim

alons

STUDY X. 373

along the furface of the azure deep, and the fwan,
fleets of which navigate the extenfive lakes of the
North.

There are likewife others which, in order to
form a contraft with thofe that I have laft men-
tioned, detach themfelves from the ikies and from
the waters, by their black, or dufky colours : fuch
are, for example, the crow, in our own climates,
which is perceptible at fo great a diftance in the
Heavens, on the white ground of the clouds ; many
fea-fowls of a brown and blackilh colour, as the
frigat of the Tropics, which plays through the air,
amidft ftorm and tempeft ; the mower, or fea-cut-
ter, a water bird, which grazes with his dark-co-
loured wings, fhaped like a fcythe, the white fur-
face of the foamy billows of the Ocean.

From thefe examples, therefore, it may be in-
ferred, that when an animal is invefted with but
one fingle tint, he is intended but for one fitua-
tion ; and when he combines in himfelf the con-
traft of two oppofite tints, that he lives on two
grounds, the colours themfelves of which are de-
termined by that of the plumage, or of the hair, of
the animal. We muft be upon our guard, at the
fame time, againft an unlimited generalization of
this Law. We ought to confider it as harmoniz-

B b 3 ing

374 STUDIES OF NATURE.

ing with the exceptions which wife Nature has in-
troduced and eftabhfhed, for the very prefervation
of animals; fuch as, in general, the whitening of
them, to the North, in the Winter feafon, and on
lofty mountains, as a remedy againft excefs of cold,
by arraying them in a colour which reflecfls the
mod heat; and embrowning them to the South,
during the ardors of Summer, and on fandy dif-
triâis, and thereby flieltering them from the effefts
of burning heat, by the intervention of abforbent
colours. What evidently demonftrates, that thefe
great effefls of harmony are not mechanical refults
of the influence of the bodies which furround ani-
mals, or of the apprehenfions of the mother on
the tender organs of the foetus, or of the adion of
the rays of the Sun on their plumage, according
to the explications hitherto attempted by our fyf-
tems of phyfics ; what evidently demonftrates
this, I fay, is, that among the almoft infinite num-
ber of birds which pafs their life in the higher
regions of the air, or on the furface of the Seas,
whofe colours are azure, there is not a fingle bird
of the colour of blue ; and that, on the contrary,
many birds which live between the Tropics, in
the bofom of black rocks, or under the (hade of
fullen forefls, are azure-coloured : fuch are the
Batavia hen, which is blue all over; the Dutch
pigeon of the Ifle of France, and many others.

Another

STUDY X. 375

Another confequence, eqiially important, may
be deduced from thefe obfervations ; it is this,
that all thefe harmonies are contrived for the ufe of
Man. A blue-coloured fowl, on the azure ground
of the fky, or on the furface of the waters, would
elude our fight. Nature, befides, has referved the
rich and agreeable colours only for the birds which
live in our vicinity. This is fo indubitably cer-
tain, that though the Sun ads between the Tro-
pics with the whole energy of his rays, on the
fowls whofe refidence is the wide Ocean, there is
not a fingle one of them arrayed in a beautifully
coloured plumage, whereas thofe which inhabit the
(hores of the Seas, and of the rivers, are frequently
drelTed in the moH gorgeous attire. The fla-
mingo, a tall bird, which lives in the fwampy
(hores of the South-Seas, has a white plumage
charged with carmine. The toucan, on the fame
flrands, has an enormous bill of the mod lively
red ; and when he retires from the bofom of the
humid fands, where he finds his food, you would
be tempted to fay, that he has jull filhed out of
them a ftump of coral. There is another fpecies
of toucan, whofe beak is white and black, as finely
poliflied as if it confided of ebon and ivory. The
pintada, with fpeckled plumage, the peacock,
the duck, the king-fiflier, and a multitude of oiher
river-birds, embellilh, by the enamel of their co-
B b 4 lours,

37^ STUDIES OF NATURE.

lours, the banks of the Afiatic and African dreams.
But we find nothing once to be compared with
them, in the plumage of fuch as inhabit the open
Sea, though they are ftill more expofed to the in-
fluences of the Sun.

