tification being blended with a greater degree of care, and joy and gaiety less benevolently smiling upon me. I relapsed into serious contemplations; and although I was neither dissatisfied nor melancholy, yet I could, notwithstanding the circumspection with which I continually watched over myself, never recover that cheerful station from which that ludicrous adventure had expelled me. I was constantly obliged to spur myself to activity; and I am almost inclined to believe that my taste, and my notions of tranquillity and happiness, were entirely changed.
I was, as it were, gradually prepared for the impending period of my adventures: a serious, but inviting, shade spread itself over every object that came in my way; and I felt as if I returned from the serene luxury of an exuberant and gay landscape, to the melancholy, sweet night of a fragrant grove carpeted over with aromatic flowers, and animated with the plaintive notes of the solitarynightingale.
