Mat. Well, then, liften to me.-You are a very good man while you are not curious. -You would not hurt a child.-But when the demon of knowledge poffeffes you, you are more cruel than all the huntfmen together-They are in the right to fay all over the village you are a little cracked.-You laugh. I faid nothing of it to any one; but I know the ugly experiments you made with thofe glaffes which made every thing fo large. Fie upon it! the operations of the black art are not fo diabolical. All the fecrets in the world are worth nothing when compared to the fhameful means of acquiring them. I have often blushed for you.

Par. Well, faith friend Maturin, I never thought of blufhing: I have feen all thofe things phi ofophically, as a forutinizer of nature; and every thing that has existence is form.ed to be feen and confidered by man.

Mat. Come,come, that is not the way to become learned.-Go fee where- -But you will be punished for your curiofity; you will know nothing. Here you are in the world; what the devil fignifies it how you came here?

Par. I wish to difcover the origin of fo extraordinary an animal as man. The inftant of cafting,a ftatue is that which imprefïes for ever its grace and beauty. If we knew well the mould of the human species, we might hape it; and art, which in every thing elfe wonderfully affifts nature, might fecond her in this circumstance. If thou didft but know all that has been thought on this subject, it would seem to thee very curious, and would certainly make thee have a better opinion of thofe experiments.

Mat. Well, relate them all to me: I fhall then be as knowing as you, and fhall have nothing to reproach myfelf with.

Par. That is a very fubtle diftinction, mafter Maturin; you will know every thing and pay nothing.

Mat. You make arguments; that's your trade: I grow cabbages; you eat my cabbages, let me tafte of your arguments.

Par. That is all right. Well, my friend, you must know it was a mere chance that thou and all the human race never had exifted

Mat. Ah! Ah! egad that's very comical. The world had a great efcape then: But how happened that?

Per. We mufi proceed regularly. Liften to me. There are millions and hundreds of millions of fhoots more innumerable than the fands of the fea, which being formed to expand theinfelves, perish and never come into life. Thy fhoot fortunately or unfortunately, I do not know which, has expanded. Mat. I am not forry for it

Par. Thou art grown, thou haft underftanding, whilft fo many millions of others have funk into nothing. All proceeds from

the first man, and even the univerfe was ori ginally but a favoured fhoot among so many thousands of others.

Mat. What did the world grow as I did? How! do you believe that? Par. Yes, the world may have begun by a fhoot no bigger than an egg.

Mat. (laughing) This fame philofophy is a very comical thing! But the hen that laid this egg?

Par. The fun, the moon, the earth, the fea, present and future generations, all thofe things I tell you again, depended, as thou didft, on fmall beginnings.

Mat. (laughing louder) But the hen, I fay the hen?

Par. Very well; thou, for example, wert in thy father; and thy father was in thy grand-father: and thy grand-father and father were in thy great grand-father; and thy great great grand-father and thy great great great grand-fathers and thou were in the loins of our father Adam when he walked in the garden.

Mat. What, then, I was walking with him? By Jove, then, I have followed my father's trade-I am a gardener too.

Par. Right But what was thy dependence then, thee and the whole human fpeties! Mat. Oh, heavens, I was fo fmall then! Par. Why you wretch! do you think yourfelf bigger now? What is thy form of five feet four inches on the globe? The wilt. fcarcely have appeared before theu art fwept away. The first step thy child takes pushes thee towards the grave. There is n reft in nature; as thou walkeft through life thou art haftening to death; an irrefiftible power drives thee on; thou sufferest through thy ftate, and thou dieft through neceffity.

Mat. A fine confolation, truly! And this what you call philofophy? It does not wear a rofe-coloured complexion at least. Par. Do you want to be deceived? Mat. No.

Par. Well, attend to truth.

Mat. Let us for once, then, fee her coun tenance.

Par. Thou art like the flowers thou did drefs.

Mat. My flowers make love! Oh, no! that won't do.

Par. Yes, thou fool, thou haft eyes and canít not fee.

Mat. Into what, mafter?

Par. Lay down thy fpade, draw near, and learn to reverence philosophy.

Mat, I do not understand a word;-I ought to reverence?

