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fertility and magnificence; the state of poverty was to be abolished; men
were to be transported from place to place almost with the same facility as
the Princes Houssain, Ali, and Ahmed, in the Arabian Nights. The physical
state of man would soon not yield to the beatitude of angels; disease was
to be banished; labour lightened of its heaviest burden. Nor did this seem
extravagant. The arts of life, and the discoveries of science had augmented
in a ratio which left all calculation behind; food sprung up, so to say,
spontaneously--machines existed to supply with facility every want of the
population. An evil direction still survived; and men were not happy, not
because they could not, but because they would not rouse themselves to
vanquish self-raised obstacles. Raymond was to inspire them with his
beneficial will, and the mechanism of society, once systematised according
to faultless rules, would never again swerve into disorder. For these hopes
he abandoned his long-cherished ambition of being enregistered in the
annals of nations as a successful warrior; laying aside his sword, peace
and its enduring glories became his aim--the title he coveted was that of
the benefactor of his country.
Among other works of art in which he was engaged, he had projected the
erection of a national gallery for statues and pictures. He possessed many
himself, which he designed to present to the Republic; and, as the edifice
was to be the great ornament of his Protectorship, he was very fastidious
in his choice of the plan on which it would be built. Hundreds were brought
to him and rejected. He sent even to Italy and Greece for drawings; but, as
the design was to be characterized by originality as well as by perfect
beauty, his endeavours were for a time without avail. At length a drawing
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