It should be a solitary house on a wide plain near no other habitation: where I could behold the whole horizon, and wander far without molestation from the sight of my fellow creatures.

I was not mysanthropic, but I felt that the gentle current of my feelings depended upon my being alone.

I fixed myself on a wide solitude.

On a dreary heath bestrewen with stones, among which short grass grew; and here and there a few rushes beside a little pool.

Not far from my cottage was a small cluster of pines the only trees to be seen for many miles: I had a path cut through the furze from my door to this little wood, from whose topmost branches the birds saluted the rising sun and awoke me to my daily meditation.