ved from mufic; you regret your want of mufical powers and mufical feelings it is a department of foul, you fay, which nature has almost denied you, which, from the effects you fee it have on others, you are fure must be highly delightful."

34. "Why fhould not the fame thing be faid of religion? Trust me, I feel it in the fame way, an energy, an infpiration, which I would not lofe for all the bleflings of fenfe, or enjoy. ments of the world; yet fo far from leffening my relish of the pleafures of life, that I feel it heightens them all."

35. "The thought of receiving it from God, adds the blefling of fentiment to that of fenfation, in every good thing which I poffefs; and when calamities overtake me, and I have had my fhare, it confers a dignity on my afflicton, and fo lifts me above the world. Man, I know, is but a worm, yet methinks I am allied to God !" It would have been inhuman in our philofopher to cloud, even with a doubt, the funfhine

of his belief.

36. His difcourfe, indeed, was very remote from meta phyfial difquifition or religious controverfy. Of all men I ever knew, his ordinary converfation was the leaft tinctured with pedantry, or liable to differtation. With Ra Roche and his daughter, it was perfectly familiar.

37. The country round them, the manners of the village, the comparison of both with thofe of England, remarks on the works of favorite authors, on the fentiments they conveyed, and the paflions they excited, with many other topics, in which there was an equality, or alternate advantage, among the fpeakers, were the fubjects they talked of.

38 Their hours too of riding and walking were many, in which the philofopher, as a stranger, was fhewn the remarka ble fcenes and curiofities of the country. They would fometimes make little expeditions to contemplate, in different at titudes, those astonishing mountains, the cliffs of which, covered with eternal fnows, and fometimes fhooting into fantastic hapes, form the termination of most of the Swifs profpects.

39. Our philofopher afked many queftions, as to their nat ural hiftory and productions. La Roche obferved the fublimity of the ideas, which the view of their ftupendons fummits, inacceflible to mortal foot, was calculated to infpire, which, faid he, naturally leads the mind to that Being by whom their foundations were laid. "They are not feen in

Flanders faid Mademoiselle, with a figh. odd remark," said the philofopher, fmiling. and he enquired no farther.*

"That is an

She blushed,

40. It was with regret he left a fociety in which he found himself so happy; but he fettled with La Roche and his daughter a plan of correfpondence; and they took his promife, that if ever he came within fifty leagues of their dwelling, he would travel thofe fifty leagues to vifit them.

41 About three years after, our philofopher was on a visit at Geneva; the promife he made to La Roche and his daughter, on his former vifit, was recalled to his mind, by the view of that range of mountains, on a part of which they had often looked together.

42. There was a reproach too, conveyed along with the recollection, for his having failed to write to either of them for feveral months paft. The truth was, that indolence was the habit most natural to him, from which he was not easily roused by the claims of correfpondence, either of his friends or his enemies; when the latter drew their pens in controvcrfy, they were often unanswerǝd as well as the former.

43. While he was hefitating about a vifit to La Roche, which he wished to make, but found the effort rather too much for him, he received a letter from the old man, which had been forwarded to him from Paris, where he had then fixed his refidence.

44. It contained a gentle complaint of the philofopher's want of punctuality, but an affurance of continued gratitude for his former good offices, and as a friend whom the writer considered interested in his family, it informed him of the approaching nuptials of Mademoiselle La Roche, with a young man, a relation of her own, and formerly a pupil of her father, of the most noble difpofition, and refpectable character.

45 Attached from their earliest years, they had been feparated by his joining one of the fubfidiary regiments of the Canton, then in the fervice of a foreign power. In this fituation he had distinguished himself as much for courage and mil❤ itary skill, as for the other endowments which he had culti

* The philofopher was a refident in Flanders, and a fceptic. The reproof of his infidelity is inimitably delicate. In fhort, this whole story is a beautiful fatire on deifm, bigotry, and metaphysical theology, while it paints unaffected virtue, benevolence, and piety, in the most engag ing colors.

wated at home. The term of his service was now expired, and they expected him to return in a few weeks, when the old man hoped, as he expreffed it in his letter, to join their hands and fee them happy.

46. Our philofopher felt himself interested in this event; but he was not, perhaps, altogether fo happy in the tidings of Mademoiselte La Roche's marriage, as her father fupposed him. Not that he was ever a lover of the lady; but he thought her one of the most amiable women he had feen; and there was fomething in the idea of her being another's forever, that ftruck him, he knew not why, like a disappointment.

47 After fome little fpeculation on the matter, however, he could look on it as a thing fitting, if not quite agreeable; and determined on his visit to see his old friend and his daughter happy.

48. On the last day of his journey, different accidents had retarded his progrefs; he was benighted before he reached the quarter in which La Roche refided. His guide, however, was well acquainted with the road, and he found himself in view of the lake, which I have before defcribed, in the neighborhood of La Roche's dwelling.

