PART I. 



FOR A COUNTRY RESIDENCE. 



675 



power of changing it, need not despair of rendering it interest- 

 ing. Nature has beauties suitable to every style of country, 

 even the most indifferent: if these be transplanted with taste, 

 they will always please; and the most insipid situation that 

 can be conceived may, by introducing and cherishing natural 

 beauties, be rendered much superior to the greater number of 

 what are in the present day called fine places, where all is art 

 and ostentation. Even country residences which have faults 

 that offend at first, such as where the house is much exposed, 

 the climate moist, the prospect dreary, &c. will, after a little 

 habit, not only become agreeable, but more interesting to the 

 proprietor, than one comparatively mild, and more attractive 

 to the first view *. 



2. In order to become enamoured with a situation, persons 

 should be carried to it in fine weather, and if possible when 

 the heart is mild, unprepossessed, and susceptible of whatever 



* There is an error, both in contemplating the choice of a residence, and of a 

 partner for life, which is generally prevalent. Most men picture such objects as are 

 mild and pleasing to the view, and free from faults or singularities; and then ima- 

 gine that if they could possess such, they would be happy. But this is a mistake: 

 mere negative goodness, whether in women, men, or situations, soon cloys and 

 palls upon the mind, without the animating influence of faults and singularities. 

 Domestic jarring is often the soul of domestic happiness, by exciting at other times 

 more strong emotions of reciprocal affection. A journey made free from accidents, 

 narrow escapes, and singular occurrences, is so uninteresting as soon to be forgotten 

 by the traveller; and even the period of life itself, if it were possible for it to pass 

 without these, would be a mere blank in the memory. Every thing in nature is 

 affected by the principles of contrast. 



