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CLERMONT.
CHAP. I.
Far retired
Among the windings of a woody vale,
By solitude and deep surrounding shades,
But more by bashful modesty conceal'd,
Together thus they shunn'd the cruel scorn
Which virtue sunk to poverty would meet
From giddy passion and low-minded pride.
Thomson
In a retired part of the province of Dauphiny stood the cottage of Clermont; its remote obscurity was well suited to the mental solitude of its tenant, and its neat simplicity corresponded with his refined taste. Fifteen years he had been an inhabitant of it; and from the elegance of his manners and the dignity of his mein, his rustic neighbours, were of opinion that he had once seen better
