then that we begin to perceive how falfe and faithlefs, thofe flattering illufions prove which feem to promife us fuch variety of happiness. A lady, poffeffed of youth and beauty, wrote to me one evening on returning from a celebrated ridotto, "You obferved with what gaiety and

content I quitted the fcene. Believe me, I "felt a void so painful in my breast at the fight " of those factitious joys, that I could willing

Сс

ly have torn the flowery decorations from my «drefs."

THE pleasures of the world are vain and worthlefs, unless they render the heart more happy in itself, and tend to increase our domestic felicity. On the contrary, every fpecies of misfortune, however accumulated, may be borne by those who poffefs tranquillity at home, who are capable of enjoying the privacy of study, and the elegant recreation which books afford. Whoever is poffeffed of this refource, has made confiderable advances towards happiness; for happiness does not exact more from us than an inclination to regulate the affections of the heart, and a dispo fition to control the paffions of the mind. A celebrated philofopher, however, has with great judgment obferved, that there is both pride and falfehood in pretending that man alone is capable of effecting his own happiness. But we are

most

most certainly capable of modifying the natural difpofitions of our fouls, of forming our tastes, of varying our fentiments, of directing our inclinations, of fubduing even the paffions themfelves; and we are then not only lefs fenfible of all the wants of life, but feel even fatisfaction under circumstances which to others would appear intolerable. Health is, without doubt, one of the most effential ingredients to happiness; and yet there are circumftances under which even the privation of it may be accompanied with tranquillity. How many times have I returned thanks to the great Difpofer of human events when indifpofition has confined me at home, and enabled me to invigorate the weakened functions of my foul in quietude and filence; a happiness that receded in proportion as convalefence advanced. Obliged to drag through the streets of the metropolis day after day during a number of years; feeble in conftitution; weak in limbs fufceptible, on feeling the finallest cold, to the fame fenfation as if knives were feparating the flesh from the bone; continually furrounded in the course of my profeffion with the most afflicting forrows; it is not surprising that I should feel a gratitude for those pleasures which confinement by indifpofition procured.

A PHY

A PHYSICIAN, if he poffefs fenfibility, muft, in his employment to relieve the fufferings of others, frequently forget his own. But alas! when fummoned and obliged to attend, whatever pain of body or of mind he may endure, on maladies which are perhaps beyond the reach of his art, how much oftener muft his own fufferings be increased by thofe which he fees others feel. The anxieties which fuch a fcene impofes diftracts the mind, and raifes every painful feeling of the heart. Under fuch circumstances, an incapacitating disease, however excruciating, is to me a foft repofe, and the confinement it occafions a pleafing folitude; provided peevish friends do not intrude, and politely disturb me with their fatiguing vifits. In these moments I pray Heaven to bestow its bleffings on those who neglect to overwhelm me with their idle converfation, and, with the kindeft compaffion, forget to disturb me by enquiries after my health. If amidst all my pain I can remain a single day quietly at home, and employ my mind on literary fubjects, undisturbed by vifitors, I receive more real pleasure than our women of quality and men of fashion ever felt from all their feastings and entertaiuments.

1

THE fufpenfion from labour which Solitude affords is in itself a confiderable advantage: for

to

to men whose duties depend on the neceffities or caprice of the public, from whom indefatigable activity is exacted, and who unavoidably pass their days in continual anxieties, a temporary relief is in effect tranfcendent felicity.

Ar every period of life, whether during the ftrength of youth or the imbecillity of age, the power of employing the mind in fome ufeful or agreeable occupation banishes the dread of Solitude.

SOURED by disappointment, we should deavour to divert the mind by pursuing fome fixed and pleafing course of study. To read. without deriving fome advantage is impoffible, provided we mark with a pen or pencil the new ideas that may occur, and retain the obfervations by which our own ideas are illuftrated and confirmed; for reading, unless we apply the information it affords either to our own characters or to thofe of other men, is useless and fatiguing: but this habit is easily acquired, and then Books become a fafe and certain antidote to laffitude and difcontent. Painful and unpleafant ideas vanish from the mind that is capable of firmly fixing its attention on any particular fubject.

THE fight of a noble and interesting object, the ftudy of a useful science, a picture in which the various revolutions of fociety are historically displayed, and the progress made in any particular art, agreeably rivet the attention, and banish forrow from the mind.

PLEASURES of this defcription, it is certain, greatly tranfcend all those which administer merely to the fenfes. I am aware, that in fpeaking of the pleasures of the mind, fublime meditation, the profound deductions of reason, and the brilliant effufions of fancy, are in general understood; but there are alfo others, for the perfect enjoyment of which neither extenfive knowledge nor extraordinary talents are neceffary. These are the pleafures which refult from active labour; pleasures that are equally within the reach of the vulgar clown or refined philofopher, and no less exquifite than those which refult folely from the mind: manual exertions, therefore, ought never to be defpifed. I am acquainted with gentlemen who are inftructed in the mechanifm of their own watches; who are able to work as painters, lockfmiths, carpenters; and who are not only furnished with almost all the tools proper to every branch of trade, but know alfo how to use them: fuch characters never feel the least disquietude

from