On the Pleasures of Solitude.

the folar ray; the purling rill, murmuring under blackened fhades; the foaming cafcade, the gufhing fountain, &c. &c. and in all of them I fee the power and wifdom, in all of them I contemplate the majefty and greatnefs of the adorable Creator.

But neither the beauty, nor the greatnefs, the wifdom, nor the magnificence of the pure expanfe above, adorned with all its radiant and glorious fyftems; nor the elegant landscape, with its flowery tribes, and pleafing fcenes of fertility; nor the lofty mountain, the awful promontory, and the uninhabitable forell, together with the capacious world of waters, the wide expanfive river, the filver ftream, the murmuring rill, the noify cafcade, the gushing fountain, &c. &c. reflect any image of the Creator, nor elevate the minds of them, who are always loft in the giddy throng of a blind and fallacious world; who never light the candle of meditation, nor ever devote a moment of their time to fedate and ferious reflection.

Solitude (as already obferved) is difmal and tiresome to the foppifh part of the world; it is alfo equally irkfome and difgufting to the ignorant and the vulgar. And why is it difagreeable to fuch? Why is an innocent life of calmnefs and tranquillity ridiculed by the falfe wits of the age?— Because they have no tafte for the beauties of nature, no relish for fublime objects. Unless engaged in the giddy round of trifles and vain amufements, they are like a fish excluded from its natural element. They are at a loss how to fpend their time, and know not how to employ their thoughts. They are chained to the world, and nothing, be it of ever fo interesting a nature, can induce them

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exalted capacities ample matter for amufement and reflection. Thefe, fen-. fible of the treachery and delufion of worldly objects, feel within a call for higher pleafures; thefe, longing for more permanent and fatisfactory enjoyments, quit the bufy fcenes of life, and feek them in the quiet and peaceful abode of folitude. Here their hours are sweetened with content, and tranquillity fooths their minds; the minutes glide chearfully away, and a calm ferenity fills their hearts. Here all nature fmiles around them, and all the feafons load them with the gifts of their all-bounteous and beneficent Creator.

Amiable folitude! quiet and repofe, calmnefs and tranquillity are the conftant attendants of thy peaceful abode ! How often have kings and patriots ftole away from the glare of grandeur, to enjoy themselves in thy compofed retreat?-How often do men of the world, exhaufted by fatigue, and fick of the gay impertinence of life, repair to thee, and lay themselves in thy downy lap ?-Thou alone art able to footh the mind, when agitated and overcome with the cares of the world! Thou alone canft direct the foul to its proper home, and awaken those latent fuggeftions, which were loft and effaced in the bustling croud.

Hark is it fancy, or do I really, hear her fay, "Infatuated mortals! why do you bufy yourselves with. trifles, exhauft your ftrength, and fpend your time in that which fatisfieth not !-Why do you follow an atom, and catch at a fhadow-The ftream in which you are now gaily failing along, will inevitably bring you to the gulph of difappointment and fhame. The ignis-fatuus by which you are guided, will infallibly lead you to headlong precipices and unfa With those of a more refined and thomable gulphs, where you will be enlarged difpofition, how different!-fwallowed up and loft. Come to me, Do they flip away from the circle of and I will guide you where no fhaamufements, and fequefter themfelves dow ftays; the veil fhall be taken. from fociety, they are entertained in from your eyes, reafon fhall re-affume the molt agreeable manner imaginable. her throne, the world fhall fink in its Every object before them, whether a- importance, your fiery pafions fhall nimate or inanimate, affords to their cool, and the ardour of your fecular

to shake off their fetters.

af

affections be moderated. Come to la, the rofe and carnation, and other

Contemplations on the Summer Seafon.

bees, or the moan-like buzz of winged infects. Thefe, indeed, and only these, seem animated with peculiar vigour under the direct influence of the fun.

What a languor and faintnefs does the fultry heat of the present season occafion in the human frame !-The fpirits droop, the ftrings of activity are relaxed, and the body, diffolved in indolence, longs for the cooling fhelter, and the embowered fhade. Intolerably hot and piercing is the fun at this hour of the day, the air glows like a fiery furnace, and hot afcending fteams exhale from the burning ground, and add to the fervency of his beams.Unhappy the labourer doomed to toil all the long day under the blazing luminary!-Unfortunate for the traveller, who, bathed in fweat, and expofed to all the fiery beams, is obliged to purfue his journey in the glowing element !

But what is the heat of our temperate climate to the fcorching regions of the torrid zone, where perpetual fum. mer reigns? There the dazzling effulgence of the blazing luminary confounds weak fighted mortals, and parches the herbs to duft. In thefe the raging heat is found in its full perfection, if I may fo fpeak. To them the fummer feafon here would be cool and refreshing. The complection of the natives is there tanned into foot, and every fpecies of life pant, and droop, and languifh. The earth is like a glowing Hearth, and the air like a deluge of fire, which almost fuffocates the inhabitants. Pierced by the fervid, the infupportably fervid rays of the fun, they are broiled, as it were, alive. Their bodies melt: overcome and faint they feck the embowered fhade, and long, earneftly long for the cool refreshment of the evening to damp the raging fire, and mitigate the infufferable heat. Was it not, indeed, for this most welcome breeze, which conftantly vifits them, both mornings and evenings, they muft inevitably fiak in the burning element, and their climate would abfolutely be uninhabitable.— But, favoured as they are by the reVOL. X.

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freshing gales, the men and beasts are enabled to bear the intenfe heat, and purfue their labours with unremitting activity.

In

In this fequeftered arbour, where, Retirement takes up her abode, methinks I am peculiarly happy. Unpierced by the fervent beams of the fun, here I can fit at eafe, and contemplate the works of nature. this delicious fhelter, fecure from the raging feverity of noon, and the powerful influence of a blazing sky, Ì can furvey with compofure the pleafing profpects which every where furround me; whilst all the animal world without, expofed and unfheltered, droop and languifh in the insufferable, infupportable heat.

Notwithstanding the warmth of the fun is at prefent fo exceffive, the labourers in yonder meadow defy the potency of his beams, and follow their work with unceasing affiduity. A multitude of ruftics ply with nervous arm the crooked weapon, and fweep off the luxuriant herbage. See the sprightly females follow after, turning and fpreading the breathing harvest to the fun. In an adjacent meadow fome are railing it into regular cocks; others loading their waggons with the recent hay, or clearing the new mown furface with their rakes. The ground, unburthened of its waving treasure, is flufhed with new verdure, and exhibits to the wandering eye a lively green, refembling the chearful robe of fpring. All around the new-mown hay emits its fragrant exhalations. The tedded grain, wafted copiously in the circumambient air, gives a moft rural and de-. licious fmell to the breeze, and infpires health and chearfulness to thofe who often ramble over the new mown furface,

Amazing! Since I took my feat in this delightful bower, how is the air darkened with murky vapours and lowering clouds! When I first repofed myfelf in this reviving fhade, not a breeze fhook the most tremulous leaf, not a cloud was feen over the pure expanse of heaven. The fun fhone forth with one continued glare, and render

Tt

ed

ei the region of the firmament uncommonly hot and fuffocating. But how fuddenly is the great luminary darkened with the gathering vapours, and the muttering winds, let loofe from their airy prifon!

Yonder-Good God! what havock is yonder-See the effects, the dire effects of this conflict of elements! That lofty elm, remarkable for its graceful look and towering head, is truck with the thunderbolt of heaSo attentively was I engaged in ven!-All its beauty, all its verdant. watching the rural labours of the pea-honours are blafted with the deftrucfants in yonder meadow, that I did tive meteor!-See! there it stands not immediately perceive the altera-finged. and torn, a black fhattered "tion. Good heavens! how black it trunk!-While I view its gloomy aflooks in the fouth! What ponderous,pect I tremble with horror, and canlow-hung clouds hover over my head! not help expreffing my gratitude to the Driven with the portentous wind, they beneficent Author of Nature, for not march on apace, and will quickly fuffering the vengeful flames to fall on fpread themfelves over the whole he- this guilty head. Wonderfully was I mifphere. Odear! it gets darker and protected, when the dreadful arrow, darker! We fhall prefently have a molt barbed with fire, and whizzing with dreadful fhower! See what a confter-infantaneous death, flew fo'near!", nation is yonder! The labourers deff' See! what a flood enfues!-The from their work: apprized of the ap-flowers are wafhed out of their beds, proaching form, they have left the and float on the furface!-The roads field, and are running home with pre-fwim, and the brooks fwell!-Amacipitate hafte. This bower, I fear, "will be infufficient to fereen me! Where can I fly for fhelter!

