fures as infinite as they are varied, as pure as they are lasting, as lively as they are unfading, and as compatible with every public duty as they are contributory to private happiness. The highest public duty, indeed, is that of employing our faculties for the benefit of mankind, and can no where be so advantageously discharged as in Solitude. To acquire a true notion of men and things, and boldly to announce our opinions to the world, is an indispensable obligation on every individual. The prefs is the channel through which writers diffuse the light of truth among the people, and display its radiance to the eyes of the great. Good writers infpire the mind with courage to think for itself; and the free communication of fentiments contributes to the improvement and perfection of human reason. It is this love of liberty that leads men into Solitude, where they may throw off the chains by which they are fettered in the world. It is this difpofition to be free, that makes the man who thinks in Solitude boldly speak a language which, in the corrupted intercourse of society, he would not have dared openly to hazard. Courage is the companion of Solitude. The man who does not fear to seek his comforts in the peaceful fhades of retirement, looks with firmness on the pride and infolence of the great, and tears from the face of defpotifm the mask by which it is concealed. HIS His mind, enriched by knowledge, may defy the frowns of fortune, and fee unmoved the various viciffitudes of life. When Demetrius had captured the city of Megara, and the property of the inhabitants had been entirely pillaged by the foldiers, he recollected that Stilpo, a philofopher of great reputation, who fought only the retirement and tranquillity of a studious life, was among the number. Having fent for him, Demetrius afked him if he had loft any thing during the pillage. "No," replied the philofopher: "my property "is fafe, for it exifts only in my mind."* SOLITUDE encourages the disclosure of those fentiments and feelings which the manners of the world compel us to conceal. The mind there unburthens itself with ease and freedom. The pen, indeed, is not always taken up because we are alone; but if we are inclined to write, we ought to be alone. To cultivate philosophy, or court the mufe with effect, the mind must be free from all embarrassment. The inceffant cries of children, or the frequent intrufion of fervants, with messages of ceremony and cards of compliment, distract attention. An author, whether walking in the open air, feated in his clofet, reclined under the fhade of a spreading tree, or stretched upon a sofa, must be free E 2 *This Anecdote is differently told by Plutarch. free to follow all the impulfes of his mind, and indulge every bent and turn of his genius. To compose with fuccefs, he muft feel an irrefiftible inclination, and be able to indulge his fentiments and emotions without obftacle or reftraint. There are, indeed, minds poffeffed of a divine inspiration, which is capable of fubduing every difficulty, and bearing down all opposition: and an author fhould fufpend his work until he feels this fecret call within his bosom, and watch for those propitious moments, when the mind pours forth its ideas with energy, and the heart feels the fubject with increasing warmth; for Nature's kindling breath Must fire the chosen genius; Nature's hand High as the fummit; there to breathe at large PETRARCH felt this facred impulse when he tore himself from Avignon, the most vicious and corrupted city of the age, to which the Pope had recently transferred the papal chair; and, although ftill young, noble, ardent, honoured by his Holinefs, refpected by Princes, and courted by Cardinals, he voluntarily quitted the fplendid tumults of this this brilliant court, and retired to the celebrated Solitude of Vaucluse, at the distance of fix leagues from Avignon, with only one fervant to attend him, and no other poffeffion than an humble cottage and its furrounding garden. Charmed with the natural beauties of this rural retreat, he adorned it with an excellent library, and dwelt, for many years, in wife tranquillity and rational repofe ; * employing his leisure in completing and polishing his works; and producing more original compofitions during this period than at any other of his life. But, although he here devoted much time and attention to his writings, it was long before he could be perfuaded to make them public. Virgil calls the leifure he enjoyed at Naples, ignoble and obfcure; but it was during this leifure that he wrote the Georgics, the most perfect of all his works, * The following lines are attributed to Petrarch, on his retiring to this celebrated hermitage: "Inveni requiem: SPES et FORTUNA valete! "Nil mihi vobifcum eft; ludite nunc alios;" and which Le Sage, with fome variation, has made his hero Gil Blas thus infcribe, with very happy effect, over the door of his delightful villa at Lirias, in letters of gold: "Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete! "Sat me lufiftis, ludite nunc alios. The original is in Ovid. Fas. ii. 208. works, and which evince, in almost every line, that he wrote for immortality.* THE fuffrage of pofterity, indeed, is a noble expectation, which every excellent and great writer cherishes with enthusiasm. An inferior mind contents itself with a more humble recompenfe, and fometimes obtains its due reward. But writers, both great and good, must withdraw from the interruptions of fociety, and, seeking the filence of the groves, and the tranquillity of the fhades, retire into their own minds; for every thing they perform, all that they produce, is the effect of Solitude. To accomplish *Virgil, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, retired to a delightful privacy at Naples, where he laid the plan of his inimitable Georgics, a work which he undertook at the earnest intreaties of the wife and able minifter Mæcenas, on a noble political motive, and to promote the welfare of his country. Great was the defolation occafioned by the continuance and cruelty of the civil wars: Italy was almoft depopulated; the lands were uncultivated and unftocked; a famine and infurrection enfued; Auguftus himself hardly escaped being ftoned by the enraged populace, who attributed this calamity to his ambition. Macenas therefore refolved, if poffible, to revive the decayed fpirit of husbandry; to introduce a taste for cultivation; to make rural improvements a fashionable amusement to the Great. What method fo likely to effect this, as to recommend agriculture with all the infinuating charms of poetry? Virgil fully answered the expectation of his polite patron; for the Georgics contain all those masterly beauties that might be expected from an exalted genius, whofe judgment and imagination were in full vigour and maturity, and who had leisure to give the laft polish and perfection to his incomparable workmanship.-Warton's Life of Virgil. |