280 SALMON I A. [NINTH DAT. 



I am sure, been very salutary to the body, and, I 

 hope, to the mind. I have always found a peculiar 

 effect from this kind of life ; it has appeared to bring 

 me back to early times and feelings, and to create 

 again the hopes and happiness of youthful days. 



PETS. I felt something like what you described^ 

 and were I convinced that in the cultivation of 

 the amusement, these feelings would increase, I 

 would devote myself to it with passion ; but I fear, 

 in my case this is impossible. Ah ! could I recover 

 any thing like that freshness of mind, which I 

 possessed at twenty-five, and which, like the dew of 

 the dawning morning, covered all objects and nourished 

 all things that grew, and in which they were more 

 beautiful even than in mid -day sunshine, what 

 would I not give? All that I have gained in an 

 active and not unprofitable life. How well I remember 

 that delightful season, when, full of power, I sought 

 for power in others ; and power was sympathy, and 

 sympathy power. "When the dead and the unknown, 

 the great of other ages and of distant places, were 

 made, by the force of the imagination, my companions 

 and friends ; when every voice seemed one of praise 

 and love; when every flower had the bloom and 

 odour of the rose ; and every spray or plant seemed 

 either the poet's laurel, or the civic oak which 

 appeared to offer themselves as wreaths to adorn my 



