ffer, and lofty minds, ardent for liberty!
warm and eloquent natures! resolute characters! women, who unite beauty
and wit with goodness--oh! then, how fruitful, how powerful will be the
harmonious union of all these ideas, and influences, and forces--of
all these attractions grouped round that princely fortune, which,
concentrated by association, and wisely managed, would render
practicable the most admirable Utopias!

"'What a wondrous centre of fertile and generous thoughts! What precious
and life-giving rays would stream incessantly from this focus of
charity, emancipation, and love! What great things might be attempted
what magnificent examples given to the world! What a divine mission!
What an irresistible tendency towards good might be impressed on the
whole human race by a family thus situated, and in possession of such
means!

"'And, then, such a beneficent association would be able to combat the
fatal conspiracy of which I am the victim, and which, in a century and a
half, may have lost none of its formidable power.

"'So, to this work of darkness, restraint, and despotism, which weighs
heavily on the Christian world, my family would oppose their work of
light, expansion, and liberty!

"'The genii of good and evil would stand face to face. The struggle
would commence, and God would protect the right.

"'And that these immense pecuniary resources, which will give so much
power to my family, may not be exhausted by the course of years,
my heirs, following my last will, are to place out, upon the same
conditions, double the sum that I have invested--so that, a century and
a half later, a new source of power and action will be at the disposal
of their descendants. What a perpetuity of good!

"'In the ebony cabinet of the Hall of Mourning will be found some
practical suggestions on the subject of this association.

"'Such is my last will--or rather, such are my last hopes.

"'When I require absolutely that the members of my family should appear
in person in the Rue Saint-Francois, on the day of the opening of this
testament, it is so that, united in that solemn moment, they may see and
know each other. My words may then, perhaps, have some effect upon them;
and, instead of living divided, they will combine together. It will be
for their own interest, and my wishes will thus be accomplished.

"'When I sent, a few days ago, to those of my family whom exile has
dispersed over Europe, a medal on which is engr