ken in
his conjectures.--Laetitia became the bride of a young wealthy grazier
in a neighbouring town, with whom she removed soon after her marriage;
and this event, so much desired by Natura, destroyed all the remains
of disquiet, his nicety of honour, and love of justice, had occasioned
in him.

Being now wholly extricated from an adventure, which had given him
much pain, and no less free from the emotions of any turbulent
passion, he passed his days and nights in a most perfect and
undisturbed tranquility; a situation of mind to which, for a long
series of years, he had been an utter stranger.

To desire, or pursue any thing with too much eagerness, is undoubtedly
the greatest cruelty we can practise on ourselves; yet how impossible
is it to avoid doing so, while the passions have any kind of dominion
over us:--to _acquire_, and to _preserve_, make the sole business of
our lives, and leave no leisure to _enjoy_ the goods of
fortune:--still tost on the billows of passion, hurried from care to
care the whole time of our existence here, is one continued scene of
restlessness and variated disquiet.--Strange propensity in man!--even
nature in us seems contradictory to herself!--we wish _long life_, yet
shorten it by our own anxieties;--nothing is so dreadful as _death_,
yet we hasten his approach by our intemperance and irregularity, and,
what is more, we know all this, yet still run on in the same heady
course.

Natura had now, however, an interval, a happy chasm, between the
extremes of pleasure and of pain;--contented with his lot, and neither
aiming at more than he possessed, nor fearful of being deprived of
what he had. He, for a time, seemed in a condition such as all wise
men would wish to attain, tho' so few take proper methods for that
purpose, that those who we see in it, may be said to owe their
felicity rather to chance, than to any right endeavours of their own.

CHAP. V.

Contains a remarkable proof, that tho' the passions may operate with
greater velocity and vehemence in youth, yet they are infinitely
more strong and permanent, when the person is arrived at maturity,
and are then scarce ever eradicated. Love and friendship are then,
and not till then, truly worthy of the names they bear; and that the
_one_ between those of different sexes, is always the consequence of
the _other_.

The inclination we have, and the pleasure it gives us to think well of
our abilities, leads us f