222 
ference to the soil which has nurtured. 
and matured. him; a preference which 
would. otherwise rather be regulated 
by the relative proportion of abstract 
good to be found in each. The hardy. 
Norwegian, whose bleak and barren 
mountains searcely afiord nourishment 
for the pine, the birch, and the yew ; 
the frozen. Greenlander, who for three. 
months in the year is deprived of the 
light of heaven, and for the space of 
six months is buried in one unvarying 
mass. of snow; the phlegmatic Hol- 
lander, immersed m fogs, and mists, 
and exhalations; the Ethiopian, the 
Caffre, or the inhabilant of Guinea, 
each appreeiate the peculiarities, the 
comforts, or the phenomena, of their 
own climate, to the prejudice of all 
others. The swaithy negro, toiling 
under the heats of a tropical sun; the 
, Italian, under serene skies, inhaling a 
balmy and equable aimosphere; the 
Highlander and the Dutchman, agreat 
portion: of their time shrouced iu mists 
and fogs; and the Laplander, ivhbabit- 
ing regions which, speak‘ug generally, 
are the most dreary that can be ima- 
gined,—althoughrespectively d'fering 
so essentially in their allotments of 
physical blessings, may however all of 
them be taken as illustrations of the 
thesis, that man is a creature of local 
attachments and sympathies ; that he 
clings to his native soi!; and that, un- 
der every deteriorating and unpropi- 
tious circumstance, he feels bis own 
veculiar endearments, which probably 
in their character are unknown to his 
brethrea of other latitudes. Ask the 
Swiss, shut np within bis native vallies, 
and enjoying 2!i the physical blessings, 
in his delicious retreats, which poets 
have feigned of an eavthly Paradise, 
he will class, and perbaps with some 
justice, his native bome among the 
fairest in the universe, and, of all 
others, the most capable of inspiring 
happiness and’ centent. But ask the 
question of a Greeniander, existing 
between the seventicth and eightieth 
degree of north latitude, whose frozen 
soil is one perpetual privation of phy- 
sical blessings,—whose circumstances 
in the abstract are the very reverse of 
the former,—and he also will cling to 
the atmosphere and the soil which 
gave him, birth, and reply that he has 
local endearments in the occupations 
and amusements of his leisure around 
his social hearths, while snows and 
intense frest have spread one common 
desolation throughout his native 
Au Evening’s Walk near’ Bath in Autumn. 
[Oct. 1, 
bourne, waich he prizes beyond those 
which foreign climes can offer. 
Upon these points, however, Boling- 
broke, it is worthy of remark, enter- 
tained a somewhat different, opinion, 
In his ‘ Reflections upon Exile,” he 
has endeavoured, with all the aid of 
his powerful eloquence, to demonstrate 
the fallacy of the idea, that mem have, 
in truth, any prejudice in fayour of the 
country which gave them birth. He 
has enforced this opinion by various 
arguments, which bespeak no unsound 
philosophy ; among which we find 
somewhat like the following. ‘‘ Where- 
ever We may be placed (thus flows the 
tenor of his speculations), we shall 
find. creatures of the same figure, en- 
dowed with the same faculties, and — 
born under the same laws of nature. 
We shall see the sanie virtues and 
vices fowing from the same’ general 
principles, but varied in a thousand 
diferent end contrary modes, accord- 
ing to that infinite vericty of laws and 
ceustems, which is established for the 
same universal end—the preservation 
of society. We shall feel the samo 
revolution, aud the same sun and 
moon will guide the course of our year. 
The same azure yault, bespangled 
with stars, will be every where spread 
over our heads: there is no part of the 
world from whenee we may notadmire 
those plancts whieh roll like ours in 
different orbits round the same central 
sun; from whence we may not discover 
an object still more stupendous,—that 
army of fixed stars hung up in the 
immense space of the universe; innu- 
merable suns, whose beams enlighten 
aud cherish the unknown worlds 
which rol around them; and, whilst I 
am ravished by such contemplations 
as these,—whilst my soul is thus 
raised up to heaven,—it, imports me 
little what ground I tread upon.” 
Passages such as these, contain 
doubtless, in theory, much philosophi- 
cal force and propriety; and, if ad- 
dressed to a being wholly engrossed 
by the speculations of science, and 
divested of moral sentiments, might be 
unexceptiona!. But it must be recol- 
lected, on the other hand, that St, 
John wished to furnish himself with 
arguments drawn from philosophy for 
bearing his own exile; and it seems 
pretty certain, that the hypothesis 
which he labours here to establish, is by 
no means consonant to.all past and pre- 
sent'experience. In ancient history, 
the discontent and the grief of tae i 
us, 