Par. Look on the calix of that tulip; the top of the ftamina, or rather the little male flower that leans amorously towards the female flower, and endeavours to dart its duft. Thou wilt every where fee the eager nefs of the male flower to find out the one of the other fex: if thou haft an inclination to fee this amufement, squeeze dextrously and fuddenly a close male flower, and thou wilt fee spout from it a fmoaky duft that will cover the pistil. Palm trees incline towards and embrace each other, notwithstanding every obftacle; they fqueeze and compafs one another forcibly: thus flowers come by the fame principle thou art come into the world. There is an uniform fyftem in generation: and minerals, which are fo hard, or rather appear fo, experience in themfelves a perpetual action; every thing is animated and alive in this matter which you think hes dormant. Stones, marbles, are produced exactly like man, all by the help of a matrix, ftrings, cuticles and placenta.

Mat. Lord! my head is distracted with all thofe hard names. What, my fpade came into the world juft as I did?

Par. Yes, and the iron in the mine is expanded by the fame laws that have expanded thy body. Fire, water, and earth, are fprung from particular atoms; they are all gifted like thee with the faculty of reproducing themselves. The innumerable number of vortices, of funs, of habitable earths, a fyftem which I explained to thee the laft time

Mat. Oh! I remember it well; I did nothing but dream all night of stars bigger than the village.

Par. Be fure, then, remember my leffons. All this, I fay, (no, thou wilt not believe it yet) all this may formerly have been contained in a grain whofe bignefs would fcarce equal a pea.

Mat. Say a bean at leaft, my dear mafter. Par. No-The milky way I fhewed thee with my telescope is a group of little worlds that are only come out of the fhell about fixty or eighty years ago. Planets produce planets, and the greatest globe has had an embryo like the fmaileft fly, or the smallest infect, the sport of the winds. The winds Icatter the uuiverfal feeds of being

Mat. And make the apricots fall.

Par. What's that to the purpofe? Do not interrupt me.-— -It seems Venus has lately produced a fatellite; our earth formerly

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brought forth the moon; a nation called Egyptians have the certificate of its birth, which has fince been loft. But as the earth is not yet worn out with age, it may very poffibly procreate a fecond moon.

Mat. And who will make good to us the expence of lanterns which we have lately purchafed fo dear? Will they return us our money again, fir?

Par Money is never returned, let what will happen, my honeft fellow.

Mat. In that cafe, you would do better to exert yourself in recovering it than in racking your brains with planets which get children.

Par. Why will the magnitude of this globe hinder thee from feeing and acknowledging what thou every day perceiveft in the beings which furround thee? Thou canft not conceive that every thing in nature unfolds itself as well as in the confined space of thy garden; that the fun generates other funs, as the feed of the fallading generates fallads? Even thyfelf would fuffice, if the entire race of mankind were destroyed, to renovate their exiftence.

Mat. What, I alone?

Par. Yes, I mean with thy fat wife. Mat. Very well, let it be fo, for goodnefs fake.

Par. Thou art a world in miniature, having in thyfelf every thing necessary for its re-production; and the univerfe is a great living being, fubject to the fame laws which direct thee. In the mean time, it is only more or lefs of matter; and what thou calleft great or fmall, is no more than an illufion of thy eyes. From the moment thou haft exiftence thou art as great as the greatest thing in the world. There is no ftandard to meafure thee by, thou art both totality and part.

Mat. Devil take me if I understand a fingle word of all you fay!

Par. Listen to me, however.-Sometimes a vortex fickens, diffolves, and decays, like a peach thou wouldst pick up; fometimes it is in the vigour of youth. Its duration is fome million of years, and thine is eighty or a hundred; that is all the difference. But no reason why this vortex had not a beginning, as I told thee, by an egg, as well as thee.

Mat. What was my beginning in an

egg?

Par. Yes; that is thy origin. It is common to all beings. The fize is nothing!There must have been a beginning, whether it is the fun or a gnat.

Mat. (paufing) I began by being fhut up in a fhell! I have before now heard fome of your companions, when walking with you, fay fo. But I am not of that opinion, I muít tell you. I do not like the notion of

being

being a prifoner in a fhell. I am afraid of baving a beak. I prefer the opinion of those who are for breaking all those eggs, and leave me a round unpointed visage.

Par. No bad reafon., I very well knew I should make fomething of thee. Thou preferreft the fyftem of organimal particles of

matter!

Mat. What is that, pray?

