heart penetrated with gratitude and admiration
for its virtuous and benevolent inhabitants. They dismissed me with
every mark of kindness and hospitality, guided me over their dreary
deserts, and at parting presented me with one of those beautiful horses
which are the admiration of all the surrounding nations. I will not
trouble you with an account of the different countries which I wandered
over in search of wisdom and experience. At length I returned to my
native city, determined to pass the rest of my life in obscurity and
retirement; for the result of all my observations was, that he is
happiest who passes his time in innocent employments and the observation
of nature. I had seen the princes and nobles of the earth repining in
the midst of their splendid enjoyments, disgusted with the empty
pageantry of their situation, and wishing in vain for the humble
tranquillity of private life. I had visited many of the principal cities
in several countries where I had travelled, but I had uniformly
observed, that the miseries and crimes of mankind increased with their
numbers. I therefore determined to avoid the general contagion by fixing
my abode in some sequestered spot, at a distance from the passions and
pursuits of my fellow-creatures.

"'Having therefore collected the remainder of my effects, and with them
purchased a little farm and vineyard in a beautiful and solitary spot
near the sea, I soon afterwards married a virtuous young woman, and in
her society enjoyed, for several years, as great a degree of
tranquillity as generally falls to the lot of man. I did not disdain to
exercise with my own hands the different employments of agriculture; for
I thought man was dishonoured by that indolence which renders him a
burthen to his fellow-creatures, not by that industry which is necessary
to the support of his species. I therefore sometimes guided the plough
with my own hands, sometimes laboured in a little garden, which
supplied us with excellent fruits and herbs; I likewise tended the
cattle, whose patient labour enabled us to subdue the soil, and
considered myself as only repaying part of the obligations I had
received. My wife, too, exercised herself in domestic cares; she milked
the sheep and goats, and chiefly prepared the food of the family.

"'Amidst my other employments I did not entirely forget the study of
philosophy, which had charmed me so much in my early youth. I frequently
observed, with admiration, the wi