As a farther confequence of thefe correfponden-
cies with Man, Nature has given to the birds
which live remote from him, cries fhrill, hoarfe,
and piercing, but which are as proper as their ill-
aflbrted colours, to render them perceptible at a
diftance, amidft their wild retreats. She has be-
ftowed, on the contrary, fweet notes and melodi-
ous voices on the little birds which people our
groves, and domefticate themfelves in our habita-
tions, in order to heighten our delight, as well by
the mufic of their warbling as by the beauty of
their colours. We repeat it, in order to confirm
the truth of the principles of the harmonies which
we are laying down : Nature has eftabli(hed an
order of beauty fo real, in the plumage and the
fong of birds, that (he has endowed with thefe
fuch birds only, whofe life was in fome fort inno-
cent relatively to Man, as thofe which are grani-
vorous, or which live on infefls ; and flie has de-
nied thofe advantages to birds of prey, and to
moft fea-fowls, which, in general, have earthy co-
lours, and difagreeable cries.

AH

STUDY X. 377

AU the kingdoms of Nature prefent themfelves
to Man with the fame correfpondencies, the abyf-
fes of the Ocean themfelves not excepted. The
fifhes which Hve on animal fubftances, as the
whole clafs of the cartilaginous do, fuch as the
feal, the fea-dog, the (hark, the flipper, the thorn-
back, the polypus, and many others, have dif-
gufting forms and colours. Fifhes which live in
the open fea, have colours marbled with white,
black, brown, which diftinguifh them in the bo-
fom of the azure billows, fuch are whales, blowers,
porpoifes, and others. But it is among thofe
which frequent the dufky fhores, and particularly
in the number of fuch as are denominated y^/.v^///^,
becaufe they live among the rocks, that we find
the fifhes, the luftre of whofe fkin and fcales far
furpafTes all the efforts of the pencil, efpecially
when they are alive. It is thus that legions of
mackaiel and herrings diffufe the radiance of filver
and azure over the northern ftrands of Europe.

It is around the black rocks which bound the
Seas of the Tropics, that the fifh known by the
name of captain is caught. Though his colours
vary with the latitude, it is fufhcient, in order to
convey an idea of his beauty, to detail the defcrip-
tion given of it by Francis Caucbe *, in a fpecies

* Confult Francis Caucbe, his relation of Madagafcar.

caught

37S STUDIES OF NATURE.

caught on the coafts of Madagafcar. He fays,
that this fifli, which takes pleafure in the rocks,
is ftreaked in the form of lozenges; that his fcales
are of a pale gold-colour, and that his back is co-
loured and glazed over with laca, inclining, in fe-
veral places, toward vermilion. His dorfal fin
and tail are waved with azure, fading away into
green toward the extremities.

About the bottom of the fame rocks is likewife
found the magnificent fifh called the fardin, and
by the Brafilians acarapinima^ of which Marcgrave
has given the figure in his 4th Book, Chap. 6.
This beautiful fifli is adorned with fcales of at
once a gold and filver hue, crofTed from head to
tail by black lines, which admirably heighten their
luftre. The fame Author defcribes a variety of
fpecies of the moon-fifh, befides, which frequent
the fame places.

For my own part, I have amufed myfelf on the
rocks of the llland of Afcenfion, in obferving, for
hours together, the moon-fifh fporting amidft the
tumultuous waves, which are inceffantly breaking
upon them. Thefe filhes, of which there are va-
rious fpecies, have the rounded, and fometimes
iloping form of the orb of night, whofe name they
bear. They are, befides, like her, of the colour
of polifhed filver. They feem deftined to elude

the

STUDY X. 379

the fagacity of the fiOierman, in every poffible
way ; for they have their belly ftreaked with black
crofs-ftripes, of a lozenge form, which gives them
all the appearance of being caught in a net ; they
feem, every inftant, on the point of being tofled
on fhore, by the agitation of the billows in which
they play ; farther, their mouth is fo fmall, that
they frequently nibble away the bait without
touching the hook ; and their fkin, without fcales,
like that of the feal, is fo hard, that the harpoon
often mlffes it's blow, be the prongs ever fo keenly
whetted. Francis Cauche likewife fays, that it re-
quires a very violent exertion to make an incifion
into their ikin with the (harpefl knife.

