only in proportion to their depth. I then began to read it once, twice, and three times; but always equally ineffectually. I at first attributed this bad fuccefs to the confined 1phere of my knowledge; and I remember that I fhed tears of anger, and prayed God to enlighten me. At length, when I began to reflect that I very well understood the fignification of each particular term, but that the periods which they compofed offered to my mind only an indirect fenfe and confufed ideas, I fufpected that the obfcurity of this work proceeded as much, perhaps, from the depth of the matter, and the manner in which the author had treated it, as from the narrowness of my penetration. It was, in fact, an infipid mafs of fophifms, of metaphyfical diftin&tions, divifions, and fubdivifions, fuch as had infected all the fchools before the Defcartes, the Leibnitzs, the Lockes, and the Newtons had introduced reafon to them, and delivered good fenfe from the yoke of cuftom and opinion. Hence I began to think it firange that the pub. lic had been fo blind as to pay tribute tofophifts capable of inculcating only fuch fooleries; and that vain heaps of thefe faftidious trifles had procured to fome of them the arrogant titles of fubtle, enlightened, irrefragable. But what appeared to me ftill more deteftable, was, that thefe pedants were often reduced to have recourfe to the fovereign authority, in order to oblige the world to think like themselves. That the efforts and folicitude with which they fought to perfecute the investigators of nature and reafon may be in fome degree imagined, they affirmed that they had a particular intereft in perpetuating barbarity, and in retaining the people under the empire of ignorance and prejudice. The time and trouble which I had spent in endeavouring to comprehend the apocalypfe of Raymond Lully made me regard him as an empiric, who enjoyed potterity only by a confufed mafs of enigmatical phrafes, which

poffeffed neither fenfe nor connec tion. To avenge myself on this curfed doctor, I committed his obfcure book to the flames, and I would not have hefitated to have done the fame with all the other fcholaftic chimeras, had I known them, and they had been in my power. However, a few days after, curiofity induced me to perufe another work, equally frivolous with the above. Chance prefented to me an ample differtation on the language which will be fpoken in heaven after the end of the world. I was very much aftonifhed when the author affirmed that this advantage was referved for the Hebrew language. I have never been able to difcover who taught him this fingularity; but though he apparently was ferious in it, I had ever thought that fuch attenuated creatures as thofe of heaven would exprefs themfelves rather by fentiment, and a manner purely intellectual and penetrative, than to employ a language fo guttural and harth as that of the rabbins. I judged thus from having heard at Nancy two Jews, who were difputing in this language: the convulfive movements of the mouth and throat, and the dif cordant tones which iffued from them as if by explofion, stunning my ears, made me take thefe two Ifraelites for poffeffed enthufiafts, and their language for that which men might have fpoken if they had been anterior to the formation of the world.

The quantity of books which my induftry had enabled me to acquire rendered me acquainted with their dedications. They did not fail to infpire me with a very high idea of the merit of thofe to whom they were addreffed. I naturally imagined that all the qualities there attributed to them were real; for I could not fuppofe that they dared create them without being expofed to a formal lie on their fides, at leaft as they were deviating from truth. What aftonifhed me was, that thefe epiftles were never addreffed but to kings,

princes, or great lords, whofe protection they implored for the fuccefs of the work they prefented. I thought this demand very foolish and afelefs; for, if the work were good, it did not appear to me that the protection of any one was neceffary; but, on the contrary, if it were bad, I did not fee how any king or prince could prevent the public from difapproving of it, at leaft tacitly; for I was well perfuaded that the mind and the movements of the heart could not be fubjected but by prejudice and fuperftition. I had not I had not then fufficient experience to fufpect that ambition and intereft could induce any one to falfehood, in attributing to an earthly lord virtues which he did not poffefs, or which, perhaps, he would fupprefs, left they hould conftrain his paffions; or, even if this great lord did in fact poffefs that knowledge and those extraordinary talents which they af figned to him, I even then thought the author wrong in withing to apprize him of that which he must doubtlefs know better than himself. However, from that time I much doubted whether humility and modefty were always the principal ap pendages of greatnefs. But what was my furprife, when, after fome examination, I was convinced that the greater part of thofe to whom they addreffed these dedicatory epif. tles were either noble, rich, or powerful. I had never yet found nobility, opulence, or power, in the lift of virtues. Such fortuitous and cafual qualities never appeared to me refpectable in themfelves, but only conventionally and relatively to the good ufe they might make of them. But it was ftill worfe when I knew that many of those whom they thus praifed in dedications, far from being virtuous or learned, were fometimes vicious and ignorant. I then compared the eulogies which they lavished on them to those abfurd canticles which the antient Egyptians refounded on the altars of their ox, apis, and on those of their apes and

