fure to be furrounded by the gay, unthinking, and volatile part of the fpecies; who conceive that the rays of all human delight beam from places of public feftivity and refort; "Who all their joys in mean profufion waste, "Without reflection, management, or taste; "Careless of all that VIRTUE gives to please ; "For thought too active, and too mad for eafe; "Who give each appetite too loose a rein, "Push all enjoyment to the verge of pain; "Impetuous follow where THE PASSIONS call, "And live in rapture, or not live at all ; will, inftead of lafting and fatisfactory fruition, meet only with forrowful disappointment. This mode of feeking fociety is not a rational indulgence of that natural paffion which heaven, in its benevolence to man, has planted in the human heart; but merely a factitious defire, an habitual pruriency, produced by reftlefs leifure, and encouraged by vanity and diffipation. SOCIAL HAPPINESS, true and effential social happiness, refides only in the bosom of Love and in the arms of FRIENDSHIP; and can only be really enjoyed by congenial hearts, and kindred minds, in the domestic bowers of privacy and retirement. Affectionate intercourse produces an inexhaustible fund of delight. It is the perennial sunshine of the mind. With what extreme anxiety do we' all endeavour to find an amiable being, with whom we may form a tender tie and close attachment, who may inspire us with unfading blifs, and receive increase of happiness from our endearments and attention! How greatly do fuch connections increase the kind and benevolent difpofitions of the heart! and how greatly do fuch difpofitions, while they lead the mind to the enjoyment of domeftic happiness, awaken, all the virtues, and call forth the best and strongest energies of the foul! Deprived of the chafte and endearing fympathies of Love and FRIENDSHIP, the species fink into gross sensuality or mute indifference, neglect the improvement of their faculties, and renounce all anxiety to please ; but incited by these propenfities, the fexes mutually exert their powers, cultivate their talents, call every intellectual energy into action; and, by endeavouring to promote each others' happiness, mutually secure their own. "As bees mix'd nectar draw from fragrant flowers, "So man from FRIENDSHIP wisdom and delight; "Twins tied by Nature; if they part, they die. "Haft thou no friend to fet thy mind abroach? "Good fenfe will stagnate: thoughts fhut up, want air, "And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the fun. "Had thought been all, sweet speech had been denied: " It "It ventilates our intellectual fires, "Brightens for ornament, and whets for ufe. "Nature, in zeal for human amity, "Denies or damps all undivided joy. "Joy flies monopolifts; it calls for two. Adverfe circumstances, however, frequently prevent well-difpofed characters not only from making the election which their hearts would prompt, and their understandings approve, but force them into alliances which both reafon and fenfibility reject. It is from the disappointments of love or of ambition that the fexes are generally repelled from Society to Solitude. The affection, the tenderness, the sensibility of the heart, are but too often torn and outraged by the cruelty and malevolence of an unfeeling world, in which Vice bears on its audacious front the mask of Virtue, and betrays INNOCENCE into the fnares of unsuspected GUILT. The victims, however, whether of LOVE or of AMBITION, who retire from Society to recruit their depressed spirits, and repair their difordered minds, cannot, without injuftice, be ftigmatized as misanthropists, or 1 arraigned as anti-focial characters. All relish for fcenes of focial happiness may be loft by an extreme and over-ardent paffion for the enjoyments of them; but it is only those who seek retirement from an averfion to the company of their fellow-creatures, that can be faid to have renounced, or be deftitute of, the common sympathies of nature. The prefent age, however, is not likely to produce many fuch unnatural characters; for the manners of the whole world, and particularly of Europe, were never, perhaps, more disposed to company. The rage for public entertainments feems to have infected all the claffes of fociety. The pleasures of private life feems to be held in univerfal deteftation and contempt; opprobrious epithets defame the humble enjoyments of domeftic love; and those whofe hours are not confumed in unmeaning vifits, or unfocial parties, are regarded as cenfors of the common conduct of the world, or as enemies to their fellowcreatures. But, although mankind appear fo extremely focial, they certainly were never less friendly and affectionate. Neither rank, nor sex, nor age, is free from this pernicious habit. Infants, before they can well lifp the rudiments of fpeech, are initiated into the idle ceremonies and parade of company; and can scarcely meet their parents parents or their playmates without being obliged to perform a punctilious falutation. Formal cardparties, and petty treats, engross the time that should be devoted to healthful exercise and manly recreation. The manners of the metropolis are imitated with inferior fplendor, but with greater abfurdity, in the country: every village has its routs and its affemblies, in which the curled darlings of the place blaze forth in feathered luftre and aukward magnificence; and while the charming fimplicity of one sex is destroyed by affectation, the honeft virtues of the other by diffolute gallantry, and the paffions of both inflamed by vicious and indecent mirth, the grave elders of the diftricts are trying their tempers and impoverishing their purses at fix-penny whift and caffino. all deem "One moment unamus'd a mifery The spirit of diffipation has reached even the vagrant tribe. The Gypfies of Germany fufpend their predatory excurfions, and, on one previously appointed evening in every week, assemble to enjoy |