CHAP. XVIII. _Conclusion_ 446 INTRODUCTION. My thoughts having been detached from the study and disquisition of those truths which have the political good of the state for their object; and being no longer obliged to fix any attention on those particular arrangements of the public interest, which are necessarily connected with the operations of government; I found myself abandoned, as it were, by all the important concerns of life. Restless and wandering in this kind of void, my soul, still active, felt the want of employment. I sometimes formed the design of tracing my ideas of men and characters; I imagined that long experience in the midst of those active scenes which discover the passions, had taught me to know them well; but elevating my views, my heart was filled with a different ambition, and a desire to reconcile the sublimest thoughts with those meditations from which I was constrained to withdraw myself. Guided by this sentiment, I remarked, with satisfaction, that there existed a natural connection between the different truths which contribute to the happiness of mankind. Our prejudices and our passions frequently attempt to disunite them; but to the eye of an attentive observer, they have all one common origin. From a similar affinity, the general views of administration, the spirit of laws, morality, and religious opinions, are closely connected; and it is by carefully preserving an alliance so beautiful, that we raise a rampart round those works, which are destined for the prosperity of states and the tranquillity of nations. One could not have taken an active part in the administration of public affairs; or made it the object of stedfast attention; one could not have compared the several relations of this great whole, with the natural dispositions of minds and characters; nor indeed observed men in a perpetual state of rivalry and competition, without perceiving, how much the wisest governments need support from the influence of that invisible spring which acts in secret on the consciences of individuals. Thus whilst I am endeavouring to form some reflections on the importance of religious opinions, I am not so far removed from my former habit of thinking as may, at the first glance, be imagined; and as in writing on the management of finances, I omitted no argument to prove that there is an intimate connexion between the efficacy of governments, and the wisdom with which they are conducted; between the virtue of princes, and the confidence of their subjects, I think I am still proceeding in the same train of sentiment and reflection, when struck with that spirit of indifference which is so general, I endeavour to refer the duties of men to those principles which afford them the most natural support.