his estate, which
was large and extensive.

Here he would contemplate, in all their variety, the natural beauties of
creation, when arrayed in its richest attire; in the inimitable
splendour of the surrounding scenery; or amuse himself in attendance to
diversified employments, some of which, as pastimes, served the two-fold
purposes of recreation and amusement.

Thus his years glided on in the most harmonious tranquillity; where his
cares were dissipated alternately in the bosom of his family, and the
"tumults of life, real or imaginary, fleeted away in a mutual confidence
and unreserved friendship."

Here he would accustom himself to rise at early dawn, and dwell with
particular pleasure on the morning scenery. The dappled, rosy-fingered,
blushing morn, arrested his attention; those mild tints that
particularly express the break of day, just awakening from repose; when
the curtain of the night seems insensibly withdrawn, and the varied
landscape exhibits itself by degrees, while the colours of the
atmosphere yet seem doubtful, and the scene imperfect to the view; when
the darkness is not entirely fled, nor the light of the new day is fully
seen; when coolness sits upon the hills, and the dews hang trembling
upon every leaf; when the groves begin to resound with the murmurs of
warbling melody, and the valleys echo with reverberated sounds.

How pleasing at such a time to adore in his works the wonders of the
Creator. That period when the sun begins to diffuse his early rays, to
tip the mountains with light, and the breezes in the air mildly
prognosticate the soft blushes of the morning:

"For far beyond the pageantry of power.
He lov'd the realms of Nature to explore;
With lingering gaze Edenian spring survey'd--
Morn's fairy splendours--Night's gay curtain'd shade--
The heaven-embosom'd inn--the rainbow's dye,
Where lucid forms appear to Fancy's eye;
The vernal flower, mild Autumn's purpling glow.
The Summer's thunder, and the winter's snow."

Or, when the evening approached, he would observe the twilight hour,
which for a time hangs balanced between darkness and the pale rays of
the western sky, communicating a solemn pleasure to every thing around.
When evening began to throw her dusky mantle over the face of nature,
and the warm glow of the summer sun had departed; when the stars were
glistening in the heavens, and the moon had already risen, shedding its
pale lustre over the opposite islan