good; I was generous, liberal, juft, compaffionate; with what then can I be charged? Whereupon Minos faid, Thou art charged with nothing as to men; but didit thou not owe them lefs than the Gods? What is this juftice thou vaunteft of? Thou haft failed in no duty towards men, who are nothing : thou hast been virtuous but thou didst afcribe all thy virtue to thyfelf, and not to the Gods who gave it thee; for thou wouldest needs enjoy the fruit of thy own virtue, and make that the only fpring of thy happiness. Thou hast been thy own Deity; but the Gods who made all things, and made nothing but for themfelves, cannot give up their right. Thou haft forgotten them; they will forget thee, and deliver thee up to thyfelf, fince thou refolvedft to be thy own and not theirs. Now therefore find thy confolation, if thou canft, in thy own bofom. Lo! thou art now for ever feparated from men whom thou foughteft to please. Lo! thou, who waft thy own idol art now alone with thyfelf. Be affared that there is no true virtue without a reverence and love of the Gods, to whom all things are due. Thy falle virtue, which long dazzled the eyes of men who are eafily impofed upon, will now be put to confufion. Men judging of virtue and vice by what thwarts or fuits with their intereft, are blind both as to good and evil. Here a divine light overthrows all their fuperficial opinions, and often condemns what they admire, and juftifies what they condemn.

At thefe words the Philofopher, as if he had been thunderstruck, could not fupport himfelf. The complacency with which he had formerly contemplated his moderation, his courage and generous inclinations, was changed into defpair. A furvey of his own heart, which had been an enemy to the Gods, became his punishment. He views himself, and cannot ceafe to view himself. He fees the vanity of the opinions of men, whom in all his actions he fought to please. There is an univerfal change of every thing with in him, as if all his bowels had been turned up-fide down; he no longer finds himfelf

H 6

the

ne

fe trouve plus le même; tout appui lui manque dans fon cœur. Sa confcience, dont le témoignage lui avoit été fi doux, s'éleve contre lui, & lui reproche amérement l'égarement & l'illufion de toutes fes vertus, qui n'ont point eu le culte de la Divinité pour principe & pour fin; il eft troublé, confterné, plein de honte, de remords & de défefpoir. Les Furies ne le tourmentent point, parce qu'il leur fuffit de l'avoir livré à lui-même, & que fon propre cœur venge affez les Dieux méprifés. Il cherche les lieuxles plus fombres pour fe cacher aux autres morts pouvant fe cacher à lui-même ; il cherche les ténebres, & ne peut les trouver. Une lumiere importune e fuit par-tout; par-tout les rayons perçans de la vérité vont venger la vérité qu'il a négligé de fuivre. Tout ce qu'il a aimé lui devient odieux, comme étant la fource de fes maux qui ne peuvent jamais finir. Il dit en lui-même : O infenfé! je n'ai donc connu ni les Dieux, ni les hommes ni moi-même. Non, je n'ai rien connu, puifque je n'ai jamais aimé l'unique & véritable bien. Tous mes pas ont été des égaremens; ma fageffe n'étoit que folie; ma vertu n étoit qu'un orgueil impie & aveugle; j'étois moimême mon idole.

Enfin Télémaque apperçut les rois qui étoient condamnés pour avo'r abufé de leur puiffance. D'un côté, une Furie vengereffe leur préfentoit un miroir, qui leur montroit toute la difformité de leurs vices. Là ils regardoient, & ne pouvoient s'empêcher de voir leur vanité groffiere & avide des plus ridicules louanges; leur dureté pour les hommes, dont ils auroient dû faire la félicité; leur infenfibilité pour la vertu ; leur crainte d'entendre la vérité; leurs inclinations pour les hommes lâches & flatteurs; leur inapplica tion, leur molleffe, leur indolence, leur défiance dé placée, leur fafte, leur exceffive magnificence, fondée fur la ruine des peuples; leur ambition pour acheter un peu de vaine gloire par le fang de leurs citoyens; enfin leur cruauté, qui cherche chaque. jour de nouvelles délices parmi les larmes, & le défefpoir de tant de malheureux. Ils fe voient fans

ceffe

the fame man, and every prop in his heart fails him. His confcience whofe teftimony ufed to pleafe him fo highly, rifes up against him, and bitterly reproaches him with his miftaken and chimerical vir tues, which had not the worship of the Deity for their principle and end; he is troubled, aftonished overwhelmed with shame, remorfe and defpair. The Furies indeed do not torment, because they are fa-, tisfied with giving him up to himself, as his ownT heart abundantly revenges the derided Gods. He feeks the blackeft corners to hide himself from the reft of the dead, unable to hide himfelf from himfelf; he feeks for darkness, but he cannot find it. A troublefome light follows him every where; every where the piercing rays of truth purfue him, in order to avenge the truth he neglected to follow. Every thing which he loved, becomes hateful to him, as being the fource of his miferies which are to be eternal. O fool, fays he to himfelf, I have known neither Gods, nor men nor myself. No, I have known nothing fince I never loved the only true good. All my fteps have been erroneous; my wif dom was by folly; my virtue was only a blind and impious pride; I was my own idol.

