tion is apt to degenerate into fanaticism; and without moderate bodily exercise, the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that would muse on heavenly things*. Hence, a strict regard to each of these should be had in every regular institution of piety, and especially in every monastic establishment; the good monk should be kept as closely to his studies, and his agricultural or other labours, at their proper seasons, as to his canonical hours; otherwise he will be in danger of growing melancholy or superstitious. Upon such principles our two universities appear to have been founded; religion and learning had their appropriate hours, and academic groves were provided for the purpose of needful exercise. How far they are kept up to the rule and spirit of their first institution, those who reside upon the spot are best able to determine.

Of all the modes of life which have been adopted in pursuit of happiness, that of an absolute hermit seems the most extraordi

* Wisdom,.ix. 15.

nary.

any

To those who are knit together in kind of community, who are within call one of another, and in case of distress can depend on mutual succour, there may be some prospect of a comfortable existence. But for a being such as man, beset with innumerable wants, and exposed to innumerable disasters, to withdraw into a desert, and deprive himself of all assistance from his fellow-creatures, appears to be almost the same thing with a banishment to hopeless misery. The event, however, to a truly devout hermit, might be very different. We are not to suppose him always moping in his cell, or wrapt in visions and extasies: his daily subsistence would require much of his time; another portion might be usefully and agreeably employed in the perusal of a few learned and ingenious authors; (for we need not imagine him either illiterate or unprovided with books ;) and when his hours of devotion were added, but few would remain to fill up the longest day. And though it is not probable he would immediately discover

all his advantages, as the eye upon a sudden transition from the open sun-shine into the deep shade of a forest, cannot at once perceive distinctly the objects before it, yet, as he grew accustomed to his situation, and gradually acquired a proper knowledge of his resources, he might find the wilderness to become a fruitful field, and streams to flow in the desert.

There are few situations among those that come under the description of a devotional retirement, which seem, on the whole, to be more eligible than that of a pious clergyman, called to minister to a plain and serious people, in some sequestered part of the country; and whose time is divided between his closet, his church, and his parochial visits. This succession of duties must render each of them the more pleasing and useful; the devotions of the closet will be a happy preparation for public worship; which, in its turn will make way for more personal counsels and admonitions in his

private interviews; and these will supply him with fresh matter for his own prayers and meditations, and direct him in his addresses from the pulpit. Such a course of piety, private and public, amongst a people separated from the bustle and fashions of the world, and seriously disposed to receive instruction, as it could not fail to produce the happiest effects, must to a good man who is so engaged, be a source of unspeakable satisfaction. If it be pleasing to the farmer, for his grounds continually to improve under his care, while some are taken from the waste, and converted into good arable and pasture, and the rest ameliorated and made more productive; it must be still more pleasing to the moral cultivator, to see the fruit of his labours in the conversion of sinners, and the edification of the righteous; to see the human field whiten to the harvest; while he himself fully partakes in the general progress. And, lastly, if to this concordance of private devotion with external duties and their happy fruits, there is added the comfort of domestic life, little is wanting

to fill up that measure of human felicity sq elegantly described by the author of The Seasons:

Oh, speak the joy, ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while ye look around,

And nothing meets your eye but sights of bliss!
A moderate sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease, and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving heaven!