The more we know of the world, its phantoms, and vain enchantments, the more do we feel the want of a grand idea to elevate the soul above discouraging events which continually occur. When we run after honours, fame, and gratitude, we find every where illusions and mistakes; and it is our lot to experience those disappointments which proceed from the infirmities or the passions of men. If we leave our vessel in the harbour, the success of others dazzles and disturbs us; if we spread our sails, we are the plaything of the winds: activity in action, ardour, and indifference, all have their cares and difficulties; no person is sheltered from the caprices of fortune, and when we have reached the summit of our wishes, when we have by chance attained the object of our ambition, sadness and languor are preparing to frustrate our hopes, and dissipate the enchantment: nothing is perfect except for a moment; nothing is durable but change; it is necessary then to have interest in with those immutable ideas which are not the work of man, which do not depend on a transient opinion: they are offered to all, and are equally useful in the moment of triumph and the day of defeat; they are, as we need them, our consolation, our encouragement, and our guide. What strength, what splendour, those ideas would soon have, if, considered as the best support of order and morality, men would try to render them more efficacious, in the same manner as we see the citizens of a political society concur, in proportion to their faculties, to promote the welfare of the state. A new scene would open before us; men of learning, far from following the counsels of vanity, far from searching to destroy the most salutary belief of men, would, on the contrary, allot for their defence a portion of their noblest powers; we should see the penetrating metaphysician eager to refer to the common treasure of our hopes, the light which he perceives through the continuity of his meditations, and the perspicacity of his mind: we should see the attentive observer of nature occupied with the same idea, animated by the same interest; we should see him, in the midst of his labours, seize with avidity every thing which could add any support to the first principle of all religions; we should see him detach from his discoveries, appropriate, with a kind of love, all that tended to strengthen the happiest persuasion and most sublime of thoughts. The profound moralist, the philosophic legislator, would concur in the same design; and in such a grand enterprize, men, merely endowed with an ardent imagination, would be like those wanderers, who, when they return home, talk of some unknown riches. There are ways in the moral, as well as in the physical world, which lead to unknown secrets; and the harvest which may be gathered in the vast empire of nature is as extensive as diversified. How excellent would be the union of every mind towards this