wisdom which would make the people happy, and the King great;
would place him in history where no other act can possibly place him.
They would thus put themselves in the track of the best guide they can
follow; they would soon overtake it, become its guide in turn, and lead
to the wholesome modifications wanting in that model, and necessary to
constitute a rational government. Should they attempt more than the
established habits of the people are ripe for, they may lose all, and
retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim. These, Madam, are
my opinions; but I wish to know yours, which, I am sure, will be
better.

From a correspondent at Nismes, you will not expect news. Were I to
attempt to give you news, I should tell you stories one thousand years
old. I should detail to you the intrigues of the courts of the Caesars,
how they affect us here, the oppressions of their praetors, prefects,
&c. I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night. For me, the
city of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of its empire. I
am filled with alarms for the event of the irruptions daily making on
us, by the Goths, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals, lest they
should re-conquer us to our original barbarism. If I am sometimes
induced to look forward to the eighteenth century, it is only when
recalled to it by the recollection of your goodness and friendship, and
by those sentiments of sincere esteem and respect with which I have the
honor to be Madam, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

NICE, April 11, 1787.

Your head, my dear friend, is full of notable things; and being better
employed, therefore, I do not expect letters from you. I am constantly
roving about, to see what I have never seen before, and shall never see
again. In the great cities, I go to see what travellers think alone
worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, and generally gulp it all
down in a day. On the other hand, I am never satiated with rambling
through the fields and farms, examining the culture and cultivators,
with a degree of curiosity which makes some take me to be a fool, and
others to be much wiser than I am. I have been pleased to find among
the people a less degree of physical misery than I had expected. They
are generally well clothed, and have a plenty of food, not animal
indeed, but vegetable, which is as wholesome. Perhaps they are
over-worked, the excess of the rent r