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642. Individual Humility.-Whoever will represent to himself, as in a picture, that great image of our mother nature, pourtrayed in her full majesty and lustre, whoever in her face shall read so general and so constant a variety; whoever shall observe himself in that figure, and not himself but a whole kingdom, no bigger than the least touch of a pencil, in comparison of the whole, that man alone is able to value things according to their true estimate and grandeur.-Montaigne.

643. Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties.-Bacon's great attainments were not checked by the feebleness of his constitution, or by his occupations in active life. He says, "We judge also that mankind may conceive some hopes from our example, which we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it may be useful. If any one therefore should despair, let him consider a man as much employed in civil affairs as any other of his age, a man of no great share of health, who must therefore have lost much time, and yet, in this undertaking, he is the first that leads the way, unassisted by any mortal, and steadfastly entering the true path, that was absolutely untrod before, and submitting his mind to things, may somewhat have advanced the design.

Montagu.

644. On Percy Byshe Shelley.--There is not a more gratifying proof of the improving taste and liberality of the age, than that which is manifested by the rising fame of Percy Byshe Shelley. Of all the eminent writers who have speculated upon the final departure of moral evil, and the realization of happier forms of society, none have exceeded him in the splendour of his genius, none have so strikingly combined the just views of the philosopher, with the genuine aspirations of the poet, none have exhibited in their lives a more illustrious and selfdenying example of the principles they professed. There is so much excellent feeling displayed in the following merited and interesting tribute to the memory of this distinguished poet, that we are at a loss which to admire most, its author or its subject :-Innocent and careless as a boy, he possessed all the delicate feelings of a gentleman, all the discrimination of a scholar; and united in just degrees the ardour of the poet, with the patience and forbearance of the philosopher. His generosity and charity went far beyond those of any man, I believe, at present in existence. He was never known to speak evil of an enemy, unless that enemy had done some grievous injustice to another; and he divided his income, of only one thousand pounds, with the fallen and afflicted. This is the man against whom such clamours have been raised by the religious a la mode, and by those who live and lap under their tables. This is the man whom from one false story about his former wife, I had refused to visit at Pisa. I blush in anguish at my prejudice and injustice, and ought hardly to feel it as a blessing or a consolation that I regret him less than I should have done if I had known

him personally. As to what remains of him now life is over, he occupies the third place among our poets of the present age :-no humble station; for no other age since that of Sophocles has produced, on the whole earth, so many of such merit: and he is incomparably the most elegant, graceful, and harmonious of the prose writers."

Landor's Imaginary Conversations.

645. Debilitating Effects of Passion.—Passion is not an energy, but a sufferance. It is to be deprived of the possession of ourselves-the mind is overborne by the force of circumstances; yet it is no uncommon error to consider a passionate temper as the manifestation of strength, precisely because it is an annoyance. But, in truth, passion is not the less, on that account, essentially weakness. The passionate man is himself under a perpetual state of annoyance; and, at best, is as little to be relied upon by himself, as by others. The transports of a passionate man are the expression of his internal sufferings; and his conduct is as much disconcerted by them, as are his powers of thinking. Lancaster Herald.

646. 'A State or Commonwealth,' says Milton, 'is a society sufficient in itself in all things conducible to well-being and commodious life.' Will this definition answer to Britain as parliaments now are?—when all depends on a set of men authorized by a very small minority both as to numbers and property! It is a common maxim in politics, that in every state there must be somewhere, an absolute and irresistible power over the people. But this is to be rightly understood, or it will lead to mistakes. In a monarchy, as France, the whole power is in the king against all other voice: this is proper tyranny. At Venice, it is in the nobles exclusively; this is proper aristocracy or oligarchy. In Holland (excepting some errors and deviations) the whole power is in the states, that is, or should be, the people, but it does not descend low enough, and leaves the bourgeoisie considerably enslaved. In England, the whole power is in King, Lords, and Commons. Therefore in monarchies, the people, the chief object, have no share of power. In oligarchies the people have as little. In republics, the people have a share of power. But in our mixed government the people are swallowed up in King, Lords, and Commons. To say, therefore, that there must be in every country an absolute power somewhere over the people, and in which they are to have no share, is making the people mere beasts of burden, instead of what they are, viz. the original of power, the object of government, and last resource. Our courtly people, therefore, to quiet our minds on this subject, tell us, we have a very great share in governing ourselves, as we elect our law makers. We have seen what this amounts to; and if any Englishman is satisfied, I can only say he is thankful for small mercies-James Burgh.

647. Business.-Certainly as the world is more beholden to men of Business than to men of Pleasure, so the men of pleasure must be content to be governed by those of employment. However they are contemned by the vanity of those that look after nothing but jollity, yet the affairs of the world are in their hands, and they are the men that give laws to the sensual and voluptuous. Therefore, that man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought up to Business and Affairs. And though there be that may think it a little too serious for the capering blood and sprightly vigour of youth, yet, upon experience, they shall find it a more contentive life than idleness or perpetual joviality.

Feltham.

648. How to live Happy in the World.-At the village of Aronche, in the province of Estremadura, (says an old Spanish author) lived Gonzales de Castro, who from the age of twelve to fifty-two was deaf, dumb, and blind. His cheerful submission to so deplorable a misfortune, and the misfortune itself, so endeared him to the village, that to worship the holy virgin, and to love and serve Gonzales, were considered as duties of the same importance; and to neglect the latter was to offend the former.

