xvi 



PREFACE. 



seeking their destruction, as in hunting, shooting, 

 fishing, &c. 



A man may, indeed, love his horse or his dog, 

 his monkey or his cat ; may fondle a young tiger, 

 or make a companion of a pet bear ; but he will 

 not lounge in a menagerie with his book, take a 

 walk to Exeter Change to relieve his melancholy, 

 or retire to his stable, or his dog-kennel, at twilight, 

 to indulge in tranquil meditation. If he be weary, 

 he will love to repose in the shade, upon the soft 

 green grass ; if he be sad, he will love to wander in 

 groves and woods ; and, at the approach of sunset, 

 he will doubly enjoy his book, his own thoughts, 

 or the conversation of his friend, if he be seated 

 under his favourite tree. 



" Our groves were planted to console at noon 

 The pensive wanderer in their shades." 



COWPER. 



Mrs. RadclifFe gives a natural picture of the 

 pleasure a thoughtful and domestic man takes in 

 his garden, and of the forcible manner (scarcely 

 inferior to the power of music itself) in which old 

 associations are revived by the sight of trees. The 

 poet might with equal truth have written : 



