y a stream, naturally lulls the mind into
composure and reverence; to walk in shades, diversifies that pleasure;
and a bright sunshine makes a man consider all nature in gladness, and
himself the happiest being in it, as he is the most conscious of her
gifts and enjoyments. It would be the most impertinent piece of
pedantry imaginable to form our pleasures by imitation of others. I will
not therefore mention Scipio and Laelius, who are generally produced on
this subject as authorities for the charms of a rural life. He that does
not feel the force of agreeable views and situations in his own mind,
will hardly arrive at the satisfactions they bring from the reflections
of others. However, they who have a taste that way, are more
particularly inflamed with desire when they see others in the enjoyment
of it, especially when men carry into the country a knowledge of the
world as well as of nature. The leisure of such persons is endeared and
refined by reflection upon cares and inquietudes. The absence of past
labours doubles present pleasures, which is still augmented, if the
person in solitude has the happiness of being addicted to letters. My
cousin Frank Bickerstaff gives me a very good notion of this sort of
felicity in the following letter:

"SIR,

"I write this to communicate to you the happiness I have in the
neighbourhood and conversation of the noble lord whose health you
inquired after in your last. I have bought that little hovel which
borders upon his royalty; but am so far from being oppressed by his
greatness, that I who know no envy, and he who is above pride,
mutually recommend ourselves to each other by the difference of our
fortunes. He esteems me for being so well pleased with a little,
and I admire him for enjoying so handsomely a great deal. He has
not the little taste of observing the colour of a tulip, or the
edging of a leaf of box, but rejoices in open views, the regularity
of this plantation, and the wildness of another, as well as the
fall of a river, the rising of a promontory, and all other objects
fit to entertain a mind like his, that has been long versed in
great and public amusements. The make of the soul is as much seen
in leisure as in business. He has long lived in Courts, and been
admired in assemblies, so that he has added to experience a most
charming eloquence; by which he communicates to me the