"My dear

young, replying to this fage counsel, "mother, do you not know that he who has no ene"mies is a poor man?" In a Republic the citi zens are under the authority and jealous obfervation of a multitude of fovereigns; while in a Monarchy the reigning prince is the only man whom his fubjects are bound to obey. The idea of living under the controul of a number of masters intimidates the mind; whereas love and confidence in one alone, raises the spirits, and renders the people happy.

BUT in all countries, and under every form of government, the rational man, who renounces the useless conversation of the world, who lives a retired life, and who, independently of all that he fees, of all that he hears, forms his notions in tranquillity, by an intercourse with the heroes of Greece, of Rome, and of Great Britain, will acquire a fteady and uniform character, obtain a noble ftyle of thinking, and rife fuperior to every vulgar prejudice.

The fall of kings,

"The rage of nations, and the crush of states, "Move not THE MAN who, from the world escap'd, "In ftill retreats, and flowery folitudes,

"To Nature's voice attends

THESE are the obfervations I had to make refpecting the influence of occafional Solitude upon the Mind. They difclofe my real fentiments on this fubject: many of them, perhaps, undigested, and many more certainly not well expreffed. But I fhall confole myself for thefe defects, if this Chapter affords only a glimpse of those advantages which I am perfuaded a rational Solitude is capable of affording to the minds and manners of men; and if that which follows, fhall excite a lively fenfation of the true, noble and elevated pleasures. Retirement is capable of producing by a tranquil and feeling contemplation of nature, and by an exquifite fenfibility for every thing that is good and fair.

CHAPTER THE THIRD.

THE INFLUENCE OF SOLITUDE

UPON THE HEART.

THE highest happiness which is capable of being enjoyed in this world, confifts in peace of mind. He who, renouncing the tumults of the world, moderates his defires and inclinations, fubmits with refignation to the diverfities of life, and looks with an eye of pity on the frailties of his fellow-creatures; whofe greatest pleasure is to liften among the rocks to the soft murmurs of a cascade; to inhale, as he walks along the plains, the refreshing breezes of the zephyrs; and to dwell in the furrounding woods, on the melodious accents of the aerial chorifters; may, by the fimple feelings of his heart, obtain this invaluable bleffing.

To tafte the charms of Retirement, it is not neceffary to diveft the heart of its emotions. The world may be renounced, without renouncing the enjoyment which the tear of fenfibility is capable of affording. But to render the heart susceptible

of this felicity, the mind must be able to admire with equal pleasure, Nature in her fublimeft beauties, and in the modeft flower that decks the vallies; to enjoy at the fame time that harmonious combination of parts which expands the foul, and thofe detached portions of the whole which prefent the foftest and most agreeable images to the mind. Nor are these enjoyments exclusively reserved for those strong and energetic bofoms whose fenfations are as lively as they are delicate, and in which, for that reason, the good and the bad make the fame impreffion; the pureft happiness, the most enchanting tranquillity, are also granted to men of colder feelings, and whofe imaginations are less bold and lively: but to such characters the portraits must not be fo highly coloured, nor the tints fo fharp; for as the bad ftrikes them less, so also are they lefs fufceptible of livelier impreffions.*

*M. Antoninus, fpeaking of the beauty of univerfal Nature, obferves, that there is a pleafing and graceful afpect in every object we perceive, when once we perceive its connection with the general order of things. He inftances many things which at first fight would be thought rather deformities, and then adds, "that a man "who enjoys a fenfibility of temper, with a just comprehension "of the univerfal order, will difcern many amiable things not "credible to every mind, but to thofe alone who have entered "into an honourable familiarity with Nature and her works."

THE high enjoyments which the heart feels in Solitude, are produced and fostered by the imagination.* The touching afpect of delightful na ture, the variegated verdure of the forefts, the echoes of an impetuous torrent, the foft agitation of the foliage, the melodious warblings of the groves, the beautiful scenery of a rich and extenfive country, and all those objects which compose a fine and finished landscape, take fuch complete poffeffion of the foul, and so entirely absorb our faculties, that the fentiments of the mind are, by the charms of the imagination, instantly converted into fenfations of the heart, and the fofteft emotions give birth to the most virtuous and worthy fentiments. But, to enable the imagination thus tò render every object fascinating and delightful, it must act with freedom, and dwell amidst furrounding tranquillity. Oh! how easy it is to renounce noisy pleasures and tumultuous affemblies, for the enjoyment of that philofophic melancholy which Solitude inspires!

"He comes! he comes! in every breeze the power "Of philofophic Melancholy comes!

"His

* An account of the natural and moral advantages resulting from a sensible and well-formed imagination, is finely given by Dr. Akenfide, in the Third Book of "The Pleafures of the Imagination."