Solitude considered, with respect to its influence upon the mind and the heart

Front matter

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Book.

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Introduction

IN this unquiet and tumultuous scene of life, surrounded by the restraints of ceremony, the urgencies of business, the shackles of society, and in the evening of my days, I feel no delight in tracing back the images of pleasures that pass so transiently away : my soul dwells with higher satisfaction on the memory of those happy days of my youth, when solitude was my sole amusement ; when I knew no place more agreeable than the sequestered cloister and the silent cell, the lonely mountain and the sublimely awful grove ; nor any pleasures more lively than those I experienced in conversing with the dead.

I love to recal to my mind the cool and silent scenes of Solitude ; to oppose them to the heat and bustle of the world j to meditate on those advantages which id the great and good of every age have acknowledged they possess, though perhaps too seldom experienced ; to reflect on. the powerful . consolations they afford when grief corrodes the mind, when disease afflicts the body, when the number of our years bends us to the ground ; to contemplate, in short, the benign influence of Solitude upon all the troubles of the heart.

Solitude is that state in which the soul freely resigns itself to its own reflections. The sage, therefore, who banishes from his mind all recollection of the objects by which he is surrounded, and retires within himself, is not less solitary than he who forsakes society, and devotes himself entirely to the calm enjoyments of a lonely life.

In retirement every man surrenders himself without restraint or limitation, to the guidance of his own ideas, and implicitly adopts the sentiments which his taste? temper, inclination and genius, inspire.

Observe the shepherds of those extensive deserts % one chaunts the beauty which captivates his soul - r another moulds the clay into a rustic vase ; the surrounding charms of nature form the sole delight and admiration of a third ; while a fourth investigates the precepts of the moral law, or contemplates the sublime truths of our holy religion. If they were respectively to meet a lovely shepherdess beneath the shades of their retirement * seated oirthe borders of some gently flowing stream, the heart of each might perhaps become the slave of love ; but deprived of all that is dear to man, and doomed to taste involuntary Solitude, the best resource for each is to resign himself to the dictates of his inclination ; a resource to which every well-disposed and virtuous mindmayconstantly resort without dismay or danger.

Man in a state of perfect freedom possesses an innate right to follow the suggestions of his fancy : some are delighted by the soft melody of the nightingale*

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l^hile others listen with equal pleasure to the hideous shriekings of the owl. Some there are to whom even the visits of friendship are displeasing ; who, to avoid the painful intercourse, confine themselves eternally at home, and consume their hours in writing books, ox killing flies. v

The poor dejected heart constantly attaches itself to some favorite object, as far at least as circumstances and situation will permit, from which it draws its consolation and support. Roaming through the cloisters of the Magdalene Convent, at Hidelsheim, I was surprised to observe an aviary of Canary birds in the cell of a Religeuse. A Brabancon gentleman, fearful of the effects of cold, and having the same aversion from women that certain persons are said to feel from mice, lived five and twenty years at Brussels, immured within his house, without any other amusement than that of collecting a magnificent cabinet of paintings and pictures.

Under the confinement even of the dungeon itself, men, deprived forever of their liberty, endeavour to beguile the solitude in which they are forced to live, by devoting their thoughts, as far as they are able, to those pursuits which afford them the highest pleasure. The Swiss philosopher, Michael Ducret, measured the height of the Alps during his confinement in the prison of Aarburg, in the canton of Berne, in Swisserland ; and while Baron be Trenck, a prisoner* in the tower of Magdebourg, was every moment anxiously employed in forming projects to effect his escape, General Walrave, the companion of his captivity, contentedly passed his time in the feeding of chickens.

The term Solitude does not, I conceive, always import a total absence from the world. Sometimes it conveys to my mind the idea of dwelling in a convent, $r a country village : sometimes I understand it t.Q mean the library of a man of learning : and sometimes an occasional retreat from the tumults of active life.

Men are frequently Solitary without being alone ; for to constitute a state of Solitude, it is sufficient if the mind be entirely absorbed by those ideas which its own reflections create.

The haughty Baron, proud of the distinctions of birth, feels himself alone in every society whose members are not ennobled by an equal number of titles derived through a long line of hereditary descents. A profound reasoner is, in general, Solitary at the tables of the witty and the gay. The mind, even amidst the clamours of a popular assembly, may withdraw its attention from the surrounding objects, may retire as effectually within itself, may become as Solitary as a monk in his monastery, or a hermit in his cell. In short, Solitude may be as easily attained amidst the gayest circles of the most brilliant city, as in the uninterrupted silence of a poor, deserted village ; at London and at Paris, as well as on the plains of Thebais or in the desartsof Nitria.

A treatise therefore upon the real advantages to be derived from Solitude, appeared to me a proper means to assist men in their search after happiness. The fewer external resources men possess, the greater efforts they make to discover in themselves the power of being happy ; and the more they are enabled to part, without regret, from their connections with each other, the nearer they most certainly approach to true felicity. The pleasures of the world appear to me to be unworthy of the avidity with which they are pui> sued ; but it is equally true, that upon a serious ex^ amination, all those Catholic notions, once so celebrated, of a total seclusion from the world and its concerns, ap* pear altogether impracticable, and equally absurd. To render the mind independent of human assistance, and £each it to rely entirely upon the strength of its own

ON THE MIND AND THE HEAKT. IS

powers, is, I acknowledge, a noble exertion ; but it is certainly as meritorious, to learn the art of living happily in the bosom of society, and of rendering ourselves useful and agreeable to the rest of mankind.

While, therefore, I describe the allurements of Solitude, I shall endeavour to warn my readers against those dangerous excesses into which some of its disciples have been betrayed ; excesses as repugnant to the voice of reason, as they are condemned by the precepts of our holy religion.

Happily to avoid all the dangers by which my subject is surrounded, to sacrifice nothing to prejudice, to advance nothing in violation of truth, to obtain the approbation of the peaceful disciples of reason and philosophy, will be my anxious endeavour ; and if affliction shall derive a ray of consolation from my labours, if melancholy, in forgetting the horrours of its situation, shall raise its dejected head to bless me ; if I shall be able to convince the innocent votaries of rural retirement, that the springs of pleasure soon dry up in the heat of the metropolis, that the heart remains cold and senseless in the midst of all its noisy and factitious joys ; if they shall learn to feel the superior pleasures of a country life, become sensible of the variety of resources which they afford against idleness and vexation ; what purity of sentiment, what peaceful thoughts, what unfading happiness, the view of verdant meads, the sight of numerous flocks and herds quitting the fertile meadows on the close of day, instil into the mind • what ineffable delight the sublime beauty of a wild romantic country, interspersed with distant cottages, and. occupied by freedom and content, ravishes the soul ; how much more readily, in short, we forget all the pains and troubles of a wounded heart, on the borders of a gentle stream, than amidst the concourse of deceitful joy s, so fatally followed in the courts of princes, my task will be accomplished, and all my wishes amply gratfied I

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