crocodiles. The only difference I found between them was, that thẹ gods of the Nile were affuredly most infenfible, whereas the modern idols feem to exact from their adorers a fubmiflion fo blind and so servile as deferves to be confounded with annihilation. To thefe ideas on dedi. catory epiftles fucceeded the first notions 1 ever had of those jealoufies, hatreds, and diffentions, which fometimes agitate the members of the literary republic. Having flipped one day into the library of the Carmelites at Luneville, I happened to meet with a theological pamphlet joined to another which was its an fwer and refutation. I thought I there faw the natural portrait of all the vices of the heart and mind. The infulting irony, the duplicity, the impofture, the hypocrify, and the malignity, were like fo many monfters, whofe very description infpired me with horror. What ftruck me as being very fingular was, that the two antagonists made equal proteftations of their fincerity and good faith, and seemed to neglect nothing which might give to their reafonings force and perfpicuity of evidence. Thus, not having fufficient knowledge to judge which of the two authors were right or wrong, the perufal of their learned pamphlets became as useless to me as that of the scholaftic vifions of Raymond Lully. But that was not the only occafion on which I had loft my time in reading a quantity of other works, where, inftead of that truth which I fought with ardour, I very often found nothing but the fiction of empty words, prejudice, and, not unfrequently, animofity and heavinets. I had ever figured to myself, that the natural effect of fcience was to render its votaries veridical and fincere in their dif courfes and in their writings, and equitable, moderate, and polished in their manners; implacable enemies to vice, and zealous partizans of humanity. It was thus that I attributed to fcience operations which, in fact, belonged to virtue. But I had

foon reafon to undeceive myself in the fequel, when I beheld the indecent manner with which the moft gigantic geniuses, fuch as the Scaligers, the Cardons, the Scioppius's, and many others, have treated each other in difputes, whofe object was often nothing more than the fignification of a Greek or Latin word, the arrangement of a phrafe, or fome other fuch trifles. If their grammatical wars have sometimes diverted me, it was not fo with their theological difputes. I fhuddered when I learnt that in their bofoms were hatched those schisms and herefies which have fo many times obfcured the face of religion, plunged whole nations into revolution and the frenzy of civil wars, and fhook the moft powerful

monarchies even to their founvery dations. These dreadful revolutions prepoffeffed me against a fcience to which I had perhaps devoted myfelf, but that I dreaded thofe rocks with which it appeared befet. But when I remarked that many of the queftions which they difcuffed feemed fuggefted only by abstraction and pure fubtlety, and that others appeared of fuch a nature as could be decided only in the councils of the Eternal, I refolved to abandon fuch high difquifitions to thofe whofe minds were capable of a more exalted and rapid flight than mine. I candidly confefs, that that which had nearly made me abjure every kind of ftudy, was the mean partiality of many writers; their culpable difpofition to flatter the great, even to fatiety and difguft; and, what is ftill more, the miferable pretexts which fome of them have invented to extenuate the enormity of the most violent outrages which have been committed against humanity; fuch as the extirpation of the people of the new world, the pillages, the profanations, and wars exercifed in Germany by the Swedes during upwards of thirty years, and the plundering of the Palatinate by the most polished nation in Europe; dreadful events, which ignorance had hid VOL. I.

