EVENING AMUSEMENTS In a Library. ADDRESSED TO A FRIENDLY CIRCLE. "Poetry exalts Her voice to ages; and informs the page OUR evening circle, drawn round the work-table, invites me to resume our former domestic amusements, now that the season of the year obliges us to rely on mental resources. During the suspension of our reading parties, some additions have been made to the collection in my portfolio of verses, drawings, and sketches, which I am induced to submit to your inspection; and, indeed, to distribute among you for gages d'amitié. The specimens now offered, were suggested to my mind, in my humble endeavours to teach you to trace the beau idéal which inhabits the bosom of Genius; ever varying and suggesting beauty and harmony, either in the moral or natural world. B We will devote this evening to tracing a few of the obligations we owe to the heirs of Apollo's lyre, and his gifted sons, who teach us to exert that strong impulse of our nature, Enthusiasm :-enthusiasm of the head and heart, which embellishes every scene; ennobles every just sentiment; promotes virtue and happiness. The best talent in the world to cultivate is, the talent of being happy at home; and in this I shall centre our enthusiasm. To you, my fair neighbours, who are often assembled in our reading parties, to you in particular, it may prove a source of inexhaustible delight; for the delicacy of organization of our sex renders us more generally capable of tasting the charms of poetic strains, and of following the reveries of a superior imagination: We enter more readily into all the fine aspirations of the soul, all pure emanations of natural affection, which the great Author of Nature intended should lead to virtuous conduct. A poet of pre-emineut merit (Gray) tells us, that, "To compensate the real or imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night." Adopting this idea, I ventured to indulge that sensibility of our nature, which leads us to seek a Deity, whose influence inspires all nature to the eye; the agent of his will is universal love, which the fond maternal |