ning and glorious in it than that of which the day is made in other
places. I was wonderfully astonished at the discovery of such a paradise
amidst the wildness of those cold, hoary landscapes which lay about it;
but found at length, that this happy region was inhabited by the Goddess
of Liberty; whose presence softened the rigours of the climate, enriched
the barrenness of the soil, and more than supplied the absence of the
sun. The place was covered with a wonderful profusion of flowers, that
without being disposed into regular borders and parterres, grew
promiscuously, and had a greater beauty in their natural luxuriancy and
disorder, than they could have received from the checks and restraints
of art. There was a river that arose out of the south side of the
mountain, that by an infinite number of turns and windings, seemed to
visit every plant, and cherish the several beauties of the spring, with
which the fields abounded. After having run to and fro in a wonderful
variety of meanders, as unwilling to leave so charming a place, it at
last throws itself into the hollow of a mountain, from whence it passes
under a long range of rocks, and at length rises in that part of the
Alps where the inhabitants think it the first source of the Rhone. This
river, after having made its progress through those free nations,
stagnates in a huge lake,[211] at the leaving of them, and no sooner
enters into the regions of slavery, but runs through them with an
incredible rapidity, and takes its shortest way to the sea.

I descended into the happy fields that lay beneath me, and in the midst
of them, beheld the goddess sitting upon a throne. She had nothing to
enclose her but the bounds of her own dominions, and nothing over her
head but the heavens. Every glance of her eye cast a track of light
where it fell, that revived the spring, and made all things smile about
her. My heart grew cheerful at the sight of her, and as she looked upon
me, I found a certain confidence growing in me, and such an inward
resolution as I never felt before that time.

On the left hand of the goddess sat the Genius of a Commonwealth, with
the cap of liberty on her head, and in her hand a wand, like that with
which a Roman citizen used to give his slaves their freedom. There was
something mean and vulgar, but at the same time exceeding bold and
daring, in her air; her eyes were full of fire, but had in them such
casts of fierceness and cruelty, as made her ap