peaceful luxury, and were thereby rendered capable of deriving comfort and confolation from that fource which feems only to heighten and expafperate the miseries of those whose minds are totally absorbed in the diffipations of life.* The motives, indeed, which lead men either to temporary Retirement, or absolute Solitude, are innumerably various. Minds delicately fusceptible to the impreffions of virtue, frequently avoid fociety, only to avoid the pain they feel in obferving the vices and follies of the world. Minds active and vigorous, frequently retire to avoid * The love of Retirement (fays Dr. JOHNSON) has in all ages adhered closely to thofe minds which have been moft enlarged or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed every thing generally fuppofed to confer happiness, have been found to seek it in the fhades of privacy. Though they poffeffed both power and riches, and were therefore furrounded by men who confidered it as their chief intereft to remove from them every thing that might offend their ease, or interrupt their pleasures, they have found themselves unable to pursue the race of life without frequent refpirations of intermediate SOLITUDE. Nor will greatness or abundance exempt him from the importunities of this defire, fince, if he is born to think, he cannot restrain himself from a thousand enquiries and speculations, which he must purfue by his own reafon, and which the fplendor of his condition can only hinder: for those who are most exalted above dependence or controul, are yet condemned to pay fo large a tribute of their time to ceremony and popularity, that, according to the Greek proverb, "No man in the houfe is more a flave than the master of it." avoid the clogs and incumbrances by which the tumults and engagements of society distract and impede the free and full enjoyment of their faculties. The bafis, indeed, of every inclination to Solitude is the love of liberty, either mental or corporeal; a freedom from all conftraint and interruption: but the form in which the inclination displays itself, varies according to the character and circumftances of the individual. Men who are engaged in pursuits foreign to the natural inclination of their minds, figh continually for Retirement, as the only means of recruiting their fatigued fpirits, and procuring a comfortable repofe. Scenes of tranquillity can alone afford them any idea of enjoyment. A refined sense of duty, indeed, frequently induces noble minds to facrifice all perfonal pleasure to the great interests of the public, or the private benefits of their fellow creatures; and they refift every oppofing obftacle with courage, and bear every adverfity with fortitude, under those cheering fentiments, and proud delights, which result from the pursuits of active charity and benevolence, even though their career be thwarted by those whofe advantages they defign to promote. The exhilarating idea of being inftrumental in affording relief to suffering humanity, humanity, reconciles every difficulty, however great; prompts to new exertions, however fruitless; and sustains them in those arduous conflicts, in which all who afpire to promote the interest, and improve the happiness, of mankind, must occasionally engage, especially when opposed by the pride and profligacy of the rich and great, and the obftinacy and caprice of the ignorant and unfeeling. But the most virtuous and steady minds cannot always bear up against "a fea of troubles, or, by oppofing, end them;" and, depreffed by temporary adverfities, will arraign the cruelty of their condition, and figh for the fhades of peace and tranquillity. How transcendent muft be the enjoyment of a great and good Minifter, who, after having anxiously attended to the important business of the state, and disengaged himfelf from the neceffary but irksome occupation of official detail, refreshes his mind in the calm of fome delightful retreat, with works of taste, and thoughts of fancy and imagination! A change, indeed, both of scene and fentiment, is absolutely neceffary, not only in the serious and important employments, but even in the common occupations and idle amufements of life. Pleasure springs from contraft. The most charming object lofes a portion of its power to delight by being continually beheld. Alternate Society and Solitude are neceffary to the full en joyment joyment both of the pleasures of the world and the delights of Retirement. It is, however, afferted by the celebrated PASCAL, whose life was far from being inactive, that quietude is a beam of the original purity of our nature, and that the height of human happiness is in Solitude and tranquillity. Tranquillity, indeed, is the wish of all the good, while pursuing the track of virtue; the great, while following the ftar of glory; and the little, while creeping in the styes of diffipation, figh for tranquillity, and make it the great object which they ultimately hope to attain. How anxiously does the failor, on the high and giddy mast, when rolling through tempeftuous feas, caft his eyes over the foaming billows, and anticipate the calm fecurity he hopes to enjoy when he reaches the wifh'd-for fhore! Even kings grow weary of their splendid slavery, and nobles ficken under increafing dignities. All, in short, feel less delight in the actual enjoyment of worldly pursuits, however great and honourable they may be, than in the idea of their being able to relinquish them, and retire to Some calm fequefter'd spot; "The world forgetting, by the world forgot." The restless and ambitious PYRRHUS* hoped that ease and tranquillity would be the ulti VOL. IF Ꭰ mate * PYRRHUS, the celebrated fovereign of Epirus, was the defcendant of PYRRHUS, the fon of Achilles and Deidamia, and king mate reward of his enterprifing conquests. FREDERICK THE GREAT discovered, perhaps, unintentionally, king of Scyros. While he was yet an infant in his nurse's arms, the chance of war deprived him at once of his father and his throne. Caffandra, king of Macedonia, eager to destroy the infant prince, affailed the dwelling in which he was faid to have been placed; but his fond and faithful attendants, Androclides and Angelus, on the first news of his father's fate, had conveyed him to a place of safety in the kingdom of Illyria, whose sovereign, Glaucias, generously educated him as his own fon; and when he had arrived at the age of twelve years, placed him, by the power of his arms, on his native throne. Nurtured amidft the clang of hoftile arms, war appeared to be his fole delight; and he indulged his restless, enterprizing disposition in fucceffive and obftinate conflicts with the Macedonians, Tarrentines, and other neighbouring powers. On giving battle to the conful Lavinus, near Heraclea, he gained a complete victory; but the carnage was great, and almost equal numbers killed on each fide. "Alas!" exclaimed the conqueror, on viewing his furviving troops, "if I gain fuch another victory, I fhall return I fear almost alone to Epirus!" Fond, however, as he appeared of war, he profeffed to follow it only to procure a folid and permanent peace; and he sent the philofopher Cineus for that purpose to Rome. The philofopher harangued the senate on the fubject of his miffion with an extraordinary degree of zeal and eloquence; but the Romans coolly and fagaciously replied, "If PYRRHUS really wishes for the friendship of the Roman people, let him firft abdicate their dominions, and then the fincerity of his proposals of peace may gain some credit." After a great variety of fortune, he laid fiege to Argos, and, by the treachery of Ariflius, entered the city; but having imprudently introduced his elephants, their courfe was impeded by the narrowness of the streets, and his troops thereby thrown into confufion. The guards who attended him, after having fought for |