It is on the fame fliores of Afcenfion-ifland that
we find the murena, a fpecies of lamprey, or eel of
the rocks, which is excellent food, and whofe fkin
is befprinkled with gilded flowers. It may be af-
firmed, in general, that every rock in the fea is
frequented by a multitude of fifiies, of the mofl
brilliant colours ; fuch as the gilt-head, the perro-
quet, the zebra, the roach, and others without
number, the very clafTes of which are unknown to
us. The more that the rocks and fhallows of any
fea are multiplied, the more varied, likewife, are
the fpecies of the faxatile fifhes which refort
thither. For this reafon it is, that the Maldivia-
iflands, which are fo numerous, furnifh themfelves

alone

380 STUDIES OF NATURE.

alone a prodigious multitude of fifhes, of very dif-
ferent colours and forms, with the greateft part of
which our Ichthologifls are hitherto totally unac-
quainted.

As often, therefore, as you fee a brilliant fifli,
you may be aflured that his habitation is near the
Ihore, and that, on the contrary, he lives in the
open Ocean, if he is of a dark colour. The truth
of this may be afcertained by ourfelves, in the
channels, and on the banks of our own rivers,
The fiiver fmelt, and the blay, whofe fcales are
employed in the formation of mock pearls, play
on the ftrand of the Seine ; whereas the eel, of the
gloomy colour of flate, takes pleafure to dabble
in the midft, and at the bottom of the ftream.
We mud not, however, pretend to generalize thefe
Laws, to the exclufion of all exceptions. Nature,
as has been faid, fubjeds all to the mutual adap-
tation of beings, and to the enjoyment of Man.
Thus, for example, though the fiflies on the fliores
have, in general, Ihining colours, there are, how-
ever, feveral fpecies of them invariably of a dark
colour. Such are, not only thofe which fwim in-
differently, as foles, turbots, &c. but thofe alfo
/ which inhabit fome parts of the fhores whofe co-
lours are lively. Thus the tortoife, which paftures
at the bottom of the fea, on green herbs, or which
crawls by night over the white fands, there to de-

pofit

STUDY X. q81

polit her eggs, is of a fhady colour ; thus the la-
mentine, which enters into the channel of the
rivers of America, in queft of food, in the verdure
of their banks, without leaving the water, de-
taches himfelf from that verdure, by the brown
colour of his fkin.

The faxatile fiOies, which can eafily infure
their fafety among the rocks, by agility in fwim-
ming, or by the facility of finding a retreat in
their cavernous receptacles, or of there defend-
ing themfelves againft their enemies, by the ar-
mour which Nature has beflowed, liave all of
them lively and Ihining colours, the cartilaginous
excepted : fuch are the blood-coloured crabs, the
azure and purple lobfters, called langoiifte and ho-
mard, and, among others, that to which Rondelet
has given the name of Thetis, on account of it's
beauty, the violet-coloured urchins, armed with
points and fpears, the nerits, inclofed in a fpiral
cafe, with rofe and gray-coloured ribbons winding
round it, and an endlefs variety of others.

It is very remarkable that all fliell-fi(h which
walk and migrate, and, confequently, have the
power of chooling their afylum, are thofe, in their
kind, which have the richeft colours : fuch are the
nerits which I have juft mentioned, the purple-
fifli, or Venus Ihell, refembling poliflied marble,

the

382 STUDIES OF NATURE.

the olives, fhaded like velvet of three or four co-
lours, the harp, embelliflied with the tints of the
moft beautiful tulips, the tunny, fpeckled hke the
partridge's wing, which walks along under the
fhade of the madrépores ; and all the families of
the univalves, which force their way into the fand
for Ihelter, the bivalves, as the ducal-cloak, fcar-
let-coloured and orange, and a multitude of other
migrating fhell-fiQi, are imprefled with colours
the moft lively, and form, with the different
grounds of the Sea, fecondary harmonies totally
unknown.

But thofe which do not change their fituation,
as moft of the oyfters of the feas to the fouthward,
which frequently adhere to the rocks, or thofe
which are perpetually at anchor in ftraits, as mufcles
and the pinna-marina^ attached to pebbles by
threads, or thofe which reft on the bofom of the
madrépores, like veflels on the ftocks, as the
Noah's ark, or thofe which are entirely buried in
the heart of calcareous rocks, as the dail of the
Mediterranean, or fuch as are immoveable, from
their weight, which fometimes exceeds that of fe-
veral quintals, and pave the furface of flats, as the
thuilée of the Moluccas, and the large bivalves,
as the rocks, the burgos, &c. or thofe, in a word,
which, I believe, are blind, like our land-fnails,
fuch as lempits, which fallen therafelves, by the

formation

STUDV X. 283

formation of a vacuum, on the fhining furface of
the rocks, are of the colour of the ground which
they inhabit, in order to be lefs perceptible to
their enemies.

