religion to render due adoration to the Creator were fufpended, from the impoffibility of maintaining the wine and water in that state of fluidity requifite for the celebration of the holy myfteries. From these atteftations a perfect idea may be formed of the degree to which the froft was felt. While it performed its devastations, and the most vigorous travellers funk beneath its attacks, I in vain traversed the villages and hamlets to offer my fervices, and feek an afylum against the cold and hunger which oppreffed me. As I was proceeding from Provins to Brie, to a farm which was diftant about a league and a half, I was feized with fuch a violent head-ach, that it seemed ready to burft every moment, and my eyes fit to dart from their fockets. Arrived at the farm-door, I begged the perfon who opened it to put me quickly in fome place of warmth, where I might lay me down, to enable me to fupport, in fome degree, the dreadful pain with which I was oppreffed. He immediately conducted me to the ftable of his theep, where the breath of these inocuous animals immediately relieved me from the torpidnefs with which I was feized; but with regard, to my torments, they were heightened almoft to madness. On the following morning, the farmer coming to fee me, he was frightened on beholding my eyes fparkling and inflamed, my face bloated, my fkin red as fcarlet, and all covered with puftules. He immediately declared it would infallibly prove my death, that I had the fmall-pox, and that as he himself not having wherewith to fubfift, it would be impoffible for him to fuccour me during fo te dious an illness; that, befides the intemperance of the feafon, which alone would render it mortal, he faw it was utterly impracticable to conduct me to fuch affiftance as was neceflary. Perceiving I was unable to reply to his complaints,

he was touched with compaffion, and, quitting me, almoft immediately returned loaded with a bundle of old linen, with which he wrapped me up like a mummy, after having divefted me of my clothes. As the dung of the theepfold was feparated into diftinct beds, the farmer began to remove fome of them; and, filling the place which they occupied with straw, laid me in the midst of it, and, ftrewing 'fome upon me in the manner of down, afterwards rolled over me, inftead of a coverlet, the various beds of dung which he had moved: being thus interred, he made the fign of the crofs upon me, recommended me to God and the faints, and affured me as he left the place, that, if I escaped the danger I was in, it would be a moft furprising

miracle. Thus then I remained,

like another Job, not upon but buried in the dung to my very neck, and waiting that death which would change it for a tomb. So great was my imbecility, that I already thought myself at the point of death; but I was not fo alarmed as I had formerly been, as I forefaw that my life would almoft infenfibly refign itself without any of thofe keen and piercing torments which rend the foul and body from each other: but I was more fortunate than I had reafon to hope. The heat of the dung, together with the breath of the fheep, who were my companions, occafioned ample perfpiration, which ferved to expel the poifon with which I was impregnated; fo that the eruption being foon produced, it fixed itself on my exterior, occafioning no other accident than a tolerable number of thofe erosions, so justly dreaded by the beauties of the age as the fatal defpoilers of all their charms. This horrible deformity, which had almoft deprived me of the human figure, did not, however, prevent the sheep from paying me frequent vifits. As I had not firength to avoid them,

they often took the liberty to lick my face; but the roughness of their tongues made me fuffer the torments of Marfyas. I exerted my utmost to avoid these cruel careffes, lefs with regard to myfelf than that I feared the venom with which I was loaded might prove prejudicial to the poor fheep, not knowing, then, that this poifon was a thing peculiar only to animals of my own fpecies.

Whilft I was thus, as it were, bu ried in putridity and infection, the winter continued to defolate the countries by the most terrible devaftation. Behind the sheep-fold, where I marked its rigours, there were many groupes of walnut-trees and towering oaks which spread their branches over the tiles which covered me. I paffed few nights without being awaked by fudden and impetuous noises, similar to the thunder of

artillery; and when in the morning I enquired the cause of this fracas, they informed me that the keenness of the froft had been fo powerful, that ftones of an enormous fize had

been split in pieces, and that many oaks, walnut, and other trees, had been riven to the very roots. I have already obferved that the charitable farmer had affured me that his indi. gence would not fuffer him to help me as he could wish; and in fact be had been fo ruined by impofts, that the tax-gatherers had poffeffed them. felves of his goods, and fold every thing, even to the beasts destined to the cultivation of the lands. The fheep-fold had fhared the general wreck, but that it belonged to the proprietor of the farm. Hence my hoft was right in warning me of the treatment which I was to expect from him. It is true, that in the commencement of my illness I was not much expence to him, as, during many days, I was incapable of taking the leaft nourishment. There was even danger that I should perish through inanition, if, instead of nou righing foups, which I could not pro cure, the good farmer had not thought of administering to me a kind of thick

