ubstance--the principles of the social system with the commencement
of human society? What should we say to a mechanic of a different
description, who should undertake the repair or construction of a
ship of the line, without any practical knowledge of the art, on
mere theory, and with no other resources than those which the savage
employs in the construction of his canoe?"
Notices sur la Vie de Sieyes.

What had France, already possessed of a constitution capable of rendering
her prosperous and happy, to do with the adoration of Rousseau's
speculative systems? Or why are the English encouraged in a traditional
respect for the manes of republicans, whom, if living, we might not
improbably consider as factious and turbulent fanatics?*

* The prejudices of my countrymen on this subject are respectable,
and I know I shall be deemed guilty of a species of political
sacrilege. I attack not the tombs of the dead, but the want of
consideration for the living; and let not those who admire
republican principles in their closets, think themselves competent
to censure the opinions of one who has been watching their effects
amidst the disasters of a revolution.

Our slumbers have for some time been patriotically disturbed by the
danger of Holland; and the taking of the Maestricht nearly caused me a
jaundice: but the French have taught us philosophy--and their conquests
appear to afford them so little pleasure, that we ourselves hear of them
with less pain. The Convention were indeed, at first, greatly elated by
the dispatches from Amsterdam, and imagined they were on the eve of
dictating to all Europe: the churches were ordered to toll their only
bell, and the gasconades of the bulletin were uncommonly pompous--but the
novelty of the event has now subsided, and the conquest of Holland
excites less interest than the thaw. Public spirit is absorbed by
private necessities or afflictions; people who cannot procure bread or
firing, even though they have money to purchase it, are little gratified
by reading that a pair of their Deputies lodged in the Stadtholder's
palace; and the triumphs of the republic offer no consolation to the
families which it has pillaged or dismembered.

The mind, narrowed and occupied by the little cares of hunting out the
necessaries of life, and evading the restraints of a jealous government,
is not susceptible o