* The dragon Bell.

At these words, revolving in my mind the vicissitudes which have
transmitted the sceptre of the world to people so different in religion
and manners from those in ancient Asia to the most recent of Europe,
this name of a natal land revived in me the sentiment of my country; and
turning my eyes towards France, I began to reflect on the situation in
which I had left her.*

* In the year 1782, at the close of the American war.

I recalled her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so admirably
constructed, her cities inhabited by a countless people, her fleets
spread over every sea, her ports filled with the produce of both the
Indies: and then comparing the activity of her commerce, the extent of
her navigation, the magnificence of her buildings, the arts and industry
of her inhabitants, with what Egypt and Syria had once possessed, I was
gratified to find in modern Europe the departed splendor of Asia; but
the charm of my reverie was soon dissolved by a last term of comparison.
Reflecting that such had once been the activity of the places I was
then contemplating, who knows, said I, but such may one day be the
abandonment of our countries? Who knows if on the banks of the Seine,
the Thames, the Zuyder-Zee, where now, in the tumult of so many
enjoyments, the heart and the eye suffice not for the multitude of
sensations,--who knows if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day
sit on their silent ruins, and weep in solitude over the ashes of their
inhabitants, and the memory of their former greatness.

At these words, my eyes filled with tears: and covering my head with the