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eye. These well-known accents suddenly roused, in the heart of the old man, all the sensations of his infancy. In youth we little regret the pleasures of our first years; but the further we advance into life the more interesting to us becomes the recollection of them; for then every one of our days supplies a sad subject for comparison. Philip intreated me to enter his dwelling, and I followed him. He had considerable difficulty in expressing what he meant. I saw him labour to regain the ancient ideas of civilized man, and I watched him most closely. instance, I had an opportunity of observing that there were two kinds of relative things absolutely effaced from his mind, viz. that of any superfluity being proper, and that of annoying others without an absolute necessity for it. I did not chuse to put my grand question, till after some hours of conversation had restored to him a sufficiency of words and ideas. At last I said to him: "Philip, are you happy?" He knew not at first how to reply." Happy," said he, reflecting" happy! Yes; but happy only since I became a savage." And how do you pass

your life?" asked I.-He laughed." I understand you," continued I. "You think such a question unworthy of an answer. But should

you not like to resume your former mode of living, and return to your country?"-" My country! France! If I were not so old, -I should like to see it again."- "And you would not remain there?" added I.-The motion of Philip's head answered my question sufficiently. "But what induced you," continued I, “to become what you call a savage?"-" I don't know," said he,-" instinct." This expression put an end to my doubts and questions. I remained two days with Philip, in order to observe him, and never saw him swerve for a single moment from the assertion he had made. His soul, free from the conflict of social passions, appeared to me, in the language of the savages with whom he dwelt, calm as the field of battle after the war, riors had smoked together the calumet of peace.

ON MACKENZIE'S TRAVELS In the interior of North America.

THE general interest, with which travels are read, may perhaps be caused by the inconstancy and satiety of the human heart. Tired of the society with which we live, and of the vexations which surround us, we like to lose ourselves in the contemplation of distant countries, and among unknown nations. If the people, described to us, are happier than ourselves, their happiness diverts us; if more unfortunate, their afflictions are consolitary to us. But the interest, attached to the recital of travels, is every day diminishing in proportion to the increase of travellers. A philosophical spirit has caused the wonders of the desert to disappear,

"The magic woods have lost their former charm,” as Fontanes says.

When the first Frenchmen, who investigated the shores of Canada, spoke of lakes similar to

seas; cataracts which fall from Heaven, and fo rests the depth of which could not be explored, the mind is much more strongly moved than when an English merchant, or a modern Savant tells you that he has penetrated to the Pacific Ocean, and that the fall of Niagara is only a hundred and forty-four feet in depth.

What we gain in knowledge, by such infor mation, we lose in sentiment. Geometrical truths have destroyed certain truths of the imagination, which are more important to morality than is supposed. Who were the first travellers of antiquity? The legislators, poets, and heroes Jacob, Lycurgus, Pythagoras, Homer, Hercules, Alexander. The "dies peregrinationis” are mentioned in Genesis. At that time every thing was prodigious without ceasing to be real, and the hopes of these exalted men burst forth in the exclamation of "Terra ignota! Térra immensa!"*

We naturally dislike to be confined within bounds, and I could almost say that the globe

* Oh land unknown, oh land of vast extent !

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is become too small for man since he has sailed round it. If the night be more favourable than the day to inspiration and vast conceptions, it is because it conceals all limits, and assumes the appearance of immensity. The French and English travellers seem, like the warriors of those two nations, to have shared the empire of the earth and ocean. The latter have no one, whom they can oppose to Tavernier, Chardin, Parennin, and Charlevoix, nor can they boast of any great work as the "Lettres Edifiantes ;" but the former, in their turn, possess no Anson, Byron, Cook, or Vancouver. The French travellers have done more than those of the

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rival nation towards making us acquainted with the manners and customs of foreign countriesyo yow-mores cognovit; but the English have been more useful as to the progress of universal geography-EV TOTW Tadev,* in mari passus est. ποντω παθεν,* They share with the Spaniards and Portuguese the honour of having added new seas and new

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Odyssey.

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