Ep. ad Att. Lib. vi. Ep. 6.

[185] This remarkable confession I find in Menage's "Observations
sur la Langue Francoise," Part II. p. 110.

[186] [Greek: Okeia gar xunesei, kai oute promathon es auten ouden,
out epimathon ton te parachrema di elachistes boules kratistos
gnomon, kai ton mellonton epipleiston tou genesomenou aristos
eikastes].--Thucydides, lib. i.

[187] Arist. Rhet. lib. vii. c. 5.

[188] This work was printed in London as a _first_ volume, but
remained unpublished. This singularly curious production was
suppressed, but reprinted at Paris. It has suffered the most cruel
mutilations. I read with surprise and instruction the single copy
which I was assured was the only one saved from the havoc of the
entire edition. The writer was the celebrated Chateaubriand.

[189] "Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical Sketches of my
Literary Life and Opinions." By S.T. Coleridge, Esq. 1807. Vol. i.
p. 214.

[190] _Public spirit_, and _public spirits_, were about the year
1700 household words with us. Leibnitz was struck by their
significance, but it might now puzzle us to find synonyms, or even
to explain the very terms themselves.

[191] This extraordinary passage is at the close of the third book
of _Emile_, to which I must refer the reader. It is curious,
however, to observe, that in 1760 Rousseau poured forth the
following awful predictions, which were considered quite
absurd:--"Vous vous fiez a l'ordre actuel de la societe, sans songer
que cet ordre est sujet a des _revolutions inevitables_--le grand
devient petit, le riche devient pauvre, le monarque devient
sujet--_nous approchons l'etat de crise et du siecle des
revolutions_. Que fera donc dans la bassesse ce satrape que vous
n'aurez eleve que pour la grandeur? Que fera dans la pauvrete, ce
publicain qui ne scait vivre que d'or? Que fera, depourvu de tout,
ce fastueux imbecille qui ne sait point user de lui-meme?" &c. &c.

[192] This prediction of the end of the world is one of the most
popular hallucinations, warmly received by many whenever it is
promulgated. It had the most marked effect when the cycle of a
thousand years after the birth of Christ was approaching completion;
and the world was assured that was the limit of its present state.
Numerous acts of piety were performed. Churches were built,
religious h