milk, feasoned only with as much falt as might in fome degree prevent its infipidity. This he fent me twice a day in a veffel fomething fimilar to a great flagon, provided with a cock, in order that I might keep it in the dung, to prevent it from freezing. This was the only aliment on which I lived for more than fifteen days; and, as for drink, I was forced to content myself with fome water, which they very often brought me, half frozen. When my appetite feemed to require food more folid, the whole which they were capable of furnishing me with confifted of a little foup maigre and fome pieces of brown bread, which the froft had fo hardened, that they were compelled to cut it with the axe; fo that, not withstanding my extreme hunger, I was compelled to fuck it, or wait till it was foftened by means fimilar to thofe employed in liquefying my broth. Spite of a regimen, the aufterity of which had fufficed to fanctify a penitent, the poor farmer con. feffed to me that he was no longer able to sustain the expence, and that he would feek fome means to unload himfelf of it, and place it on others better able to fupport it. He in confequence spoke to the curate of the parifh, refiding about three quarters of a league diftant from the farm, who confented that I should be removed to a houfe contiguous to his own; they therefore drew me from my tomb as well as they could, and, after having fwathed me in fome old clothes, and furrounded me with two or three bundles of hay, in order to fecure me from the froft, they thus placed me on an afs, and, a perfon being placed on one fide of me, to prevent me falling, in this manner conducted me to the village. Being arrived, they found me more than half dead with the cold which I had fuftained; and they thought that, if I ever recovered, I must inevitably be deprived of the use of some of my limbs. This misfortune had unquestionably been the confequence, had they at first taken me to a fire;

but they providently took the precaution of rubbing my face, arms, and legs, with fnow, until they were reftored to some degree of animation. To revive the reft, they replaced me in a bed fimilar to that from which they had taken me, and eight days after, the cold being mitigated, they gave me a room and a bed, where, by the generofity and kind attention of the charitable curate, my ftrength and health were foon reftored. But, alas! they informed me that fervitude must foon be their fate, and that to that they muft refolve me.

It is evident, by what I have faid, and more fo by the Latin verses which I have quoted, that all that the earth produces for the fubfiftence of human nature, not even excepting fruittrees of the moft folid confiftence, had been destroyed by the force and penetrating activity of the froft.

There are abundance of writers who have exercised their ftyle and genius in compofing differtations equally learned and curious on the quantity of the fnow, the violence of the winds which then reigned, the thickness of the ice, the various degrees of cold, and to what depth it was felt in fubterraneous places; but I know none who have had the courage and noble daring to delineate the dreadful mifery which this fcourge wrought among the people: how many wretches, affailed by fnow, and confumed by want, were found dead in their mournful habitations. None of these authors have related the cruelty and fhameless infenfibility of the rich; the glaring and fcandalous rapines of ufurers, both facred and profane, who fattened on the public ill, in augmenting the dearnefs of provifions, in keeping their granaries fhut, and in obdurating their hearts against compaffion. I am ignorant whether the govern ment was fully aware of this public calamity, and what means it em ployed to obviate it; but this I know, that the militia, the excife, the taxes, &c. were always exacted with the

fame rigour. Befides the elemental war, they fuftained another more fanguinary and equally ruinous. For full nine years a branch of the house of Auftria, established in Spain, had been extinguished by that lethargy into which its oriental manners, the falfe fubtleties, and the timid and obfcure policy of its minifter had plunged it. The houfe of Bourbon, equally to be dreaded for its arms and intellectual activity, found means to adjudge to thenfelves the fucceffion. The French were lavish of their lives and fortunes to poffefs an extenfive monarchy, which had been ruined by its vain and cruel conquefts, and the members of which, diffeminated in every quarter of the globe, formed rather a fhadow than an actually animated body. After various engagements and deluges of gold and blood, they at length arrived at the crifis of fupporting one of their princes on the Spanish throne; and imagining that they would from that time, without doubt, employ the Peruvian treafures to teftify their lenfe of gratitude. Whilft they thus arduoufly laboured to give a mafter to fo many nations in either hemifphere, I was not able to find one for myself. With what cruelty was I perfecuted by famine! Seeing it was impoffible to fubfift in the province in which I was, I bethought myfelf to discover whether want was univerfal, and if there was no corner of the earth in which the corn had not been frozen. They informed me, that towards the eaft and fouth there might be countries which, from their fituation, or their proximity to the fun, might perhaps have escaped the ravages of the great winter; for fuch they always denominated that of 1709.This news excited in me the most lively joy, and conftituted a fource of reflections. Hitherto the grand fpectacle of the univerfe had no other effect on me than on common people. I had been warmed and lighted by the fun; my eyes had beheld this star animate all nature, form

