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 any other time; I smiled cheerfully at the time past, and was highly sensible that nothing in the world smooths the path through life so much as constant occupation and labour, which leaves no scope for idle speculation.

This predominant propensity for activity, which, being intimately connected with my nature, has frequently urged me, in the course of my life, to commit the most adventurous follies, made me stiffer, and less sociable, than the Count was rendered by his poetical idleness. When he returned from his pastoral world with his cows and his sheep, he usually was in such a good humour, and his imagination was so bright and active, that every object presented itself to him in a rosy-coloured light; and his rapture knew no bounds when he had succeeded in being happily delivered of some fine poem, or had seen his shepherdess, and received a kind look from her. He almost choaked me with his enthusiastic extravagancies; and when