m

It is, farther, very highly worthy of obfervation,
that though many of thofe fedentary fliell-fifli are
clothed in a brown and Ihaggy outward garment,
as thofe which are called cornets and rollers ; or
with a black pellicle of the fliade of the pebbles
to which they are attached, as the Magellan-
mufcles ; or encompafled with a mud-coloured
tartar, as the lempit and the burgo : they have,
under their gloomy upper- coats, pearly appear-
ances and tints, the beauty of which frequently
exceed thofe of the fhell-fifh whofe apparent co-
lours are the moft brilliant. Thus the Magellan-
lempit, cleanfed of it's tartar by means of vinegar,
prefents the richeft of cups, (haded with the co-
lours of the fineft tortoife-ihell, and blended with
a burnillied gold, which is perceptible through a
chefnut-coloured varnilh. The large mufcle of
Magellan's ftrait conceals, in like manner, under
it's black coat, the oriental Ihades of the aurora.

It is impoffible to afcribe, as in the fhell-fiQi of
India, colours fo charming, to the adion of the
Sun on thefe (hells, covered as they are with tar-
tars and rough coats, and which are the clothing

of

384 STUDIES OF NATURE.

of fifli that live, befide, in a foggy climate, aban*
doned for a great part of the year to gloomy Win-
ters and long tempefts. We may venture to af-
firm, that Nature has veiled their beauty, only to
preferve it for thd* enjoyment of Man, and has
placed them only on the verge of the fhores, where
the Sea purifies them, by toffing them about, to put
them witliin his reach. Thus, by a moft wonderful
contrail, fhe places the moft brilliant fliells, in
regions the moft expofed to the ravages of the
elements; and, by another contraft, no lefs afto-
niihing, ftie prefents to the poor Patagonians
fpoons and cups, the luftre of which far furpaffes,
beyond all contradidion, the richeft plate of po-
lilhed Nations.

Hence it may be inferred, that fifhes in gene-
ral, and fliell-fifti in particular, which have two
oppofite colours, live on two different grounds,
as we have obferved in the cafe of birds, and that
thofe which 4iave only one colour frequent only
one ground." I recoiled:, that on making the
tour of the lile of France, on foot, along the
fhore of the Sea, I found upon it nerits with
an alli-gray ground, encircled with red ribbons,
fometimes on the dufky rocks, fometimes on the
white madrépores, with their peach-coloured
flowers. They contrafted in the moft agreeable
manner, and appeared at the bottom, on the fea-

plants.

STUDY X. 385

plants, like fruit growing upon them. I likewife
found there the Venus-lhell, completely white,
with a rofe-coloured mouth, fwelled backward
like eggs, from which too they fometimes borrow
their name. But it is now impoflîble for me to
affirm, with certainty, whether they adhered to
the dark coloured rocks, or to the white madre-
pores.

There are likewife to be found, on the coafts of
Normandy, in the diftriâ: of Caux, two forts of
rocks, the one of white marl, detached from the
cliffs, the other formed of black bifets, which are
amalgamated with the craggy cliff. Now, 1 never
faw there, in general, but two forts of periwinkles,
called by the country people vignots, the one very
common, and ufed as food, which is quite black,
and the other white, with a faint-red mouth. I
prefume not, at this diflance, to aver, whether the
white periwinkles attach themfelves to the white
rocks, and the black periwinkles to the black
rocks, or contrariwife, for I did not make the ob-
fervation. But whether they form with thofe
rocks confonances or contrafts, it is very fingular
that, as there are but two fpecies of rocks, fo there
(hould be but two fpecies of periwinkles. I am
inclined to believe, that the black periwinkle ad-
heres, in preference, to the black rock -, for I have

VOL. II. c c obferved,

3S6 STUDIES OF NATURE.

obferved, in the Ifle of France, that there is nei-
ther black-coloured periwinkle, nor mufcle, be*-
caufe there is in thofe feas no pebble, or rock,
precifely of that colour ; and I am perfeâ:ly cer-
tain, that mufcles are always of the colour of the
ground on which they live : thofe of the llîe of
France are brown.

