TO A CONTEMPLATIVE MIND. 288 



afflictions — teaches us to combat and overcome the difficulties of the 

 present, hope never fails to step in to our aid, and promise in futurity, 

 in the bosom of solitude, that happiness and undisturbed tranquillity 

 which, after the prime and vigour of existence have been spent in a 

 station of activity and usefulness, all mankind are so anxious to enjoy; 

 from the philanthropic statesman, who has for years laboured to confer 

 important benefits upon his species, and managed the important helm 

 of his country's affairs with honour and success, to the humble 

 mechanic, who, not less respected in his own sphere, at last finds that 

 the frivolities of society have no charms for him. 



The term solitude does not necessarily imply absolute renouncement 

 of the! world for a hermit's cave, at an immense distance from the 

 active theatre of commercial life. A man may enjoy as beneficial 

 and soothing a retirement in the silence and privacy of his own 

 dwelling, in cultivating his fields or adorning his garden, in propagating 

 and watching a dahlia, from its first bursting and from the ugly tuber, 

 to the time of its attaining its full growth and luxuriance of blossom, 

 or in arranging his tulip boxes, and polling his auriculas, at a short 

 distance from the anxious speculations of commerce, as if he had 

 scooped his cave in the side of a distant mountain ; while the dis- 

 advantages of a life of total seclusion and abandonment of the world 

 are entirely avoided. It is in such occasional and partial seclusion as 

 this that man can most readily step aside, after the avocations to which 

 his destiny calls him are terminated, and calmly commune with his 

 own heart. It is there that we can, with the greatest facility, acquire 

 that utmost height of human philosophy, the knowledge of ourselves. 

 And it is there that we can, with the greatest ease, calm the unruly 

 passions of the human breast into complete repose, banish the approach 

 of envy and ill-will, and feel the justice and wisdom of that maxim 

 which binds us to " do to others as we would that they should do to 

 us." With those who are actuated by such feeling! time flies cheerfully 

 and happily away ; days, months, and years glide over them in calm 

 and rapid succession, and leave no traces behind them but such as 

 have tended to the improvement of the mind or the cultivation of the 



affections of the heart. Thus retired from the frivolities and 

 affectation of the world, they feel how soon the real wants of Nature 

 are satisfied; they allow themselves to glide quietly down the mighty 



in of Time, at peace with their own hearts and in hive with every 



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