BATES’S RURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
ef reflections on virtue as influenced by 
2 country life. voy 
Human opinions and human passions, 
Mr. Bates observes, are contagious: 
«© Hence, if in the mass of human opi- 
nions there is less truth than error, and less 
purity than depravity in the mass of human 
passions ; and if, further, these passions and 
opinions, by engaging men in an eager pur- 
suit of the same objects, convert public life 
‘jnto.a scene of vehement competition (and 
that all this is the fact, I suppose no attentive 
and impartial observer will deny) ; it follows, 
that the general impression of the world must 
be unfavourable to truth and virtue; and 
that retirement, so far as it tends to weaken 
this impression, is an object of importance 
to all, and especially to persons of a yielding 
and infirm character; those, I mean, who, 
' from a facility of disposition or unfixedness 
of principle, are very liable to be ensnared 
by p 
alse compliances, or, froin a weak and 
irritable habit, to be discouraged at the least 
difficulty, exasperated at every appearante 
_ of opposition, and wounded before they are 
stricken,” 
But to all retirement is not advisa- 
ble: not to those whose imagination is 
more seductive than their senses; for 
this faculty can, in the depth of solitude, 
_ furnish out more captivating scenes of 
: palcty. and splendour than any which 
uman life actually exhibits: not to 
those who have a disposition to melan- 
choly ; for solitude is the nurse of this 
sad complaint: not to those to whom, 
for want of employment, retirement is 
dull and uninteresting. Aware that 
retirement must be regarded chiefly as 
a negative mean of virtue, Mr. B. pro- 
ceeds to. some observations on educa- 
cation. Religion, philosophy natural 
and moral, and history, are means 
which tend, by a more direct and 
positive influence, to the promotion of 
that desirable end. 
Under each of these heads we meet 
with many judicious and valuable ob- 
servations. In education Mr. B. is an 
admirer of Mr. Locke’s system ; and he 
has offered some remarks, especially 
upon the reading of the classical au- 
thors, which, though not new, are de- 
serving of serious attention. In religion 
he is warmly attached to the doctrine of 
the established church. Of natural phi- 
losophy our author observes, that it is 
favourable to virtue, as it enlarges the 
mind; gives a taste for intellectual en- 
joyment; drives away the terrors of 
superstition ; discovers the limitation of 
our powers, and thus produces humi- 
lity; and supplies analogies which ob- 
185 
viate objections to revelation. Moral 
philosophy discovers the equity of the 
divine dispensations, teaches moral ob- 
ligations and humility, and instructs 
concerning the true character of the 
world. History is Philosophy teaching 
by examples. 
Warmly as Mr. B. admires retirement, 
he is not insensible of the evils to which 
it is exposed. Amongst these he ranks 
idleness; humour, or an indulgence of 
caprice; conceit; incivility; churlish- 
ness, and misanthropy. For each of 
these he suggests the proper remedies. 
In the third part of his work Mr. B. 
treats upon happiness ; which is considered 
as arising, in a life of retirement, from 
independence, agricultural pursuits, di- 
versious and scenery. These streams of 
rural felicity do not always run pure; 
and our author candidly and judiciously 
shews the interruptions and the impuri- 
ties to which they are most commonly 
liable. 
Upon the subject of rural diversions 
Mr. B. offers the following just remark. 
** As it might justly be thought imper- 
tinent for one who is no sportsman to un~ 
dertake to estimate the pleasures of fowling 
and hunting, I shall dismiss this topic very 
briefly. It is certain that, in point of pre- 
sent gratification, every pleasure is such as 
it is felt to be; and therefore, if any one 
finds himself delighted in wandering through 
the woods with his fowling-piece, or in 
scouring the country along with dogs and 
horses, and desperate riders, to the terror of 
an innocent quadruped, it would be in vain 
to dispute against his experience. To what 
persons, or in what cases, such diversions 
are allowable, I leave others to determine ; 
and shall content myself to observe, what I 
suppose none will ‘deny, that, when they 
are made a principal object, their manifest 
tendency is to induce an incapacity for no- 
bler enjoyments, and soto Jay the founda- 
tion of a despicable old age; for it would 
seem difficult to imagine a character more 
entirely sunk, and devoid of all respectabi- 
lity, than that of an old worn out sports- 
man, the vigour of whose days has been 
wasted in meré animal exertions, and’ whose 
memory is stored with nothing better than 
the history of hares and foxes, of rustic ad- 
ventures and perilous escapes, and who 
dreams away the evening of life, like the 
hound sleeping upon his hearth, in retrac- 
ing the vain images of his wild and sportive 
excursions.” 
The pleasures of a literary retirement 
come neat to be considered—as they 
arise from the study of history, philoso- 
phy and poetry. The section in which 
these topics are discussed contains much 