from me, and which all the fubterfuges of cunning cannot prevent from for ever fullying the annals of chriftianity. The public apologies to justify fuch exceffes have often recalled to my memory the infamous decree of the Athenian magiftrates, in which they ordered that every thing which King Demetrius did fhould be held as facred towards the gods and equitable towards men.-Such fanatic traits indicate a hundred times better the fources of idolátry than all the ample volumes which have been published on its origin. If fuch examples have always been repugnant to me, I have at leaft reaped this advantage,-that they have contributed more to preferve me from that arrogant prefumption which is imputed to many of thofe whofe erudition have diftinguifhed them from the vulgar. I imagined, that, fince human knowledge was fo expofed to the canker of prejudice, and fo often at vari ance with the dictates of the confcience, and with probity, that it was an error in literary vanity to appre ciate them above their juft worth. Befides, being fometimes excited to reflect on the nature of vanity in itfelf, and to what it was ufeful, I obferved that, univerfally, its natural effect was to render itself odious, ridiculous, and contemptible. I then imagined that thofe who thus dimmed the luftre of their talents by a foolish pride, and yet at the fame time afpired to public esteem, juft purfued the very oppofite road to that which I had feen the animals of my foreft employ, who, to arrive at their end, always adapted the most proper means to obtain it. Thus, in guarding myfelf against the vortex of vanity, I have only done by reason that which animals do by inttinet. I confefs that the ferious reflections I have fince made on the tumult and confufion of the age; on the dreadful character of Machiavelism, and of the ufual policy; on the melancholy effects of ambition; on the multitude and quality of the victims

5 D

which they facrificed; on the shortnefs of this life, and on the eternity of the next, I confefs, I fay, that thefe reflections have contributed much to render dear to me the prudent obfcurity in which I have lived, and to which I owe that liberty and happy tranquillity I to this day have enjoyed.

CHAP. IV.

The extreme Agitation which the Opera of Ifis excited in me at Paris in 1718. My Journey to Verfailles, and my Aftonishment at the Appearance of the Statues and the Water Works.

WHILST I was occupied in contemplating a trophy in the place of victory, at the erection of which humanity and moderation could certainly have no part, I perceived a quantity of carriages all directing their courfe one particular way. Some one informing me that they were going to the opera, I recollected that, previous to my departure from Lorrain, a gentleman of the prince's bed-chamber had given me wherewith to pay for a place at this brilliant fpectacle. It was therefore to accomplish the intentions of the donor that I repaired to the palace royal, where I met the old Marquis De Frichateau, mafter of the horfe of H. R. H. of Lorrain, to whom I imparted my defign. This Lord had the kindness to aflure me, that I fhould fee the opera without any expence of my own, and, taking me by the arm, he conducted me himfelf to his box. It is neceffary to know that I had never yet been prefent at any one theatrical reprefentation whatever. It was not but that at Luneville the magnificence of the fovereign maintained a very good theatre, which the court and public frequented gratuitoufly; but my timidity and, my inclination for folitude had prevented me from participating in it. The better to conceive the furprife which the opera excited in me, imagine to yourfelf an American, who,

at the moment of his debarkation in Europe, finds himself transported to the apparent place of fuch an enchanting fpectacle: doubtlefs it will be great, though much blunted by the ignorance of fuch a person. The exclufion of this laft rendered me fufceptible of the most lively and powerful impreffions, as the furprife of fenfe was yet augmented by that of the mind. In fact, the prologue was hardly finished, when I was informed of the fubject which they were about to perform. It is true I paid attention only to the recital, not imagining that they could reduce it to action. I have already mentioned, that in my foreft at St. Anne's I applied fedulously to the study of mythology, and I confess, with fhame, that the reveries of paganifm were more easily imprefied upon my memory than the truths of my religion. I was alfo fo attached to poetical geography, that many of the places were not unknown to me which had been the theatre of fabulous events. Thus, when I faw that the fcene of the opera of Ifis was on the banks of the river Inachus, which watered the dominions of the great Agamemnon, the topography of Argos and Mycena prefented itfelf almost as diftinctly to my mind as that of the environs of Luneville. A whistle having announced the commencement of the spectacle, a moft delightful landscape, ornamented with palaces and venerable ruins, difplayed itself fo fuddenly, that it appeared rather to be the effect of fairy power. But my aftonishment was completed, when I perceived in the back of the theatre a number of fhips in fuch a natural agitation, that I could have fworn they were the fport of a real tempeft. Yet when I beheld the divinities of the earth, of the waters flocking from all parts to render their homages to Jupiter, feated on a radiant cloud armed with his thunder, and leaning on his eagle, I candidly confefs that my furprife bordered on extravagance. I thought, for certain, that what I be

