Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

YESTERDAY, Tuesday, I set out on my longprojected Tour; and as I now, at Brighton, having reached this first simple stage of my many-miled expedition, gaze on the ocean which fronts me, so soon to waft me far away, how many mingled emotions arise! With whatever eagerness we may have longed to depart on a continental tour; whatever advantages we may possess in the unlimited command of our time; in the enjoyment of health, or in a buoyancy of spirits which may make us indifferent to temporary privations, or to personal risks; whatever may be our hopes of enlarging our information, or of extending our acquaintance from the Introductory Letters we may bear with us into society abroad; in fine, whatever pleasurable emotions may have gladdened us in our anticipation of the day of departure:-yet, when the hour of separa

B

2

Route to Dieppe.

tion arrives, we pause; we linger;-for once again we remember our home, our country, our friends; and who is there so friendless and destitute, or so unfeeling, as to cut these ties, though but for a time, without regret?

Nothing material occurred on the road to Brighton, except, that in the course of conversation with an agreeable and handsome young lady, on the same route as myself, for the benefit of sea-bathing, she observed that she never rose before four o'clock in the afternoon-a remark by no means calculated to inspire any high idea of her mental energy. How soon, and sadly, did pity succeed, when shortly after she explained her being under the care of two eminent surgeons of the metropolis for a supposed spinal affection, which had already enlarged one side, and appeared to increase. To remain in bed as much as possible, or in a recumbent posture almost continually, was the sad alternative prescribed; and this complaint produced in the exuberance of youthful spirits, by trying, one night, after returning from the Opera, to rival the dancing she had just seen.

Can those who are yet exempt from such sad and overwhelming catastrophes, who still enjoy their inestimable limbs and invaluable health: can such, I say, fret and be wretched at the comparative trifles and nothingnesses of life, while still possessing those boundless blessings?.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »