to feek the charms of Solitude with increafed de

light.

THE happy indolence peculiar to Italians, who, under the pleasures of a clear unclouded sky, are always poor, but never miserable, greatly augments the feelings of the heart: the mildness of the climate, the fertility of their foil, their peaceful religion, and their contented nature, compenfate for every thing. Doctor Moore, an English traveller, whose works afford me great delight, fays, that "the Italians are the greatest loungers "in the world; and while walking in the fields, "or ftretched in the shade, seem to enjoy the fe

renity and genial warmth of their climate with "a degree of luxurious indulgence peculiar to "themselves. Without ever running into the "daring exceffes of the English, or displaying the "frisky vivacity of the French, or the stubborn (c phlegm of the Germans, the Italian populace "discover a species of sedate fenfibility to every "fource of enjoyment, from which, perhaps, "they derive a greater degree of happiness than of the other."

any

RELIEVED from every afflicting and tormenting object, it is, perhaps, impoffible for the mind not to refign itself to agreeable chimeras and romantic fentiments; but this fituation, notwithftanding

ftanding these disadvantages, has its fair fide. Romantic speculations may lead the mind into certain extravagancies and errors, from whence base and contemptible paffions may be engendered; may habituate it to a light and frivolous ftyle of thinking; and, by preventing it from directing its faculties to rational ends, may obfcure the prospect of true happiness; for the foul cannot eafily quit the illufion on which it dwells with fuch fond delight: the ordinary duties of life, with its more noble and fubftantial pleasures, are perhaps thereby obftructed: but it is very certain that romantic fentiments do not always render the mind that poffeffes them unhappy. Whó, alas! is so completely happy in reality as he frequently has been in imagination!

ROUSSEAU, who, in the early part of his life, was extremely fond of romances, feeling his mind hurried away by a love of those imaginary objects with which that species of compofition abounds, and perceiving the facility with which they may be enjoyed, withdrew his attention from every thing about him, and by this circumstance laid the foundation of that tafte for Solitude which he preferved to an advanced period of his life;* a taste

in

* Dr. Johnson, when a boy, was immoderately fond of reading romances of Chivalry, and retained his fondness for this species

of

in appearance dictated by depreffion and difguft, and attributed by him to the irrefiftible impulse of an affectionate, fond, and tender heart, which, not being able to find in the regions of philofophy and truth sentiments fufficiently warm and animated, was constrained to seek its enjoyments in the sphere of fiction.

BUT the imagination may, in retirement, indulge its wanderings to a certain degree, without the rifque of injuring either the sentiments of the mind or the fenfations of the heart. Oh! if the friends of my youth in Swifferland knew how frequently, during the filence of the night, I pafs with them thofe hours which are allotted to fleep; if they were apprized that neither time nor absence can efface the remembrance of their former kindnefs from my mind, and that this pleasing recollection tends to diffipate my grief, and to caft the veil of oblivion over my woes; they would, perhaps, alfo rejoice to find that I still live among

them

of compofition throughout his life. Spending part of a summer 'at the parfonage houfe of Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, he chofe for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of Felixmarte of Hircania, in folio, which he read quite through. But he frequently attributed to thofe extravagant fictions that unfettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profeffion. Bofwell's Life of Johnson, vol. i. p. 26. 8vo. edition.

them in imagination, though I may be dead to them in reality.

A SOLITARY man whose heart is warmed with refined and noble sentiments cannot be unhappy. While the stupid vulgar bewail his fate, and conceive him to be the victim of corroding care and loathed melancholy, he frequently tastes the most delightful pleasure. The French entertained a notion that Rousseau was a man of a gloomy and dejected difpofition; but he was certainly not so for many years of his life, particularly when he wrote to M. de Malesherbes, the Chancellor's fon, in the following terms: "I cannot express to (c you, Sir, how fenfibly I am affected by perceiv"ing that you think me the most unhappy of "mankind; for as the Public will, no doubt, en"tertain the fame fentiment of me as you do, it is "to me a fource of real affliction! Oh! if my "fentiments were univerfally known, every in"dividual would endeavour to follow my example. "Peace would then reign throughout the world; "men would no longer feek to destroy each other; " and wickedness, by removing the great incen❝tives to it, no longer exift. But it may be asked, "how I could find enjoyment in Solitude? I an"fwer, in my own mind; in the whole universe; " in every thing that does, in every thing that can "exist; in all that the eye finds beautiful in the

“real,

"real, or the imagination in the intellectual "world. I affembled about me every thing that "is flattering to the heart, and regulated my "pleasures by the moderation of my defires. No! "The most voluptuous have never experienced "fuch refined delights; and I have always enjoy"ed my chimeras much more than if they had "been realized."

THIS is certainly the language of enthusiasın; but, ye ftupid vulgar! who would not prefer the warm fancy of this amiable philofopher to your cold and creeping understandings? Who would not willingly renounce your vague converfation, your deceitful felicities, your boasted urbanity, your noify affemblies, puerile paftimes, and inveterate prejudices, for a quiet and contented life in the bosom of a happy family? Who would not rather seek in the filence of the woods, or upon the daified borders of a peaceful lake, thofe pure and fimple pleasures of Nature, fo delicious in recollection, and productive of joys fo pure, so affecting, fo different from your own?

ECLOGUES, which are reprefentations of rural happiness in its highest perfection, are also fictions; but they are fictions of the most pleasing and agreeable kind. True felicity must be fought in retirement, where the foul, difengaged from the