I will venture a few reflections on a subject which has often been treated; the course of my subject naturally leads to it: but in order to avoid, as much as possible, what is generally known, I shall confine myself to consider the morality of the gospel, under a point of view which seems to me to distinguish its sublime instructions. The most distinct characteristic of christianity is the spirit of charity and forbearance which pervades all its precepts. The ancients, undoubtedly, respected the beneficent virtues; but the precept which commends the poor and the weak, to the protection of the opulent, belongs essentially to our religion. With what care, with what love, the Christian legislator returns continually to the same sentiment and interest! the tenderest pity lent to his words a persuasive unction; but I admire, above all, the awful lesson he has given, in explaining the close union established between our sentiments towards the Supreme Being and our duties towards men. Thus, after having termed the love of God, _the first commandment of the law_, the Evangelist adds; _and the second, which is like unto it, is to love thy neighbour as thyself_. The second, which is like unto it! what simplicity, what extent in that expression! Can any thing be more interesting and sublime, than to offer continually to our mind the idea of a God taking on himself the gratitude of the unfortunate? Where find any principle of morality, of which the influence can ever equal such a grand thought? The poor, the miserable, however abject their state, appear surrounded with the symbol of glory, when the love of humanity becomes an expression of the sentiments which elevate us to God; and the mind ceases to be lost in the immensity of His perfections, when we hope to maintain an habitual intercourse with the Supreme Being, by the services which we render to men; it is thus that a single thought spreads a new light on our duty, and gives to metaphysical ideas a substance conformable to our organs. Justice, respect for the laws, and duty to ourselves, may be united, in some manner, to human wisdom; goodness alone, among all the virtues, presents another character; there is in its essence something vague and undeterminate which claims our respect; it seems to have a relation with that intention, that first idea which we must attribute to the Creator of the world, when we wish to discover the cause of its existence. Goodness then is the virtue, or to express myself with more propriety, the primitive beauty, that which has preceded time. Thus the pressing exhortations to benevolence and charity, which we find running through the gospel, should elevate our thoughts, and penetrate us with profound respect; it recals us, it unites us, to a sentiment more ancient than the world, to a sentiment, by which we have received existence, and the hopes which compose our present happiness[9].