Je hais ces Mots de Puiffance abfolue, PIBRAC. Tranflated by MRS. PIOZZI.. I hate thefe vile Maxims of abfolute Sway, To Frenchmen too fatal a Notion; From our Laws all the Life they have taken away, And all the good Senfe from Devotion, 30X 393 LETTER S FROM FRANCE. I LETTER I. ARRIVED at Paris, by a very rapid journey, the day before the federation; and when I am disposed to murmur at the evils of my destiny, I shall henceforth put this piece of good fortune into the oppofite scale, and reflect how many disappointments it ought to counterbalance. Had the packet which conveyed me from Brighton to Dieppe failed a few hours later; had the wind been contrary; in fhort, had I not reached Paris at the moment I did reach it, I fhould have miffed the most fublime fpectacle which, perhaps, was ever reprefented on the theatre of this earth. I fhall fend you once a week the details which I promised when we parted, though I am well aware how very imperfectly I shall be able to defcribe the images which prefs upon my mind. It is much easier to feel what is fublime than to paint it; and all I fhall be able to give you will be a faint fketch, to which your own imagination muft add colouring and fpirit. The night before the federation, by way of prelude to the folemnities of that memorable day, the Te Deum was performed at the church of Notre Dame, by a greater number of muficians than have ever been affembled together, excepting at Westminster Abbey. The overture which preceded the Te Deum was fimple and majestic: the mufic, highly expreffive, had the power of electrifying the hearers: and near the conclufion |