addresses her, it is a soul which responds to her's; she has a glimpse of heaven in its smile, of infinity in its love. This terrestrial form reveals to her an angel. Oh, what joy for her to develope herself the benevolent dispositions of this tender creature, to bestow upon it the life of the soul; to render it at the same time worthy of the love of men, and of the regard of God. Already the sentiment of the beautiful and of the infinite, mix themselves instinctively with all the pleasures of childhood. We grow up, and in proportion as the animal passions develope themselves, the divine faculties appear to direct or to control them; till at last the grand, the sublime and beautiful, become the most energetic and ordinary sentiments of youth. This careless being, this timid child whom you see playing, if you touch his soul, becomes at once the rival of Bayard, the disciple of Aristides, and of Socrates; he despises fortune, ambition, and all false glories; in the face of society, which understands nothing of his transports, he is ready to die for his friend, his country, and his God. What a prodigy is this! man passes without transition from innocency to heroism. At the moment of experiencing the terrible force of the passions, all young souls would thus unite in the contempt of vice, and in the delights of virtue.

This is the moment which must be seized; the child is born good; let not his goodness be effaced in the man; he is eager for the beautiful, let this passion grow up with him. There is in the sentiment of the grand and beautiful a power superior to all our bad inclinations.

Tender mothers, you must make haste. See, the passions come like the tempest, but the young man still looks up to heaven. By a foresight of nature, which has hitherto remained useless, from not having been sufficiently observed, the instinct of virtue is awakened at the same time

as the passions are developed, and seek to make themselves obeyed. Ah! do not lose this fortunate opportunity, in which the most sublime sacrifices present themselves as the natural object of life. Fear neither the excess of enthusiasm, nor romantic exaltation! Acquire dominion over the soul, if you would control the senses, and leave to time and nature the care of re-establishing harmony between them.

All our moral powers exist in us. The highest aim of our teachers should be to disengage, and call them forth, but this is what they think the least of. Without troubling themselves as to whether the house be already full, they only busy themselves about furnishing it. They fatigue the intellect with their wearisome maxims, and they leave asleep the faculties of the soul which could render these maxims intelligible. Fortunately, these faculties, so much neglected, possess a power which is proper to them, and which drives them outwardly. The moral sentiment manifests itself, on the mere occurrence of a violent or an unjust action. The aspect of nature, or the presence of virtue, suffices to awaken the sentiment of the beautiful. It is our soul which incites us to the most generous sacrifices and devotedness; it engenders chefs d'oeuvre as well as great actions, and nevertheless, it never completely realizes in its transports, that ideal model of beauty, of truth, and of heroism, which is in us.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OF THE DEVIATIONS OF THE SENTIMENT OF INFINITY.

DRAX, Essai sur l'art d'être heureux.

propre bonheur." "En elevant avec soin nos enfants nous ferons beaucoup pour notre

upon the earth; their mission is to elevate the human celestial tendency, but they have likewise something to do of the beautiful, develope themselves at an early age, Turs, the conscience, the moral sense and the sentiment

period is developed with diffenly, and never arrives at

all souls ought to tend. Cause the sentiment of infinity to recognise itself in the presence of the infinite God, and nothing will be lost, even amidst our terrestrial passions, if from the depth of their darkness man has still a glimpse of the radiant path to heaven. What would become of the faculties of the soul, if isolated from that heaven to which they tend? Misled by false lights into a purely terrestrial course, lost in the frightful void of our passions, they would impart to them an inexhaustible ardour, which could never be satisfied on earth; they would lead us to err in seeking their path, and we should think we had found this path, even in crime, if crime presented itself with a false aspect of greatness and virtue. Maternal power, which I call to my aid, be not deceived! The sentiment of infinity requires immortality; if you direct it towards finite things, it will exhaust them all, without exhausting itself. It will produce in the soul of your pupils insatiable avarice, unbridled licentiousness, ambition, superstition, despotism, madness, despair,—in a word, all the passions which consume without satisfying us, which flatter us without rendering us happy. Alexander, the conqueror of the East, was dissatisfied with the smallness of the world; he knew not what to do with his soul, this master of men, and after having deceived it by the conquest of the earth, he debased it by debauchery.

This is an example applicable to our own history. Brought up in ignorance of God, the actual generation is the most terrible answer to the system of Rousseau; not that it is hostile to all morality; in its thoughts vices have remained vices, because vice is always without elevation. But crime, these children of error have reinstated it; they have praised its energy; they have assigned it its place in the policy of the people at the very time when they condemned it in the policy of kings. The unfortunate

creatures! I have heard them envy the glory of Marat, and the wisdom of Robespierre! They spoke coolly of causing heads to fall for the good of humanity; and the reign of the executioner was but to them the regeneration of a world.

If

Every time that a noble sentiment is mixed up with vicious thoughts, the cause must be sought for in the deviation of the sentiment of the beautiful, and of the infinite. you restrict man to the earth, he will attach himself to it. If you hide from him the road to heaven, he will mistake the object of creation. Ah! if man be born but to seek a terrestrial happiness, then all crimes are justified! But if our inheritance is not of this world; if the object of creation be to draw us to God by love; if all the faculties of our soul aspire to this end, wherefore delay to exhibit heaven to us? To leave us without a guide here below, is to will that we should everywhere meet with nothingness; the nothingness (le nèant) which attaches itself to our terrestrial desires, in proportion as fortune gratifies them.

But children do not comprehend God! and thou, philosopher, dost thou comprehend him? The child prays to God as he prays to his father; what canst thou imagine greater or more true? There is a something which exceeds all our earthly ambitions; a something of infinity which opens heaven to us in the first words of the prayer,-" Our Father."

So far, then, man is almost complete. We have seen arise successively in him, the love of the beautiful, the moral sentiment, conscience, and infinity; but as yet, reason does not appear. It would at first be useless, for it would have nothing to enlighten; it would even be prejudicial, for it would check the graceful carelessness, which is so favourable to children, and which so well becomes us in the games of early childhood. Reason will come later,