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 what could produce ſuch felicity in a being ſurrounded by every object that could gratify every ſenſe; but he prevented my requeſt.

'The Book of Nature,' ſaid he, 'is before thee, look up, conſider it, and be wiſe.'

"I looked and beheld a valley between two mountains that were craggy and barren: On the path there was no verdure, and the mountains afforded no ſhade: the ſun burned in the Zenith, and every ſpring was dried up: But the valley terminated in a country that was pleaſant and fertile, ſhaded with woods and adorned with buildings At a ſecond view, I diſcovered a man in this valley, meagre, indeed, and naked but his countenance was cheerful and his deportment active: He kept his eye fixed on the country before him, and looked as if he would have run, but that he was reſtrained as the other had been impelled by ſome ſecret influence: Sometimes, indeed, I perceived a ſudden expreſſion of pain, and ſometimes he ſtepped ſhort, as if his foot was pierced by the aſperities of the way, but the