persons of whom it is composed are all endowed with the virtues best
adapted to their age and situation; and I am encouraged to love the
parents as a brother, and the children as a father. Every day we seek
and find the opportunities of meeting: yet even this valuable connection
cannot supply the loss of domestic society.

Within the last two or three years our tranquillity has been clouded
by the disorders of France: many families at Lausanne were alarmed and
affected by the terrors of an impending bankruptcy; but the revolution,
or rather the dissolution of the kingdom has been heard and felt in the
adjacent lands.

I beg leave to subscribe my assent to Mr. Burke's creed on the
revolution of France. I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics,
I adore his chivalry, and I can almost excuse his reverence for church
establishments. I have sometimes thought of writing a dialogue of the
dead, in which Lucian, Erasmus, and Voltaire should mutually acknowledge
the danger of exposing an old superstition to the contempt of the blind
and fanatic multitude.

A swarm of emigrants of both sexes, who escaped from the public ruin,
has been attracted by the vicinity, the manners, and the language
of Lausanne; and our narrow habitations in town and country are now
occupied by the first names and titles of the departed monarchy. These
noble fugitives are entitled to our pity; they may claim our esteem, but
they cannot, in their present state of mind and fortune, much contribute
to our amusement. Instead of looking down as calm and idle spectators
on the theatre of Europe, our domestic harmony is somewhat embittered
by the infusion of party spirit: our ladies and gentlemen assume the
character of self-taught politicians; and the sober dictates of wisdom
and experience are silenced by the clamour of the triumphant democrates.
The fanatic missionaries of sedition have scattered the seeds of
discontent in our cities and villages, which had flourished above two
hundred and fifty years without fearing the approach of war, or feeling
the weight of government. Many individuals, and some communities, appear
to be infested with the Gallic phrenzy, the wild theories of equal
and boundless freedom; but I trust that the body of the people will be
faithful to their sovereign and to themselves; and I am satisfied that
the failure or success of a revolt would equally terminate in the ruin
of the country. While the aristocracy of Berne protects th