FOREIGN ASSOCIATION. 11 in the diminution of which we had begun to rejoice ; a multiplication which is as likely to contribute to the decline of reli- gion in the domestic arrangements of the, great, as any more obvious and ostensible evil. What would the veteran moralist, who, in his beautiful and vigorous satire, in- dignantly exclaimed, I cannot bear a French metropolis ; What would Johnson have said had he been spared till now ? How Would he laugh at Britain's modern tribe, Dart the keen taunt, and edge the piercing gibe ! How would he have poured out his ready wrath, his cutting sarcasm, his powerful reasoning, his robust morality, on a coun- trywhich is in danger ofdeserting its own character, impairing its own virtue, and discrediting its own religion. If the muse of a brother bard wept so pathetically the then imaginary distresses of the Deserted Village, what a plaintive descant would he have sung on a deserted .Country ! We set a just value on the French lan- B 6
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