"I am tired of THE WORLD and all its idle follies, " and now prefer the mournful shade of the cypress

to the intoxication of its noify pleasures and tumultuous joys.

THE dangers to which a life of Solitude is expofed, for even in Solitude many real dangers exift, afford no fubftantial argument against it; as by a judicious employment of the hours of activity and repofe, and a proper vigilance upon the defires of the heart, they may be eafily eluded. The adventurous navigator, when acquainted with the fignal of approaching dangers, and the fituation of thofe rocks and fhoals which threaten his fafety, no longer fears the perils to which he was before expofed, Still lefs are the advantages of Solitude disproved by the complaints of thofe who, feeling a continual defire to efcape from themflves, relifh no pleasures but thofe which the world affords; to whom retirement and tranquillity appear vapid and fatiguing; and who, unconscious of any higher delight than that of paying or receiving vifits, have of courfe no idea of the charms of Solitude.

It is, therefore, only to thofe diftinguished beings who can refort to their own bofoms for an antidote againft difquiet, who are fearless

of

of the numerous facrifices which virtue may demand, whofe fouls are endowed with fufficient energy to drive away the dread of being alone, and whofe hearts are fufceptible of the pure and tranquil delights of domeftic felicity, that I pretend to recommend the advantages of SOLITUDE. The miferable being in whofe bofom the corruptions of the world have already deftroyed these precious gifts of nature; who knows no other pleasure, is fenfible to no other happiness than what cards or the luxury of a richly-furnished table afford; who difdains all exercife of the understanding, thinks all delicacy of fentiment unnatural, and, by a brutality almoft inconceivable, laughs at the facred name of fenfibility; must be loft to virtue, and utterly incapable of pleasure from any operations of his own mind.

PHILOSOPHERS and minifters of the gospel, if they were entirely to deprive themfelves of the pleafures of fociety, and to fhun with rigid feverity the honeft comforts and rational amusements of life, would without doubt effentially injure the interefts of wifdom and virtue; but there are not, at prefent, many preceptors who carry their doctrines to this extent: on the contrary, there exifts a multitude, both in the country and the town, to whom Solitude would

be

be infupportable, who fhamefully devote their time to noify diffipations and tumultuous pleafures altogether inconfiftent with their characters and functions. The celebrated æra is paffed when a life of retirement and contemplation was alone esteemed, and when the approaches to heaven were measured in proportion as the mind receded from its attachments to the world.

AFTER having examined the influence of Solitude upon the general habits of life, and upon those ordinary pleasures which are pursued with fuch unceafing avidity, I fhall fhew, in the first division of this Chapter, that it enables MAN to live independent and alone; that there is no misfortune it cannot alleviate, no forrow that it will not foften; that it adds dignity to his character, and gives fresh vigour to the powers of his mind; that he cannot in any other fituation acquire fo perfect a knowledge of himself; that it enlarges the sphere of attention, and ripens the feeds of judgement: in fhort, that it is from the influence of Solitude alone that man can hope for the fruition of unbroken pleasures and never fading felicity.

THE ENJOYMENTS of active life may be rendered perfectly confiftent with all the advantages of Solitude; and we fhall foon difcover upon what

what foundations the opinions of those philofophers are built, who maintain that the tumults of the world, and the diffipations of its votaries, are incompatible with the calm exercife of reason, the decifions of a fober judgement, the investigation of truth, and the ftudy of the human heart.

THE legion of fantastic fashions to which a man of pleasure is obliged to facrifice his time, impairs the rational faculties of his mind, and destroys the native energies of his foul. Forced continually to lend himself to the performance of a thousand little triflings, a thousand mean abfurdities, he becomes by habit frivolous and abfurd. The face of things no longer wears its true and genuine afpect; and his depraved taste lofes all relifh for rational entertainment or fubftantial pleasure. The infatuation feizes on his brain, and his corrupted heart teems with idle fancies and vain imaginations. These illufions however, through which the plainest object comes distorted to his view, might easily be difpelled. Accustomed to a lonely life, and left to reflect in calmnefs and fobriety, during the filence of the Solitary hour, upon the falle joys and deceitful pleafures which the parade of vifiting and the glare of public entertainments. offer to our view, he would foon perceive and

candidly

candidly acknowledge their nothingness and infipidity: he would foon behold the pleasures of the world in their true colours, and feel that he had blindly wandered in purfuit of phantoms; which, though bodies in appearance, are mere fhadows in reality.

THE inevitable confequences of this ardent pursuit of entertainments and diverfions are languor and diffatisfaction. He who has drained the cup of pleasure to its laft drop; who is obliged to confefs that his hopes are fled, and that the world no longer contains an object worthy of his purfuit; who feels disappointment and difguft mingled with all his enjoyments; who seems aftonished at his own infenfibility; who no longer poffeffes the magic of the enchantrefs IMAGINATION to gild and decorate the fcene; calls in vain to his affiftance the daughters of Senfuality; their careffes can no longer charm his dark and melancholy mind; the foft and fyren fong of Luxury no longer can dispel the cloud of difcontent which hovers round his head.

BEHOLD yon weak old man, his mind enervated, and his conftitution gone, running after pleafures that he no more mut tafte. The airs of gaiety which he affects render him ridiculous.