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been going that moment to disembark; some talked to themselves, and others wept. As we approached, the disorder of their minds increased. As they had been absent several years, there was no end to their admiration of the verdure of the hills, of the foilage of the trees, and even of the rocks which skirted the shore, covered over with sea weeds and mosses; as if all these objects had been perfectly new to them. The church spires of the villages where they were born, which they distinguished at a distance up the country, and which they named one after another, filled them with transports of delight. But when the vessel entered the port, and when they saw on the quays, their friends, their fathers, their mothers, their wives, and their children, stretching out their arms to them, with tears of joy, and calling them by their names, it was no longer possible to retain a single man on board; they all sprung ashore, and it became necessary, according to the custom of the port, to employ another set of mariners to bring the vessel to her moorings.

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What then would be the case, were we indulged with a sensible discovery of that heavenly country, inhabited by those who are most dear to us, and who alone are most worthy of our sublime affections? All the laborious and vain solicitudes of a present life, would come to an end. The passage from the one world to the other, being in every man's power, the gulf would be quickly shot: but nature has involved it in obscurity, and has planted doubt and apprehension to guard the passage. p. 349.

Pithagoras has been calumniated, as having given encouragement to certain unmeaning superstitions; among others, abstinence from the use of beans, &c. But, as truth is frequently under the necessity of presenting herself to men under a veil, the great philosopher, under this allegory, conveyed to his disciples an advice to abstain from public employments, because it was then the custom to make use of beans, in voting at the election of magistrates. p. 394.

EXTRACTS

FROM THE SECOND VOLUME

OF

THE STUDIES OF NATURE,

BY JAMES HENRY BERNARDIN,

GENERALLY KNOWN BY THE TITLE

DE ST. PIERRE.

CERTAIN negro nations represent the devil as white: this may be easily accounted for, from the strong feeling which they have of the tyranny which the whites exercise over them. Vol. ii. P. 34.

It is the property of inanimate matter, of vegetables, and of mere animals, to obey all the movements of nature; but it is that of a great man, in my opinion, to have his emotions under command, and it is only so far as he exercises this empire, that he merits the name of great. p. 47.

The plaintive notes of the nightingale, the deep shades of the forest, the sober lustre of the moon, inspire no gaiety, nevertheless, they interest us, and that deeply. I feel much more emotion in contemplating the setting than the rising sun. In general, we are pleased by gay and sprightly beauties, but we are melted and touched only by those which are melancholy. I shall en-, deavour, in another place, to unfold the causes of these moral affections.

They

stand in connexion with laws more sublime than any physical laws: while these last amuse our senses, the other speak to the heart, and calmly admonish us, that man is ordained to a much higher destination.

p. 50. This soldier was of Franche Comte. I never saw him but once, and I have forgotten his name, but I have not lost the recollection of his virtuous conduct, which was reported to me on undoubted authority. When the accident above related (the loss of his left eye and the use of his right leg and arm) sent him to the hospital of the

invalids, he remembered, that in his capacity of sergeant, he had inveigled at the instigation of his captain, in a country village, a young man to enlist, who was the only son of a poor widow, and who was killed three months afterwards in an gagement. The sergeant recollecting this act of cruelty and injustice, formed the resolution of abstaining from wine. He sold his allowance as a pensioner in the hospital, and remitted the amount every six months to the mother whom he had robbed of her son. p. 59.

The most atrocious of all vices is cruelty. p. 60.

Two sisters on the death of their mother, became heiresses of an orange tree. Each of them insisted on having it thrown into her allotment. At length, after much wrangling, and neither being disposed to resign her claim, it was settled that the tree should be cleft in two, and each take her half. The orange tree, accordingly, under

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