the feafons, and produce the admirable viciffitude of day and night; but my mind perceived it not: I thought of nothing but that the days and feafons had a beginning and an end, that fummer occafioned heat, and winter cold. I refembled those empty idols who poffefs eyes, but fee nought: religion was the power which awakened mine, in difclofing to me the Divinity in all its works. If this perfpective could form great men, even in the bofom of paganism, what effect will it not produce in the religion which we profess? a religion, which inculcates that the heavens unceasingly celebrate the glory and power of their Author. Why, then, do we neglect thofe praifes which they promulgate? The habit of daily beholding fo many wonders, ought it to diminifh the admiration or weaken the gratitude which it fhould excite in us? I am perfuaded that fome traits of this theology of nature, clearly and fimply expreff ed, and with all the dignity fuitable to fo interefting a fubject, would outweigh thofe fomniferous homilies, and phlegmatic, ridiculous fermons, with which they feed the ignorance of the common people. In disclosing what is known of the mysteries of nature, they would teach them to revere thofe of religion. I know an infinite number of countrymen who call themselves chriftians, and who in good earnest believe themselves fuch, only because they have been baptized; but whofe words and actions manifeftly prove that much would be required to demonftrate to them the existence of a God. Thefe proofs, which have by scholars been buried beneath an immenfity of fyllogifms and captioufnefs, will be found eminently predominant in the grand book of nature; but this volume, open to the eyes of all nations, and the most intelligible of all, is unhap pily that which they leaft confult. In confequence of my ignorance as to the ftructure and arrangement of the univerfe, I had formed the following ridiculous idea of it. I efti

mated the extent of that which I called the world by what I could difcern in a ferene and clear day. I figured to myfelf the earth under the fimple idea of a plane furface, Similar to that of a vaft circular field, the contour of which ferved as the bafis and fupport of that part of the heavens which my eye could command. Without ever having heard fpeak of Ariftotle or Ptolemy, I, like them, imagined that the heavens were folid, and tranfparent like cryftal, and that the ftars with which they were ftrewn were attached like fo many flambeaux which extinguished themfelves during the day, and at the approach of night were again by their own agency illuminated. When I heard that the fun rose, set, and arrived at its meridian, I took it for an animated and intelligent being; and what ftrengthened my error was, that I always faw it reprefented under the figure of a human head environed with rays. As it did not appear to me either when rifing or declining at any great diftance from the earth, and convinced, befides, that it was the principle of heat, I imagined that, if I could approach it, I fhould certainly find an afylum against the dreadful fcourge which the great winter had produced. My mind thus pre poffeffed with this deluLive project, I began to walk precifely towards the eaft; which fingle point ferved me as my guide, and directed my fteps like the polar star regulates the courfe of a veffel. This mechanical progreffion at length conducted me to the arid plains of Champagne, where indigence and famine feemed to have fixed their abode. The houfes covered with thatch and reeds were almost level with the earth, and refembled ice-houfes; a plafter of clay intermixed with a little ftraw was the only obstacle which defended the entrance. With regard to the inhabitants, their figure won

derfully correfponded with the poverty of their cabins. The rags with which they were covered, their emaciated countenances, their livid and dejected eyes, their languid deportment, fullen and benumbed, the nudity and thinnefs of the many children whom hunger had withered up, and whom I faw fcattered among the hedges and ditches, feeking for certain roots which they devoured with avidity; all confpiring to prefent the dreadful fymptoms of a public calamity, fhocked me, and created in me an invincible averfion for that defolated country. I therefore traversed it as rapidly as poflibly, poffeffing for aliment only fome herbs and a little hempen bread which I bought, and which even coft me much trouble to procure. This heating and corrofive nutriment, deftined only for the food of the most despicable animals, emafculated my strength, vitiated the foundness of my temperament, and was the fource of infirmities, of which I long felt the effects. In continuing my eaftern progrefs, I arrived at the fummit of a hill, at the bottom of which was a kind of village, involved in thick clouds, which I conceived to be the confequence of a confiagration, but they informed me that this fmoke was produced by the fources of boiling waters which iffued from the bofom of the earth. Arriving near thefe fources, I laid me down to examine them with more attention; but words cannot exprefs the aftonishment I felt, when on plunging my head into the water I was compelled quickly to withdraw it from the extreme heat. I repeated many times the trial, and, not perceiving any kind of fire near thefe fountains capable of caufing this heat, I firmly believed it to be in the precincts of hell. I was even aftonifhed that they could remain a moment at Bourbonne-les-Bains without fear or danger, and I therefore foon de