Les ruines, ou méditation sur les révolutions des empires

CHAPTER II. / THE MEDITATION.

who inhabited them; it was the Phoenician, a murderous sacrificer to Moloch an ancient deity associated with child sacrifice, who gathered within his walls the riches of every climate; it was the Chaldean prostrated before a serpent (*) The dragon Bel original: "Le dragon Bel", referring to a Babylonian deity. who subjugated opulent cities, and despoiled the palaces of kings and the temples of gods; it was the Persian fire-worshiper who collected the tributes of a hundred nations; it was the inhabitants of this very city, worshippers of the sun and stars, who raised so many monuments of prosperity and luxury... Numerous herds, fertile fields, abundant harvests, everything that should be the reward of piety, was in the hands of these idolaters: and now that believing and holy peoples occupy these countrysides, there is nothing but solitude and sterility. The earth, under these blessed hands, produces only briers and wormwood. Man sows in anguish, and reaps only tears and cares; war, famine, and plague assail him in turn... However, are these not

the children of the prophets? This Muslim, this Christian, this Jew, are they not the chosen peoples of heaven, loaded with graces and miracles? Why then do these privileged races no longer enjoy the same favors? Why are these lands, sanctified by the blood of martyrs, deprived of ancient blessings? Why have they been as if banished and transferred for so many centuries to other nations, in other countries?...

And at these words, my spirit following the course of vicissitudes, which have in turn transmitted the scepter of the world to peoples so different in worship and manners, from those of ancient Asia to the most recent of Europe, this name of a native land awakened in me the feeling of the fatherland; and turning my gaze toward it, I fixed all my thoughts on the situation in which I had left it (*) In 1782, at the end of the American war..

I recalled its countrysides so richly cultivated, its roads so sumptuously laid out, its cities inhabited by an immense people, its fleets spread over all the