4 TRAVELS IN 
felf in the mldft of a town, and about to engage 
in the goflip of a fociety, for which I was by 
no means formed, I could not help cafting be- 
hind me a longing look, I plunged in idea 
into thofe romantic retreats, ihofe majeftic fo- 
refls, of which I had taken pofleffion without 
difficulty, and could leave without protedors. 
This ftrange mixture of feeling and mifan- 
thropy, the ordinary guide of the adions of 
my life, abated the pleafure of feeing again 
friends who were fo dear to me 5 or in other 
words, the Cape was not the place in which it 
would have been moft pleafant to me to have 
enjoyed their company. From this ebb and 
flow of pleafure and uneafmefs refulted a fenti- 
ment no lefs fmgular. I mean a total indiffer- 
ence as to the difcoveries I had made, and with 
which it was my purpofe to enrich the fined 
and moft extenfive of all the fciences. The 
fight and developement of the curious objeas 
1 had brought back with me to the Cape af- 
forded me but little of heart-felt delight. The 
dramatic intereft was paffed. Thus it is with 
the moft charming concert, which often, when 
the cffe£t is produced, leaves a void in the 
foul, and the compofer is coldly employed in 
putting together the different parts of his mufic. 
By 
