when they catch us alone. This is but to retreat from men, and fall into the hands of devils. It is like the punishment of parricides among the Romans, to be sowed into a bag, with an ape, a dog, and a ferpent. The first work therefore that a man must do, to make himself capable of the good of folitude, is, the very eradication of all lufts; for how is it possible for a man to enjoy himself, while his affections are tied to things without himself? In the second place, he must learn the art and get the habit of thinking; for this too, no less than well-speaking, depends upon much practice; and cogitation is the thing which distinguishes the folitude of a God from a wild beast. Now, because the foul of man is not by its own nature or observation furnished with fufficient materials to work upon, it is necessary for it to have continual recourse to learning and books for fresh supplies, fo that the folitary life will grow indigent, and be ready to starve, without them; but if once we be thoroughly engaged in the love of letters, instead of being wearied with the length of any day, we shall only complain of the shortness of our whole life. "O vita, stulto longa, sapienti brevis *!" O life, long to the fool, short to the wife! The first minister of state has not fo much business in public, as a wife man has in private: if the one **" O vita, misero longa, felici brevis !" have little leisure to be alone, the other has less leifure to be in company; the one has but part of the affairs of one nation, the other all the works of God and nature, under his confideration. There is no saying shocks me fo much as that which I hear very often, "That a man does not know how to pass his time." It would have been but ill-spoken by Methusalem in the nine hundreth fixty-ninth year of his life; so far it is from us, who have not time enough to attain to the utmost perfection of any part of any science, to have cause to complain that we are forced to be idle for want of work. But this, you will say, is work only for the learned; others are not capable either of the employments or divertisements that arrive from letters. I know they are not; and therefore cannot much recommend folitude to a man totally illiterate. But, if any man be so unlearned, as to want entertainment of the little intervals of accidental folitude, which frequently occur in almost all conditions (except the very meanest of the people, who have bufineis enough in the necessary provisions for life), it is truly a great shame both, to his parents and himself; for a very small portion of any ingenious art will stop up all those gaps of our time: either music, or painting, or designing, or chemistry, or history, or gardening, or twenty other things, will do it usefully and pleafantly; and, if he happen to set his affections upon poetry (which I do not advise him too immoderately), that will over-do it; no wood will be thick enough to hide him from the importunities of company or busi= ness, which would abstract him from his beloved. "-O qui me gelidis in vallibus Hæmi And for their quiet nests and plenteous food Hail, the poor Muses' richest manor-seat! That for you oft they quit their bright and great Metropolis above. Here Nature does a house for me erect, Who those fond artists does despise Here let me, careless and unthoughtful lying, And the more tuneful birds to both replying, * Virg. Georg. ii. 489. VOL. II. U A filver A filver stream shall roll his waters near, Ah wretched and too folitary he, Who loves not his own company! Unless he call in fin or vanity Oh Solitude, first state of human-kind! Which blest remain'd, till man did find Tho God himself, through countless ages, thee Before the branchy head of number's tree Thou (tho' men think thine an unactive part) Thou Thou the faint beams of reason's scatter'd light And fortify the strength, till thou dost bright Whilst this hard truth I teach, methinks, I fee If it were fit to laugh at mifery; Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, A village less than Islington wilt grow, "N folis; AM neque divitibus contingunt gaudia " lit *** God made not pleasures only for the rich; Nor have those men without their share too liv'd, * Hor. 1 Ep. xvii. 9. This |