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20. His daughter, who was prepared to be afraid of him, was equally undeceived. She found in him nothing of that felf importance which fuperior parts, or great cultivation of them, is apt to confer. He talked of every thing but philofophy and religion; he feemed to enjoy every pleasure and amufement of ordinary life, and to be interested in the most common topics of difcourfe. When his knowledge of learning at any time appeared, it was delivered with the utmost plainnefs, and without the leaft fhow of dogmatifin.

21. On his part, he was charmed with the fociety of the good clergyman and his lovely daughter. He found in them the guiltlefs manners of the earliest times, with the culture and accomplishments of the moft refined ones. Every better feeling, warm and vivid every ungentle one, repreffed or overcome. He was not addicted to love, but he felt himself happy, in being the friend of Mademoiselle La Roche, and fometimes envied her father the poffeffion of fuch a child.

22. After a journey of eleven days they arrived at the dwelling of La Roche. It was fituated in one of thofe vallies in the Canton of Berne, where nature feems to repofe in quiet, and has enclosed her retreat with mountains inacceffible.

23. A ftream, that fpent its fury in the hills above, ran in front of the house, and a broken water fall was feen' through the woods that covered its fides. Below, it circled round a tufted plain, and formed a little lake in front of a village, at the end of which appeared the fpire of La Recbe's church, rifing above a clump of beeches.

24. The philofopher enjoyed the beauty of the fcenes; but to his companions it recalled the memory of a wife and a parent they had loft. The old man's sorrow was filent; his daughter fobbed and wept. Her father took her hand, kiffed it twice, preffed it to his bofom, threw up his eyes to heaven; and having wiped off a tear that was juft about to drop from each, began to point out to his gueft fome of the moft ftriking objects which the prof pect afforded. The philofopher interpreted all this, and he could but flightly cenfure the creed from which it arofe. 25. They had not been long arrived, when a number

of La Roebe's parishioners, who had heard of his return, came to the houfe to fee and welcome him. The honest folks were awkward but fincere, in their profeffions of friendship. They made fome attempts at condolence; it was too delicate for their handling, but La Roche took it in goed part, "It has pleafed God," faid he; and they faw he had fettled the matter with himself. Philofophy could not have done fo much with a thousand words.

26. It was now evening, and the good pealants were about to depart, when a clock was heard to fake sfeven, and the hour was followed by a particular chyme. The Country folks, who came to welcome their pastor, - turned their locks towards him at the found; he explained their meaning to his guest. "That is the figna faid he, our evening exercife. This is one of the nights of ek in which fome of my parthioners are wont to join in it; a little ruftic faloon ferves for the chapel of our family, and fuch of the good people as are with us; if you chufe rather to walk cut, I will furnish you with an attendant; or here are a few old books which may afford you fome entertainment within."

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27. By no means," aufwered the philofopher; ** I will attend Mademoiflle at her devotions.” She is quṛ organif," faid La Roche, our neighbourhood: is the country of mufical mechanifin, and I have a fmall organ, fitted up for the purpofe of affifting our finging." It is an additional inducenient," replied the other, and they walked into the room together.

f

28. At the end flood the organ mentioned by La Roche, before it was a curtain, which his daughter drew afide, and, placing herfelf on a feat within, and drawing the curtain clofe, fo as to fave her the awkwardness of an exhibition, began a voluntary, folemn and beautiful in the higheft degree. The philofopher was no muficiat, but he was not altogether intentible to mufic. This faftened on his mind more ftrongly, from its beautics being unexi pected.

29. The folemn prelude introduced a hymn, in which fuch of the audience as could ng, immediately joined The words were moftly taken from @holy white; in fucke thequdies of God, dilip, died worldçxI XA

in the Lord. The organ was touched with a hand lefs firm-it paufed-it ceafed and the fobbing of Mademoi1 felle was heard in its ftead.

30. Her father gave a fign for flopping the pfalmody, and rofe to prayer. He was difcompofed at first, and his voice faultered as he fpoke, but his heart was in his words, and its warmth overcame its embarraffment. He addreffed. a Being whom he loved, and he spoke for thofe he loved. His parifhioners caught the ardor of the good old maneven the philofopher felt himself moved, and forgot, for a moment, to think why he fhould not.

31. La Roche's religion was that of fentiment, not theory, and bis gueft was averfe to difputation; their difcourfe did not therefore lead to queftions concerning the belief of either; yet would the old man fometimes fpeak of his, from the feelings of a heart in prefed with its force, and withing to fpread the pleasure he enjoyed in it.