It muft not be concluded, on the other hand,
that fuch (hell-fifh are indebted, for their colours,
to the rocks on which they adhere by fuflion ; for
it would thence follow, that the rocks of Magellan's
ftrait, which produce mufcles and lempits fo rich in
colouring, fliould be themfelves inlaid with mother-
of-pearl, opal, and amethyft ; befides, every rock
maintains fliell-fifli of very different colours. You
find, at the bottom of the rocks on the coaft of
the diftrid of Caux, which are loaded with black
periwinkles, the azure-coloured lobfter, the crab
marbled with red and brown, legions of mufcles
of a deep blue, with lempits of an afh-gray. All
thefe filhes, when alive, form harmonies the mofl
agreeable, with a multitude of marine plants,
which fringe thofe black and white rocks, with
their tints of purple, gray, ruft- coloured, brown,
and green ; and with the variety of their forms
and aggregations, like oaken boughs, tufts of dif-
ferent fhapes, garlands, feftoons, and long cord-
age.

iSTUDY X. 387

age, agitated by the waves in every poflible man-
ner. In truth, there is no Painter capable of com-
pofing fimilar groups, let him give what fcope he
pleafes to his imagination. Many of thofe marine
harmonies have efcaped me, for I then confidered
them as merely the effed of chance. I looked at
them, I admired them, but I obferved them not :
I fufpefted, however, even then, that the pleafure
which their harmonic combination infpired, mull
be referable to fome Law with which I was unac-
quainted.

Enough has been faid to demondrate how
much Naturalifts have mutilated the fined portion
of Natural Hiftory, by retailing, as they for the
mod part do, ifolated defcriptions of animals and
of plants, without faying a word of the feafon
when, and of the place where, they are to be found.
By this negligence they drip them of all their
beauty ; for there is not an animal, nor a plan ex-
iding, whofe harmonic point is not fixed to a cer-
tain fituation, to a certain hour of the day, or of
the night, to the rifing, or the fetting, of the
Sun, to the phafes of the Moon, nay, to the very
tempefts ; to fay nothing of the other contrads,
and correfpondencies, which refult from thefe.

I am fo thoroughly perfuaded of the exidence

of all thofe harmonies, that I entertain not the

c c 2 flighted

390 STUDIES OF NATURE.

glafs, changed into chalk, and the ftones of hia
furnace became vitrified. Though it be a rare
thing to fee white earths between the Tropics,
white fands are, however, common there, upon
the (hores. It is certain that this colour, from it's
luftre, and it's refradlion to the Horizon, renders
low lands perceptible at a very great diftance, as
has been well remarked by John-Hugo de Linfchot-
ien, who, but for thofe fentinels planted by Na-
ture on mod of the gloomy and low coafts of In-
dia, mud there have feveral times made (hipwreck.
On the coafts of the Pais de Caux the fands are
gray, but the cliffs are white ; together with this,^
they are divided into black and horizontal ftripes
of pebbles, which form contrafts very perceptible
at a great diftance.

There are places where we find white rocks,
and red lands, as in quarries of mill-ftone ; from
thefe refult very agreeable effeéls, efpecially in con-
nexion with their natural accelfories of vegetables,
and of animals. I ftiould digrefs too far, were I
to enter into any detail on this fubjed. It is fuffi-
cient for me, at prefent, to recommend to Natu-
ralifts to ftudy Nature, as the great Painters do ;
that is, by uniting the harmonies of the three king-
doms. Every one, who fhall obferve in this man-
ner, will find a new light diffufed over the perufal

of

STUDY X. 391,

of Voyages and of Natural Hiftory, though their
-Authors fcarcely ever fpeak of thofe contrails, ex-
cept by chance, and without expreffing any doubt
about the matter. But every man will be himfelf
in a condition to difcover their delightful effects,
in what is called brute Nature, I mean that with
which Man has not intermeddled. Let me fug-
gefb the infallible means of diftinguifliing them :
it is fimply this, as often as a natural objeâ: pre-
fents to you a fentiment of pleafure, you may reft
affured that it exhibits fome harmonic concert.

