In short, and it is another favour, man is permitted to be, in some things, the contriver of his own happiness, by his will and ingenuity; he has embellished his habitation, and united several ornaments to the simple beauties of nature; he has improved, by his care, the salutary plants; and even in those which seemed the most dangerous he has discovered some wholesome property, and carefully separated it from the envenomed parts which surrounded it; he can soften metals, and make them serve to augment his strength; he obliges the marble to obey him, and assume what form he desires; he gives laws to the elements, or circumscribes their empire; he stops the invasion of the sea; he restrains the rivers in their natural bed, and sometimes obliges them to take a different course, in order to spread their benign influence; he erects a shelter against the fury of the winds, and by an ingenious contrivance, makes use of that impetuous force, which he could not at first dream of defending himself from; even the fire, whose terrible action seems to presage destruction, he subjugates, and renders it, if I may so express myself, the confident of his industry, and the companion of his labours. What a source of reflections is this dominion of the mind over the most dreadful effects of the movement of blind matter. It seems as if the Supreme Being, in submitting thus to the intelligence of men the most powerful elements, chose to give us an anticipation of the empire which His sovereign wisdom has over the universe. However, it is in the influence of our spiritual faculties on themselves, that we observe, above all, their admirable nature; we see, with astonishment, the perfections which they acquire by their own action. Intelligence, considered in a general manner, undoubtedly is a great phœnomenon; but it is a still greater wonder, to see the thoughts of a man reach, by the most ingenious means, the knowledge of others, and form an alliance between the past and present productions of the mind. It is by such an alliance that the sciences have been improved, and that the mind of man has been acquainted with all its strength. The mighty of the earth cannot break this association, nor subject to their tyrannic divisions the noble heritage of knowledge; this gift, so precious, preserves the stamp of a divine hand;—and no one has yet been able to say it is mine.