villages, in which there is no gold?  When, oppressed by painful recollection, I revolve all these scattered ideas in my mind, when I contemplate my situation, and the thousand streams of evil with which I am surrounded; when I descend into the particular tendency even of the remedy I have proposed, I am convulsed—­ convulsed sometimes to that degree, as to be tempted to exclaim—­Why has the master of the world permitted so much indiscriminate evil throughout every part of this poor planet, at all times, and among all kinds of people?  It ought surely to be the punishment of the wicked only.  I bring that cup to my lips, of which I must soon taste, and shudder at its bitterness.  What then is life, I ask myself, is it a gracious gift?  No, it is too bitter; a gift means something valuable conferred, but life appears to be a mere accident, and of the worst kind:  we are born to be victims of diseases and passions, of mischances and death:  better not to be than to be miserable.—­Thus impiously I roam, I fly from one erratic thought to another, and my mind, irritated by these acrimonious reflections, is ready sometimes to lead me to dangerous extremes of violence.  When I recollect that I am a father, and a husband, the return of these endearing ideas strikes deep into my heart.  Alas! they once made it to glow with pleasure and with every ravishing exultation; but now they fill it with sorrow.  At other times, my wife industriously rouses me out of these dreadful meditations, and soothes me by all the reasoning she is mistress of; but her endeavours only serve to make me more miserable, by reflecting that she must share with all these calamities, the bare apprehensions of which I am afraid will subvert her reason.  Nor can I with patience think that a beloved wife, my faithful help-mate, throughout all my rural schemes, the principal hand which has assisted me in rearing the prosperous fabric of ease and independence I lately possessed, as well as my children, those tenants of my heart, should daily and nightly be exposed to such a cruel fate.  Selfpreservation is above all political precepts and rules, and even superior to the dearest opinions of our minds; a reasonable accommodation of ourselves to the various exigencies of the time in which we live, is the most irresistible precept.  To this great evil I must seek some sort of remedy adapted to remove or to palliate it; situated as I am, what steps should I take that will neither injure nor insult any of the parties, and at the same time save my family from that certain destruction which awaits it, if I remain here much longer.  Could I insure them bread, safety, and subsistence, not the bread of idleness, but that earned by proper labour as heretofore; could this be accomplished by the sacrifice of my life, I would willingly give it up.  I attest before heaven, that it is only for these I would wish to live and to toil:  for these whom I have brought into this miserable existence.  I resemble, methinks, one of the stones of a ruined