held was the reality of that which I bad read in my foreft, and that the polytheifm of the pagans was not fo chimerical as I had formerly imagined. The amorous lamentations of the unhappy Hierax, the lover of Io, and the grief of Pan at the fight of his dear Syrinx transformed into reeds, foftened me into tears; but they were interrupted by a charming concert of flutes, pipes, and bagpipes, which the officious Mercury, and a numerous troop of fhepherds, formed to lull the vigilant Argus. This concert was fo peculiarly adapted to excite fleep, that it was with much difficulty I myself refrained from it. I furmounted it, however, to obferve the beautiful lo wandering on the borders of the river which had given her birth. Whilft I was thus afflicted at her fate, a brilliant cloud gradually defcended from the theatric heaven, which being opened, fuddenly discovered the fuperb Juno feated on her throne, adorned with her diadem, her hand grafping the fceptre, and with all that air of grandeur and majefty which the poet attributes to her. This haughty deity infpired me with fo much refpect, that I had very near fallen on my knees to adore her. But this fentiment was foon altered, when, inclining her fceptre, the evoked from the bottom of hell the implacable Erynnis, who, by means of a fiery whirlwind, immediately prefented herfelf, her head hung with fnakes, and holding in one hand a flambeau, and in the other a quantity of adders, the wreathings and hiffings of which I feemed to behold and hear. The jealous goddess ordered this cruel monfter to torture and purfue in every place the amiable daughter of Inachus, whom the enticements of Jupiter had rendered her rival. She was fo puntuaily obeyed, that in an inftant the beautiful nymph, always befet by the horrible Eumenide, found herself tranfported amidst the fnows and frofts of Scythia, whither alfo my imagination rendered me as fuddenly. In fact, I was fo agitated, that

when I beheld the Hyperborean peo. ple iffue from their mournful caverns and their grottos, and finging with a querulous and phlegmatic voice the rigours of their climate, it feemed as though the froft began to pinch me; and I well remember, that, by a mechanical impulfe, I blew my fingers, as if they required fresh warmth. But when by another change of fcenery the fury had tranf planted the unfortunate Io to the regions of the Cyclops, like her I dreaded left I fhould be confumed by the flames which their furnaces vomited, and like her I felt intimidated at the noife which the Cyclops excited by making their anvils groan beneath the reiterated blows of their maffy hammers. But words cannot exprefs the fenfations with which I was agitated, when the three deftinies, fuch as they are depicted by mythology, iffuing from a gloomy cavern, advanced along the ftage, ac companied by war and its furies, dreadful evils, incendiaries, inundations, and fhipwrecks, who all teftified by their dreadful fongs that it was not their purpose to remain inactive. It was by the following verfes that this formidable troop intimated their generous intentions towards unhappy man :

"Que le fer que la faim, que le feu, que "les eaux

"Que tout ferve à creufer mille et mille "tombeaux,

"Qu'on s'empreffe d'entrer dans les roy

"aumes jombres," &c.

I can with fafety affirm, that my whole frame fhook at thefe terrible words, and that fear never made on me fo powerful an impreffion. But I was foon recovered, when in the twinkling of an eye the fcenes reprefented the banks of the Nile, and at a diftance the steep rocks of the lower Ethiopia where the grand cataract appeared in a manner so just and natural, as almost tempted me to believe that by fome magic art they had tranfported on the tage a real river. Whilft I was occupied in contemplating this wonder, I per