Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

ON DREAMS.

"Many monstrous forms in sleep we see,
That never were, nor are, nor e'er shall be.
Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind,
Rush forward in the brain and come to mind,
The nurse's legends are for truth receiv'd,
And the man dreams, but what the boy believ'd
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night restores our actions done by day..
In short the farce of dreams, is of a piece
Chimeras all, and more absurd or less."

DRYDEN.

FANCY, in sleep, leads the

mind through a maze of vanity, the head is filled with false images, and the mind tantalized with ridiculous misfortunes; yet are

there

there many characters weak enough to beinfluenced by them, and interpret their sleeping fancies into representations of their waking duties or occupations. Dreams, as we read in the Holy Scriptures, have undoubtedly been decreed on particular occasions to reveal great and material pur-poses to men chosen by God; but to ex-plain every sleeping fancy to some ridiculous meaning, is weak and presumptuous..

Parents should be particularly careful that the attendants placed about their children are not infatuated with this folly, which has a most mischievous effect in infancy, by enervating their minds and breaking their spirits; and yet more, laying. the foundation of chimerical fancies, which, as they increase in years, mingle with their pursuits, and imbitter their. happiness.

Remember:

Remember the words of the Holy Scripture," Whoso regardeth dreams, is like him that catcheth at a.shadow and followeth after the wind."-" Dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them."-"Divination, soothsaying, and dreams are vain, set not thy heart upon them."

ON

ON FALSE AND TRUE GREATNESS

AND AFFECTATION.

FALSE greatness is unso

ciable, inaccessible, haughty, and vainglorious; and, conscious of its own defects, endeavours to conceal, under the mask of assumed dignity, its own real insignificance. True greatness is free, affable, complaisant, and condescending, and the more known the more admired.-Without constraint it stoops to its inferiors, yet ever knows how to resume its dignity. without pride or affectation. Noble and humane, it inspires us with reverence and assurance, and makes us even look on princes with con

fidence

fidence mingled with a sentiment of love and honour, that arrogant pomposity never yet could claim.

Some weak minds consider greatness to consist in a stately mein, a haughty address, a disdainful carriage, and a supercilious wit;I wish that such would for a short time observe the looks, gesture, and words which flow from the unvitiated heart, and which, without ostentation or noise, modestly break out and claim the admiration of all the wise and thinking part of mankind.

True modesty dignifies the greatest, but false modesty is vanity; false glory is levity, false grandeur is meanness, false virtue is hypocrisy, and false wisdom is formality.

La

« PoprzedniaDalej »