rough and difficult paths, when conducted by the hand of Love? What fpecies of inftruction can be more fuccessful than foft leffons from a female tongue, dictated by a mind profound in understanding, and elevated in fentiment, where the heart feels all the affection that her precepts inspire? Oh! may every mother, fo endowed, be bleffed with a child who delights to liften in private to her edifying obfervations; who, with a book in his hand, loves to feek among the rocks fome fequeftered spot favourable to study; who, when walking with his dogs and gun, frequently reclines under the friendly fhade of fome majestic tree, and contemplates the great and glorious characters which the pages of Plutarch present to his view, instead of toiling through the thickets of the furrounding woods to fearch for game.

THE wishes of a mother are accomplished when the filence and folitude of the forests seize and animate the mind of her beloved child; * when he begins to feel that he has seen fufficiently the pleasures of the world; when he begins to perceive that there are greater and more valued characters

* "Mirum eft," fays the younger PLINY, "ut animus agi"tatione motuque corporis excitetur. Jam undique filvæ et folitudo "ipforumque illud filentium, quod venationi datur, magna cogita"tionis incitamenta funt."

racters than noblemen or squires, than ministers or kings; characters who enjoy a more elevated sense of pleasure than gaming tables and assemblies are capable of affording; who feek, at every interval of leisure, the shades of Solitude with rapturous delight, whose minds have been inspired with a love of literature and philofophy from their earliest infancy; whose bosoms have glowed with a love of science through every subsequent period of their lives; and who, amidst the greatest calamities, are capable of banishing, by a fecret charm, the deepest melancholy and moft profound dejection.

THE advantages of Solitude to a mind that feels a real difguft at the tiresome intercourses of fociety are inconceivable. Freed from the world, the veil which obfcured the intellect fuddenly falls, the clouds which dimmed the light of reafon difappear, the painful burthen which oppressed the soul is alleviated; we no longer wrestle with furrounding perils; the apprehenfion of danger vanishes ; the sense of misfortune becomes softened; the difpenfations of Providence no longer excite the murmur of discontent; and we enjoy the delightful pleasures of a calm, ferene, and happy mind. Patience and refignation follow and refide with a contented heart; every corroding care flies away on the wings of gaiety; and on every fide agree

able

able and interesting scenes prefent themselves to our view: the brilliant fun finking behind the lofty mountains, tinging their fnow-crowned turrets with golden rays; the feathered choir haftening to seek within their moffy cells, a foft, a filent, and fecure repofe; the fhrill crowing of the amorous cock; the folemn and stately march of oxen returning from their daily toil; and the graceful paces of the generous fteed. But, amidst the vicious pleasures of a great METROPOLIS, where sense and truth are conftantly despised, and integrity and confcience thrown afide as inconvenient and oppreffive,* the fairest forms of fancy are obfcured, and the pureft virtues of the heart corrupted.

C

BUT

*In fpeaking thus of the dangers of a Metropolis, the Author can only mean to point out the effects produced by the bad company that infeft it; for in another part of his work he has given an inftance in which THE TOWN is preferable to THE COUNTRY. "The poet Martial," fays he, " on his return to Bibilis, the village of his nativity, in Spain, after having lived thirty-four years among the most learned and enlightened men of Rome, found it a dreary desert, a frightful folitude! Forced to affociate with persons who felt no pleasure in the elegant occupations of literature and the sciences, a painful languor feized his mind, and he fighed inceffantly to revifit the beloved METROPOLIS where he had acquired fuch universal fame; where his good sense, his penetration, his fagacity, were duly applauded; and immortality promised to his writings, by the encomiums they received from the younger Pliny, as poffeffing equal acumen, wit, and ease: but, on the contrary, in the ftupid village of Bibilis, his fame and learning only acquired him envy and contempt."

BUT the first and most inconteftible advantage of SOLITUDE is, that it accuftoms the mind to think: the imagination becomes more vivid, and the memory more faithful, while the senses remain undisturbed, and no external object agitates the foul. Removed far from the tiresome tumults of public fociety, where a multitude of heterogeneous objects dance before our eyes, and fill the mind with incoherent notions, we learn to fix our at tention to a single subject, and to contemplate that alone. An author,* whose works I could read with pleasure every hour of my life, fays, "It is "the power of attention which in a great measure "diftinguishes the wife and the great from the "vulgar and trifling herd of men. The latter "are accustomed to think, or rather to dream, "without knowing the subject of their thoughts. "In their unconnected rovings they pursue no "end; they follow no track. Every thing floats "loofe and disjointed on the furface of their minds; "like leaves fcattered and blown about on the "face of the waters."

THE

*Dr. Blair, the author of the highly celebrated Sermons, and of an excellent work, intitled, "Lectures on Rhetoric and "Belles Lettres," printed at London, for the first time, in the year 1783, and indifpenfably neceffary to be studied by every perfon who wishes to speak and write with elegance and propriety.

THE habit of thinking with fteadiness and attention, can only be acquired by avoiding the diftraction which a multiplicity of objects always create; by turning our obfervation from external things; and seeking a fituation in which our daily occupations are not perpetually shifting their course, and changing their direction.

IDLENESS and inattention foon destroy all the advantages of retirement; for the most dangerous paffions, when the mind is not properly employed, rife into fermentation, and produce a variety of eccentric ideas and irregular defires. It is neceffary, also, to elevate our thoughts above the mean confideration of fenfual objects: the unincumbered mind then recalls all that it has read; all that has pleafed the eye, or delighted the ear; and reflecting on every idea which either obfervation, experience, or difcourfe, has produced, gains new information by every reflection, and conveys the purest pleasures to the foul. The intellect contemplates all the former scenes of life; views by anticipation those that are yet to come; and blends all ideas of paft and future in the actual enjoyment of the prefent moment. To keep, however, the mental powers in proper tone, it is neceffary to direct our attention invariably towards fome noble and interefting study.