pious exercises, to which he had consecrated the remainder of his days. From Valladolid, he continued his journey to Plazencia in Estremadura. He had passed through that city a great many years before; and having been struck at that time with the delightfol situation of the monastery of St. Justus, belonging to the order of St. Jerume, not many miles distant from that place, he had then observed to some of his attendants, that this was a spot to which Dioclesian might have retired with pleasure. The impression had remained so strong on his mind, that he pitched upon it as the place of his retreat. It was seated in a vale of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and surrounded by rising grouads, covered with lofty trees. From the nature of the soil, as well as the temperature of the climate, it was esteemed the most healthful and delicious situa. tion in Spain. Some months before his resignation, he had sent an architect thither, to add a new apartment to the mo:iastery, for his accommodation; but he gave strict orders that the style of the building should be such as suited his present station rather than his former dignity. It consisted only of six rooms, four of them in the form of friars' cells, with naked walls; the other two, each twenty feet square, were hung with brown cloth, and furnished in the sost simple manner. They were all on a level with the ground; with a door on one side into a garden, of which Charles him. self had given the plan, and bad filled it with various plants, which he propsed to cultivate with his own hands. On the other side, they communicated with the chapel of the monastery, in which he was to perform his devutions. Into this hurble retreat, hardly sufficient for the comfortable accommodation of a private gentleman, did Charles enter, with twelve domestics oply. He buried there, in solitude and silenre, his grandure, his ambiti::07, together with all those vast projects, which during half a century, had alarned and igitated Europe ; filling every kingdoma in it, by turns, with the terror of his arms, and the dread of being subjected to his power. In this retirement, Charles formed such a plan of life for himself, as would have suited the condition ot a private person of a moderate fortune. His ta. ble was oeat but plain; his domestics few; his intercourse with them familiar; all the cumbersome and ceremonious forms of alteodaoce on his person were entirely abolished, as destructive of that social case and tranquillity, which he courted, in order to sooth the remainder of his days. As the mildoess of the climate, together with his deliverance from the burdens and cares of governmedi, procured him, at first, a considerable remission from the acute paips with which he had been long tormented, he enjoyed, perhaps, more complete satisfaction in this humble solitude, than all his grandeur had ever yielded hin. The ambitious thoughts and projects which had so long engrossed aod disquieted him, were quite effaced from his mjod. Far from laking any part io the political transactions of Europe, he restrained his curiosity eveo from any inquiry concerning them; and he seemed to view the busy scene which he had abandoned, with all the contempt and indifference arising from his thor. ough experience of its vanity, as well as from the pleasing reflection of having disentangled himself from its cares. . DR. ROBERTSON. PART II. PIECES IN POETRY. CHAPTER I. SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS. SECTION I, Education. Candour Riflection. Secret vir tue. Necessary knowledge easily attuinea'. Disappointment. NOTE. In the first chapter the Compiler has exhibited a coasiderable variety of poetical construction, for the young reader's preparatory exercise. S Virtuous elevation. Natural and fanciful life. Charity. The prize of virtue. Sense and modesty connected. Moral discipline salutary. Present blessings undervalued. Hope. Happiness modest and tranquil. Never man was truly blest, True greatness. |