your own ladder :-upon the principle, that the scaffolding is not only useless, but cumbersome, when the temple is built. Such is the frequent conduct of the mere man of the world! I confess that the greatest mystery, I have yet been able to discern in the works of the Deity, arises out of the reflection that, having formed man so admirable in capability, he should have left him so mean and so contemptible in his wishes.-Belisarius begged alms under his own triumphal arch; and Bentivoglio was even refused admittance into the very hospital, that his own beneficence had built.

And yet we ought not to entertain a decidedly evil opinion of mankind. Life is like the double head of Janus; it implies presence, prospect, and retrospect. Indeed to-day, yesterday, and to-morrow, have rightly been called the three ages of man. We must look on all sides: before, as well as behind; above, as well as below; to the east and the south, as well as to the north and the west.-And this, too, with a CHEERFUL DISPOSITION. A cheerful disposition, said Hume, is worth ten thousand a year. The man, who looks on the dark side only, is wrong and he, who casts his eyes only upon the bright one, is wrong:-but they are not equally so. The latter misses the goal by thirty paces; the former by fifty. But to know mankind, thoroughly, three things are absolutely necessary; since man is so largely the mere creature of circumstances. We must have served our superiors: have lived intimately with our equals; and have had an opportunity of commanding our inferiors. Unless we have done so, the knowledge of man, in respect

to man, is built upon sand. A man, so qualified, will probably agree with me, that life derives most of its fascinations from a wide knowledge of Nature; from an agreeable, rather than an enlarged, knowledge of man; from a concealment of the future; and from a partial oblivion of the past.

CHAPTER IX.

THE Greeks were great lovers of Nature. CHIRON, whose fabulous history is the best criterion, by which may be judged the awful esteem, in which he was held, retired to a cavern at the foot of Mount Pelion, to qualify himself for the office of acting as tutor to many of the heroes, who afterwards distinguished themselves in the Trojan war. And we may judge of the impulses of PLATO by the skill, with which he adorned the academy; and by the pictures, he has exhibited in the opening and closing of his several dialogues.

"If I had another world to stand upon," said ARCHIMEDES,-a man of stupendous sagacity," I would move the globe, wherever I pleased." Secluded in his study, he was scarcely known to the general mass of Syracusans, till the attack of Marcellus: and then he was of more use in defending the city, than the whole population united. This profound genius was accustomed to say, that, next to the solution of

1 Vir stupendæ sagacitatis.-Wallis.

a problem, was the pleasure of an evening walk in the suburbs of Syracuse.

The Greek tragic writers, too, were decided lovers of natural beauty. The tragedy of Philoctetes amply attests the descriptive talents of SOPHOCLES;-those of EURIPIDES are displayed in almost every tragedy, he has written; and the Prometheus' and the Supplicants eloquently speak for the descriptive genius of ÆSCHYLUS.

There are some men, whose love of Nature leads them too far in the regions of Hypothesis; but whose very errors teach us to think. Others there are, whose disregard to every thing, unconnected with their interest, is so great, that they would esteem any one idly employed, who was investigating a plant, even on the

1 Prometheus. There is in this drama a sublimity of conception, a strength, a fire, a savage dignity peculiar to this bold writer. The scenery is the greatest that the human imagination ever formed. The wild and desolate rock frowning over the sea; strength and force holding up Prometheus to its rifted side, whilst Vulcan fixes his chains; the nymphs of the ocean flying to its summit to commisserate his unhappy state; old Oceanus on his hippogriff; the appearance of Io; the descent of Mercury; the whirlwind tearing up the sands, swelling the boisterous and dashing its waves to the stars; and the vollied thunders rolling their fiery rage against the rock, would require the utmost effort of Salvator Rosa's genius to represent them.

sea,

The Supplicants. The scene is near the shore, in an open grove, close to the altar, and images of the gods, presiding over the sacred games, with a view of the sea of Ægyptus on one side, and of the towers of Argos on the other; with hills and woods, and vales; a river flowing between them; all together with the persons of the drama forming a picture, that would have well employed the united pencils of Poussin and Claude Lorrain,-Potter.

borders of paradise. The best method of viewing Nature is to unite poetry to science; and to enlist both in the pursuit of truth; in order that both may affect the heart, and purify the mind. There is nothing so delightful in literature, says Cicero,' as that branch, which enables us to discern the immensity of Nature; and which, teaching us magnanimity, rescues the soul from obscurity. Thus, too, thought Mons. Neckar. For even amid the factions of Paris2 he could recur to Nature's sublimities; and in age he still retained the imagination and sensibility of youth. If men, indeed, would expel Nature even with violence, she would seldom fail to return,

II.

No writer, ancient or modern, has shewn a greater relish for natural beauty, than HORACE. It is indicated in almost every ode, that he has written. If he celebrate the powers of wine, the pleasure of sitting under the shade of the vine tree is remembered too. If he sing the charms of his mistress,-the rose is not more beautiful; the violet has no sweeter perfume. Does he sing of war? He forgets not to contrast its pains and its honours, with the pleasures of a smiling country, peopled with rural animals, and a rural population. Upon a couch, at Rome or at Lucretelis, indulging in the joys of Bacchus, he calls to mind the season of the vintage; when grapes hang in

1 Furcâ.-Hor. Epist. x, v. 34. Dives opis Natura suæ, sat. ii, v. 74. 2 Stael's Mem. p. 10. 3 Tusc. Quest. i. c. 26.

purple clusters on the vines; and when happy peasants dance, in various groups, upon the margin of a river. "With a fountain of clear water," says he, "and a shady wood, I am happier than a prince of Africa. Ah! how delighted am I, when wandering among steep rocks and woods; since the shades of forests and the murmuring of waters inspire my fancy, and will reuder me famous in all future ages. Sing, oh! ye virgins, the beauties of Thessalian Tempe, and the wandering isle of Delos:-celebrate, oh! ye youths, the charms of that goddess, who delights in flowing rivers and the shades of trees; who lives on the mountain of Algidus, among the impenetrable woods of Erymanthus, and on the green and fertile Cragus." And here it may not be unimportant to remark, that while Virgil is always wishing for the cool vallies of Hæmus, and other portions of Greece, Horace more frequently alludes to the climate and scenery of Italy. How happy is he at his various villas! and with what delight does he celebrate the superior advantages of a country life, in his second epode!-A poem, which forcibly recals to our recollection Virgil's Corycian Swain, and Claudian's Old Man of Verona.

III.

TIBULLUS was equally sincere in his love for the country. His elegies, which so frequently gem the eye with lustre,-the best evidence of his simplicity and pathos,―are, in consequence, frequently embellished with allusions to natural objects, and with descrip