the most heroic purfuits. It was in a folitary retreat, amidst the fhades of a lofty mountain near Pyrmont, that the foundation of one of the moft extraordinary achievements of the present age was laid. The King of Pruffia, while on a vifit to the Spa, withdrew himself from the company, and walked in filent folitude among the most fe queftered groves of this beautiful mountain, then adorned in all the rude luxuriance of nature, and to this day distinguished by the appellation of "The Royal Mountain."* On this uninhabited fpot, fince become the feat of diffipation, the youthful monarch, it is faid, first formed the plan of conquering Silefia. SOLITUDE teaches with the happiest effect the important value of time, of which the indolent, having no conception, can form no estimate, A man who is ardently bent on employment, who is anxious to live not entirely in vain, never obferves the rapid movement of a top-watch, the true image of tranfitory life, and most striking emblem of the flight of time, without alarm and apprehenfion. Social intercourse, when it tends to keep the mind and the heart in a proper tone, when it contributes to enlarge the fsphere of knowledge, or to banish corroding care, cannot, indeed, be * Konigsberg. be confidered a facrifice of time. But where focial intercourse, even when attended with these happy effects, engages all our attention, turns the calmness of friendship into the violence of love, transforms hours into minutes, and drives away all ideas except those which the object of our affection inspires, year after year will roll unimproved away. Time properly employed never appears tedious; on the contrary, to him who is engaged in usefully discharging the duties of his station according to the best of his ability, it is light, and pleasantly transitory. A CERTAIN young Prince, by the affiftance of a number of domestics, seldom employs above five or fix minutes in dreffing. Of his carriage it would be incorrect to say that he goes in it; for it flies. His table is fuperb and hospitable, but the pleasures of it are short and frugal. Princes, indeed, feem difpofed to do every thing with rapidity. This Royal Youth, who poffeffes extraor dinary talents,and uncommon dignity of character, attends in his own perfon to every application; and affords fatisfaction and delight in every interview. His domestic establishment engages his most scrupulous attention; and he employs feven hours every day without exception, throughout the year, in reading the beft English, Italian, French, and German authors. It may therefore be truly faid that that this Prince is well acquainted with the value of time. THE hours which a man of the world throws idly away, are in Solitude difpofed of with profitable pleasure; and no pleasure can be more profitable than that which results from the judicious use of time. Men have many duties to perform: he, therefore, who wishes to discharge them honourably, will vigilantly seize the earliest opportunity, if he do not wish that any part of the pasfing moments fhould be torn like a useless page from the book of life. Useful employment stops the career of time, and prolongs the duration of our existence. To think and to work, is to live. Our ideas never flow with more rapidity and abundance, or with greater gaiety, than in those hours which useful labour fteals from idleness and diffipation. To employ our time with economy, we fhould frequently reflect how many hours escape from us againft our inclination. A celebrated English author fays, "When we have deducted "all that is absorbed in fleep, all that is inevitably "appropriated to the demands of nature, or irre"sistibly engrossed by the tyranny of custom; all "that is paffed in regulating the superficial decora❝tion of life, or is given up in the reciprocation "of civility to the difpofal of others; all that is "torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen " imperceptibly "imperceptibly away by laffitude and languor; "we shall find that part of our duration very small "of which we can truly call ourselves masters, or "which we can spend wholly at our own choice. "Many of our hours are loft in a rotation of petty cares, in a conftant recurrence of the fame em"ployments: many of our provifions for ease or "happiness are always exhausted by the present cc day, and a great part of our existence serves no "other purpose than that of enabling us to enjoy "the reft." TIME is never more mispent than while we declaim against the want of it; all our actions are then tinctured with peevishness. The yoke of life is certainly the least oppreffive when we carry it with good-humour; and in the fhades of rural retirement, when we have once acquired a refolution to pass our hours with economy, forrowful lamentions on the subject of time mispent, and business neglected, never torture the mind. The Spleen is feldom felt where Flora reigns: Sweet fmiles and bloom lefs tranfient than her own. It is the conftant revolution, ftale And tastelefs, of the fame repeated joys, That palls and fatiates, and makes languid life SOLITUDE, indeed, may prove more dangerous than all the diffipation of the world, if the mind be not properly employed. Every man, from the monarch on the throne to the peasant in the cottage, fhould have a daily task, which he should feel it his duty to perform without delay. "Carpe "diem," fays HORACE; and this recommendation will extend with equal propriety to every hour of our lives. "Seek not, LEUCONOE, vainly to defcry "What term the gods to fleeting life have given; "No impious fpells, Chaldean magic try, "But wait the unalterable doom of heaven. "Whate'er betide, let patience arm thy mind; "Whether great Jove have countless years in ftore, "Or this the laft, whose bleak tempeftuous wind "Breaks its wild waves against the Tufcan fhore. "Pour the rich wine, in gay enjoyment wife; "Contract the hopes of life's contracted date. "Ev'n |