O come, ye tender, faithful, plaintive doves,
Perch on my hands, and sing your absent loves!"--

When instantly the whole _vocal band_ quit their sprays, and surround
the person of their daily benefactor, some settling upon his head,
others entangle their feet in his beard, and in the true sense of the
word, take his bread even out of his mouth; but it is freely given:
their confidence is so great, (for the holy father is their bondsman)
that the stranger too partakes of their familiarity and caresses. These
hermits are not allowed to keep within their walls either dog, cat,
bird, or any living thing, lest their attention should be withdrawn from
heavenly to earthly affections. I am sorry to arraign this good man; he
cannot be said to transgress the law, but he certainly _evades_ it; for
though his feathered band do not live within his walls, they are always
attendant upon his _court_; nor can any prince or princess on earth
boast of heads so _elegantly plumed_, as may be seen at the court of St.
_Catharine_; or of vassals who pay their tributes with half the
chearfulness they are given and received by the humble monarch of this
sequestered vale. If his meals are scanty, his dessert is served up with
a song, and he is hushed to sleep by the nightingale; and when we
consider, that he has but few days in the whole year which are inferior
to some of our best in the months of May and June, you may easily
conceive, that a man who breathes such pure air, who feeds on such light
food, whose blood circulates freely from moderate exercise, and whose
mind is never ruffled by worldly affairs, whose short sleeps are sweet
and refreshing, and who lives confident of finding in death a more
heavenly residence; lives a life to be envied, not pitied.--Turn but
your eyes one minute from this man's situation, to that of any monarch
or minister on earth, and say, on which side does the balance
turn?--While some princes may be embruing their hands in the blood of