You thus impose on the impetuous sallies of cupidity a salutary rein! you calm the feverish ardor of enjoyments which disturb the senses; you free the soul from the fatiguing conflict of the passions; elevate it above the paltry interests which torment the crowd; and surveying, from your commanding position, the expanse of ages and nations, the mind is only accessible to the great affections--to the solid ideas of virtue and of glory.
* The cathedral of St.Denis is the tomb of the kings of France; and it was because the towers of that edifice are seen from the Castle of St.Germain, that Louis XIV.

quitted that admirable residence, and established a new one in the savage forests of Versailles.
(This note, like many others, has been omitted from the American editions.

It seems pertinent to the subject, and is explanatory of the text .-- Pub.) Ah! when the dream of life is over, what will then avail all its agitations, if not one trace of utility remains behind?
O Ruins! to your school I will return! I will seek again the calm of your solitudes; and there, far from the afflicting spectacle of the passions, I will cherish in remembrance the love of man, I will employ myself on the means of effecting good for him, and build my own happiness on the promotion of his.
THE RUINS OF EMPIRES..