be fuch as fuited his present station rather than his. former dignity. It confifted only of fix rooms; four of them in the form of friars' cells, with naked walls; the other two, each twenty feet fquare, were hung with brown cloth, and furnifhed in the moft fimple manner they were all on a level with the ground, with a door on one fide into a garden, of which CHARLES himself had given the plan, and had filled it with various plants, which he intended to cultivate with his own hands. On the other fide they communicated with the chapel of the monaftery in which he was to perform his devotions. In this humble retreat, hardly fufficient for the comfortable accommodation of a private gentleman, did CHARLES enter with twelve domeftics only, and buried in Solitude and filence, his grandeur, his ambition, and all those vaft prospects which, during almost half a century, had alarmed and agitated EUROPE; filling every kingdom in it, by turns, with the terror of his arms, and the dread of being fubdued by his power.

These inftances of refignation and retirement, to which many others might have been added, fufficiently prove that a defire to live in free leifure, independent of the restraints of society, is one of the moft powerful affections of the human mind; and that Solitude, judiciously and ration

ally

ally employed, amply compensates all that is facrificed for the purposes of enjoying it.

But there are many other fources from whence an anti-focial disposition may arise, which merit confideration. That terrible malady the hypochondria, frequently renders the unhappy sufferer not only averse to Society in general, but even fearful of meeting a human being; and the ftill more dreadful malady, a wounded heart, increases our antipathy to mankind. The fear of unfounded calumny also fometimes drives weak and dejected minds into the imaginary fhelter of obfcurity; and even ftrong and honest characters, prone to disclose their real sentiments, are disgusted at the world, from a confcioufnefs of its being unable to liften temperately to the voice of truth. The obftinacy with which mankind persist in habitual errors, and the violence with which they indulge inveterate paffions, a deep regret for their follies, and the horror which their vices create, drive us frequently from their prefence. The love of science, a fondness for the arts, and an attachment to the immortal works of genius, induce, I trust, not a few to neglect all anxiety to learn the common news of the day, and keep them in fome calm, fequeftered retreat, far from the unmeaning manners of the noify world, improving the genuine feelings of their hearts, and ftoring their

minds with the principles of true philosophy. There are others, (though, I fear, they are few,) who, impreffed by a strong sense of the duties of RELIGION, and feeling how incompatible with their practice are most, if not all, the factitious joys of social life, retire from the corrupted scene, to contemplate, in facred privacy, the attributes of a Being unalterably pure, and infinitely good; to impress upon their minds so strong a sense of the importance of obedience to the divine will, of the value of the reward promised to virtue, and the terrors of the punishment denounced against crimes, as may overbear all temptations which temporal hope or fear can bring in their way, and enable them to bid equal defiance to joy and forrow; to turn away at one time from the allurements of ambition, and press forward at another against the threats of calamity.*

The

*The conduct of thofe," fays MONTAIGNE, in his excellent Effay on Solitude, "who retire from the world with devout views, and to encourage the delightful hope resulting from the divine promise of immortality hereafter, is founded in the highest exertion of reason. GOD, a being of infinite wif dom, goodness, and power, becomes the fole and facred object of their contemplation. The pious dispositions of the soul expand, and find a happy leisure and indulgence. Employed in the pursuit of joys everlasting, the pains and afflictions of mor tality lose their severity and fting. The aufterity which they

The dejection occafioned by the hypochondria, renders the mind not only averse from, but wholly incapable of, any pleasure, and induces the unhappy fufferer to feek a folitude by which it is increased. The influence of this dreadful malady is fo powerful, that it deftroys all hope of remedy, and prevents those exertions by which alone we are told it can be cured.

To cure the mind's wrong bias-SPLEEN,
Some recommend the bowling-green;
Some hilly walks; all, exercise;

Fling but a stone, the Giant dies:

Laugh, and be well. Monkeys have been

Extreme good doctors for the Spleen;
And kittens, if the humour hit,
Have harlequin'd away the fit.

But,

ever think it neceffary to obferve, is foftened by cuftom; and all the dangerous paffions and unruly appetites of the foul, are moderated, reftrained, and at length fubdued; for the unwor thy appetites and paffions of our natures are the creatures of habit, and are only supported by exercise and use. The tyrant Death is, under fuch circumstances, difarmed of all his terrors, and they confider his arrival as a happy event; an event which removes them from a vale of tears into the blissful regions of eternal joy. To attain this end, they abandon, without regret, the pleasures and conveniences of this world: and they who happily inflame their fouls with the ardour of this lively faith, and fatisfactory hope, certainly create in SOLITUDE a more voluptuous and delicious life than any which this world can other. wife afford.

Tacitum fylvas inter reptare falubres

Curantem quicquid dignum fapiente bono que est.

But, alas! the heart shuts itself against every pleafing fenfation, and the mind difmiffes every cheering fentiment. Joy opens in vain its feftal arms to receive him; and he fhuns embraces whofe light and mirthful air, would only ferve to increase the melancholy of his dreary and diftempered mind. Even the tender, affectionate offices of friendship, in endeavouring to footh and divert his mind, by lively conversation and focial intercourses, appear officious and ill-timed. His fpirits are quite dejected; his faculties become torpid; and his sense of enjoyment is annihilated. The charming air, which breathes to others the sweetest fragrance, and most invigorating delights, feels to him like a peftilent congregation of vapours.

His pensive spirit takes the lonely grove:
Nightly he visits all the sylvan scenes,

Where far remote a melancholy moon

Raifing her head, ferene and fhorn of beams,

Throws here and there the glimmerings thro' the

trees,

To make more awful darkness.

Conscious that his frame is totally unftrung, and that his pulse is incapable of beating in any pleasant unison with the feelings of his healthful friends, he withers into forrowful decay. Every object around him appears to be at enmity with his E feelings,

VOL. II.