Beyond all doubt, animals and plants of the
fame climate have not received from the Sun, nor
from the elements, liveries fo varied, and fo cha-
rafteriftic. A thoufand and a thoufand new ob-
fervations may be made upon their contrafts. He
who has not feen them in their natural place, has
not yet become acquainted with their beauty, or
their deformity. Not only are they in oppofitioa
to the grounds of their refpeâiive habitations, but
they are fo likewife between themfelves, as to ge-
nus and genus ; and it is worthy of remark, that,
when thefe contrafts are efl:abliflied, they exifl; in
all the parts of the two individuals. We (hall
fpeak fomewhat of thofe of plants in the following
Study, by fimply glancing at that delightful and
inexhauftible fubjed.

e c 4 Thofe

392 STUDIES OF NATURE

Thofc of animals are ftill farther extended;
they are oppofed not only in forms and in geftures,
but in inftinds ; and with differences fo decidedly
marked, they love to affociate with each other, in
the fame places. It is this confonance of taftes
which diftinguifhes, as T have faid, beings which
are in contraft, from thofe which are contrary, or
enemies. Thus the bee and the butterfly extraâ:
the nedar of the fame flowers ; the fmgie-hoofed
horfe, fnufling up the wind, with his mane flowing
over his graceful neck, delights to amble about
airily over the fame meadows on which the pon-
derous bull imprefles his cloven foot; the dull
and fleady afs takes pleafure in fcrambling over
the rocks where the nimble and capricious goat
friiks and bounds ; the cat and the dog live peace-
ably by the faoje fire-fide, unlefs where the ty-
ranny of Man has vitiated their difpofitions, by a
treatment calculated to excite hatreds and jeaiou-
fies between them.

Finally, contrails exift: not only in the Works
of Nature in general, but in each individual in
particular, and conftitute, as well as confonances,
the organization of bodies. If you examine one
of thofe bodies, of w^iatever fpecies it may be,
you will remark in it forms abfolutely oppofite,
and, neverthelefs, confonant. It is thus that, in

animals.

STUDY X.

393

animals, the excretory organs contrafl with thofe
of nutrition. The long tails of horfes and bulls
are oppofed to the large fize of their heads and
of their necks, and come in as a fupplement to
the motions of thefe anterior parts, which are too
unwieldly to drive away the infeds that infeft
them. On the contrary, the broad tail of the pea-
cock forms a contraft with the length of the neck,
and the fmallnefs of the head, of that magnificent
bird. The proportions of other animals prefent
oppofitions which are no lefs harmonic, nor lefs
happily adapted to the neceffities of each fpecies*.

Harmonies,

* This Law of contrafts is, if I am not miftaken, a delicious
fource of obfervation and difcovery. The women, I repeat it,
always nearer to Nature than we ai'e, employ it continually in
the aflbrtment of the colours which they ufe in drefs, whereas
no Naturalift, as far as I know, has ever obferved that Nature
herfelf ads in conformity to it, in the harmony of all her
Works. Any one may find a demonftration of this, without
ftirring beyond his own houfe. For example, though there be
among dogs a fingular variety of colours, never was any one
feen red, green, or blue : but they are, for the mofl part, of two
oppofite tints, the one clear, and the other dark, in order that
in whatever part of the houfe they are, they may be percep^
tible on the furniture, with the colour of which they would fre-
quently be confounded.

But, though the colours of thofe animals be taken, as well as
thofe of moft quadrupeds, from the two extreme terms of the
progreflion of colours, that is, black and white, I do not recol-

left

594 STUDIES OF NATURE.

Harmonies, confonances, progreffions, and con-
trails, muft, therefore, be reckoned among the
firft elements of Nature. To thefe we are indebted

for

left that I ever faw a dog completely white, or completely
black. White dogs always have fome fpots on their ikins, were
it but the tip of the fnout, of a dark colour. Such as are black
or brown, have ftreaksof white, or fire-coloured fpecks ; fo that
wherever they are, you can eafily perceive them. I have farther
remarked in them this inftinft, efpecially in dogs of a dufky
colour ; when they want to lie down, they always refort to a
white-coloured ground, in preference to one of any other co-
lour. The Ladies well know this to be the cafe ; for if there
happens to be a little dog, of a dark hue, in an apartment where
company is aflembled, he hardly ever faili to go to repofe at a
Lady's foot, and on her petticoats.

The inftinft, which prompts the dog to retire to reft on white
fluffs, arifes from the feeling which hè himfelf has of the contrail
affefted by the fleas, by which he is frequently tormented. Fleas,
in whatever place, refort to white-coloured objefts. If you
enter into a room, where there are many of thofe infers, if you
happen to wear white ftockings, thcfe will inftantly attracl them.
They will even croud to a fingle flieet of white paper. And this
is the reafon why light-coloured dogs are much more infefted
by them than others. I have likewifc obferved, that wherever
there are dogs of a white colour, the black and the brown al-
ways pay court to them, and give them a decided preference as
play-mates, undoubtedly to get rid of the fleas at their expence.
In faying this, however, I do not mean to throw an imputation
of treachery on their profefîions of friendfliip. Were it not
for the inflinft of thefe minute, black, nimble, nofturnal in-
fers, toward the white colour, it would be impofTible to per-
ceive, and to catch them.

