per, that we find hope start constantly up to us, out of the bosom of disappointment. He possesses such a knack at detecting the gay and ridiculous, that he discovers matter of laughter in every incident, and in every appearance that comes before him. Nor is there an incident in my own fortune, or in that of others, in which I do not, without effort, and by the natural turn of my mind, find occasions of chearfulness. In the town, we find the works of Art, and the charms of refined social life. In the country, are the beauties of Nature, and the reliefs of retirement. Riches give the luxuries of life. Poverty is favourable to its energies and its virtues. In travelling, we are amused with perpetual variety of exercise, society, views of nature, and intelligence of affairs. Residence quietly in one place is favourable to composure, ease, and continued meditation. Books are inoffensive companions of all hoursConversation has, in it, an interest and a vivacity which books do not always give.

Testy. A truce with your common-place

details. Can you deny the truth of what we have stated in our Dialogues?

Merry. The terrible evils of your Dialogues are merely excitements to enliven pleasure by diversifying it. They are stimuli to awaken sensibility. They are mustard and Cayenne pepper to give the genuine seasoning to happiness.-What say you? Shall we compare our catalogue of Comforts with your Mountain of miseries?

Sen. Agreed. My nerves are so worn out by sensations of refined distress, that I should almost wish to forfeit the privilege of genius, for the sake of relief from the agonies under which I am dying over again, every hour!—

Tes. And agreed-say I-Your disappointments in the comparison will only add another chapter to those Miseries of life which our Dialogues have enumerated. Chear. Well, then! we four meet here, at the same hour, to-morrow,

Merry. We meet.

Test. Good morning, gentlemen,

Sen. S

Merry. Chear.

Good morning.

DIALOGUE THE SECOND.

COMFORTS OF THE COUNTRY.

Chearful, Merryfellow, Testy, and Sensitive.

Scene-HYDE-PARK.

Testy.

You find us punctual to our appointment,

gentlemen! I was impatient to hear what you could say in support of pretences to happiness, which I doubt not but I should find your emotions, in the course of any twenty-four hours, and in spite of any pains you might use for their concealment, -to belie.

Merry. Ah! Mr. Testy! we shall teach you to be happy, in spite of your teeth!

Sen. I have done nothing but dream of the relief you promised, since we separated

yesterday morning. Last night, in sleep, methought I saw my old friend Testy in the form of an enormous toad, feeding on my entrails, and instilling his poison while he fed, till you, Chearful, in the figure of a Stork, as my dream represented it, came to destroy the filthy, noxious reptile. At the effort, with which it seemed, that the stork made away with the toad, my sleep forsook me. Propitious be the omen !-No offence to my dear friend Testy.-But, it cannot be!-Genius can never see the calamities of life in another light than that I see them in!-Nor is it possible for my sensibilities to be deadened by any opiate, to the torpor of dulness!

Chear. Take courage, man! We shall quickly undeceive you. Your morbid sensibility shall be restored to soundness.

Tes. Come on! The pleasures of the country-if you please? In this rural scene -hid from every appearance of the town, as if we were at any remote distance from it-with so pleasing a diversity of wood, water, and verdure before us-while these animals play around-while the scene is so

unusually free from the approach of men— while the gentle, yet natural varieties of its level, deceive the eye and the fancy, and make it seem as if the whole were a landscape in the creation of which, Art had no share,-what better subject can you chuse, than the Comforts of the Country?

Merry. Ay! comforts the country hassufficient, it appears, to warm the imagination of old Testy himself-and to deceive him out of his croak of misery!Ha ha ha!

(1. C.)

Chear. Its GENERAL COMFORTS transcend every praise with which even the raptures of sensibility and genius have yet extolled them. Its atmosphere gives lightness and activity to the play of the lungs which inhale it. It presents an endless variety of lights, shades, colours, and native forms, the most delightful to the heart and imagination of man. It salutes the nostrils with perpetual freshness and fragrance. Its air, its water, its genial sun

C