Among the pleasant villages and farmsAdjoin'd from each thing met conceived delightThe smell of grain, or tended grass, or kineOr dairy, each rural sight, each rural soundThose who are conversant in the writings of polite authors receive an additional entertainment from the country，as it revives in their memories those charming descriptions, with which such authors do frequently abound.I was thinking of the foregoing beautiful simile in Milton, and applying, it to myself，when I observed to the windward of me a black cloud,falling to the earth in long trails of rain, which made me betake myself for shelter to a house saw at a little distance from the place where I was walking.As I sat in the porch, I heard the voices of two or three persons, who seemed very earnest in discourse.My curiosity was raised when I heard the names of Alexander the Great and Artaxerxes;and as their talk seemed to run on ancient heroes, I concluded there could not be any secret in it;for which reason thought I might very fairly listen to what they said.After several parallels between great men, which appeared to me altogether groundless and chimerical,I was surprised to hear one say, that he valued the Black Prince more than the Duke of Venoms.