The

STUDY X. 395

for the fentiments of order, of beauty, and of plea-
fure, which fprlng up in the mind, at the fight of
her Works j and from their abfence arife the nn-

eafy

The common deep-coloured fly reforts, in like manner, tQ
white and brilliant objeéls ; and this accounts for the tarnifliing
of every thing gloffy and gilded in our apartments. The flefli-
fly delights, on the contrary, to fettle on the livid colours of
meat in a ftate of putridity. His blue corfelet makes him eafily
difcernible on that ground.

If we extend thefe contrats farther, we (liall find that, not
only all fanguinivorous infeds have the inflin<ft of oppofing their
colours to thofe of the fituations in which they live, but all car-
nivorous animals likewife; whereas all feeble, gentle, and in-
noxious animals, as we have feen, are furniflied with means and
inftin<^s of confonance with the ground on which they arc made
to inhabit. Thus has Nature willed it fliould be, in order that
the firrt might be perceived by their enemies, and that the fe«-
cond might be enabled to efcape them.

From thofe natural Laws might be deduced a multitude of
ufeful and agreeable confequences, tending to the improvement
of our habitations, in refpeft of cleanlinefs and conveniency.
For example, in order the more readily to deftroy the infetfls
which difturb our deep, and which are fo common in Paris, it
would be proper to have the alcoves, the ftaining, the drapery,
the wooden frames of our beds, of white or faint colours ; on
which infeils might be eafily perceived.

As to conveniency, every one muft be fenfible how neceflary
it is that the colours of different pieces of furniture fliould form
a contraft, for the purpofe of being dift^inguiflied with facility.
I am frequently at a lofs, for inftance, to know what is become
of my fnuff-box, becaufe it is black, like the table on which I

put

39^ STUDIES OF NATURE.

eafy feelings of diforder, uglinefs, languor, and
difguft. They extend equally to all the king-
doms ; arid though I have limited myfelf, in the
fequel of this Work, to an examination of their
cffe6ts in the vegetable kingdom only, it is impof-
fible for me, however, to deny myfelf the pleafure
of indicating them, at leaft, in the human figure.
It is here that Nature has combined all the har-
monic expreffions in their higheft degree of excel-
lency. All I can do is to trace a feeble fketch of
it. To acknowledge the truth, this is not precifely
the proper place, neither have I leifure to arrange
more than a part of the obfervations which I have
colleded, on this vaft and interefting fubjedl. But

put it down. If Nature had not been poflelTed of more intelli-
gence than I am, the greateft part of her Works would utterly
difappear. It is veiy aftonifliing that Philofophers, who have
purfued fo many curious refearches refpefting the nature of co-
lours, fhouid never have fuggefted a fyliable refpeéling their
contrafts, without which nothing would be diftinguifliable ; or
«ather, their forgetfulnefs is not furprizing : Man is inceflantly
purfuing the illulion which efcapes him, and neglefls the ufeful
truth which is lying at his foot.

The harmonies of colours have, befides, a mighty influence
upon the paflions : but I mud not prefume to fay any thing with
regard to this, in a Country where the Women employ them
with fuch unbounded fway. To the Women I (land indebted
for the firll idea I had of fludying the elements of the Laws, by
which Nature herfelf ftrives to communicate pleafure to us.

of

STUDY X. 39^

the little, which I am going to advance, will be fuf-
ficient to overturn the pofition maintained by men
of but too high celebrity in the World of Science,
namely, That human Beauty is arbitrary.

I will even go fo far as to flatter myfelf with the
hope, that thefe rude Eflays may induce wife men,
who love .Nature, and who wifli to be acquainted
with her Laws, to dig into the receffes of this vaft
mountain of hidden treafure, in which Truth lies
buried. Their multiplied illumination will con-
duâ: them, without difficulty, through the whole
extent of that invaluable mine, of which, groping
like a blind man, I have traced only the firft fu-
perficial furrows. They will be led on from one
rich vein of precious ore, to another ftill richer,
fmce even I, if I may prefume to fay fo, have been
able, at the bottom of a valley, and on the fandy
bed of a little rivulet, to pick up a few ftraggHng
grains of gold.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.