CHAPTER THE FOURTH.

THE INFLUENCE OF SOLITUDE UPON THE HEART.

PEACE OF MIND is, upon earth, the fupreme good. Simplicity of heart will procure this invaluable bleffing to the wife mortal who, renouncing the noify pleasures of the world, fets bounds to his defires and inclinations, cheerfully fubmits himself to the decrees of Heaven, and, viewing thofe around him with the eye of charitable indulgence, feels no pleasures more delightful than thofe which are afforded by the foft murmur of a ftream falling in cafcades from the fummit of rocks, the refreshing breezes of the young zephyrs, and the sweet accents of the woodland chaunters.

How refined our fentiments become when the tempefts of life have fubfided; when thofe miffortunes which caused our afflictions have vanished; when we see ourselves furrounded by friendfhip, peace, fimplicity, innocence, repose, and liberty!

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THE heart, to tafte the charms of retirement need not be without emotion. Oh! who would not prefer to every other enjoyment the foft melancholy which Solitude infpires? Who would not renounce the univerfe for one fingle tear of LOVE? The heart is fufceptible of this felicity,. when it has learned to admire with equal pleasure NATURE in its fublimeft beauties, and in the modeft flower which decorates the valley; when it has learned to enjoy, at the fame time, that infinite fyftem, that uniform fucceffion of parts, which expands the foul, and thofe delicious details which prefent foft and pleasant images to the mind. These pleasures are not exclufively referved for ftrong energic minds, whofe fenfations are as lively as they are delicate, and upon whom, for that reason, GOOD and BAD make an equal impreffion. The pureft happiness, the moft enchanting tranquillity, are alfo within the reach of men whose temperament is cold; who endowed with imaginations lefs bold and lively, always perceive fomething extravagant in the enèrgic expreffion of a ftill more energic fenfation: in the pictures, therefore, which are presented to the eye of fuch characters, the colouring must not be high, nor the teints too fharp; for, as the bad ftrikes them lefs, fo also they are less fufceptible of the livelier enjoyments.

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THE highest enjoyments of the heart are, in Solitude, derived from the IMAGINATION. The touching aspect of delightful nature; the variegated verdure of the forefts; the noife of an impetuous torrent; the quivering motion of the foliage; the harmony of the groves, and the fine imagery of an extenfive profpect, ravish the foul fo entirely, and abforb in fuch a manner all our faculties, that the fentiments of the mind are inftantly converted into fenfations of the heart. The view of an agreeable landscape excites the softeft emotions, and gives birth to pleafing and virtuous fentiments: all this is produced by the charms of imagination.

THE IMAGINATION, when it acts with tranquil freedom, cloaths every object with feductive charms. Oh! how eafy it is to renounce, noify pleafures and tumultuous affemblies for the enjoyment of that philofophic repose which Solitude affords! Awful fenfations and the fofteft raptures are alternately excited by the deep gloom of forefts, the tremendous height of broken rocks, and the multiplicity of fublime, majeftic objects, which fill the fcite of a delightful landfcape. Pain, however excruciating, is immediately vanquifhed by the foft, ferious, agreeable emotions and reveries with which the furrounding tranquillity infpires the mind. The Solitude of retirement,

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tirement, and the awful filence of nature, imprefs an idea of the happy contraft between fimplicity and grandeur. Our feelings become more exquifite, and our admiration more lively, in proportion to the pleasures we receive.

I HAD been, during the courfe of many years, familiar with the fublimeft appearances of nature, when I faw, for the first time, a garden cultivated in the English tafte near HANOVER and foon afterwards I beheld one in the fame ftyle, but on a much larger fcale, at MARIEN WERDER, about. the distance of a league from the former. I was not then apprised of the extent of that art which fports with the most ungrateful foil, and, by a new fpecies of creation, converts even barren. fandy mountains into fertile and fmiling landfcapes. This magic art makes an aftonishing impreffion on the mind; it excites in every heart, not yet infenfible to the delightful charms of cultivated nature, all the pleasures which Solitude, rural repose, and a feclufion from the haunts of men, can procure. I cannot recollect a fingle day during the early part of my refidence at HANOVER without tears of gratitude and joy. Torn from the bofom of my country, from the embraces of my family, and driven from everything that I held dear in life, my mind was not fufceptible of any other fentiments than those of

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