with the illuftrious fages of antiquity, and with those writers who have diftinguished and adorned fucceeding times. "Oh! knew he but his happiness, of men "The happieft he! who, far retir'd from public rage, "Deep in the vale, with a choice few retir'd, SOLITUDE, by enlarging the sphere of its information, by awakening a more lively curiofity, by relieving fatigue, and by promoting application, renders the mind more active, and multiplies the number of its ideas. A man who was well acquainted with all these advantages, has said, that "by filent folitary reflection, we exercise and "ftrengthen all the powers of the mind. The many obftacles which render it difficult to pur"fue our path, difperfe and retire, and we return "to a busy social life with more cheerfulness and " content. The sphere of our understanding be"comes enlarged by reflection; we have learned "to furvey more objects, and to bind them intel"lectually together; we carry a clearer fight, a "juster juster judgment, and firmer principles, with us "into the world in which we are to live and act; " and are then more able, even in the midst of all "its diftractions, to preferve our attention, to "think with accuracy, to determine with judg ment, in a degree proportioned to the prepara"tions we have made in the hour of retirement." Alas! in the ordinary commerce of the world, the curiofity of a rational mind foon decays, whilst in Solitude it hourly augments. The researches of a finite being neceffarily proceed by flow degrees. The mind links one proposition to another, joins experience with observation, and from the discovery of one truth proceeds in fearch of others. The aftronomers who firft obferved the course of the planets, little imagined how important their discoveries would prove to the future interefts and happiness of mankind. Attracted by the spangled fplendour of the firmament, and obferving that the stars nightly changed their course, curiofity induced them to explore the cause of this phenomenon, and led them to purfue the road of science. It is thus that the foul by filent activity augments its powers; and a contemplative mind advances in knowledge, in proportion as it investigates the various causes, the immediate effects, and the remote confequences, of an established truth. Reason, indeed, by impeding the wings of the imagination, renders her flight lefs lefs rapid, but it makes the object of attainment more fure. Drawn afide by the charms of fancy, the mind may conftruct new worlds; but they immediately burst, like airy bubbles formed of foap and water; while reason examines the materials of its projected fabric, and uses those only which are durable and good. "THE great art to learn much," fays Locke, "is to undertake a little at a time." Dr. John fon, the celebrated English writer, has very forcibly obferved, that "all the performances of "human art, at which we look with praise or "wonder, are inftances of the refiftlefs force of "perfeverance: it is by this that the quarry be "comes a pyramid, and that diftant countries are "united by canals. Ifa man was to compare the "effect of a fingle ftroke with the pickaxe, or of "one impreffion of a spade, with the general de"fign, and laft refult, he would be overwhelmed "with the fenfe of their difproportion; yet those "petty operations, inceffantly continued, in time "furmount the greateft difficulties; and mountains "are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the flender "force of human beings. It is therefore of the "utmost importance, that thofe who have any in"tention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, "and acquiring a reputation fuperior to names "hourly swept away by time among the refuse of «fame, "fame, should add to their reason and their spirit, "the power of perfifting in their purposes; acquire "the art of fapping what they cannot batter; and "the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance "by obftinate attacks." The mind feels a pleasure in the exercise of its powers proportioned to the difficulties it meets with, and the obstacles it has to furmount. When Apelles was reproached for having painted so few pictures, and for the inceffant anxiety with which he retouched his works, he contented himfelf with this observation, " I paint for posterity.”* THE inactivity of monaftic Solitude, the fterile tranquillity of the cloifter, are ill fuited to thofe who, after a ferious preparation in retirement, and an affiduous examination of their own powers, feel a capacity and inclination to perform great and good actions for the benefit of mankind. Princes cannot live the lives of monks: ftatesmen are no longer fought for in monafteries and convents; generals are no longer chofen from the members of the church. Petrarch, therefore, very pertinently * Raphael also, in the fame fpirit, frequently declared, that in none of his performances had he ever expressed his notion of a paffect beauty. nently obferves, that "Solitude must not be in"active, nor leisure uselessly employed. A cha"racter indolent, flothful, languid, and detached. "from the affairs of life, muft infallibly become "melancholy and miserable. From such a being "no good can be expected; he cannot pursue "any useful fcience, or poffefs the faculties of a great man." THE rich and luxurious may claim an exclufive right to those pleasures which are capable of being purchafed by pelf, in which the mind has no enjoyment, and which only afford a temporary relief to languor, by fteeping the fenfes in forgetfulness; but in the precious pleasures of intellect, fo open to the accefs of all mankind, the great have no exclufive privilege; for such enjoyments are only to be procured by our own induftry, by ferious reflection, profound thought, and, deep research: exertions which open hidden qualities to the mind, and lead it to the knowledge of truth, and to the contemplation of our phyfical and moral nature. A Swiss Preacher has in a German pulpit faid, "The ftreams of mental pleasures, of which all "men may equally partake, flow from one to the "other; and that of which we have most fre "quently |