Amidst the yet unfolded buds of May,

The insects which infect the blighting air;

But on your wings the noisome vapours bear,

And to the polar caves convey,

Where night and silence baleful shadows hoard."

Thither, ye blasts, with congelations stor❜d;

Scowl hence, ye low-hung clouds, and clear the day.

Invade not the young spring,

Whose mantling verdure hails the kindly showers,
Whose opening buds my random numbers sing.
I'll sport awhile amidst the trees and flowers:
While genial suns shall panting nature free,
Unlock the earth and clothe the barren. tree.

Each germ expands and into flagrance blooms;
Myriads of embryos rising burst to light,
And from their murky tombs

The various insects wing their wanton flight,

All lightly fluttering, spring's sweet breath respire,

Pierced by the sun's warm rays, and life's enlivening fire.

HENRY. On the light winds sweet sound incefsant floats
Of woodland melody in wildest notes;

I listen 'midst the springing herbs and flowers,
Whilst morning sweets dispense

Their liveliest influence;

And sudden through the fragrant frolic air

A flood of heavenly music pours.

See where the sweet enchantress flits along,
Rousing the unpois'd lark with earlier song.

Toward the orient o'er yon hills,
Why wand'rest thou alone and far?

Is it to view the rising sun,

Or mark the fading morning star?

Does heaven's grave front midst smiling light,
Flaming with kindling gleams of fire,
Which dart through every trembling cloud,
With kindred warmth thy breast inspire?

Wild as the winds which fan the trees,
Inconstant as the spring you stray.
LAURA. Or gay as summer's kindly breeze,
Amid the scatter'd blofsoms play.

Who would this glorious arch resign,
For gilded roofs and idle state?
Nature's extensive range be mine,

Far from the woes which mock the great.

The morning dight with sparkling dews,
Or splendid noon's refulgent rays,

Mild eve, or night sublime with stars,
Alike delight, and force my lays.

Or whether spring unfolds the bud,
Or summer's' ripening blaze invites,
Or autumn pours her various fruits,
Or winter's frown each beauty blights;

Still o'er each scene with secret joy
I muse, and wildly tune my lays;
Each theme responsive to my heart
Echoes the great Creator's praise.

HENRY. Like thee, fair nature's paths I love,
For in her haunts the Muses stray;

LAURA.

O let us then together rove;

Youth join'd with love shall hail the day.

"Wild as the winds which fan the trees,
Inconstant as the spring I stray;"
Or gay as summer's kindly breeze,

To the Editor of Recreations in Agriculture, &c.

SIR,

HAPPINESS is a subject which has often employed the pens of the most celebrated writers of all nations; and many questions of universal importance have been started, upon which, as philosophers are not yet cordially agreed, the subject cannot be said to be exhausted. It has been, for example, inquired whether happiness is most complete in the savage or the civilized state? It has likewise been asked, whether there is more pain or pleasure in the world, or, in other words, whether the aggregate of pain exceeds that of pleasure?

This last appears of much consequence. Most writers concur in the opinion with which Mr. Archdeacon Paley concludes his elaborate difsertation on this subject, namely, that "happiness appears to be pretty equally distributed." You will perceive a cautious latitude in this decision, to which I shall not at present advert, because the purpose of my letter to you is to advance a position, not only in direct contradiction to it, but to the generally received opinions. upon the subject. I state my position in these words, that " WORLD," and consequently it has appeared to be the duty, and certainly has been the practice of mankind to lefsen this EXCESS of HAPPINESS in all stations where it is found.

THERE IS TOO MUCH HAPPINESS IN THIS

I have already hinted, and I now avow more par-` ticularly, that this opinion is a new one, that is, it

has never been before afserted in exprefs terms, and therefore I must expect the fate of all innovators-to be reviled and censured for advancing what thwarts not only the prejudices but the opinions of the rest of mankind. However, sir, I am prepared for an opposition of this kind. I trust I should not have adventured to add to your Recreations, had I been coward enough to shrink from the consequences; and I repose, with perfect confidence, in the good opinion of those readers to whom my proofs shall appear convincing. What my proofs are you shall now hear.

Happiness, according to the opinion of the most eminent authorities, consists of certain component parts or ingredients. These have been often enumerated, and I shall take them as I find them in the above authorities, without inquiring whether the arrangement be regular, or whether some additions may not be made. And I shall prove that there is, in all these ingredients an excefs which men feel so strongly. as to be inclined to lefsen it by every means in their power.

First, we are told, that happiness consists in the 'exercise of the social affections." Of this I presume no man can have a doubt, who knows what the social affections are. But it is evidently certain, that our happiness arising from this source is excefsive, because men have been obliged to invent sundry ways and means whereby the said affections may be diminished in fervour, and shortened in duration. That excefs of friendship, for instance, which would, if left to itself, produce a fatal plethora of felicity, is happily

ship, connexions, private interest, and other stimulants properly applied and frequently repeated. And besides these more violent, and, as the apothecaries term them, drastic medicines, most people find it necefsary, in order to abate the fever of social affections, to enter into a course of etiquette, which, long continued, seldom fails to reduce them to a mild and insipid state; abating the strength of the feelings, and reducing the meaning of words and declarations to a mere non-entity. It is said that, without such a modification as this, there would be no going through the world, and we should, like Parson Thwackum in the case of Mr. Allworthy, "mistake the highest degree of goodness for the lowest degree of weakness.”

The social affections, therefore, having a tendency to produce an excess of happiness, which every one knows it is in their nature to produce, it became expedient to invent etiquette, mode, fashion, and economy, all of which are wonderfully calculated to prevent the exercise of the social affections from becoming excefsive, and fatiguing the body or mind. I might enumerate the many ways in which they produce this effect, and their various operations, from a rout in St. James's Square, to a party at whist and swabbers in Whitechapel; but the subject would carry me far beyond the reasonable bounds of a letter. I shall, therefore, proceed to a second source of happiness.

Secondly, "The exercise of the faculties of body or mind for an useful purpose." There can be no doubt that this ought to stand prominent as a source of happiness, but it is to be lamented that it is liable to run into the same excefs with the former. To counteract