Par. They are fmall, fimilar, and material points, which form a nose, an eye, an arın, a foot, a finger, a toe, and gather together through affinity.

Mat. Through affinity! what does that mean? I do not understand it.

Par. Didft thou never play at prifon-bars? Mat. Yes, when I was a fchool-boy; and fince too, at the village feaft.

Par. Well, at this play thou knoweft the comers take their stations and disflodge those who come after them. Thus, then, the brifk eye and vigilant nofe drives away all the heavy eyes and lazy nofes. They place themfelves wonderfully in order in their mould when they are not double and of equal ftrength; for then there is a great ftruggle, and the refult is the production of a monfter with two heads and four arms. But most commonly those particles of matter, as polite as the moft civilized perfons, who will not intrude themselves in a chair already taken up, place themselves on one fide, or retire if there is no room; they take poffeffion under a form fimilar to that they had when they floated in the individual that furnished them; they frame themselves on this individual.

Mat. But if all thofe little beings are alive, why do they facrifice themselves to form only one and the fame animal? If they have life, let them play their gambols by themselves, if they are dead, being reunit ed, they can do nothing of themselves. Moreover, when placed, fomething will be neceflary to unite them. There must be cement with ftones which form a building. Then there is the cement of your organized particles? I confefs I cannot comprehend it. Par. Since thou wilt not believe in the production of feveral finall, distinct, and fimilar beings, made to compofe man, wouldft thou rather admit, that the primitive parts of matter should have fentiment and intelligence? It cofts nothing in the fuppofition; and, in proportion to their mafs and their power, they co-ordain together from the ideas they have had.

Mat. This is all Hebrew to me, and to you alio, perhaps.

Par. Well, wouldst thou rather have a fucceffive progreffion by exaltation of the feed?

Mat. I fhall not get a child the more with all thofe fine words.

Par. Then wouldst thou prefer the human

brain, which gradually forms the refl of the machine?

Mat. I do not concern myself much about what is faid on that subject.'

Par. Let us try one more fyftem to fatisfy thee-What doft thou think of the entire man being originally abridged to an incomprehenfible fmallnefs, and that, in propor tion to the contraction he experiences, he tends to dilate himfelf, and actually does dilate with the greatest spring, when the compreffive power ceases to act?

Mat. Stop a little; I understand this a little better; but it is not yet quite clear enough.

Par. Well, then, thou must be satisfied with the spermatic animalcules, that are every where in the atmosphere, that we fwallow, more especially when we are hungry, and which are afterwards so friendly to the philofophy of love. Thou knoweft how to diftinguish celery from another plant?

Mat. When you talk of celery, I know what that means.-But I will prepare you a fallad this night to cool your blood; for, with your good leave, my dear mafter, you are a little mad or fo.

Par. How, when I argue with thee?

Mat. All you have said to me is certainly only to be laughed at.-If I knew how to write as well as read, I could foon ftrike out a dozen fyftems like your's.

Par. Who, thou?

Mat. Yes me. We can give things what meaning we pleafe. It is fo with nature; the fays nothing to any one, and fill your learned gentlemen will make her speak.Why the fecret to deftroy dormice that eat our fruits, is, by many degrees, more ufeful than gueffing how we came into the world; for we know nothing of the matter, either coming or going out of it. I kill no goats out of curiosity. I deftroy as many caterpillars as I can, becaufe they really are our enemies; if we were to let them go on, we fhould not have a pear left. Tell me now why your academicians do not employ themfelves in finding out a way to deftroy this curfed breed, inftead of gazing all night at ftars that fly from them in the morning? I not the peach one eats better than the world one can scarcely fee at the end of a glass? for you have filled my head with all thofe fooleries, and we fee worlds above us now as thick as apples in Normandy.

Par. You fee then there is fome pleasure in contemplating the universe in its full extent; thou breathest more freely when the lookeft up to heaven; and fayeft to thyself, There are gardeners above there juft like me, who dig the earth and plant vegetables.

