Kings, in the exercise of their intellectual faculties are exposed to the same extremes; providence having placed them on the pinnacle of fortune, they consequently have not been led from one view to another, and know not those gradations which actuate their subjects in the name of vanity, self-love, or fortune.—Alas! we obey so quickly, and their desires are so soon gratified, that their taste and inclinations cannot be renewed with the quickness necessary to enable them to fill the irksome void which so frequently occurs. If the magnificent end which religion offers were to be obscured, and if, henceforth, we were to consider it as a fallacious illusion, unworthy of our attention, kings would soon attain to that term when the future would appear to their mind a barren uniformity, a space without colour or form. The numerous duties of princes, undoubtedly, afford a continual source of satisfaction; but it is necessary that they should be able to connect all their obligations to a grand idea, the only one which can constantly animate their actions and thoughts, who have need of neither favour nor advancement from their fellow-creatures. And how much would it contribute to their happiness sometimes, to imagine themselves between this world, in which they are weary of their own power, and that magnificent future; the sublime contemplation of which would carry them, with a new charm, to the exercise of their authority! What pleasure then would flow from this authority, the source of so much good!—What pleasure would they not find in more closely imitating the divine beneficence, the most comfortable of all ideas, and what a moment for him, when particularly conscious of the presence of the exalted friend of the whole human race, he should be able to reflect, in the morning, on the people he was going to make happy; and in the evening, on those he had actually done good to. What a difference between these delicious moments, whose influence the nation feels, and those insignificant levees, only known to courtiers, in which the monarch is the spectacle, and tastes the sad pleasure of seeing so many men cringing before his own image. What a difference, even between these rapturous sensations, and those raised by flattery, or the dazzling parade which surrounds him, in the midst of which he cannot discern himself, whether he is a great man, or only a king.