: SOLITUDE; OR, The pernicious Influence OF A total Seclusion from Society UPON The Mind and the Heart. CHAPTER THE FIRST. INTRODUCTION. SOLITUDE, in its ftrict and literal accepta tion, is equally unfriendly to the happiness and foreign to the nature of mankind. An inclination to exercise the faculty of speech,* to interchange the sentiments of the mind, to indulge B the VOL. II. * ARISTOTLE says, that as Nature does nothing in vain, and as man is the only animal whom she hath endued with the privilege of speech, he must have been formed for social delights: an opinion which the celebrated PUFFENDORFF has, in common with all writers upon natural law, adopted. " That man," says he, " was designed by nature for a life of society, this " alone might be a sufficient argument, that he only, of all "living creatures, is endued with the power of expressing his " mind to others by articulate sounds; a faculty which, ab"stracting from the social condition, we cannot conceive to be, " of any use or advantage to mankind.' the affections of the heart, and to receive themselves, while they bestow on others, a kind afsistance and support, drives men, by an ever active, and almost irresistible impulse, from SoLITUDE to SOCIETY; and teaches them that the highest temporal felicity they are capable of enjoying, must be fought for in a suitable union of the sexes, and in a friendly intercourse with their fellow-creatures.* The profoundest deductions of reason, the highest flights of fancy, the finest sensibilities of the heart, the happiest discoveries discoveries of science, and the most valuable productions of art, are feebly felt, and imperfectly enjoyed, in the cold and cheerless region of Solitude. It is not to the senseless rock, or to the paffing gale, that we can fatisfactorily communicate our pleasures and our pains.* The heavy fighs which incessantly transpire from the vacant bofoms of the folitary hermit, and the surly misanthropist, indicate the absence of those high delights which ever accompany congenial sentiment and mutual affection. The foul finks under a fituation in which there are no kindred bosoms to participate its joys, and sympathize in its forrows; and feels, strongly feels, that the beneficent Creator has so framed and moulded the temper of our minds, that SOCIETY is the earlieft * " Man," says a profound philosopher, " is an animal ex"tremely defirous of his own preservation; of himself ex" posed to many wants, unable to secure his own safety " and maintenance without the assistance of his fellows, and "capable of returning the kindness by the furtherance of " mutual good. But then he is often malicious, infolent, "eafily provoked, and as powerful in effecting mischief as he is "ready in designing it. Now that such a creature may be pre" served and supported, and may enjoy the good things attend"ing his condition of life, it is necessary that he should be "focial; that is, that he should unite himself to those of his " own species, and in such a manner regulate his behaviour to"wards them, as they may have no fair reason to do him "harm; but rather incline to promote his interest, and to " secure his rights and concerns. It feems, therefore, to be a " fundamental law of nature, that every man ought, as far as " in him lies, to promote and preserve a peaceful sociableness with "others, agreeable to the main end and disposition of the human "race: that is, such a disposition of one man towards all others, "as shall unite him to them by benevolence, by peace, by "charity, and, as it were, by a filent and secret obligation." B 2 * CICERO, reasoning upon the principles of the Stoics, infists that " no man would choose to live in absolute Solitude, al"though he might enjoy an infinity of pleasures." † "He who, disgusted, quits the social scene, In the remotest glen, or loneliest grot, ว liest impulse and the most powerful inclination of our hearts. "Unhappy he! who from the first of joys, Society, however, although it is thus pointed out to us, as it were, by the finger of the Almighty, as the means of reaching our highest possible state of earthly felicity, is so pregnant with dangers, that it depends entirely on ourselves, whether the indulgence of this instinctive propenfity shall be productive of happiness or misery. all have cause to smile, "But such as to themselves that cause deny. The pleasures of Society, like pleasures of every other kind, must, to be pure and permanent, be temperate and difcreet. While pafsion animates, and sensibility cherishes, reason must direct, and virtue be the object of our course. Those who search for happiness in a vague, desultory, and indiscriminate intercourse with the world; who imagine the palace of Plea fure : 1 |
