t20 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Thus, the muddy water of a torrent, which lays 

 wade the country, fpreading itfelf into fome little 

 bafon, remote from it's current, finks the miry par- 

 ticles to the bottom of it's bed, recovers it's former 

 limpidnefs, and, having again become tranfparent, 

 refleds, with it's own banks, the verdure of the 

 Earth, and the light of the Heavens. 



Solitude reftores the harmony of the body, as 

 well as that of the foul. It is among folitary claffes 

 of people, that we find perfons who live to the 

 greateft age, as among the Bramins of India. In 

 fhoi t, I believe it fo necefTary to happinefs, even 

 in the commerce of the World, that I conceive it 

 impoffible to tafte a durable pleafure in it, be the 

 fentiment what it may, or, to regulate our conduâ: 

 by any eftablifhed principle, unlefs we form an in- 

 ternal folitude, from which our own opinion fel- 

 dom takes it's departure, and into which, that of 

 another never enters. I do not, however, mean 

 to affert, that it is the duty of man to live entirely 

 alone, for, by his necefiities, he is united to the 

 whole human race; he, for that reafon, owes his 

 labour to Mankind, but he owes himfelf, likewife, 

 to the reft of Nature. As God has given to each 

 of us, organs exadlly fuited to the elements of thç 

 Globe on which we live, feet to the foil, lungs ço 

 the air, eyes to the light, without the power of in- 

 terchanging 



