THE high enjoyments which the heart feels in Solitude, are produced and fostered by the imagination.* The touching aspect of delightful nature, the variegated verdure of the forefts, the echoes of an impetuous torrent, the soft 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, inftantly converted into fenfations of the heart, and the softest emotions give birth to the most virtuous and worthy fentiments. But, to enable the imagination thus to render every object fascinating and delightful, it must act with freedom, and dwell amidst furrounding tranquillity. Oh! how easy it is to renounce noify 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 refulting from a fenfible and well-formed imagination, is finely given by Dr. Akenfide, in the Third Book of The Pleasures of the Imagination." "His near approach the sudden starting tear, "The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air, "The foften'd feature, and the beating heart, "Pierc'd deep with many a virtuous pang, declare. "O'er all the foul his facred influence breathes; "Inflames imagination; thro' the breast "Infufes every tenderness; and far "Beyond dim earth exalts the fwelling thought. "Ten thousand thoufand fleet ideas, fuch "As never mingled with the vulgar dream, "Croud faft into the mind's creative eye; "As faft the correfpondent paffions rife, "As varied and as high: Devotion rais'd "To rapture, and divine astonishment; "The love of Nature unconfin'd, and chief "Of human race; the large ambitious wish "To make them bleft; the figh for fuffering worth "Loft in obfcurity; the noble fcorn "Of tyrant pride; the fearless great refolve; "The wonder which the dying patriot draws, "Infpiring glory thro' remotest time; "Th' awaken'd throb for virtue and for fame; "The fympathies of love, and friendship dear ; With all the focial offspring of the heart." RELIGIOUS awe and rapturous delight are alternately excited by the deep gloom of forefts, by the tremendous height of broken rocks, and by the multiplicity of majestic and sublime objects which are combined within the scite of a delightful and extensive prospect. The most painful fenfations immediately F 4 immediately yield to the serious, soft, and solitary reveries to which the furrounding tranquillity in-, vites the mind; while the vaft and awful filence of Nature exhibits the happy contrast between fimplicity and grandeur; and as our feelings become more exquifite, fo our admiration becomes more intense, and our pleasures more complete. I HAD been for many years familiar with all that Nature is capable of producing in her fublimeft works, when I first saw a garden in the vicinity of Hanover, and another, upon a much larger fcale, at Marienwerder, about three miles diftant, cultivated in the English style of rural ornament. I was not then apprised of the extent of that art which sports with the most ungrateful foil, and, by a new fpecies of creation, converts barren mountains into fertile fields and smiling landscapes. This magic art makes an astonishing impreffion on the mind, and captivates every heart, not infenfible to the charms of cultivated Nature. I cannot recollect, without fhedding tears of gratitude and joy, a single day of this early part of my refidence at Hanover, when, torn from the bofom of my country, from the embraces of my family, and from every thing that I held dear in life, my mind, on entering the little garden of my deceased friend M. de Hinuber, near Hanover, immediately revived, and forgot for the moment moment both my country and my grief. The charm was new to me. I had no conception that it was poffible, upon so small a spot of ground, to introduce at once the enchanting variety and the noble fimplicity of Nature. But I was then convinced that her afpect alone is fufficient, at first view, to heal the wounded feelings of the heart, to fill the bofom with the highest luxury, and to create those fentiments in the mind which can, of all others, render life defirable. THIS new re-union of Art and Nature, which was not invented in China,* but in England, is founded upon a rational and refined taste for the beauties of Nature, confirmed by experience, and by the sentiments which a chafte fancy reflects on a feeling heart. Great Nature fcorns controul; fhe will not bear She gives thee to adorn: 'Tis thine alone IN the gardens I have before mentioned, every point of view raises the foul to heaven, and affords the mind fublime delight; every bank pre F 5 fents * See Sir William Chambers's celebrated Treatife on Oriental Gardening. sents a new and varied scene, which fills the heart with joy nor, while I feel the sensation which fuch scenes inspire, will I fuffer my delight to be diminished, by difcuffing whether the arrangement might have been made in a better way, or permit the dull rules of cold and fenfelefs mafters to deftroy my pleasure. Scenes of ferenity, whether created by tafteful Art, or by the cunning hand of Nature, always bestow, as a gift from the imagination, tranquillity to the heart. While a foft filence breathes around me, every object is pleasant to my view; rural scenery fixes my attention, and dissipates the grief that lies heavy at my heart; the loveliness of Solitude enchants me, and, fubduing every vexation, infpires my foul with benevolence, gratitude, and content. I return thanks to my Creator for endowing me with an imagination which, though it has frequently caufed the trouble of my life, occafionally leads me, in the hour of my retirement, to fome friendly rock, on which I can climb, and contemplate with greater composure the tempefts I have escaped. THERE are, indeed, many Anglicifed gardens in Germany, laid out so whimsically absurd, as to excite no other emotions than those of laughter or difguft. How extremely ridiculous is it to fee a forest of poplars fcarcely fufficient to fupply a chamber-ftove with fuel for a week; mere mole |