represented. 
1809.) ame ae ze thical Romance. 
ba Weep 
~The Count is displeased with the glooms 
of winter, and a country life. 
“* i coniess,” he says, ‘‘ that were a human 
being pure intellect, he might live m the 
country, well pleased to be the companion 
of birds. Those wonders might perpetually 
delight; but the body and the senses require 
recreation, and it is only in courts, and 
populous cities, they find their aliment. 
Man was made to live with men; what 
true pleasure can he find to reside among 
the rocks, the trunks of trees, and wan- 
dering animals? God has made every 
thing in order. Men for cities, birds for 
the air, fish for the sea, and trees to grow 
in fields. Who can patiently pass a 
winter in a country-house? A fine pros- 
pect truly are the naked hills, the damp 
earth, the barren fields, and the roads 
clogged with mud; a dark sky, a heavy 
atmosphere, and showers of rain! a row 
of dry trees, that look like so many ske- 
letons! Deceived by a treacherous sun- 
shine, the winds bite, the rain drenches, 
you sink into some unexpected hollow, 
and gladly escape with your life. Sister, 
the country is no paradise in winter !” 
“You have painted, indeed, the winter 
very well; but to draw the portrait, in- 
stead of a pencil, you have scrawled it 
with a piece of coal. I might, but will 
not, draw a winter-day, when the clear 
sun, through the transparent air, and the 
sky of alively azure, throws around his 
brilhant beams. I wish not that you 
would go tothe fields of flax, arrayed in 
a beautiful green, which you can never 
imitate; nor do I wish you to admire, 
spread over the face of the meadows, the 
soft snows, and the crystal waters. All 
these are nothing; for more delicate 
charms move my mind, and enamour my 
spirits, Within my cabinet J feel greater 
pleasures, than those I discover from 
without. SOR: 
“ There I collect a select assemblage of 
persons, the most instructed in science, 
and the most graceful in conversation. 
Am I ina poetical vein? I have admi- 
rable poets, and the delicie of the 
Muses. Am I curious in the affairs of 
other countries? J have them who in- 
form me with clearness and exactness. 
If History recreates, I have the art to 
bring before me the most famous heroes 
of every age; and in the narrow theatre 
of my house, the most singular events 
which have happened in the world, are 
These are the continued 
pleasure of my books, and my life. I can, 
at will, make the ever-restless wheel of 
ume turn backwards, and force that ty. 
29 
rant to restore to me, what he has taken 
away. 
“ Does not true happiness depend on 
peace and tranquillity? Find you them 
in courts and cities? If we may compare 
things noble with things ignoble, a court 
resembles those waters reserved for fish, 
where some crumbs are scattered, and 
all fly hungrily to gulp them; but the 
space is narrow, the fish breed fast, and 
the crumbs are but few; they necessarily 
crowd, and bite, and battle, with one 
another, or atleast they mutually impede 
their own progress.” 
“True! but the solitude of the coun- 
try,” replied the Count, ‘‘ cannot produce 
complete happiness. Without society 
the passions sleep, the languid heart is 
without movement, and the soul sinks in 
an unsufferable tedium; long days and 
eternal nights! a man knows not what 
he does, and all sickens before him. 
He flies from every present object, and 
is bewed down with the darkést melan- 
choly. Heaven spare me from always 
living in the Country! What is thy opi- 
nicn, Ibrahim ? It is a point interesting 
to philosophy.” 
Tbrahim was a consummate student in 
dry abstract learning, and greatly satis- 
fied with his own opinions. Euelid and 
Archimedes had finished his Epicurean 
axioms; and he replied, withthe air of | 
an oracle== 
“Not the place, but the occupation 
of a man, will produce his felicity. Na-— 
tural philosophy, studied with modera- 
‘tion, without swelling the mind'to a sharp 
and rugged elevation, gives happiness to 
the human mind ; to satisfy the passions 
and the understanding is the secret: we 
must unite precisely one thing with anoe 
ther to be completely happy. I confess, 
the pleasures of the understanding, by 
means of the sciences, are of difficult 
acquisition, but they produce a fine taste, 
which gross souls are not capable of per- 
ceiving. This is, however, a truth I will 
demonstrate by a most evident calcula- 
tion, by which I shew, that the pleasures 
of the understanding are far superior to 
those of the senses. Mark my conclu- 
sion! 
‘‘ The pleasures we feel from any 
thing is proportioned to the palate by 
which it 1s received. Now, if we com- 
_ pare the delicacy and sensibility of the 
mind with that of the senses, we shall 
discover as great a difference as between - 
the callous hands of a laborious peasant, 
and those of the most delicate females. 
From hence follows, that when ‘Truth 
, } reveals 
