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grew into a Church, and the Town into a City, which had it's Pontiff's, it's Magistrates, it's Domains. By and by imposts were levied on the People, for building superb Temples like that of Ephesus; and as fear has still greater power over the human mind than confidence, in order to clothe the worship of Diana with terror, human sacrifices were offered up to her in Tauris. Thus contributed to the misery of the human race an allegory imagined to promote the happiness of Man, because it was perverted to the particular profit of a City or of a Temple.

Truth itself is fatal to mankind when it becomes the patrimony of one tribe. There is undoubtedly an inconceivable distance between the tolerance of the Gospel and the intolerance of the Inquisition; between the precept given by JESUS CHRIST to his Apostles, to shake the dust off their feet before houses which refused to admit them, and between the displeasure which he expressed when solicited to call down fire from Heaven; the extermination of the ancient Indians of America, or the burning piles of an Auto-da-fé.

There is in the gallery of the Thuilleries, on the right as you enter the gardens, an Ionic column, which the celebrated Blondel, Professor of architecture, pointed out to his pupils as a perfect model ; he made them observe that all those which followed it, progressively diminished in beauty. The first, said he is the production of a famous sculptor, and the others have been successively copied by artists who deviated from his graces and proportions in the ratio of the distance. The person who

has

has attempted the second, made a tolerable imitation of the first, but he who produced the third, copied the second only; thus, from copy to copy, the last falls very far below the original. I have many a time compared the Gospel to that beautiful pillar of the Thuilleries, and the works of ancient Commentators to those of the others columns of the gallery. But were we to pursue the series down to the Commentators of our own days, what formless columns would their volumes present! and who, amidst the storms which assail human life durst venture to lean upon them!

As truth is a ray of heavenly light, it will always shine for all mankind, provided a tax is not laid on their windows; but in every department, how many corps founded expressly to propagate it, from the very circumstance of it's being perverted into a private benefit, substitute in it's place the light of their own tapers or lanterns! They quickly go so far, when they have powers, as to persecute those who find it; and when they have not, opposed to them an inert power which disables them to diffuse it: this is the reason that those who love the truth frequently retire from men and cities. Such is the truth which I mean to exhibit in the following little Work. Happy if I shall be able to contribute, in my own Country, to the happiness of a single unfortunate wretch, by painting that of an Indian Paria in his cottage.

It belongs to you only, august Assembly of the Representatives of France, to do good to all mankind, by levelling the barriers which obstruct the progress of truth, as it is the source of every

blessing,

blessing, and is diffused over the face of the whole Earth. Rome and Athens defended only their liberty. Modern Nations have aimed at the extension merely of their Religion and their Commerce. All have oppressed the Universe; you alone have defended it's rights by sacrificing your own privileges: Mankind will one day take an interest in your felicity, as you have interested yourselves in their destiny. May the virtuous Monarch who has called you together, and sanctioned your important labours, ever partake of the glory of them! His name will be immortal as your laws. Ancient nations fixed their principal epocha froin some circumstance that materially affected their pleasures, their power, or their liberty. The Greeks, so fond of festivity, from their Olympiads; the Romans so patriotic from the building of Rome; oppressed people dated from the era of their religion; but the nations whom you are recalling to the felicity destined for them by Nature, will date the Rights of Man, as old as the creation, from the reign of Louis XVI,

THE

THE

INDIAN COTTAGE.

A SOCIETY of intelligent Englishmen was formed at London about thirty years ago, the object of which was to prosecute scientific research, in various parts of the World, for the purpose of promoting the illumination and the happiness of mankind. The expense was to be defrayed by subscription, and the list presented persons of every description in the Nation, Merchants, Lords, Bishops, Universities, and the Royal Family of England; to which several of the sovereigns of Northern Europe likewise added their names. The ingenious travellers engaged in this service were twenty in number, and the Royal Society of London had given to each of them a volume containing a statement of the questions, the solution of which was to be the end kept in view. These questions amounted to the number of 3500. Though they all differed relatively to each of the learned men employed, and were adapted to the countries through which each was to travel, they all had a mutual relation, so that the light diffused over one must necessarily tend to the elucidation of all the others. The president of the Royal Society, who, with the aid of his associates, had digested them, felt completely that the solution of one diffi

2

culty

culty frequently depends on the successful investigation of another, and this last on one which preceded it; which in an inquiry after truth, carries us much farther than is generally imagined. In a word, to avail myself of the expressions employed by the President himself, in delivering his instructions, it was the most superb encyclopedical structure ever reared by any Nation to the progress of human knowledge; a full proof added 'he, of the necessity of academic associations, in order to reduce to system the truths dispersed over the face of the whole Earth.

Each of these learned travellers had besides his volume of questions to be resolved, a commission to purchase, in the course of his progress, the most ancient copies of the Bible, and the most curious manuscripts of every description, or at least to spare no cost in procuring good copies of them. For this purpose the subscribers had furnished all of them with letters of recommendation to the Consuls, Ministers and Ambassadors of Great Britain, with whom they might come in contact; and what is still better, with good bills of exchange, endorsed by the most eminent Bankers of London.

The Doctor of the highest reputation for learning, who understood Hebrew, Arabic, and the Hindoo Language, was sent over land to the East Indies, the cradle of all the Arts and Sciences. He began his tour by crossing over into Holland, and visited successively the Synagogue at Amsterdam, and the Synod of Dort; in France, the Sorbonne and Academy of Sciences at Paris; In Italy, a variety of Academies, Museums and Libraries, among others, the Museum

of:

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