49. A light gleamed on the water, that seemed to proceed from the houfe; it moved flowly along as he proceeded up the fide of the lake, and at last he faw it glimmering through the trees, and stop at fome distance from the place where he

then was.

50. He fuppofed it fome piece of bridal merriment, and pushed on his horse that he might be a fpectator of the fcene; but he was a good deal fhocked, on approaching the spot to find it to be the torch of a perfon clothed in the dress of an attendant on a funeral, and accompanied by feveral others who like him, feemed to have been employed in the rites of fepulture.

51. On the philofopher's making enquiry who was the perfon they had been burying? one of them, with an accent more mournful than is common to their profeffion, anfwered, "then you know not Mademoifelle, fir! you never beheld a lovlier.". "La Roche" exclaimed he, in reply" alas, it was she indeed!" The appearance of grief and furprise which his countenance affumed, attracted the notice of the peafant with whom he talked.

52. He came up close to the philofopher-" I perceive you are acquainted with Madamoifelle La Roche." "Acquainted with her! Indeed I was! When, how, where did the die? Where is her father?" She died, fir, of the heart-break, I believe; the young gentleman to whom he was foon to be married, was killed in a duel by a French officer, his intimate companion, and to whom, before their quarrel, he had often. done the greatest favors.

53. "Her worthy father bears her death, as he has often told us a chriftian fhould. He is even fo compofed as to be now in his pulpit ready to deliver a few exhortations to his parifhoners, as is the custom with us on fuch occafions. Follow me, fir, and you fhall hear him." He followed the man

without answering.

54. The church was dimly lighted, except near the pulpit, where the venerable La Roche was feated. His people were now lifting up their voices to that Being whom their pastor had taught them ever to blefs and revere. La Roche fat, his figure bending gently forward, his eyes half clofed, lifted up in filent devotion. A lamp placed near him, threw a light ftrongly on his head, and marked the fhadowy lines of his age across the palenefs of his brow, thinly covered with gray hairs. 55. The mufic ceased-La Roche fat for a moment, and nature wrung a few tears from him. His people were loud in their grief. The philofopher was not lefs affected than they. La Roche arose. "Father of mercies, faid he, "forgive thefe tears; affill thy fervant to lift up his foul to thee; to lift to thee the fouls of thy people! My friends, it is good fo to do; at all feafons it is good; but in the days of our distress, what a privilege it is! Well faith the facred book, "Trust in the Lord; at all times truft in the Lord.'

56. "When every other fupport fails us, when the fountains of worldly comfort are dried up, let us then feek those living waters which flow from the throne of God. It is only from a belief of the goodness and wifdom of a fupreme Being that our calamities can be borne in a manner which becomes a man."

57. “Human wisdom is here of little ufe; for in proportion as it bestows comfort, it repreffes feeling, without which we may ceafe to be hurt by calamity, but we fhall alfo cease to enjoy happiness. I will not bid you be infenfible, my friends! I cannot.

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58. "I feel too much myfelf, and I am not afhamed of my feelings; but therefore may I the more willingly be heard: therefore have I prayed God to give me ftrength to speak to you; to direct you to him, not with empty words, but with thefe tears not from fpeculation, but from experience; that while you fee me fuffer, you may know alfo my confolation."

59. "You behold the mourner of his only child, the laft earthly ftay and bleffing of his declining years! Such a child too! It becomes not me to speak of her virtues; yet it is but grateful to mention them, because they were exerted towards myfelf. Not many days ago you faw her young, beautiful, virtuous and happy: ye who are parents will judge of my affliction now. But I look towards him who ftruck me I fee the hand of a father amidst the chastenings of my God." 60. "Oh! could I make you feel what it is to pour out the heart when it is preffed down with many forrows ; to pour it out with confidence to him in whofe hands are life and death; on whofe power awaits all that the first enjoys, and in contemplation of whom difappears all that the laft can inflict ! For we are not as thofe who die without hope; we know that our Redeemer liveth; that we fhall live with him, with our friends, his fervants, in that bleffed land where forrow is unknown, and happinefs as endless as it is perfect."

61. Go then, mourn not for me; I have not lost my child: But a little while and we shall meet again never to be feparated. But ye are alfo my children. Would ye that I fhould not grieve without comfort? So live as fhe lived; that when death fhall come, it your be the death of the righteous, and your latter end like his."

may

62. Such was the exhortation of La Roche; his audience anfwered it with tears. The good old man had dried up his at the altar of the Lord; his countenance had loft its sadness, and affumed the glow of faith and hope. The philofopher followed him into his house.

63. The infpiration of the pulpit was paft; the scenes they had laft met in, rushed again on his mind; La Roche threw his arms around his neck, and watered it with his tears. The other was equally affected; they went together in filence into the parlor, where the evening fervice was wont to be performed.

64. The curtains of the organs were opened; La Roche ftarted back at the fight" Oh my friend," faid he, and his