conftant; and the Woman who shall treat you with Levity, will deferve your Reproaches. I cannot help thinking, that you and your Friend Catullus are like two truant School Boys, who, after they have been properly chastised, affect to laugh and play upon their Punishment, but always return to their Mafter with Fear and Trembling. Nothing fo fine as your fpeculative Allufions to the Oeconomy of Nature! Nothing fo flight, or fo foon blown away! Gently- Thou curious 'Texture, let me behold thy delicate Frame!Hold! 'Tis gone, like the Goffamer! Gone for ever! and not a Film remaining! LETTER [75] LETTER XVIII. ST. EVREMOND to WALLER. OU have used me cruelly, in not intro ducing me fooner to the Acquaintance of Mr. Cowley. To find, at my Time of Life, that there is a Pleafure which I might have enjoyed for fome Years, is a very mortifying thing. I am fenfible of this Lofs. Mr. Cowley has convinced me, that I had an Affection, which wanted only to be called forth and exercifed, to add to my Stock of Happiness. He has taught me to love him, or rather to love fomething that is in his Genius and Turn of Mind, with a Degree of Senfibility that is very delightful to me. His pleasant, eafy Manners, the Enthusiasm of his Fancy, the Luxuriancy of his Imagination, have a certain Charm in them, which feems to communicate itself by Sympathy. When he speaks of Rural Life, and the retired Enjoyment of Nature, he carries me, without Reluctance, into the Scenes that he describes; and though I know from Experience, that I could not live two whole Days in the Country, I wonder, for the time, that I should live any where elfe. Mr. Cowley's D 2 Love Love of Nature appears fo perfectly unaffected, that it creates a kind of Reverence for him. It infpires one with fomething like thofe Senfations, which we may suppose the ancient Poets felt, when they believed and described the Existence of Genii-and tutelary Powers in the feveral Departments of Nature. Let me afk you if you have not often regretted the Lofs of that Doctrine. I am not afhamed to own, that I have lamented the Abolition of it with great Sincerity. Could any thing be more delightfully affecting, more calculated to inspire a noble and dignifying Enthufiafm, than thus to walk with Gods? To fee Nature full of Divinities?-Nothing thus is inanimate or uninterefting. Every Grove, every River has its Confequence, when accompanied with the Idea of its peculiar Deity. How much muft it have heightened the Fancy, and harmonized the Numbers of the Poet, when he could fuppofe himself attended by listening Dryads by Naïads that had left their Fountains to hear the Music of his Lays; perhaps by Apollo himfelf, the God of Melody and Fancy, habited like fome Shepherd, or fome wandering Herdsman! I am fincerely forry for the Lofs of this Theology! LETTER LETTER XIX. WALLER to ST. EVREMOND. T would have given me Pleasure to have been of your Party with Mr. Cowley. Nothing could have entertained me more than the Raptures you expreffed on the Idea of Retirement. I know you both, and am satisfied that the World has not two Men in it who are fo little capable of living alone. You, indeed, acknowledge it; but poor Cowley has my Compaffion. He mistakes the Chagrin of Disappointment for an Averfion to Public Life; and grieve to think, that he must find himself unhappy in the Mistake I have obferved, that Men who have the greatest Resources in themfelves are the least able to live in Solitude. It is not difficult to account for this. It is owing to an Excefs of Sentiment. Evacuation is as neceffary in the Mental as in the Corporal Functions.. A Mind that overflows with Ideas, if it wants the accustomed Means of Communication, will languish and find itself oppreft. Books are of no great Service in this Refpe&t. They pour in fresh Supplies, and draw but little off. Something, indeed, may be spent in Reflection; but that is a kind of Discharge, which, like the ebbing Tide, goes off to return with the fame Force and Fullness. The Pen is the only Relief in fuch Situations as thefe. The great Raleigh found it fo during his infamous Imprisonment. Had he been capable of bearing Solitude, we should probably never have seen his History of the World. But no Man can write always. It is a fevere kind of Exercife, which will not fail to weaken the Mind, if taken too frequently, or too long. Therefore, where Retirement becomes an Object of Neceffity rather than of Choice, which, to the Shame of the World be it spoken, is the Cafe with Mr. Cowley; it were to be wished, as you obferve, that the ancient Theology could be revived, and that there were a Poffibility of converfing with Ideal Beings. I fancy that you, who are a true Catholic, might, without much difficulty, reconcile this Doctrine to Orthodoxy and right Faith. I often think, that the fubaltern Deities in the Heathen Bible were confidered only as fo many Symbols of the Attributes of the Univerfal Parent. Thus Ceres, Flora, and Pomona, with the rest of that Tribe, represent his Beneficence in its various Operations. Pan, Pales, Sylvanus, and their affociate Powers, imperfonate his Providential Care in the Animal and Vegetable Creation. In short, it feems |