fufficiently dark to have concealed the genius of Cowley; for whatever might be his opinion of the importunity with which he might be fummon-ed back into publick life, a fhort experience would have convinced him, that privation is easier than acquifition, and that it would require little continuance to free himfelf from the intrufion of the world. There is pride enough in the human heart to prevent much defire of acquaintance with a man, by whom we are fure to be neglected, however his reputation for fcience or virtue may excite our curiofity or esteem; fo that the lover of retirement needs not be afraid left the respect of strangers fhould overwhelm him with vifits. Even thofe to whom he has formerly been known will very patiently fupport his abfence when they have tried a little to live without him, and found new diverfions for those moments which his company contributed to exhilarate.

It was, perhaps, ordained by Providence, to hinder us from tyrannifing over one another, that no individual should be of fuch importance, as to cause, by his retirement or death, any chaẩm in the world. And Cowley had converfed to little purpose with mankind, if he had never remarked, how foon the useful friend, the gay companion, and the favoured lover, when once they are removed from before the fight, give way to the fucceffion of new objects.

The privacy, therefore, of his hermitage might have been safe enough from violation, though he had chofen it within the limits of his native island; he might have found here prefervatives against the vanities

D 3

vanities and vexations of the world, not lefs efficacious than those which the woods or fields of America could afford him: but having once his mind imbittered with difguft, he conceived it impoffible to be far enough from the cause of his uneafinefs; and was pofting away with the expedition of a coward, who, for want of venturing to look behind him, thinks the enemy perpetually at his heels.

When he was interrupted by company, or fatigued with bufinefs, he fo ftrongly imagined to himfelf the happiness of leisure and retreat, that he determined to enjoy them for the future without interruption, and to exclude for ever all that could deprive him of his darling fatisfaction. He forgot, in the vehemence of defire, that folitude and quiet owe their pleasures to thofe miferies, which he was fo ftudious to obviate: for fuch are the viciffitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labour and reft, hurry and retirement, endear each other; fuch are the changes that keep the mind in action; we defire, we purfue, we obtain, we are fatiated; we defirè fomething elfe, and begin a new purfuit.

If he had proceeded in his project, and fixed his habitation in the most delightful part of the new world, it may be doubted, whether his distance from the vanities of life would have enabled him to keep away the vexations. It is common for a man, who feels pain, to fancy that he could bear it better in any other part. Cowley having known the troubles and perplexities of a particular condition, readily perfuaded himself that nothing worfe was to

be

be found, and that every alteration would bring some improvement: he never suspected that the cause of his unhappiness was within, that his own paffions were not fufficiently regulated, and that he was haraffed by his own impatience, which could never be without fomething to awaken it, would accompany him over the fea, and find its way to his American elyfium. He would, upon the trial, have been foon convinced, that the fountain of content muft fpring up in the mind; and that he, who has fo little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own difpofitions, will wafte his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to

remove.

NUMB. 7. TUESDAY, April 10, 1750.

O qui perpetuâ mundum ratione gubernas,
Terrarum cælique fator!·

Disjice terrena nebulas & pondera molis,
Atque tuo fplendore mica! Tu namque ferenum,
Tu requies tranquilla piis. Te cernere, finis,
Principium, vedor, dux, femita, terminus, idem.

O thou whose pow'r o'er moving worlds prefides,
Whofe voice created, and whose wisdom guides,
On darkling man in pure effulgence fhine,
And chear the clouded mind with light divine.
'Tis thine alone to calm the pious breaft

With filent confidence and holy rest;

BOETHIUS

From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original, and end.

HE love of RETIREMENT has, in all ages,

THE

adhered clofely to thofe minds, which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed every thing generally fuppofed to confer happiness, have been forced to feek it in the fhades of privacy. Though they poffed both power and riches, and were, therefore, furrounded by men, who confidered it as their chief intereft to remove from them every thing that might offend their eafe, or interrupt their pleafure, they have foon felt the languors of fatiety, and found themfelves unable to purfue the race of life without frequent refpirations of intermediate folitude.

To

To produce this difpofition nothing appears requifite but quick fenfibility, and active imagination; for, though not devoted to virtue, or fcience, the man, whose faculties enable him to make ready comparisons of the prefent with the paft, will find fuch a conftant recurrence of the fame pleasures and troubles, the fame expectations and difappointments, that he will gladly fnatch an hour of retreat, to let his thoughts expatiate at large, and feek for that variety in his own ideas, which the objects of fense cannot afford him.

Nor will greatness, or abundance, exempt him from the importunities of this defire, fince, if he is born to think, he cannot reftrain himself from a thousand enquiries and fpeculations, which he must pursue by his own reason, and which the fplendour of his condition can only hinder: for those who are most exalted above dependance or controul, are yet condemned to pay fo large a tribute of their time to custom, ceremony, and popularity, that, according to the Greek proverb, no man in the house is more a flave than the mafter.

When a king afked Euclid the mathematician, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner? he was answered, That there was no royal way to geometry. Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be profecuted only in retirement.

These are fome of the motives which have had power to fequefter kings and heroes from the crowds that foothed them with flatteries, or infpirited them with acclamations; but their efficacy feems con