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wretchedness of childhood, and drawing nearer to that of old age: the contrary however takes place, in virtue of the moral sentiment which I have alledged.

When an old manis virtuous, the moral sentiment of his distress is excited in us with redoubled force; this is an evident proof that pity in Man is by no means an animal affection. The sight of a Belisarius is accordingly a most affecting object. If you heighten it by the introduction of a child holding out his little hand to receive the alms bestowed on that illustrious blind beggar, the impression of pity is still more powerful. But let me put a sentimental case. Suppose you had fallen in with Belisarius soliciting charity, on the one hand, and on the other, an orphan child blind and wretched, and that you had but one crown, without the possibility of dividing it, To whether of the two would you have given it?

If on reflection you find that the eminent services rendered by Belisarius to his ungrateful Country, have inclined the balance of sentiment too decidedly in his favour, suppose the child overwhelmed with the woes of Belisarius, and at the same time possessing some of his virtues, such as having his eyes put out by his parents, and nevertheless continuing to beg alms for their relief;* there

*The rector of a country village, in the vicinity of Paris, not far from Dravet, underwent in his infancy a piece of inhumanity not less barbarous from the hands of his parents. He suffered castration from his own father, who was by profession a surgeon : he nevertheless supported that udnatural parent in his old age. I believe both father and son are still in life.

would

would in my opinion be no room for hesitation, provided a man felt only: for if you reason, the case is entirely altered; the talents, the victories, the renown of the Grecian General, would presently absorb the calamities of an obscure child. Reason will recal you to the political interest, to the I hu

man.

The sentiment of innocence is a ray of the Divinity. It invests the unfortunate person with a celestial radiance which falls on the human heart, and recoils, kindling it into generosity, that other flame of divine original. It alone renders us sensible to the distress of virtue, by representing it to us as incapable of doing harm; for otherwise we might be induced to consider it as sufficient for itself. In this it would excite rather admiration than pity.

Of the Love of Country.

This sentiment is, still farther, the source of love of Country, because it brings to our recollection the gentle and pure affections of our earlier years. It increases with extension, and expands with the progress of time, as a sentiment of a celestial and immoral nature. They have in Switzerland an ancient musical air, and extremely simple, called the rans des vaches. The music of this air produces an effect so powerful, that it was found necessary to prohibit the playing of it, in Holland and in France, before the Swiss soldiers, because it set them all adeserting one after another. I imagine that the rans des vaches must imitate the lowing and bleating of the cattle, the repercussion of the echoes,

and

and other associations, which made the blood boil in the veins of those poor soldiers, by recalling to their memory, the vallies, the lakes, the mountains of their Country,* and at the same time the companions of their early life, their first loves, the recollection of their indulgent grandfathers, and the like.

The love of Country seems to strengthen in proportion as it is innocent and unhappy. For this reason Savages are fonder of their Country than polished Nations are; and those who inhabit regions rough and wild, such as mountaineers, than those who live in fertile countries and fine climates. Never could the Court of Russia prevail upon a single Samoïède to leave the shores of the Frozen Ocean, and settle at Petersburg. Some Greenlanders were brought in the course of the last century to the Court of Copenhagen, where they were entertained with a profusion of kindness, but soon fretted themselves to death. Several of them were drowned in attempting to return to their country in an open boat. They

* I have been told that Poutaveri, the Indian of Otaheité, who was some years ago brought to Paris, on seeing, in the Royal Garden, the paper mulberry-tree, the bark of which is in that island manufactured into cloth, the tear started to his eye, and clasping it in his arms, he exclaimed: Ah! tree of my country! I could wish it were put to the trial, whether on presenting to a foreign bird, say a paroquet, a fruit of it's country, which it had not seen for a considerable time, it would express some extraordinary emotion. Though physical sensations attach us so strongly to Country, moral sentiments alone can give them a vehement intensity. Time, which blunts the former, gives only a keener edge to the latter. For this reason it is that veneration for a monument is always in propor tion to it's antiquity, or to it's distance: this explains that expression of Tacitus: Major è longinque reverentia : distance increases reverence.. :

beheld

beheld all the magnificence of the Court of Denmark with extreme indifference; but there was one in particular, whom they observed to weep every time he saw a woman with a child in her arms; hence they conjectured that this unfortunate man was a father. The gentleness of domestic education, undoubtedly, thus powerfully attaches those poor people to the place of their birth. It was this which inspired the Greeks and Romans with so much courage in the defence of their Country. The sentiment of innocence strengthens the love of it, because it brings back all the affections of early life, pure, sacred, and incorruptible. Virgil was well acquainted with the effect of this sentiment, when he puts into the mouth of Nisus, who was dissuading Euryalus from undertaking a nocturnal expedition fraught with danger, those affecting words:

Te superesse velim: tua vitâ dignior ætas.

If thou survive me, I shall die content:
Thy tender age deserves the longer life.

But among Nations with whom infancy is rendered miserable, and is corrupted by irksome, ferocious, and unnatural education, there is no more love of Country than there is of innocence. This is one of the causes which sends so many Europeans a-rambling over the World, and which accounts for our having so few modern monuments in Europe, because the next generation never fails to destroy the monuments of that which preceded it. This is the reason that our books, our fashions, our customs, our ceremonies, and our languages, become obsoVOL. III.

F

lete

lete so soon, and are entirely different this age from what they were in the last; whereas all these particulars continue the same among the sedentary Nations of Asia, for a long series of ages together; because children brought up in Asia, in the habitation of their parents, and treated with much gentleness, remain attached to the establishments of their ancestors out of gratitude to their memory, and to the places of their birth from the recollection of their happiness and innocence.

OF THE SENTIMENT OF ADMIRATION.

The sentiment of admiration transports us immediately into the bosom of DEITY. If it is excited in us by an object which inspires delight, we convey ourselves thither as to the source of joy; if terror is roused, we flee thither for refuge. In either case, Admiration exclaims in these words, Ah, my God! This is, we are told, the effect of education merely, in the course of which frequent mention is made of the name of God; but mention is still more frequently made of our father, of the king, of a protector, of a celebrated literary character. How comes it then that when we feel ourselves standing in need of support, in such unexpected concussions we never exclaim, Ah, my King! or, if Science were concerned, Ah, Newton!

It is certain, that if the name of God be frequently mentioned to us in the progress of our education, the idea of it is quickly effaced in the usual train of the affairs of this World; why then have we recourse to it in extraordinary emergencies? This sentiment of Nature is common to all Nations,

many

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