scooping fossils from the rocks, or preserving plants that grew in the valley. A moth or butterfly afforded them a chace, and a grub or beetle was a suitable companion. But to return to the vagabonds.

The lady that performed the feat of blinding her governess, for a time, bore the chief rule, and held the rest in a state of servitude. She seemed to be, indeed, formed for that power and grandeur, which was her delight, being of a stature remarkabiy tall, with an air of dignity in her countenance: not but others would sometimes insist upon some temporary gratification. As they shaped their way to a great city, one + would loll and loiter on a bed of roses; another would join the dance of shepherds, and sometimes retire with one into the covert; a third § would not move a step farther, till she had gathered some ore that was washed from the mountains. When they entered the city, their dissipation was yet more observable: one || intoxicated herself with cordials; another ¶ went in quest of lace and equipage. The lady,** however, at this time the most enterprising, and who, as I mentioned before, had given such a turn to their affairs, discovered a strange fondness herself for lawn and ermine, embroidered stars, and golden collars however difficult it seemed to reach them, or, how little necessary soever they seemed to happiness, these alone engaged her attention; and to these alone her hopes aspired. Nay, she went so far, as, in failure of these, to resolve on misery and wilful wretchedness,

Ambition.
Ebriety.

+ Indolence. Gallantry. § Avarice. Pride and Vanity. * Ambition.

She at length succeeded, at least so far as to find how little they enhanced her happiness; and her former compeers, having ruined their constitutions, were once again desirous to have their queen reign over them. In short, their loyalty regained the ascendant; insomuch, that with one consent they removed the bandage from her eyes, and vowed to obey her future directions.

She promised to secure them all the happiness that was consistent with her present state, and advised them all to follow her towards the path they had forsaken.

Our travellers, in a little time after this, passed over the bridge that introduced them to their closing stage. The subjects, very orderly, repentant, and demissive; the governess, more rigid and imperious than ever: the former, withered, decrepit, languishing; the latter, in greater vigour, and more beautiful than before. Time appeared to produce in her a very opposite effect to that it wrought in her companions; she seemed, indeed, no more that easy ductile creature, insulted and borne away by the whims of her companions: she appeared more judicious in the commands she gave, and more rigorous in the execution. In short, both her own activity, and the supine lethargy of those whom she conducted, united to make way for her unlimited authority. Now, indeed, a more limited rule might have secured obedience, and maintained a regularity. The ladies were but little struck with the glare of objects on each side the way: one alone I must except, whom I beheld look wishfully, with a retorted eye, towards the golden ore washed down by the torrents. The governess represented, in the

strongest terms, that the materials could not be imported into the realms they were about to enter: that, were this even the case, they could be there of no importance. However, she had not extirpated the bias of this craven dame, when they approached the temple to which I formerly alluded.

The temple stood upon a lofty hill, half encircled with trees of never-fading verdure. Between the milk-white columns (which were of the Doric order, the bases gilt, as also the capitals) a blaze of glory issued, of such superior lustre, that none beside the governess was able to approach it: she, indeed, with a dejected countenance, drew near unto the goddess, who gently waved her hand in the way of salutation.

The matron seemed less dazzled than delighted with her excessive beauty. She accosted her with reverence, and, with much diffidence, began to mention their pretension to her favour. "She must own, she had been too remiss in the beginning of her government; she hoped it would be attributed to inexperience in the subtle wiles of her fellowtravellers. She flattered herself, that her severity towards the conclusion of her journey might, in some sort, make atonement for her misbehaviour in the beginning. Lastly, that she sometimes found it impossible to hear the dictates of the goddess amid the clamours of her pupils, and the din of their persuasions."

To this the goddess made reply:

"You have heard," said she, “no doubt, that the favours I bestow, are by no means consistent with a state of inactivity. The only time when you were

allowed an opportunity to deserve them, was the time when your pupils were the most refractory and perverse. The honours you expect in my court are proportioned to the difficulty of a good undertaking. May you, hereafter, partake them, in reward of your more vigorous conduct: for the present, you are little entitled to any recompense from me. As to your pupils, I observe, they have passed sentence upon themselves."

At this instant of time the bell rang for supper, and awakened me. I found the gardener by my side, prepared to plant a parcel of trees; and that I had slumbered away the hours, in which I should have given him suitable directions.

XXIJ.

UNCONNECTED THOUGHTS ON GARDENING.

GARDENING may be divided into three specieskitchen-gardening-parterre-gardening-and landscape, or picturesque-gardening: which latter is the subject intended in the following pages-It consists in pleasing the imagination by scenes of grandeur, beauty, or variety. Convenience merely has no share here, any farther than as it pleases the imagination.

Perhaps the division of the pleasures of imagination, according as they are struck by the great, the various, and the beautiful, may be accurate enough for my present purpose: why each of them affects us with pleasure may be traced in other authors. See Burke, Hutchinson, Gerard, the Theory of Agreeable Sensations, &c.

There seems, however, to be some objects, which afford a pleasure not reducible to either of the foregoing heads: a ruin, for instance, may be neither new to us, nor majestic, nor beautiful, yet afford that pleasing melancholy which proceeds from a reflection on decayed magnificence: for this reason, an able gardener should avail himself of objects, perhaps, not very striking, if they serve to connect ideas, that convey reflections of the pleasing kind.

Objects should, indeed, be less calculated to strike the immediate eye, than the judgment or well-formed imagination; as in painting.

It is no objection to the pleasure of novelty, that it makes an ugly object more disagreeable: it is enough that it produces a superiority betwixt things in other respects equal. It seems, on some occasions, to go even farther. Are there not broken rocks and rugged grounds, to which we can hardly attribute either beauty or grandeur; and yet, when introduced near an extent of lawn, impart a pleasure equal to more shapely scenes ? Thus a series of lawn, though ever so beautiful, may satiate and cloy, unless the eye passes to them from wilder scenes; and then they acquire the grace of novelty.

Variety appears to me to derive good part of its effect from novelty; as the eye, passing from one form or colour, to a form or colour of a different kind, finds a degree of novelty in its present object, which affords immediate satisfaction.

Variety, however, in some instances, may be carried to such excess as to lose its whole effect. I have observed ceilings so crammed with stucco ornaments, that, although of the most different kinds,