XX PREFACE. 



Oh ! 'tis a quiet, spirit-healing nook ! 

 Which all, methinks, would love ; but chiefly he, 

 The humble man, who, in his youthful years, 

 Knew just so much of folly as had made 

 His early manhood more securely wise. 

 Here he might lie on fern or withered heath, 

 While from the singing lark (that sings unseen 

 The minstrelsy that solitude loves best), 

 And from the sun, and from the breezy air, 

 Sweet influences trembled o'er his frame ; 

 And he, with many feelings, many thoughts, 

 Made up a meditative joy, and found 

 Religious meanings in the forms of nature ! 

 And so, his senses gradually wrapt 

 In a half sleep, he dreams of better worlds, 

 And, dreaming, hears thee still, O singing lark, 

 That singest like an angel in the clouds." 



Cowley, who was an enthusiastic lover of the 

 country, and took great delight in his garden, ex- 

 claims : 



" Who that has reason and his smell, 

 Would not among roses and jasmine dwell, 

 Rather than all his spirits choke 

 With exhalations of dirt and smoke, 

 And all th' uncleanness which does drown 

 In pestilential clouds a populous town ?" 



Spenser has pictured some spots so lovely, that 

 nature herself could scarcely excel them ; we must 

 indulge in one or two of them ; will the reader 

 have any objection to accompany us ? 



