PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 121 



terchanging the ufe of thefe fenfes, He, who is the 

 author of life, has referved for himfelf alone, the 

 heart, which is it's principal organ. 



I pafs my days, then, remote from men, whom 

 I have wilhed to ferve, and who have repaid me 

 with perfecution. After having travelled over a 

 great part of Europe, and feveral regions of Ame- 

 rica, and of Africa, I am now fettled in this ifland, 

 fo poorly inhabited, feduced by the mildnefsof the 

 air, and by it's enchanting folitudes. A cottage, 

 which I have built in the foreft, at the foot of a 

 tree, a little field, cleared for cultivation by my 

 own hands, and a river which flows before my 

 door, are fully adequate to all my wants, and ail 

 my pleafures. I add to thefe enjoyments, a few 

 good books, which teach me to become better : 

 they even make the World, which I have quitted, 

 flill contribute to my happinefs, by prefenting me 

 with pidures of thofe paflions which render it's 

 inhabitants fo miferable ; and, by the comparifon 

 which I make between their condition and my 

 own, they procure for me a negative felicity. 

 Like a man faved from fhipwreck, feated on a 

 rock, I contemplate, in my folitude, the ftorms 

 which are raging in the reft of the World; nay, 

 my tranquillity is increafed by the fury of the dif- 

 tant tempeft. Since men ftand no longer in my 

 way, and fmce I am no longer in theirs, I have 



ceafed 



