often sufficient for me to serve as a lesson to
myself. In my present tranquillity, I pass in review the agitating
pursuits of my past life, to which I formerly attached so much
value,--patronage, fortune, reputation, pleasure, and the opinions which
are ever at strife over all the earth. I compare the men whom I have
seen disputing furiously over these vanities, and who are no more, to
the tiny waves of my rivulet, which break in foam against its rocky
bed, and disappear, never to return. As for me, I suffer myself to
float calmly down the stream of time to the shoreless ocean of futurity;
while, in the contemplation of the present harmony of nature, I elevate
my soul towards its supreme Author, and hope for a more happy lot in
another state of existence.

Although you cannot descry from my hermitage, situated in the midst of
a forest, that immense variety of objects which this elevated spot
presents, the grounds are disposed with peculiar beauty, at least to
one who, like me, prefers the seclusion of a home scene to great and
extensive prospects. The river which glides before my door passes in a
straight line across the woods, looking like a long canal shaded by all
kinds of trees. Among them are the gum tree, the ebony tree, and that
which is here called bois de pomme, with olive and cinnamon-wood trees;
while in some parts the cabbage-palm trees raise their naked stems
more than a hundred feet high, their summits crowned with a cluster of
leaves, and towering above the woods like one forest piled upon another.
Lianas, of various foliage, intertwining themselves among the trees,
form, here, arcades of foliage, there, long canopies of verdure. Most
of these trees shed aromatic odours so powerful, that the garments of a
traveller, who has passed through the forest, often retain for hours the
most delicious fragrance. In the season when they produce their lavish
blossoms, they appear as if half-covered with snow. Towards the end
of summer, various kinds of foreign birds hasten, impelled by some
inexplicable instinct, from unknown regions on the other side of immense
oceans, to feed upon the grain and other vegetable productions of the
island; and the brilliancy of their plumage forms a striking contrast to
the more sombre tints of the foliage embrowned by the sun. Among these
are various kinds of parroquets, and the blue pigeon, called here the
pigeon of Holland. Monkeys, the domestic inhabitants of our forests,
sport u