ADAM SMITH, after the publication of his first work, withdrew into a retirement that lasted ten years: even Hume rallies him for separating himself from the world; but by this means the great political inquirer satisfied the world by his great work.

And thus it was with men of genius long ere Petrarch withdrew to his Val chiusa.
The interruption of visitors by profession has been feelingly lamented by men of letters.

The mind, maturing its speculations, feels the unexpected conversation of cold ceremony chilling as March winds over the blossoms of the Spring.

Those unhappy beings who wander from house to house, privileged by the charter of society to obstruct the knowledge they cannot impart, to weary because they are wearied, or to seek amusement at the cost of others, belong to that class of society which have affixed no other idea to time than that of getting rid of it.

These are judges not the best qualified to comprehend the nature and evil of their depredations in the silent apartment of the studious, who may be often driven to exclaim, in the words of the Psalmist, "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency: _for all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning._" When Montesquieu was deeply engaged in his great work, he writes to a friend:--"The favour which your friend Mr.Hein, often does me to pass his mornings with me, occasions great damage to my work as well by his impure French as the length of his details."-- "We are afraid," said some of those visitors to BAXTER, "that we break in upon your time."-- "To be sure you do," replied the disturbed and blunt scholar.