"I WOULD rather shed tears myself than make "others fhed them," said a German lady to me one day, without appearing conscious that it was almost impoffible to do or fay any thing more generous. Virtue like this affords more real content N 5

"On half the Nations, and with fear of change
"Perplexes Monarchs; darken'd fo, yet fhone
"Above them all th' ARCH ANGEL; but his face
"Deep fcars of thunder had intrench'd, and care,
"Sat on his faded cheek,"

So also when SATAN says to ITHURIEL and ZEPHON,
"Know ye not me? Ye knew me once no mate
"For you, there fitting where ye durft not foar:
"Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
"The lowest of your throng; or if you know,
Why afk ye ?"
i

66

ZEPHON replies,

"Think not, revolted fpirit, thy shape the fame;
"Or undiminish'd brightness to be known,
"As when thou ftoodft in heaven upright and pure;
"That glory then, when thou no more waft GOOD,
Departed from thee; and thou refembleft now
"Thy fin and place of doom, obfcure and foul."
abafh'd the Devil ftood,

"And felt how awful Goodness is; and faw

"Virtue in her shape how lovely: faw, and pin'd
"His lofs; but chiefly to find here obscur'd
"His luftre visibly impair'd

to

So the Angel GABRIEL difcerns him paffing through the shade

"In faded fplendour wan

to the heart than all the enjoyments of the world, which are only fought to confume the tedious irksome hours, and to drown the anxious cares which moleft the bofoms of its votaries. Although Vice is constantly cafting her filken nets, and involving within her glittering lines fuch multitudes of every rank and station, there is not a villain in existence, whose mind does not filently acknowledge that virtue is the cornerftone of the Temple of Felicity, as well in the habitations of the world as in the bowers of Solitude; and that to watch over every feductive defire, whether prefent or approaching, and to conquer vice by the purfuit of useful pleasure, is a victory of the nobleft kind, followed by virtue, and rewarded with happiness. Happy is the man who carries with him into Solitude the peace of mind which fuch a victory procures, for he will then be able to preferve it in its genuine purity. Of what service would it be to leave the world, and feek the tranquillity of retirement, while misanthropy still lurks within the heart? It is the most important, and ought to be the first and laft endeavour of our lives, to purify and tranquillize our bofoms; for when this task is once performed, the happiness of Solitude is then fecured. But while any portion of the perturbed spirit of mifanthropy fours our minds, and checks the benevolent effufions of our hearts, we cannot

acquire,

acquire, either on lofty mountains, or in flowery plains, in dreary Solitude, or in gay Society, that divine content fo effential to true felicity. Our retreat from the world must not be prompted by a hatred and malevolence against mankind: we must learn to fhun the society of the wicked, without relinquishing our wishes for their felicity.

AN effential part of the virtue we acquire in Solitude, arifes from the ability it affords to appreciate things according to their real value. When Lucullus, after the conqueft of the Pirates, removed from the head of the army, in order to give the command of it to Pompey, and the Empire, by this act of the government, was com mitted to the discretion of a single man, that artful citizen beat his breaft, as a token of grief at being invefted with the honour, and exclaimed, “Alas! am I continually to be involved in end"lefs troubles? How much happier fhould I "have been had my name been unknown, or my "merits concealed! Muft I be eternally in the "field of battle? Muft my limbs never be re"lieved from, this weight of armour? Shall I "never efcape from the envy that pursues me, " and be able to retire with content and tranquil "lity, to the enjoyment of rural Solitude with

my wife and children?" Pompey spoke the language of truth in the voice of diffimulation N 6

for

for he had not yet learned really to esteem that which all men poffeffed of ambition, and the luft of power, despise; nor did he yet contemn that which, at this period of the Republic, every Roman, who was eager to command, esteemed more than all other things. But Manlius Curius, the nobleft Roman of the age, really poffeffed the fentiments which Pompey expreffed. Having vanquished feveral warlike nations, driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, and enjoyed three times the honour of a triumph, he retired to his cottage in the country, and there cultivated, with his own victorious hands, his little farm, where, when the Ambaffadors from the Samnites arrived to offer him a large prefent of gold, he was found, feated in his chimney corner, dreffing turnips. The noble reclufe refused the prefent, and the ambaffadors this answer: "A man gave "that can be fatisfied with such a fupper has no "need of gold; and I think it more glorious "to conquer the owners of it, than to poffefs it "myself."

THE perfect happiness which Curius enjoyed in dreffing this humble meal, may be truly envied by the greatest Monarchs and most luxurious Princes. It is a melancholy truth, but too well known to Kings and Princes, that under maný circumstances they are deprived of real friends