thoughts locally centered on its situation at the time I left it.*

My memory represented to me its highly cultivated lands, its roads so admirably executed, its towns inhabited by an immense multitude, its ships scattered over every part of the ocean, its ports filled with the produce of both the Indies; and, comparing the activity of its commerce, the extent of its navigation, the richness of its buildings, the arts and industry of its inhabitants, with all that Egypt and Syria could formerly boast of a similar kind, I amused myself with the idea, that I had rediscovered in modern Europe the past splendour of Asia; but the charm of my pleasing reverie was presently blasted and dissolved by the last step in the comparison. For, reflecting, that the very identical places before me had once exhibited a picture of activity not less animated: who, said I to myself, can assure me, that the desolation I now witness will not one day be the lot of the nations in our own hemisphere? Who knows, but that hereafter some traveller, like myself, will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder sea, where now, amid the vortex of so many enjoyments, the heart and the eyes are not sufficiently capacious to take in the multitude of sensations that press for admittance; who knows, but he will one day sit down upon mute and solitary ruins, and weep over the ashes of the people, and the memorable records of their departed greatness?

* In the year 1782, at the close of the American war.

The very thought shot tears into my eyes; and, covering my head with the skirt of my mantle, I lapsed into the most gloomy meditations on human affairs. Ah! said I, in the midst of my sorrow, man is born to be unhappy! a blind fatality sports with his destiny, (c)! a merciless and cruel necessity governs by capricious chance the devoted lot of mortals! No, I am wrong: it is the decrees of divine justice, that are now accomplishing! A mysterious God is exercising his incomprehensible judgments! doubtless, he has pronounced a secret malediction against this region of the earth; he has inflicted a curse upon the present race of people to avenge himself of past generations. Ah! who shall dare to fathom the inscrutable depths of the Divinity?

And, here my senses sunk into a motionless stupor, drowned in the tide of profound melancholy.

CHAP. III.

THE APPARITION.

SOON after a noise struck my ear, somewhat like to the agitation of a flowing robe, and the slow march of a foot upon the dry and rustling grass. Startled and alarmed, í gently raised my mantle; and stealing from beneath a timid glance around me, suddenly on the left, amid the obscure glimmerings of the moon, through the columns and ruins of

an adjacent temple, methought I saw a pale << apparition, enveloped in an immense drapery, such as spectres are painted issuing out of tombs. I shuddered; and, in this tumultuous state of frightful agitation, was hesitating whether to fly, or to assure myself of its reality, when a hollow voice, in a grave and solemn accent, thus addressed me:

"How long will the importunity of man assail heaven with unjust complaints? How long will he vent his idle and clamorous accusations against Fate, the presumptive author of his calamities? Will he never open his eyes to the light, and his heart to the suggestions of truth and reason! Truth, which every where presents itself to his senses with the most inviting effulgence, and yet he does not see it! Reason, whose voice continually resounds in his ear; and yet his understanding does not hear it! Unjust and thoughtless man! if thou canst only for a moment suspend the delusion, which fascinates thy senses; if thy heart be capable of comprehending the language and arguments of unsophisticated eloquence, interrogate these ruins! listen to the silent lessons which they read to thy reason!... And you, ye sacred temples! ye venerable tombs! ye walls once so proud and glorious, that have been the witnesses of twenty different ages, appear in the injured cause of nature herself! give your attendance at the bar of an upright and sound understanding, and bear testimony before this tribunal, against a most unwarrantable and unjust accusation! confound the declamatory

sorceries of false wisdom and hypocritical piety, and avenge heaven and earth of man, their calumniator!"

What is this blind fatality, that capriciously sports, without rule and laws, with the lot of mortals? What this unjust, this merciless and cruel necessity, which frustrates and confounds the issue of actions, both of prudence and of folly? Wherein consist the maledictions and denunciations of Heaven against these countries? Where are we to look for the credentials of the actual existence of that divine curse, which perpetuates this scene of depopulation and local desolation? Speak, ye monumental witnesses of past ages! say, has Heaven changed its laws, and the earth its course? Has the sun extinguished his fire diffused through the regions of space? Do the seas no longer send forth their clouds? Are the rain and the dew steadfastly fixed in the air? Do the mountains withhold the water of their springs? Are the rivers dried up? and do trees and vegetables no longer bear fruit and seed? Answer these queries, thou race of falsehood and iniquity; has God disturbed that primitive and settled order, which he himself originally assigned to nature? Has heaven denied to the earth, and the earth to its inhabitants, the blessings which they heretofore dispensed? If the creation goes on upon the same principles as before, if they have the same powers and means within their reach now that they had formerly, whence comes it that the present race is not distinguished by the same traits of character and fortune with

their ancestors? Ah! how falsely do you accuse Fate and Divinity! How wrongfully do you make God the cause of your evils. Tell me, ye perverse and hypocritical race, if these places be desolate, if populous and powerful cities be reduced to absolute solitude, is it God that has occasioned their ruin? Is it his hand that has thrown down these walls, sapped these temples, and mutilated these pillars? or, is it the hand of man? Is it the arm of God, that has carried the sword into the city, and set fire to the country around, that has murdered the people, burned their crops, rooted up the timber, and ravaged the pastures? or, is it the arm of man? And when a famine has been the result of this devastation and waste of produce, is it the vengeance of God that has sent it, or the senseless intoxication and frantic fury of man? When, under the pressure of such a famine, the people have lived upon unwholesome provision, and a pestilence has ensued, is this affliction to be imputed to the wrath of Heaven, or to human imprudence? When war, famine, and pestilence united, have, by a torrent of evils, swept away the inhabitants, and the land has become a desert, is it God, who has depopulated it? Is it his rapacity, that plunders the labourer, ravages the fruitful fields, and desolates the country? or, is it the rapacity of those who govern? Is it his pride, that creates murderous wars? or, is it the pride of kings and their ministers? Is it the venality of his decisions that blasts the fortune of families? or, is it the venality

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