At laft Telemachus beheld the kings who had been condemned for abufing their power. On one hand a vengeful Fury prefented a mirror which shewed them all the deformity of their vices. There they faw and could not avoid feeing, their grofs vanity and greedinefs of the most ridiculous enco→ miums their barbarity to mankind, whom they ought to have rendered happy; their infenfibility to virtue; their fears to hear the truth; their affection for base flatterers; their fupinenefs, their luxury their indolence their misplaced jealoufies, their pomp; their exceffive magnificence, founded on the ruin of the people; their ambition to purchase a little empty glory with the blood of their citizens; and laftly their inhumanity, in daily feeking for new delights, in the tears and defpair of the miferable. multitude. In this mirror they continually viewed them

ceffe dans ce miroir ils fe trouvent plus horribles & plus monftrueux que n'eft la Chimere vaincue par Bellerophon, ni l'Hydre de Lerne abattue par Hercule, ni Cerbere même, quoiqu'il vomifle de fes trois gueules béantes un fang noir & venimeux, qui eft capable d'empefter toute la race des mortels vivans fur la terre.

En même temps, d'un autre côté, une autre Furie leur répétoit avec infulte toutes les louanges que leurs flatteurs leur avoient données pendant leur vie, & leur préfentoit un autre miroir, où ils fe voyoient tels que la flatterie les avoit dépeints: l'oppofition de ces deux peintures fi contraires, étoit le fupplice de leur vanité. O remarquoit que les plus méchans d'entre ces rois étoient ceux à qui on avoit donné les plus magnifiques louanges pendant leur vie; parce que les mechans font plus craints que les bons, & qu'ils exigent fans pudeur les lâches flatteries des poëtes & des orateurs de leur tems.

On les entend gémir dans ces profondes tenebres, où ils ne peuvent voir que les infultes & les dérifions qu'ils ont à fouffrir; ils n'ont rien autour d'eux qui ne les repouffe, qui ne les contredife, qui ne les confonde. Au lieu que fur la terre ils fe jouoient de la vie des hommes, & prétendoient que tout étoit fait pour les fervir; dans le Tartare, ils font livrés à tous les caprices de certains efclaves, qui leur font fentir à leur tour une cruelle fervitude. Ils fervent avec douleur, & il ne leur refte aucune efpérance de pouvoir jamais adoucir leur captivité. Ils font fous les coups de ces efclaves, devenus leurs tyrans impitoyables, comme une enclume eft fous les coups des marteaux des Cyclopes, quand Vulcain les preffe de travailler dans les fournaifes ardentes du mont Etna.

Là Télémaque apperçut des vifages pâles, hideux & contriftés. C'est une trifteffe noire qui ronge ces criminels. Ils ont horreur d'eux-mêmes, & ne peuvent non plus fe délivrer de cette horreur, que de leur propre nature. Ils n'ont point befoin d'autres châtimens de leurs fautes, que leurs fautes mêmes; ils les voient fans ceffe dans toute leur énormité; elles fe préfentent à eux comme des fpectres horri

bles

themselves, and found that they were more frightful and monstrous than the Chimera which Bellerophon vanquished, than the Lernæan Hydra which was fubdued by Hercules, and even than Cerberus himself, though he difgorges from his three yawnings mouths, a black venomous gore, which is enough to poifon the whole race of mankind.

At the fame time, on the other hand, another Fury repeated to them in an infulting manner all the praises which their flatterers had beftowed upon them while they were living, and held up another mirror in which they faw them felves fuch as adulation had defcribed them; the contraft of thefe two portraits was the punishment of their vanity. It was remarkable that the wickedeft of thefe princes were thofe to whom the most fulfome commendations had been given in their life-time; because the wicked are more dreaded than the good, and are not ashamed to require the base incenfe of the poets and orators of their time.

They are heard to groan in this profound darkness, where they can fee nothing but the infults and derifions which they are doomed to fuffer, and have nothing about them, that does not repulfe them, that does not thwart them, that does not confound them. Whereas on the earth they fported with the lives of men, and pretended that all things were made for their ufe; in Tartarus they are delivered up to all the caprices of certain flaves, who make them in their turn feel all the rigours of fervitude. They ferve with reluctance, and defpair of ever being able to foften their captivity.. Under the lashes of thefe flaves, now become their mercilefs tyrants, they are like the anvil under the ftrokes of the hammers of the Cyclops, when Vulcan urges them to work in the burning forges of mount Etna.

There Telemachus faw pale, ghaftly difmayed countenances; for gloomy grief preys on thefe guilty wretches. They are terrified at themselves, and can no more shake of this terror than their nature itself. They need no other punishment of their crimes than their crimes themfelves, which they continually see, in all their enormity, ftaring them in the face, and

haunting