GENERAL WALRAVE, the companion of his captivity, contentedly paffed his time in the feeding of chickens. THE term SOLITUDE does not, I conceive, always import a total abfence from the world. Sometimes it conveys to my mind the idea of dwelling in a convent, or a country village: fometimes I understand it to mean the library of a man of learning: and fometimes an occafional retreat from the tumults of active life. MEN are frequently Solitary without being alone; for to constitute a state of Solitude, it is fufficient if the mind be entirely absorbed by those ideas which its own reflections create. THE haughty BARON, proud of the diftinctions of birth, feels himself alone in every fociety whofe members are not ennobled by an equal number of titles derived through a long line of hereditary defcents. A profound reafoner is, in general, folitary at the tables of the witty and the gay. The mind, even amidst the clamours of a popular affembly, may withdraw its attention from the furrounding objects, may retire as effectually within itself, may become as folitary as as a monk in his monastery or a hermit in his cell. In short, Solitude may be as easily attained amidst the gayeft circles of the most brilliant city, as in the uninterrupted filence of a poor, deferted village; at LONDON and at PARIS, as well as on the plains of THEBAIS or in the deferts of NITRIA. nefs. A TREATISE, therefore, upon the real advantages of Solitude, appeared to me a proper means to facilitate the acquifition of happiThe fewer external refources men poffefs, the greater efforts they make to discover in themselves the power of being happy; and the more they are enabled to part without regret from their connections with each other, the nearer they moft certainly approach to true felicity. The pleafures of the world are certainly beneath the attention with which they are purfued; but it is equally true, that, upon a ferious examination, all thofe Catholic notions, once fo celebrated, of a total feclufion from the world and its concerns, appear altogether impracticable and abfurd. To render the mind independent of human affiftances, and teach it to rely entirely upon the ftrength of its own powers, is, I acknowledge, a noble atchievement; but it is certainly equally meritorious to learn the art of living happily in fociety, and of rendering our felves ufeful and agreeable to the reft of mankind. 4. WHILE WHILE, therefore, I defcribe the allurements of SOLITUDE, I fhall endeavour to warn my readers against thofe dangerous and extravagant notions into which fome of its difciples have been betrayed; notions equally repugnant to the voice of reafon and the precepts of our divine religion. HAPPILY to avoid all the dangers by which my fubject is surrounded, to facrifice nothing to prejudice, to advance nothing in violation of truth, to obtain the approbation of the peaceful difciples of reafon and philofophy, will be my anxious endeavour; and if affliction fhall derive a ray of confolation from my labours; if Melancholy, in forgetting the horrors of its fituation, fhall raife its dejected head to blefs me; if I fhall be able to convince the innocent votaries of rural retirement that the fprings of pleafure foon dry up in the heat of the metropolis; that the heart remains cold and fenfelefs in the midft of all its noify and factitious joys: if they fhall learn to feel the fuperior pleafures of a country life, become fenfible of the variety of refources they afford against idleness and vexation; what purity of fentiment, what peaceful thoughts, what unfading happiness the view of verdant meads, the fight of numerous flocks and herds quitting the fertile meadows on the clofe of day, inftil into the mind; with what ineffa ble delight the fublime beauty of a wild romantic country, interfperfed with diftant cottages, and occupied by freedom and content, ravishes the foul; how much more readily, in fhort, we forget all the pains and troubles of a wounded heart on the borders of a gentle ftream, than amidst the concourfe of deceitful joys fo fatally followed in the courts of princes; my tafk will be accomplished, and all my wishes amply gratified! СНАР CHAPTER THE SECOND. THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF SOLITUDE. OLITUDE engages the affections of men, SOLITI whenever it holds up a picture of tranquillity to their views. The doleful and monotonous found of the clock of a fequeftered monaftery, the filence of nature in a ftill night, the pure air on the fummit of a high mountain, the thick darkness of an ancient foreft, the fight of a temple fallen into ruins, infpire the foul with a foft melancholy, and banish all recollection of the world and its concerns. But the man who cannot hold a friendly correfpondence with his own heart, who derives no comfort from the reflections of his mind, who dreads the idea of meditation, and is fearful of paffing a fingle moment with himself, looks with an equal eye on Solitude and on death. He endeavours to enjoy all the voluptuoufnefs which the world affords; drains the pernicious cup of pleafure to its dregs; and until the dreadful moment approaches when he beholds his nerves fhattered, and all the powers of his foul deftroyed, he has not courage to make the delayed confeffion, |