in Human morning hymn of Eden with a clear fire burning in the room; and in Taylor's gorgeous defcription of funrife he found the smell of the lamp Mr. Rogers quite overpowering. A living poet Life. has charmingly sketched a family group enjoying the evening pleasures of literature, "At night when all affembling round the fire, Of merchants from Golcond or Aftracan, Of Knight renowned from holy Palestine, With light reflected on the tremulous tide, are moft agreeable in the open air. But Elia carried his firefide theory Some books too far. Some people have tried "the affectation of a book at noonday in gardens and fultry arbours," without finding their task of love to be unlearnt. Indeed, many books belong to funshine, and should be read out-of-doors. Clover, violets, and hedge-roses, breathe from their leaves; they are most loveable in cool lanes, along field-paths, or upon ftiles overhung by hawthorn; while the blackbird pipes, and the nightingale bathes its brown feathers in the twilight copfe. In fuch haunts it is foothing to wander with Thomson, Bloomfield, Thomfon, or Clare in the hand, "till declining day Bloomfield, and Clare, pleasant companions in field Through the green trellis shoots a crimson ray." paths and The sensation is heightened when an author is read amid the scenery, or under trees. the manners, which he defcribes; as Reading a Barrow ftudied the fermons of Chry book where it was writ- foftom in his own fee of Constan ten. and Mil tinople. What daifies fprinkle the The Tafk, walks of Cowper if we take his Task ton's Lyrics. for a companion through the lanes of Wefton! Under the thick hedges of Horton, darkening either bank of the field in the September moonlight, Il Penferofo is still more penfive. And whoever would feel at his heart the The banks deep pathos of Collins's lamentation Thames at for Thomson, must murmur it to himself, as he glides upon the ftealing wave, by the breezy lawns and elms of Richmond, of the Richmond. Collins on "When Thames in fummer wreaths is dreft, And oft fufpend the dafhing oar, To bid his gentle spirit reft." XVIII. DILIGENCE THE HANDMAID difpenfable ment. its cha WHETHER a book be read from Patience inthe oak lectern of a college library, in to mental the parlour window, or beneath the improvetrees of summer, no fruit will be gathered unless the thoughts are steadily given up to the perufal. Atten- Attention, tion makes the genius; all learning, racter; fancy, and fcience, depend upon it. Newton traced back his discoveries to Newton eulogised it; its unwearied employment. It builds what wonbridges, opens new worlds, and heals diseases; without it, Taste is useless, and the beauties of literature are unobferved; as the rareft flowers bloom in vain, if the be not fixed upon the bed. eye ders it works. Condillac enforces this habit of pa- The ufes of Attention tience by an apt fimilitude. He fup- fet forth in poses a traveller to arrive in the dark, a parable. The parable explained and applied. at a castle which commands large views of the furrounding scenery. If at sunrise the shutters be unclosed for a moment, and then fastened, he catches a glimpse of the landscape, but no object is clearly feen or remembered -all wavers in a confufion of light and fhade. If, on the contrary, the windows be kept open, the vifitor receives and retains a ftrong impreffion of the woods, fields, and villages, that are spread before his eyes. The application of the comparison is obvious. Every noble book is a ftronghold of the mind, built upon fome high place of contemplation, and overlooking wide tracts of intellectual country. The unacquainted reader may be the traveller coming in the dark; funrise will reprefent the dawn of his comprehenfion; and a drowsy indifference is explained by the clofing of the windows. In whatever degree this languor of obferva |