324 CONTENTMENT A^D FELICITY 



whey, greens, and thin meat : without this 

 precaution, the mange, most probably, would 

 be the immediate consequence of hot weather, 

 perhaps madness — direful malady ! 



As a country life has been recommended 

 in all ages, as much for the contentment of 

 the mind as health of the body, it is no won- 

 der that hunting should be considered by so 

 many as a necessary part of it, since nothing 

 conduces more to both. A great genius has 

 told us, that it is 



Better to hunt in fields for health unbought. 

 Than fee the doctor for a nauseous drthight. 



With regard to its peaceful state, a modern 



poet tells us. 



No fierce unruly senate threatens here. 

 No axe or scafl'old to the view appear, 

 No envy, disappointment, and despair. 



And for the contentment which is supposed 

 to accompany a country life, we have not 

 only the best authority of our own time to 

 support it, but even that of the best poets of 

 the Augustan age. Virgil surely felt what 

 he wrote, when he said, " O fortunatos ni- 

 mium, sua si bona norint, agricolas T and 

 Horace's famous ode, '^Beatus ille qui procul 

 negotiis^'' seems not less to come from the 



