1 father, has saved the Rufsian people from no lefs a misery; but in a more surprising manner*. As internal deseases are most fatal, no danger nursed in the bosom of a state is more dreadful than foreign invasion. External wounds are easier healed than internal injuries. Yet if we compare the liberation of Russia from the devastation of barbarous foreign arms, with that wonderful deliverance from lurking internal confusion, wrought by the hand of Elisabeth, we fhall find the contrary. In healing our external wounds, the fields and floods were no lefs impurpled with Russian than with Tartarian blood but in these happy days, our gracious Elisabeth, in a fhort space, has eradicated deep rooted evils without our toils, and has healed our sick country, as with a word full of divine influence, "Rise up and walk, rise up and walk Russia; fhake "off your doubts; full of joy and hope, be gay, be happy, and be exalted." 46 It is the remembrance of the satisfaction that we then felt, hearers, that paints such images in our thoughts. But these are more animated when we reflect, that we are delivered not only from oppref * The panegyrist alludes to the revolution in 1742, after the death of the empress Anna Ivanowna, Biron and his party placed the infant prince Iwan on the throne, in prejudice to the right of Elisabeth daughter to Peter the great. Elisabeth deposed Iwan without effuşion of blood, except what was spilt on the scaffold, which was inconsiderable, if we compare it with the notions formerly entertained of the ferocity of the Russian people. This princess was so averse to blood that she abolished all capital punishment; a plan of government which is pursued by the Great Catherine. Ott. 23: sion, but from dispite. What did the world say of us before our deliverance? Do not their words still echo in our memories? "Rufsians, Rufsians, you have forgot Peter the Great: You are wanting in gratitude for his services. They don't raise his daughter to the throne: She is deserted, and they don't afsist; she is despised and they don't revenge.” O what shame and derision! But our incomparable heroine has done away reproach from among the sons of Rufsia, and has justified them to the world. Our good will was not wanting, but her magnanimity restrained. Our zeal was not deficient, but the abhorred bloodshed. To our cowardice must not be attributed what was the council of God; who was pleased in this manner to manifest his power, to show her fortitude, and to increase our veneration and our happiness. Such mercies has the Most High secured to us by the advancement of great Elisabeth to the throne of her progenitor! But what is to day's festival? The crown and consummation of all. God crowns her wondrous birth; he crowns her glorious accefsion; he crowns her unaffected virtues; he has crowned her with his grace; he has encouraged her with hopeful joy; he has blefsed her with love sounding victories; with victories similar to her progrefs to the throne; for, as her internal enemies were subdued without blood, so her foreign foes were overcome with small lofs. Our sovereign arrays herself in purple; is consecrated to dominion, is crowned, and afsumes the globe and sceptre. The enraptured Rufsians fill 273 the air with fhouts and acclamations. The enemy trembles and grows pale; they bend themselves, and turn their backs to the Rufsian legions: They hide themselves in marshes, behind rivers and mountains; but the powerful hand of Elisabeth every where oppresses them, and it is only from her generosity that they receive respite. How evident our afsurances of happy dominion; we now wonder at its actual existence. After the example of her great progenitor, she grants crowns to sovereigns, gives quiet to Europe by her peaceful arms, secures the Russian succefsion. Gold and silver flow from the bowels of the earth for her own use, and for the public advantage. Her subjects are relieved from burdens; the earth is untainted with Rufsian blood, at home and abroad; the people multiply, the revenues increase, justice is regulated, arts are planted,-every where lovely peace, and times emblematic of our sovereign, uninterrupted reign. To Joannes Amadies, June 12 1793. "Es me vario jactatum laudis amore, Florentis viridi Sophiæ complectitur umbra." Or the portico in the gardens of Epicurus! Yes Amadies however paradoxical this may appear, I have seen it and am able to describe it, since I sur veyed it this morning with Epicurus himself, who deigned to visit me in an airy dream. For my sleep "Was airy light, from pure digestion bred "And temperate vapours bland, which th' only sound "Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan 66 Lightly dispers'd, and the thrill matin song "Of birds on every bough ;" I had walked out earlier than usual at the fra grant, cool, and pleasant time when every herb, and fruit, and flower was glistening with dew. A charming stillness animated by the music of the groves inclined me to the most chearful and pleasing contemplation of the beauties of nature, and when the Sun began to beam more fiercely, on me than was agreeable, I retired to the fhade of my summer house, and seated myself on a torse of straw in the niche of Fpicurus, which I had chosen by accident. I was tired, and soon afterward I fell asleep. The last sound I heard in sweetly descending into the arms of the papaverous power, was the twittering of the swallow. Ah how delightful was this mid-way hovering between the worlds of activity and rest! Ah how delightful and happy were it to believe this to be an authentic emblem of approaching death. to him who has not lived in vain! I dreamt, and I saw as I thought advancing towards me on the verdant meadow near the obelisk dedicated to the genius of ancient times, a venerable old man leaning on a staff that seemed to be of maple. His mantle was white, and appeared to be of the finest woollen. Sweetly smiling and placid was his 275 countenance, and down unto his girdle was his beard of grey, that yielded to the breeze as he walked forward to salute me. By the trick of his face, and my remembrance of seals and statues, I knew him to be the antagonist of Zeno. I was overawed, but I was not afraid. In silence I bowed to him, and he saluted me by my name. Ascanius, said he with a smile beyond the power of a Guercino or a Rheynolds to exprefs, I am come to visit you on your birth day, and to thank you for not listening to the calumniators of my life, my wri tings and my character. From your own happy experience, you are able to sit in judgement on my judges, and to know that dirt, affectation of apathy, maceration of body, obstinacy in opinion, and the imputation of mutability and passion to the infinite and eternal spirit of the universe, are not the ways to reform mankind, and to make them conformable to the eternal and beautiful order of nature, pofsefsing their bodies in healthful vigour by the rational use of all their faculties, and their souls in tranquillity by the practice of vir tue. I came forth into the world at a time when the wealth of nations founded on free government, and the subdivision of useful employment, had long af forded leisure for fanciful inquiry. I had a strong propensity to rational curiosity myself, and I wished to promote it in others.-After much study and contemplation, I founded a school, and finding it impofsible as an honest man to |