AT the bottom of the Cordillieres, whose towering summits overlook Peru and in the New World, as it is called, is an uninhabited spot of land, on which nature has all her art, being decorated with innumerable beauties. Woods of stately poplars rear their heads to the clouds, and odoriferous shed their over every part of it; while the roaring river Oroonoko rolls its floods through an immense bed which, at length exhausting itself, contracts into peaceful rills and streams. These beauties are terminated by a thick, gloomy forest, which serves as a foil to these beauties.
In this charming lived Nestor, an old and venerable , who, for a long time, had himself from the tumultuous of the world, and had seen forty suns pass over his head in this peaceful retreat. A stranger to the passions, without wishes or desires, he passed his life in tranquility, without the fear of experiencing either cares or disappointments. He was grown old in the practice of , for this spot afforded not even the shadow of temptations. He felt not the infirmities which are natural to old age; nor had he any of those complaints, to which the inhabitants of cities and large towns are subject before they reach the of their lives.
He had made himself a hut at the foot of a hill, that screened it from the cold blasts of winter. Thick leaves and sod composed its walls, which time had covered and cemented with a mossy crust. A of various trees, to the soil, reared their lofty heads around his , and a narrow path led through them to his habitation. A clear and spring arose near his hut; which, after forming a little bason for domestic services, and fled away in meandering streams through the wood.
His time was employed in cultivating a little garden he had made contiguous to his house. Here he studied the works of Nature, and explored her wonderful operations in the production of fruits and vegetables. Here Nature furnished him with a volume that was never to be read through, but discovered something new every time it was opened.
The sun was one evening sinking beneath the horizon, when Nestor was seated on the of a tree, near the door of his hut, shaded with woodbines and jessamines. His venerable front, which was now whitened by time, was lifted up towards heaven; calmness and were seated on his , and every thing about him accorded with wisdom and philosophy.
"How I delight," said he, "to view the beautiful of that glorious ! What a variety of beautiful colours show themselves in those clouds! O rich and magnificent ! when shall I leave this sublunary world, and to those regions of , where my mind will be lost in that will know no end! However, let me not be impatient, since the measure of my life is nearly exhausted. I ought not to repine at the length of my continuance here, since I enjoy, in this retreat, what is denied to almost every one who is engaged in the busy pursuits of life. Every thing I possess is my own, and I live in the of what is natural, without the troublesome of ambition and parade. In whatever direction I turn my view, I see nothing but smiling landscapes. The sun affords to me the same cheering warmth, and its light in as great a degree, as to the first of the earth! Should I not live to see his rising beams, yet he will rise to cheer the hearts of others, when I shall no longer want them.
"Yonder lie the ruins of that ancient habitation in which once lived the venerable shepherd and his daughter, who taught me how to live, when I from the empty bustle of the world, and first took up my in these of peace. If their hut be fallen into ruins, it is but an of what will, in a few years, be the fate of the most stately palaces. Both he and his daughter now lie at rest under the shade of those neighbouring and lofty poplars.
"The of Time down every thing that comes within the reach of its keen edge; it has destroyed not only towns and cities, but even whole empires, which were once mistresses of the world, and reduced them to a state of pity. The most lofty and luxuriant trees, by Time, are reduced to dry trunks, without being able to give to a single leaf. I have seen huge and tremendous rocks, to all appearance invulnerable, into powder by the roaring thunders and the vivid lightnings. Once the rose was blushing in my blooming cheeks; but grey hairs have now covered my head, and wrinkles hide my forehead. But the time is now coming, in which my mortal race will be finished."
A young man had, for some years, taken a part in his solitude, and as the Nestor found himself weak and exhausted, he exerted himself in calling upon the youth. Misfortunes more severe than those that generally happen to mortal beings, first brought him into this charming solitude. The pleasing gloom of that retreat, which was not without its beauties to change the scenes, soon calmed the storm within his , and made him happy in ; to which the conversation of the venerable old man contributed not a little.
"Come hither, my son," said the virtuous Nestor in accents, "and embrace your friend fo............