'Tis well this fummer-houfe is here, elfe I must have been exposed to all the violence of the form. What a terrible shower! I think I never faw a heavier or a more impetuous burft of rain!-How rapidly the clouds pour down their contents! Torrents prefs upon new torrent's ! · Dreadful! ́what a fath of lighthing was there!-Sudden and unexpected the forked flame darfed from the difimal gloom, and feemed, for a moment to fire the whole heavens! What a deep, prolonged, penlarged, tremendous explofion follows Hark! how it rolls along the dark aerial hall, and affrights the fartled herds with its dreadful roar Again the kies are wrapt in a blaze! Again the thunder raifes his tremendons voice, and redoubling peal on peal, bellows thro' the valt of heaven! How the ethereal war rages-I tremble at the dreadful fcene!-- What a tumult is there occafioned by the affemblage of vapours in the elemental regions Awful is the work of Omnipotence!-Terrible tó man in this fhock of elements--this commotion of nature!

zing! In what dreadful torrents does the watery element roar down from yonder fteep hills, deluging the adjacent plains, and burying the fields in water! The waving corn is all levelled to the ground, and the new made fodder, which lately exhaled a moft aromatic fmell, is now carried about in drifts on the furface, and whirled round and round in the eddied ftream. The water-pots of the firmament are, however, at length exhausted, the form has spent its rage, and the clouds ceafe to pour down their humid vapours.The gloom apparently difperfes, and the shattered clouds break away by degrees. See, in the fouth the pure azure fky once more appears, and the fun gradually emerging from the late abyfs of darknefs, looks abroad again with fuperior luftre. Glad, as it were, to be difengaged from the dusky fhroud, he walks forth with redoubled beauty, and the moft engaging fplendor. The glory comes, hail to thy rifing ray, Great lamp of light, and fecond fource of day.

Now 'tis beauty all, the torrid fkics are cooled, the parched earth is re freshed, and nature fmiles around.Cheared by the ferenity of the air,

and

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Thoughts on a Country Life.

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Planting indeed is not one of thofe turbulent pleafures with which a man in the heat of youth is apt to be gratified: but if it be not fo tumultuous, it is more lafting. Nothing can be more delightful than to entertain our

and the happy tranfition of the turbulent elements, the birds refume their notes. From every pafture and from all the grove the voice of pleafure and of joy refounds. But I must now drop the theme, and leave this peaceful dome, in order to fatisfy the de-felves with profpects of our own mak mands of nature.

The two firft lines exprefs the air's ftealing of the native perfumes, and the two latter that vernal delight which they give to the mind.

Natural philofophy increafes our tafte for the beauties of the creation, and renders it not only pleafing to the imagination, but alfo to the underilanding. It does not reft in the murmur of brooks, and the melody of birds, in the fhade of groves and woods, or in the embroidery of fields and meadows, but confiders the feveral ends of Providence which are ferved by them, and the wonders of divine wifdom which appear in them.

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ing, and to walk under thofe fhades
which our own induftry has raifed.-
Amufements of this nature compofe
the mind, and lay at reft all thofe paf-
fions which are uneafiy to the foul
of man, befides that they, naturally
engender good thoughts, and difpofe us
to laudable contemplations. Many
of the old philofophers paffed away the
greatest parts of their lives among their
gardens. Epicurus himself could not
think fenfual pleafure attainable in any
other feene. Every reader who is ac--
quainted with Homer, Virgil and Ho
race, the greatest geniuffes of all anti-
quity, knows very well with how
much rapture they have spoken on this
fubject; and that Virgil in particular
has written a whole book on the art
of planting.

happy, if he knew his happy ftate,
The fam who free from in finefs and debate,
Rec ives his eafy food from Nature's hand,
And just returns of cultivated land.
Unvex'd with quariels, undif'urb'd with noise,
The country king his peaceful realm crjoys:
Cool prots and living lakes, the flowery pride
Of meads, and freams that thro' the valley
glide;

And, fhady groves that cafy fleep invite,
And after toilfome days a foft repofe at night.
DRYDEN.

I look upon the pleasure we take in a garden as one of the most innocent" Among country amufements I know delights in human life. It is naturally none more delightful in itfelf, and be-apt to fill the mind with calmnefs and neficial to the public, than that of plant- tranquillity, and to lay all its turbuing. Nor ought fuch an employment lent paffions at reft. It gives us a to be looked upon as too inglorious for great infight into the wifdom and conmen of the highest rank. There have trivance of Providence, and fuggefts been herges in this art, as well as in innumerable tabjects for meditation. others. We are told in particular of I cannot but think the very comp!aCyrus the Great, that he planted all cency and fatisfaction which a man the leffer Afia. There is indeed fome-takes in these works of nature to be a thing truly magnificent in this kind of laudable, if not a virtuous habit of amufement: it gives a nobler air to mind. feveral parts, of nature; it fills the No abode feems to contribute more earth with a variety of beautiful scenes, to the health of body and tranquility and has fomething in it like creation.of mind than a garden. The fweet