537 



lience of the ox, and other domestic animals, subjected to restraint, and 

 obliged to obey his will, to contribute to his support, to minister to his 

 comfort, can, as his companions, have any influence over the temper of 

 his mind; but when withdrawn from these and other like famihar ob- 

 jects, he will feel that there is wanting some clement of his happiness; 

 that there has been some change in the delights of home, or field or 

 forest, though he may not distinctly perceive what is absent. He enjoys 

 the freshness and buoyancy of a pure country air, uncontaminated by 

 the noisome breath that pervades the town where great masses con- 

 gregate. 



"All nature laughf , the groves are fresh and fair, 

 The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air." 



Early at his labor he employs his willing hands; and here, alone 

 with himself and his thoughts, he may open his ear and his heart to the 

 melody of the forest songsters, and feel the cheei fulness of smiling 

 nature. 



"There all around the gentlest breezes stray. 

 There gentle music- melts on every spray; 

 Creation's mildest charms are there combined." 



No condition can be better adapted to develop the moral sentiments, 

 and dispose the heart to the love of nature, and nature's God, who sends 

 rain on the just and the unjust, and gives seed time and harvest, with 

 unfailing uniformity. 



Though man is a social being, and designed to associate with others 

 of his species, and to sustain divers relations to them ; yet he needs to 

 cultivate a near acquaintance with the individual he recognizes by his 

 own name; to learn to respect him for good reasons, and to condemn 

 him when he deserves censure. If he resides in a populous town, he 

 ■will be in danger of making other acquaintances, and of neglecting 

 this one. He wiil then be most likely to consult the passions that lie 

 on the surface, and most easily express themselves to him, while the 

 moral sentiments that lie in the deeper recesses of his nature, enfeebled 

 by want of encouragement and exercise, will hold no steady communi- 

 cation with him. It is thus that a man coming in contact with all 

 shades and phases of human character, and that artificial state of soci- 

 ety that there exists, is tempted to sacrifice his individuality, and suffer 

 himself to float on in the general current, whithersoever it may conduct 

 him. 



68 



