"have reason to arraign my conduct. Man has "not a greater enemy than himself. I acted "against my taste and inclination. Alas! through "the whole courfe of our lives, we do thofe things "which we ought not to have done, and leave ❝ undone Realms where the free Cantabrian roams, Or on the barbarous Syrtes foams The Mauritanian wave! II. Let fruitful Tiber's genial land, III. Should envious fate deny these feats, Where, murmuring through the plain For richest fleeces far renown'd, Galefus laves the realms that own'd Phalantus' Spartan reign. IV. That spot, of all the world, can please ; Can match Hymettus' foil : The berries that her trees produce Vie, in the richness of their juice, With fam'd Venufian oil. V. There " undone what most we wish to do." But Pe "trarch might have told his friends, “ I was "willing to convince you how much a mind, "long exercised in Solitude, can perform when "engaged in the business of the world; how much << a previous retirement enables a man to transact "the affairs of public life with ease, firmness, << dignity, and effect.” THE Courage which is neceffary to combat the prejudices of the multitude, is only to be acquired by a contempt of the frivolous tranfactions of the world, and of course is seldom poffeffed, except by folitary men. Worldly pursuits, fo far from adding ftrength to the mind, only weaken it; in like manner as any particular enjoyment too frequently repeated, V. There Jove prolongs Spring's blithsome hours; Which tepid gales controul. The fertile Aulon spreads her vines, Nor envies the Falernian wines When Bacchus crowns the bowl. VI. These bleft abodes, these chofen bowers, Here, when my days fhall end, Bathe my lov'd ashes with a tear, And cherish with regret fincere Thy poet and thy friend. repeated, dulls the edge of appetite for every pleasure. How often do the beft contrived and most excellent fchemes fail, merely for want of fufficient courage to furmount the difficulties which attend their execution! How many happy thoughts have been stifled in their birth, from an apprehension that they were too bold to be indulged! * An idea has prevailed, that truth can only be freely and boldly spoken under a Republican form of government, but this idea is certainly without foundation. It is true, that in Ariftocracies, as well as under a more open form of government, where a fingle demagogue unfortunately poffeffes the fovereign power, common fenfe is too frequently conftrued into a public offence. Where this abfurdity exifts, the mind must be timid, and the people, in confequence, deprived of their liberty. In a Monarchy every offence is punished by the fword of justice; but in a Republic, punishments are inflicted by prejudices, paffions, and state neceffity. The first maxim, which, under a Republican form of government, parents endeavour to inftil into the minds of their children, is, not to make enemies; and I remember, when I was very young, H * "Our fears," fays Shakespeare," are traitors, and make "us lofe the thing we wish to gain by dread of the event." young, replying to this fage counfel, "My dear "mother, do you not know that he who has no ene"mies is a poor man?" In a Republic the citizens are under the authority and jealous obfervation of a multitude of fovereigns; while in a Monarchy the reigning prince is the only man whom his fubjects are bound to obey. The idea of living under the controul of a number of masters intimidates the mind; whereas love and confidence in one alone, raises the spirits, and renders the people happy.. BUT in all countries, and under every form of government, the rational man, who renounces the useless conversation of the world, who lives a retired life, and who, independently of all that he fees, of all that he hears, forms his notions in tranquillity by an intercourse with the heroes of Greece, of Rome, and of Great Britain, will acquire a steady and uniform character, obtain a noble style of thinking, and rise superior to every vulgar prejudice. 66 The fall of kings, "The rage of nations, and the crush of ftates, "Move not THE MAN who, from the world efcap'd, "In ftill retreats and flowery folitudes "To Nature's voice attends THESE THESE are the obfervations I had to make respecting the influence of occafional Solitude upon the Mind. They disclose my real fentiments on this subject: many of them, perhaps, undigested, and many more certainly not well expreffed. But I fhall confole myself for these defects, if this Chapter affords only a glimpse of those advantages which I am perfuaded a rational Solitude is capable of affording to the minds and manners of men; and if that which follows fhall excite a lively sensation of the true, noble, and elevated pleasures Retirement is capable of producing by a tranquil and feeling contemplation of nature, and by an exquifite fenfibility for every thing that is good and fair. |