indulging a disposition to renounce its fociety or contemn its manners. While we affert, with manly refolution, the independent spirit of human nature, our HAPPINESS may be confiderably augmented, by extracting from the multitudinous affairs of the world, the various enjoyments and wife inftructions it is capable of affording. SoCIETY is the school of WISDOM, and SOLITUDE the temple of VIRTUE. In the one we learn the art of living with comfort among our fellow creatures, and in the other, of living with quietude by ourselves. A total retreat from the world would lay us afide from that part which Providence chiefly intended us to act; but without occafional retreat, it is certain that we muft act that part very ill. There will be neither confiftency in the conduct, nor dignity in the character, of one who sets apart no share of his time for meditation and reflection. "In the heat and bustle of life," fays an eloquent preacher, "while paffion is every moment throwing false colours on the objects around us, nothing can be viewed in a juft light. If you wish that reason should exert her native power, you must step aside from the crowd into the cool and filent fhade. It is thus that with sober and steady eye fhe examines what is good or ill, what is wife or foolish, in human conduct: fhe looks back on the paft; fhe looks forward to the future; and forms plans not VOL. II. Z

for

for the present moment only, but for the whole life. How fhould that man discharge any part of his duty aright, who never suffers his paffions to cool? and how fhould his paffions cool, who is engaged, without interruption, in the tumults of the world? This inceffant ftir may be called the perpetual drunkenness of life. It raises that eager fermentation of spirit, which will be ever fending forth the dangerous fumes of rashness and folly. Whereas he who mingles RATIONAL RETREAT with WORLDLY AFFAIRS, remains calm, and master of himself. He is not whirled round, and rendered giddy by the agitation of the world; but from that SACRED RETIREMENT in which he has been converfant among higher objects, comes forth into the world with manly tranquillity, fortified by principles which he has formed, and prepared for whatever may befal."

Sweet SOLITUDE! when life's gay hours are past,
Howe'er we range, in thee we fix at last.
Tofs'd through tempeftuous feas, the voyage o'er,
Pale we look back, and bless thy friendly fhore.
Our own ftrict judges, our past life we scan,
And ask if glory hath enlarg'd the span :
If bright the profpect, we the grave defy,
Truft future ages, and contented die.

FINI 6.

INDEX.

A

ABELARD, his hiftory, 228; his first acquaintance

with Eloifa, 229; their mutual love, 230; its con-
sequences, 231; extracts from their letters, 232, 243;
founds the Paraclete, and makes Eloifa the abbess of it,
270; endeavours to reform the manners of the monks,
271; becomes abbot of St. Gildas, 272; his com-
plaints of the misconduct of his fraternity, 273.
Affection, when virtuous, is the perpetual fun-fhine of
the mind, 5.

Age, poetical description of a divine old man, 69.

Ambition, is not leffened merely by change of scene, 107,
notis; prevails in different degrees as well in cottages as
in courts, 219.

Ambrofius, bishop of Camadola, his endeavours to re-
form the monks, 288.

Andromache, her parting with Hector, 302, notis.
Anger, the confequences of indulging it, 69.

Anthony, St. a defcription of the conduct of this ex-

traordinary hermit, 138.

Argenteuil, the convent of, in which Eloifa took the veil,
and of which fhe had the management, fuppreffed on ac-
count of the irregularities of the nuns, 268.

Ariftotle, his opinion that man was born for Society, 1;
his profound fyftems not purfued in the tumults of a
court, 98.

Armelle, a celebrated French faint, an inftance of her
fanatic difpofition, 167.

Avarice, the paffion of not cured by Solitude, 167,

notis.

Aurelian, the Roman emperor, alleviates the captivity

of Zenobia by presenting her with an elegant villa in
the vicinity of Rome, 42.

Authors who attempt to reform the manners, or correct

the false opinions of the age, are in general decried,
67; ought not to be discouraged by the attacks of envy
and ingratitude, 95; many oppressed by the ignorance
with which their works are criticifed, 96; the effects
of Solitude on their manners, 117, 128; why they
frequently renounce Society, 125, 127; not always
properly treated by men of the world, 131; fome-
times quarrel with their friends for not supporting
their doctrines, however whimfical or abfurd, 134; a
morofe and furly pedant defcribed, 135; a meritorious
author defcribed, 136.

B

Bacon's obfervation on the faying that "Whoever is
delighted in Solitude is either a wild be aft or a god,"
24, notis.

Benevolence a moral duty; its effects on human happi-

nefs, 68; on what occafion it ought to be exercised,

70;

70; is the offspring of Religion, 101; a great virtue,
and capable of conferring the highest delight, 132.
Bigotry the production of irrational Solitude, 166.
Blair, Dr. his opinion of the importance of religious
Retirement, 101.

Boccace, the Italian writer, condemned for cenfuring too
freely the vices of the monks, 287.

Boffus, a celebrated canon of the fifteenth century, ap-
pointed by Sextus the Fourth to inspect the monaste-
ries, 289.

Bofwell's harsh expreffion respecting Hume's religious
opinion condemned, 58, notis.

Brocklefby, Dr. attends Johnson in his last illness, 200.

C

Cafar, an obfervation of his on the fubject of ambition,

219.

Calliftratus, the Athenian orator, excites the admiration

of Demofthenes, and induces him to ftudy rhetoric, 88.
Captive, the ftory of a female illuftrative of the irrififti-
ble power of love, 249, 257.

Carlini, the celebrated French comedian, an anecdote
respecting his dejected difpofition of mind, 182.
Cat, the fifterhoods of feveral convents take it into their
heads to mew like cats, 163; Timotheus, an Egyp-
tian monk, fo called, 274.

Celibacy, its abfurdity, 262.

Character, a good and great one defcribed, 318, notis;
a philanthropic one defcribed, 323, 324.

Z3

Charles