Mat. Zooks! I wish I was in a planet in fummer, where it would rain only half hour every day.-What joy it is to fee a fine

He had a moft magnificent garden about a quarter of a mile from that city, where he permitted the young Gemilé (this was the name of his wife) to walk of an evening in order to enjoy the fresh air. Several flaves of both fexes always attended her. The men were placed as centinels at the gates and along the walls, the women attended her within the garden.-The delightful walks of orange trees had no charms for her;, the foft murmuring ftreams, the fresh verdure of the *fields, the tender notes of the nightingale, only added to her melancholy. The flowers feemed to be deprived of their fragrance, and without relish the tafted of the moft delicious fruits. The pleasures the enjoyed in the company of her women ferved only to increase her pain. One evening as he was walking, veiled, and attended by her flaves, flowly along the banks of the river in her way to the garden, the perceived an European, who had lately come to Rofetta. His drefs, fo different from that of the Turks, made her foon particularly remark him. His countenance, adorned with the florid complexion of youth, as yet untarnished by the heat of the fun, made a deep impreffion on her heart; fhe paffed him flowly and dropped her fan f, that the might have a pretence to ftop for a moment. She attracted his attention, and his tender glances penetrated her heart. The air, the figure, the whole appearance of the ftranger, made a deep impreffion on her mind. The impoffibility of fpeaking to him, and the fear of never again feeing him, now opened to her eyes the mifery of her fituation, and rendered her fenfible of a paffion, which, from the constraint in which the lived, was the more likely to become ungovernable. As foon as the entered the fhady grove the quit ted the troublesome crowd; and taking afide one of her women in whom fhe could place confidence, Did you obferve,' faid fhe, the young ftranger? what vivacity in his eyes! what looks did he direct towards me! Ómy friend, my dear Zefte, I beseech you go and find him; tell him that he must come to-morrow evening under the orange-trees which border the garden on the fide of the wood where the wall is leaft high; tell him I want to fee him, to converfe with him; only let him be careful to avoid the notice of my unrelenting guards.' The message was punctually delivered. The European rafhly promised; but the dangers to which he

N O TE S.

The Europeans may wear their own drefs in Rofetta; but if they leave the city in that attire they run a risk.

The Egyptians carry fans made of feathers, fpread into the form of a femicircle, a wooden handle.

would be expofed prevented him. The flare, difguifed like a merchant's wife, went in fearch of him a fecond time, and demanded of him why he had broken his promife. He made a thousand excufes, and fixed upon a diftant day, in order that he might have time maturely to confider the matter. Re flection got the better of his inclination; the dread of being empaled damped his courage; he came not to the appointment. Zefte a gain returned to him; and after many reproaches, told him of the paffion her mil trefs entertained for him, and the difguft fhe had conceived at the old Haffan. She defcribed to him the charms, the beauty, and the misfortunes of a young woman torn from her parents, and fold to a Barbarian. The young man, delighted with her defcription, fwore that the next day he would be in the arbour an hour after the fetting of the fun.

The beautiful Gemile, always fanguine though always deceived, had juft come from the bath. Her.long black hair, interfperfed with pearls, flowed down her back in graceful and luxuriant ringlets. She was perfumed with the most precious effences. A rich embroidered girdle furrounded her wait, and ferved to faften her fingle veftment; which, being of the fineft and thinneft texture, accommodated itself eafily to her thape, and marked every contour with precision. She had laid aside her veil, and wore a light Indian turban adorned with brilliants. Thus equipt, and b'ooming in a the graces of youth, fhe yet feared that he was not fuficiently beautiful. She waited with impati ence; one while the walked on with a quick ftep--then the would fuddenly ftop, or wan tonly ftretch herfelf among the flowers. At the leaft noife the ftarted, and caft a wifhful eye all around. The fun had now difappear ed, the ftars began to fparkle, the night, fo beautiful in that climate, the night, whol delicious coolness repairs the enervated ftrength, and reftores to the foul all its ener gy, had fpread its fable curtain over the creation, and deeply fhaded the bower of the love-fick Gemile. Every breath of wind that fook the leaves of the trees extinguied or reanimated in her breaft hope and fear alternately. Uncertainty, the torment of lovers, made her fulfer at once a thousand ills.

The time for returning to the city wa now come. She faw herself deceived fe the third time. Fury took place of the fau timents of affection-fhe breathed nothing but vengeance; he was upon the point ordering the deftruction of a perjure wretch; but her feelings prevailed over het vanity, and hope and defire foon extingui ed her rage. No,' faid fhe, that he may not die, go my dear Zefte, go and carry t him the words of peace. Remove his fears