4o8 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



flightefl: folicitation, by the credit of a perfon whom 

 I did not know (3), and in the department of a 

 Minifter to whom 1 had never been ufeful, an an- 

 nual gratuity from his Majefty. Like Virgil, I 

 partook of the bread of AugnJIns. The benefit was 

 of moderate value; it was given from year to year; 

 it was uncertain ; depending on the pleafure of a 

 Minifter, very liable himfelf to fudden revolutions, 

 on the caprice of intermediate perfons, and on the 

 malignity of my enemies, who might, fooner or 

 later, get it intercepted by their intrigues. But 

 having refleded on the fubjeâ: for a little, 1 found 

 that providence was treating me precifely in the 

 fame way in which the Human Race, in general, 

 is treated, on whom Heaven beftows, fince the be- 

 ginning of the World, in the crops of the harveft, 

 only an annual fubfiftence, uncertain, borne on 

 herbage continually battered by the winds, and 

 expofed to the depredations of birds and infeds. 

 But it diftinguilhed me, in a very advantageous 

 manner, from the greateft part of Mankind, in 

 that my crop coft me no fweating nor labour, and 

 left me the complete exercife of my liberty. 



The firft ufe I made of it was to withdraw from 

 perfidious men, whom I no longer needed to im- 

 portune. As foon as I faw them no more, my foul 

 was redored to tranquillity. Solitude is a lofty 

 mountain, from whence they appear of a very di- 

 minutive 