It happened one day, as he was sitting at his door, and offering up his mental prayers to St Jago, that he found himself, on a sudden, restored to all the privileges he had lost. The news ran quickly through the village, and old and young, rich and poor, the busy and the idle, thronged round him with congratulations.

But, as if the blessings of this life were only given us for afflictions, he began in a few weeks to lose the relish of his enjoyments, and to repine at the possession of those faculties which served only to discover to him the follies and disorders of his neighbours, and to teach him that the intent of speech was too often to deceive.

Though the inhabitants of Aronche were as honest as other villagers, yet Gonzales, who had formed his ideas of men and things from their natures and uses, grew offended at their manners. He saw the avarice of age, the prodigality of youth, the quarrels of brothers, the treachery of friends, the frauds of lovers, the insolence of the rich, the knavery of the poor, and the depravity of all. These, as he saw and heard, he spoke of with complaint; and endeavoured by the gentlest admonitions to warn them to goodness.

From this place the story is torn out to the last paragraph, which says, that he lived to a comfortless old age, despised and hated by his neighbours for pretending to be wiser and better than themselves; and that he breathed out his soul in these memorable words, that HE WHO WOULD ENJOY MANY FRIENDS, AND LIVE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, SHOULD BE DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND TO THE FOLLIES AND VICES OF IT.

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Fitzadam.

649. Riches, Knowledge, and Wisdom.-Nothing keeps a man from being rich, like thinking he has.enough; nothing from knowledge and wisdom like thinking he has both.—Anon.

650. Liberty. The name of liberty is so alluring, that all who fight for it, are sure of obtaining our secret wishes in their favour: their cause is that of the whole human race, and becomes our own. We avenge ourselves on our oppressors, by venting freely, at least, our hatred against foreign oppressors. At the noise of these chains that are breaking, it seems to us that ours are about to become lighter; and for a few moments, we think we breathe a purer air, when we learn that the universe reckons some tyrants less. Besides, these great revolutions of liberty are lessons to despots:-they warn them not to reckon upon too long a continuance of the people's patience, and upon eternal impunity. So, when society and the laws avenge themselves on the crimes of individuals, the good man hopes that the punishment of the guilty may prevent the commission of fresh crimes. Terror, sometimes supplies the place of justice, with regard to the robber; and of conscience, with regard to the assassin. Such is the source of the great concern we take in every war for liberty. Such hath been that with which the Americans have inspired us :-our imaginations have been heated in their favour: we have taken a part in their victories and defeats. The spirit of justice, which delights in compensating former calamities by future happiness, is pleased with the idea, that this part of the new world cannot fail to become one of the most flourishing countries on the globe: nay, it is even supposed, that Europe may one day find her masters in her children.-William Francis Raynal.

651. Sir William Jones on Slavery.-I pass with haste by the coas t of Africa, whence my mind turns with indignation at the abominable traffic in the human species, from which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their most inauspicious wealth. Sugar, it is said, would be dear, if it were not worked by blacks in the western islands, as if the most laborious, the most dangerous works, were not carried on in every country, but chiefly in England by freemen; in fact, they are so carried on with infinitely more advantage; for there is an alacrity in a consciousness of freedom, and a gloomy, sullen indolence, in a consciousness of slavery: but let sugar be as dear as it may, it is better to eat none, to eat honey, if sweetness only be palatable: better to eat aloes or coloquintida than violate a primary law of nature, impressed on every heart not imbruted by avarice, than rob one human creature of those eternal rights, of which no law upon earth can deprive him.

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Materials for Thinking,

EXTRACTED FROM THE WORKS OF

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"WHATEVER CHARITY WE OWE TO MEN'S PERSONS, WE OWE NONE TO THEIR ERRORS."-Bishop Burnet.

No. XXVI.

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652. Education among the Greeks.--The custom of those times was very much different from these of ours, where the greatest part of our youth is spent in learning the words of dead languages. The Grecians, who thought all barbarians but themselves, despised the use of foreign tongues; the first elements of their breeding was the knowledge of nature, and the accommodation of that knowledge, by moral precepts, to the service of the public and the private offices of virtue; the masters employing one part of their time in reading to, and discoursing with, their scholars; and the rest in appointing them their several exercises, either in oratory or philosophy, and setting them to declaim and to dispute among themselves. By this liberal sort of education, study was so far from being a burden to them, that in a short time it became a habit; and philosophical questions, and criticisms of humanity, were their usual recreations at their meals. Boys lived then, as the better sort of men do now; and their conversation was so well-bred and manly, that they did not plunge out of their depth into the world, when they grew up; but slid easily into it, and found no alteration in their company. Amongst the rest, the reading and quotations of poets were not forgotten at their suppers, and in their walks; but Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles were the entertainment of their hours of freedom. Rods and ferulas were not used by Amnonius, as being properly the punishment of slaves, and not the correction of ingenuous free-born men ; at least, to be only exercised by parents, who had the power of life and death over their own children.-Dryden's Life of Plutarch.

653. Complaining. We do not wisely, when we vent complaint and censure. Human nature is more sensible of smart in suffering, than of pleasure in rejoicing, and the present endurances easily take up our thoughts. We cry out for a little pain, when we do but smile for a great deal of contentment.-Feltham.

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