70 A CONTINENTAL TOUR. 



I felt less of the loneliness or oppression of being alone ? 

 Some people seem to entertain as mortal an aversion to 

 solitariness as a mad dog to water, and accordingly so lay 

 their plans that they are never above a few minutes out 

 of sight of some person or another — a case certainly much 

 to be pitied. The very use of society is to render solitude 

 agreeable. The man who is afraid of being alone never 

 enjoys the pleasure resulting from mental independence, 

 which is the noblest, of all. He feels his happiness in- 

 separable from some person whose company he may not 

 always have it in his power to command — he lives more 

 for others than for himself, that is to say, he puts the 

 care of his hapjnness entirely in the hands of others, 

 whereas, that care should only be intrusted to our own 

 hearts. It becomes, therefore, the duty of every one to 

 be able to be alone ; and to acquire this ability the best 

 method is practice. Every mind has sources of happiness 

 unknown to itself ; these sources are gradually discovered, 

 and become more copious in proportion as pleasure is 

 drawn from them. A knowledge of this fact, combined 

 with a natural instinct for solitude, has long made rite 

 fond of being alone, and of travelling alone ; and though, 

 in the course of my solitary perambulations, I have often 

 felt those moments of listlessness to which I suppose 

 every one is occasionally subject, I never had reason to 

 attribute them to the circumstance of being alone, but to 



