at the bottom of the cordillieres, whose towering summits overlook peru and chili in the new world, as it is called, is situated an uninhabited spot of land, on which nature has exhausted all her art, being decorated with innumerable beauties. woods of stately poplars rear their heads to the clouds, and odoriferous groves shed their fragrance over every part of it; while the roaring river oroonoko rolls its majestic floods through an immense bed which, at length exhausting itself, contracts into peaceful rills and meandering streams. these beauties are terminated by a thick, gloomy forest, which serves as a foil to these enchanting beauties.
in this charming solitude lived nestor, an old and venerable hermit, who, for a long time, had withdrawn himself from the tumultuous bustle of the world, and had seen forty revolving suns pass over his head in this peaceful retreat. a stranger to the passions, without wishes or desires, he passed his life in tranquility, without the fear of experiencing either cares or disappointments. he was grown old in the practice of virtue, for this spot afforded not even the shadow of temptations. he felt not the infirmities which are natural to old age; nor had he any of those complaints, to which the luxurious inhabitants of cities and large towns are subject before they reach the meridian of their lives.
he had made himself a hut at the foot of a verdant hill, that screened it from the cold blasts of winter. thick leaves and sod composed its walls, which time had covered and cemented with a mossy crust. a plantation of various trees, peculiar to the soil, reared their lofty heads around his mansion, and a narrow path led through them to his rustic habitation. a clear and transparent spring arose near his hut; which, after forming a little bason for domestic services, overflowed and fled away in meandering streams through the wood.
his time was employed in cultivating a little garden he had made contiguous to his house. here he studied the works of nature, and explored her wonderful operations in the production of fruits and vegetables. here nature furnished him with a volume that was never to be read through, but discovered something new every time it was opened.
the sun was one evening sinking beneath the horizon, when nestor was seated on the stump of a tree, near the door of his hut, shaded with woodbines and jessamines. his venerable front, which was now whitened by time, was lifted up towards heaven; calmness and serenity were seated on his countenance, and every thing about him accorded with wisdom and philosophy.
"how i delight," said he, "to view the beautiful azure of that glorious firmament! what a variety of beautiful colours show themselves in those clouds! o rich and magnificent dome! when shall i leave this sublunary world, and ascend to those regions of bliss, where my mind will be lost in raptures that will know no end! however, let me not be impatient, since the measure of my life is nearly exhausted. i ought not to repine at the length of my continuance here, since i enjoy, in this solitary retreat, what is denied to almost every one who is engaged in the busy pursuits of life. every thing i possess is my own, and i live in the enjoyment of what is purely natural, without the troublesome alloy of ambition and parade. in whatever direction i turn my view, i see nothing but smiling landscapes. the sun affords to me the same cheering warmth, and its light in as great a degree, as to the first monarch of the earth! should i not live to see his rising beams, yet he will rise to cheer the hearts of others, when i shall no longer want them.
"yonder lie the ruins of that ancient habitation in which once lived the venerable shepherd and his daughter, who taught me how to live, when i retired from the empty bustle of the world, and first took up my abode in these mansions of peace. if their hut be fallen into ruins, it is but an emblem of what will, in a few years, be the fate of the most stately palaces. both he and his daughter now lie at rest under the shade of those neighbouring and lofty poplars.
"the scythe of time mows down every thing that comes within the reach of its keen edge; it has destroyed not only towns and cities, but even whole empires, which were once mistresses of the world, and reduced them to a state of pity. the most lofty and luxuriant trees, by time, are reduced to dry trunks, without being able to give nourishment to a single leaf. i have seen huge and tremendous rocks, to all appearance invulnerable, crumbled into powder by the roaring thunders and the vivid lightnings. once the rose was blushing in my blooming cheeks; but grey hairs have now covered my head, and wrinkles hide my forehead. but the time is now coming, in which my mortal race will be finished."
a young man had, for some years, taken a part in his solitude, and as the virtuous nestor found himself weak and exhausted, he exerted himself in calling upon the youth. misfortunes more severe than those that generally happen to mortal beings, first brought him into this charming solitude. the pleasing gloom of that retreat, which was not without its beauties to change the scenes, soon calmed the storm within his bosom, and made him happy in retirement; to which the conversation of the venerable old man contributed not a little.
