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¬tim of the crimes of others, was base and in- human; and in its wanton aggravation by in- dignity and insult, embittered by the foul mur- der of his queen and their helpless infants, cast a dismal shade over the moral world, suffering, as it were, an eclipse by the interposition of some infernal spirit between the Divine Creator and the beings who must perish but in his light. — Believe me, I feel for the hallowed shade of departed genius, and have endeavoured not to degrade, though it is beyond my power to do justice to such a distinguished composition ; but you have no doubt been looking in vain all this while, and through all this eloquence, for any possible incitement to war, though intended by himself and applied by others to justify and provoke it, — If the work had been undertaken to illustrate the principles and duties of civil society in the pure abstract, it would have been as just as it was beautiful ; but as a picture of Capetia, before her revolution, it* was unfounded almost throughout, and in all that followed it was only an exquisite and in many parts a sublime ¬ex^ ¬