32. The ideas of his God and his Saviour, were fo congenial to his mind, that every emotion of it naturally awakened them. A philofopher might have called him an enthufiaft; but if he poffe ffed the fervor of enthufiafts, he was guiltlefs of their bigotry. "Our father who art in heaven!" might the good old man fay-for he felt itand all mankind were his brethren.

33." You regret, my friend, faid he to the philofopher when my daughter and I talk of the exquifite pleafure derived from mufic; you regret your want of mulical powers and mufical feelings; it is a department of feul, you fay, which nature has almoft denied you, which, from the effe as you fee it have on others you are fure muit be bighly delightful,"

54. Why fhould not the fame thing be faid of religion? Truft me, I feel it in the fame way, an energy, an infpi ration, which I would not lofe for all the bleffings of fenfe, or enjoyments of the world; yet fo far from lefening my relifh of the pleafures of life, that I feel it heightens them all."

35. The thought of receiving it from God, adds the bleffing of fentiment to that of fenfation, in every good, thing: which dope flag and when eximpities exert de mes #r, Kamolta grządo 2016 edi m yaq

is but a worm, yet methinks I am allied to God!" It would have beea inhuman in our philofopher to cloud, even with a doubt, the funshine of his belief.

36. His difcourfe, indeed, was very remote from metaphyfical difquifition or religious controverfy. Of all men Iever knew, his ordinary converfation was the least tintured with pedantry, or liable to differtation. With La Roche and his daughter, it was perfectly familiar.

37. The country round them, the manners of the vil lage, the comparifon of both with thofe of England, remarks on the works of favorite authors, on the fentiments they conveyed, and the paffions they excited, with many other topies in which there was an equality, or alternate advantage, among the fpeakers, were the fubjects they talked of.

38. Their hours too of riding and walking were many, in which the Philofopher, as a stranger, was shown the remarkable scenes and curiofities of the country. They would fometimes make little expeditions to contemplate, in different attitudes, thofe aftonifhing mountains, the cliffs of which, covered with eternal fnows, and fometimes fhooting into fantastic fapes, from the termination of moft of the Swifs profpe&ts.

39. Our philofopher asked many queftions, as to their natural history and productions. La Roche obferved the fublimity of the ideas, which the view of their ftupendous fummits, inacceffible to mortal foot, was calculated to infpire, which, faid he, naturally leads the mind to that Being by whom their foundations were laid. They are not feen in Flanders, faid Mademoifelle, with a figh."That is an odd remark," faid the philofopher, finifing, She blafhed, and he enquired no farther.*

40. It was with regret he left a fociety in which he found himfelf fo happy; but he fettled with La Roche and his daughter a plan of correfpondence; and they took his promife, that if ever he came within fifty leagues

*The philosopher was a resident in Flanders, and a sceptic, The reproof of his infidelity is inimitably delicate. In short, this whole story is a beautiful satire on deism, bigotry, and metaphysical theology, whilst it paints unaffected virtue, benevolence, and piety, in the most engaging colours,

of their dwelling, he would travel thofe fifty leagues to wifit them.

41. About three years after, our philofopher was ong a -wift at Gene val; the pronlife he made to La Roche and his daughter, on his former wifity was recalled to his mind, by the view of that range of mountains, on a part of which they had often looked together.

42. There was a reproach too, conveyed along with the recollection, for this having failed to write to either of them for feveral months paft. The truth was, that jpdo. lence was the habit most natural to him, from which he was not eafily roufed by the claims of correfpondence, either of his friends or his enemies; when the latter drew their -pens in controverfy, they were often unanswered as well as the former.

43. While he was hesitating about a visit to La Roche, which he wished to make, but found the effort rather too much for him, he received a letter from the old man, which had been forwarded to him from Paris, where he had then fixed his refidence.

44. It contained a gentle complaint of the philofopher's want of punctuality, but an affurance of continued grati tude for his former good offices, and as a friend whom the -writer confidered interested in his family, it informed him of the approaching nuptials of Mademoiselle Las Roche, with a young man, a relation of her own, and formerly a pupilofs her father, of the most noble dispofition, and refpectable character.

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*

45. Attached from their earliest years, they had been -feparated by his joining one of the fubfidiary regiments of the Canton, then in the fervice of a foreign power. In this fituation he had distinguished himself as much for courage and military skill, as for the other endowments which she had cultivated at home. The term of his fervice was -now expired, and they expected him to return in a few weeks, when the old man hoped, as he expreffed it in his letter, to join their hands and fee them happy.

46. Our philofopher felt himself interested in this event; but he was not, perhaps, altogether fo happy in the tidings tof Mademoiselle La Poche's mariage as her father fuppofed him. Not that he ever was a lover of the lady; but he thought her one of the most amiable women he had