result of new ideas fermenting in the minds of men and impelling them,
were to be directed towards wise and wholesome reform. Failing such
direction, those forces burst through the restraints of law, custom,
authority, loyalty and respect, and produced the most startling
upheaval in modern history, the Great French Revolution. Louis lost
both his crown and his head, the whole system of government was
overturned, and the way was left open for the masterful mind and strong
arm needed to restore discipline and order to the nation: Napoleon
Bonaparte.

Louis was very fond of literature. During the sad last months of
his imprisonment, before the guillotine took his life, he read over 230
volumes. He especially liked books of travel and geography, and one of
his favourite works was the VOYAGES of Cook. He had the volumes near
him in the last phase of his existence. There is a pleasant drawing
representing the King in his prison, with the little Dauphin seated on
his knee, pointing out the countries and oceans on a large geographical
globe; and he took a pride in having had prepared "for the education of
Monsieur le Dauphin," a History of the Exploration of the South Seas.
It was published in Paris, in three small volumes, in 1791.

The study of Cook made a deep impression on the King's mind. Why, he
asked himself, should not France share in the glory of discovering new
lands, and penetrating untraversed seas? There was a large amount of
exploratory work still to be done. English navigators were always busy
sailing to unknown parts, but the entire world was by no means revealed
yet. There were, particularly, big blank spaces at the bottom of the
globe. That country called by the Dutch New Holland, the eastern part
of which Cook had found--there was evidently much to be done there.
What were the southern coasts like? Was it one big island-continent, or