-how would it be with an association, which, taking fraternity and evangelic love for its means, had for its end to deliver man and woman from all degrading slavery, to invite to the enjoyment of terrestrial happiness those who have hitherto known nothing of life but its sorrows and miseries, and to glorify and enrich the labor that feeds the state?--
to enlighten those whom ignorance has depraved?--to favor the free expansion of all the passions, which God, in His infinite wisdom, and inexhaustible goodness, gave to man as so many powerful levers?--to sanctify all the gifts of Heaven: love, maternity, strength, intelligence, beauty, genius?--to make men truly religious, and deeply grateful to their Creator, by making them understand the splendors of Nature, and bestowing on them their rightful share in the treasures which have been poured upon us?
"'Oh! if it be Heaven's will that, in a century and a half, the descendants of my family, faithful to the last wishes of a heart that loved humanity, meet in this sacred union!--if it be Heaven's will that amongst them be found charitable and passionate souls, full of commiseration for those who suffer, and lofty minds, ardent for liberty!
warm and eloquent natures! resolute characters! women, who unite beauty and wit with goodness--oh! then, how fruitful, how powerful will be the harmonious union of all these ideas, and influences, and forces--of all these attractions grouped round that princely fortune, which, concentrated by association, and wisely managed, would render practicable the most admirable Utopias!
"`What a wondrous centre of fertile and generous thoughts! What precious and life-giving rays would stream incessantly from this focus of charity, emancipation, and love! What great things might be attempted what magnificent examples given to the world! What a divine mission! What an irresistible tendency towards good might be impressed on the whole human race by a family thus situated, and in possession of such means!
"`And, then, such a beneficent association would be able to combat the fatal conspiracy of which I am the victim, and which, in a century and a half, may have lost none of its formidable power.
"`So, to this work of darkness, restraint, and despotism, which weighs heavily on the Christian world, my family would oppose their work of light, expansion, and liberty!
"`The genii of good and evil would stand face to face.The struggle would commence, and God would protect the right.
"`And that these immense pecuniary resources, which will give so much power to my family, may not be exhausted by the course of years, my heirs, following my last will, are to place out, upon the same conditions, double the sum that I have invested--so that, a century and a half later, a new source of power and action will be at the disposal of their descendants.What a perpetuity of good!
"`In the ebony cabinet of the Hall of Mourning will be found some practical suggestions on the subject of this association.
"`Such is my last will--or rather, such are my last hopes.
"`When I require absolutely that the members of my family should appear in person in the Rue Saint-Francois, on the day of the opening of this testament, it is so that, united in that solemn moment, they may see and know each other.My words may then, perhaps, have some effect upon them;
and, instead of living divided, they will combine together.It will be for their own interest, and my wishes will thus be accomplished.
"`When I sent, a few days ago, to those of my family whom exile has dispersed over Europe, a medal on which is engravers the date of the convocation of my heirs, a century and a half from this time, I was forced to keep secret my true motive, and only to tell them, that my descendants would find it greatly to their interest to attend this meeting.
"`I have acted thus, because I know the craft and perseverance of the society of which I have been the victim.If they could guess that my descendants would hereafter have to divide immense sums between them, my family would run the risk of much fraud and malice, through the fatal recommendations handed down from age to age in the Society of Jesus.
"`May these precautions be successful! May the wish, expressed upon these medals, be faithfully transmitted from generation to generation!
"`If I fix a day and hour, in which my inheritance shall irrevocably fall to those of my descendants who shall appear in the Rue Saint-Francois on the 13th February, in 1832, it is that all delays must have a term, and that my heirs will have been sufficiently informed years before of the great importance of this meeting.
"`After the reading of my testament, the person who shall then be the trustee of the accumulated funds, shall make known their amount, so that, with the last stroke of noon, they may be divided between my heirs then and there present.
"`The different apartments of the house shall then be opened to them.
They will see in them divers objects, well worthy of interest, pity, and respect--particularly in the Hall of Mourning.
"`My desire is, that the house may not be sold, but that it may remain furnished as it is, and serve as a place of meeting for my descendants, if, as I hope, they attend to my last wishes.
"`If, on the contrary, they are divided amongst themselves--if, instead of uniting for one of the most generous enterprises that ever signalized an age, they yield to the influence of selfish passions--if they prefer a sterile individuality to a fruitful association--if, in this immense fortune, they see only an opportunity for frivolous dissipation, or sordid interest--may they be accursed by all those whom they might have loved, succored, and disfettered!--and then let this house be utterly demolished and destroyed, and the papers, of which Isaac Samuel possesses the inventory, as well as the two portraits in the Red Room, be burnt by the guardian of the property.