"come hither, my son," said the virtuous nestor in faltering accents, "and embrace your friend for the last time in this world. my eyes will soon be closed for ever, and i must return to the earth from whence i came. complain not that i go before you to the regions of bliss, for i have enjoyed a long succession of happy years. my career is finished, and i die without a murmur. it is our ignorance only of what may be our state hereafter, that makes men afraid of death; but everlasting happiness is promised to us, and death puts us in possession of it. though you will in me lose a mortal friend, yet i leave you one in heaven who is eternal, and who never will forsake you, so long as you pursue the paths of virtue. as soon as i shall be no more, dig my grave close by the poplar which grows on the borders of the river, where it waters my last plantation. that spot afforded me infinite delight while i was living, and there i wish my body to repose. this is the last favour i have to ask of you. farewell for ever, my virtuous companion.—the earth seems to fly from me—my time is come—once more, farewell.—grieve not for the loss of me, but respect my memory.—keep constantly in your view the example which it has pleased heaven to permit me to set you, and you will be happy, because you will be virtuous."
having finished these words, the good nestor closed his eyes, and expired without a struggle; he passed away like a cloud floating in the ambient air, which insensibly disperses and dissipates itself in a sky of azure. how peaceful and tranquil are the last moments of the virtuous man! the youth looked stedfastly on that venerable front, which appeared graceful even in death. he embraced him, and could not help sighing. "o my dear father," said he, "you are no more! you leave me in this solitude, without any one to partake of it with me. who will, in future, be the comfort of my existence? and to whom am i to tell my tales of past woe?"
his heart was sensibly affected, and the tears flowed down his cheeks; but he recollected the last words of his friend nestor, and endeavoured to moderate his grief. he took the body on his shoulders, and carried it to the place where nestor had desired it might be buried. being come to the borders of the river, he gently laid down the body of his deceased friend, and then dug the grave.
while he was thus sadly employed in his last work for nestor, he thought all nature, and whatever breathed throughout the region round him, united their tears for his virtuous benefactor. after he had deposited the body in the grave, it was some time before he could prevail on himself to cover it with the earth. he felt his heart very powerfully affected; he stood almost motionless, and the tears stole insensibly down his cheeks.
"happy nestor," said he, "you can neither see nor condemn my weakness. if you could, you would forgive me, and pity me. you were my father, philosopher, and friend; you taught me to love you, and now i have lost you. let me indulge my tears in this melancholy moment, as the only tribute i can pay to your virtues."
he then proceeded to fill up the grave; but every shovelful of earth was accompanied with a sigh. when he had covered part of his face, he stopped suddenly. "farewell, my dear friend," said the generous and pious youth, "a little more earth, and then you will be lost from my sight for ever! it is the decree of heaven, it must be so, and it is my duty to submit. but though you will soon be for ever lost from my sight, your memory will never be erased from my mind, till my mortal clay, like yours, shall be incapable of knowing what passes in this world. may my end be like yours, peaceful, composed, and tranquil."
after a few minutes pause, he proceeded in his business, filled up the grave, and covered it with the most verdant turf he could find. he then planted round it the woodbine and jessamine, and inclosed the whole with a fence of blushing roses.
his business being now completed, he turned to the transparent stream, and thus uttered his devotions, to which no mortal could be witness, and his plaintive accents were heard only by the wafting gentle zephyrs.
"thou great and omnipotent being, who, in your gracious bounty to me, unworthy wretch as i am, have been pleased to take me from the regions of folly, and place me here in those of innocence and virtue, where i have learned to forget the former dreadful misfortunes of my life, grant me, o gracious heaven! thy protection, and endow me with the same virtues that reverend sage possessed, to whose memory i have just paid the last duties. left as i am without either guide or companion, his sacred ashes shall supply the place of them. sooner shall this stream cease to flow, and the sun withdraw its benign influence from these happy regions, than i to wander from the paths into which my departed friend has conducted me."
though nestor's death left the virtuous youth without friend or companion, yet he in some measure consoled himself for that loss by daily visiting his grave, and cautiously watching the growth of that funeral plantation. he suffered not a weed to grow near it, and kept every thing about it in the highest state of perfection. every morning and evening the birds assembled in the surrounding bushes, and warbled forth their notes over the departed sage.
though it is neither to be expected nor wished, that my youthful readers should turn hermits, yet it would be proper for them to remember, that happiness is not always to be found206 among the bustling crowd, where every thing appears under borrowed shapes. in whatever condition fortune may place them, let them remember this one certain truth, that there can be no real happiness where virtue is wanting.