Happy intelligences, how excellent must be the frame of your nature! Myriads of ages pass away with you, like so many days with the inhabitants of the Earth. Our largest measurements are your infinitely small quantities; our millions the elements of your arithmetic; we breathe but a moment; our lot is error and death; yours science and immortality.

Translated by James Jacque, The System of the World, Part I, Chapter IX (p. 58), Printed for Vernor and Hood. 1800