we assimilate our interests with those of all intelligent and sensible beings, no matter where placed, or by what distance separated from us.  Families of peoples!  Families of nations!  Assemblage of worlds! you say with us, Glory to the Master of the Heavens, to the King of Nature, to the God of the Universe!  Glory and homage to Him, who by his will can convert sterility into abundance, shadow into reality, and death itself into eternal life.

“Undoubtedly the end of the just is a desirable death; but few amongst us, few amongst our forefathers have witnessed it.  Where is the man who could approach without fear the presence of the Eternal?  Where is the man who has loved God unremittingly, who has served Him from his youth, and who, attaining an advanced age, finds in his recollections no subject of uneasiness?  Where is the man, moral in all his actions, without ever thinking of the praise and the reward of public opinion?  Where is that man, so rare among the human species, who is worthy to serve as a model to all?  Where is he?  Where is he?  Ah! if he exist amongst us, let our reverence and respect surround him; and ask, you will do wisely to ask, to be present at his death, as at the sublimest of earthly spectacles:  only arm yourself with courage to follow him to that bed, so repulsive to our feelings, from which he will never rise.  He foresees it; he is certain of it; serenity reigns in his countenance, and his forehead seems encircled with a celestial aureole:  he says, with the apostle, I know in whom I have believed; and this confidence animates his countenance, even when his strength is exhausted.  He already contemplates his new country, but without forgetting that which he is about to quit:  he gives himself up to his Creator and to his God, without forgetting those sentiments which have charmed him during his life.

“Is it a faithful spouse, who according to the laws of nature must be the first of all his connections to follow him:  he consoles her, he dries her tears, he appoints a meeting with her in that abode of felicity of which he can form no idea without her.  He recalls to her mind those happy days which they have spent together; not to rend the heart of a tender friend, but to increase their mutual confidence in the goodness of heaven.  He also reminds the companion of his fortunes, of that tender love which he has ever felt for her; not to give additional poignancy to that grief which he wishes to assuage, but to inspire her with the sweet idea that two lives have grown upon the same stalk; and that by their union they will become an additional defence to each other in that dark futurity where the pity of the Supreme God is the last refuge of our thoughts.  Alas! is it possible to form a just conception of all the emotions which penetrate a loving soul at the moment when a vast solitude presents itself to our eyes, at the moment when the sentiments, the interests upon which we have subsisted during so many smiling years, are about