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Télémaque arrive à Ithaque et retrouve Ulysse son Pere, ches le fudele Lumée.

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ADVENTURES

O F

TELEMACH US,

SON of ULYSSES.

BOOK the TWENTY-FOURTH.

The ARGUMENT.

During their voyage, Telemachus gets Mentor to explain to him feveral difficulties concerning government; among others thofe of knowing Men, in order to employ only the good, and not to be impofed upon by the bad. Towards the end of their converfation a calm obliges them to put in at an island where Ulyffes was just landed. Telemachus fees him there, and talks to him without knowing him. But having seen him enibark, he feels a fecret uneafinefs of which he cannot conceive the caufe. Mentor explains it to him, comforts him, assures him that he will foon be with his father again, and makes a trial of his piety and patience, by putting of his departure, to offer a facrifice to Minerva At last the Goddess, concealed under the figure of Mentor, refumes her own form and difcovers herself She gives Telemachus her laft inftrudions, and difappears. Telemachus departs, arrives at Ithaca, and finds his father in the house of the faithful Eumæus.

ΤΗ HE fails already fwell .the anchors are wei

ghed, the land feems to fly, and the skilful pilot defcries at a distance the mountains of Leu

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cate,

dont la tête fe cache dans un tourbillon de frimats glacés, & les monts Acrocérauniens, qui montrent encore un front orgueilleux au ciel, après avoir été fi fouvent écrasés par la foudre.

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Pendant cette navigation, Télémaque difoit à Mentor Je crois maintenant concevoir les maximes du gouvernement que vous m'avez expliquées. D'abord elles me paroiffoient comme un fonge, mais peu peu elles fe démêlent dans mon efprit, & s'y préfentent clairement comme tous les objets paroiffent fombres le matin aux premieres lueurs de l'Aurore mais qui enfuite femblent fortir comme d'un cahos quand la lumiere, qui croît infenfiblement, les diftingue, & leur rend, pour ainfi dire, leurs figures & lears couleurs naturelles. Je fuis très-perfuadé que le point effentiel du gouvernement est de bien difcerner les différens caracteres d'efprits, pour les choifir & les appliquer felon leurs talens: mais il me refte à favoir comment on peut fe connoître en hom

mes.

Alors Mentor lui répondit: Il faut étudier les hommes pour les connoître ; & pour les connoître, il en faut voir fouvent, & traiter avec eux. Les rois doivent converfer avec leurs fujets, les faire parler, les confulter, les éprouver par de petits emplcis dont ils leur faffent rendre compte, pour voir s'ils font capabies de plus hautes fonctions. Comment eft-ce, mon cher Télémaque, que vous avez appris à Ithaque à vous connoître en chevaux ? C'est à force d'en voir, & de remarquer leurs défauts & leurs perfections avec des gens éxpérimentés. Tout de même parlez fouvent des bonnes & des mauvaises qualités des hommes avec d'autres hommes fages & vertueux qui aient long-temps étudié leurs caracteres; vous apprendrez infenfiblement comme ils font faits, & ce qu'il eft permis d'en attendre. Qui eft-ce qui vous a appris à connoître les bons & les mauvais poëtes? C'est la fréquente lecture, & la réflexion avec des gens qui avoient le goût de la poéfie. Qui eft-ce qui vous a acquis le difcernement fur la mufique ? C'est la même application

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cate which hides its head in whirling storms of freezing fnow, and the Acroceraunian hills, which ftill uplift their haughty brows to heaven, though they have fo often been shattered by thunder.

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During this voyage Telemachus faid to Mentor, I now understand the maxims of government which you have explained to me. At first they appeared to me like a dream but their obfcurity gradually vanished, and I now view them in a clear light. So all objects look dark at the first dawnings of Aurora in the morning, but afterwards feem to come as it were out of a chaos, when the light, which infenfibly increases, diftinguishes them, and reftores them to ufe the expreffion, their figures and natural coJours. I am thoroughly convinced that the effential point of government is to difcern the different characters of men, in order to chufe and employ them according to their refpective talents; but I am still at a lofs to know how one may obtain fuch an infight into mankind.

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Hereupon Mentor replied, You must study men in order to know them; and to know them, you must often fee and have an intercourfe with them. Kings ought to converfe with their fubjects, to make them fpeak, to confult them, to try them by little employments of which they should make them give an account, in order to fee if they are capable of higher functions. How, my dear Telemachus, did you in Ithaca acquire your skill in horfes ?. It was by often feeing them and by taking notice of their faults and perfections in the company of perfons of experience. In the fame manner fpeak frequently of men's good and bad qualities with other wife and virtuous men, who have long ftudied their characters, and you will infenfibly learn the turn of their minds, and what may be expected from them. Who taught you to know the good and the bad poets? It was frequently reading and reflecting upon them with men who had a taste for poetry. who procured you judgment in mufic? It was the fame application in obferving skilful musicians. How can any

one

TAYLOR

INST

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