It is by the right of conquest, however, that he reigns; he rather enjoys than possesses, and it is by perpetual activity and vigilance that he preserves his advantage; if those are neglected every thing languishes, changes, and returns to the absolute dominion of Nature, she resumes her power, and destroys the operations of man; envelopes with moss and dust his most pompous monuments, and in the progress of time entirely effaces them, leaving him to regret having lost by his negligence what his ancestors had acquired by their industry. Those periods in which man loses his empire, those ages in which every thing valuable perishes, commence with war, and are completed by famine and depopulation. Although the strength of man depends solely upon the union of numbers, and his happiness is derived from peace, he is, nevertheless, so regardless of his own comforts as to take up arms and to fight, which are never-failing sources of ruin and misery. Incited by insatiable avarice, or blind ambition, which is still more insatiable, he becomes callous to the feelings of humanity; regardless of his own welfare, his whole thoughts turn upon the destruction of his own species, which he soon accomplishes. The days of blood and carnage over, and the intoxicating fumes of glory dispelled, he beholds, with a melancholy eye, the earth desolated, the arts buried, nations dispersed, an enfeebled people, the ruins of his own happiness, and the loss of his real power. Omnipotent God! by whose presence Nature is supported, and harmony among the laws of the universe maintained; who seest from thy immoveable throne in the empyrean all the celestial spheres rolling under thy feet without deviation or disorder; who, from the bosom of repose, every instant renewest their vast movements, and who alone governs in profound peace an infinite number of heavens and of earths, restore, restore tranquillity to a troubled world! Let the earth be silent! Let the presumptuous tumults of war and discord be dispelled by the sound of thy voice! Merciful God! author of all beings, whose paternal regards extend to every created object, and to man, thy principal favourite; thou hast illumined his mind with a ray of thy immortal light; penetrate also his heart with a shaft of thy love; thy divine sentiment, when universally diffused, will unite the most hostile spirits; man will no longer dread the sight of man, nor will his hand any longer continue to be armed with murdering steel; the devouring flames of war will no longer stop the sources of generations; the human species, which are now weakened, mutilated, and prematurely mowed down, will germinate anew, and multiply without number. Nature, groaning under the pressure of calamity, sterile and abandoned, will soon resume with additional vigour her former fecundity; and we, beneficent God! shall aid, cultivate, and incessantly contemplate her operations, that we, at every moment, may be enabled to offer thee a