815. Joy is a pleasing emotion,—and why? Because the good we wished for is obtained, or some fortunate event has unexpectedly taken place. The joy proceeds from something which appears suitable to my nature, or gratifying to my wishes. Hence it is obvious that the primary object is to obtain some good; and that the immediate excitement of joy is, that I have succeeded. The joy is therefore adventitious. This joy may possibly communicate to my feelings a more delectable sensation than the blessing obtained may ever produce; yet I do not seek good that it may occasion the sensation of joy, but because the good itself will add something to my happiness.-Cogan.

816. Love, such as the glowing pen of genius has traced, exists not on earth, or only resides in those exalted fervent imaginations that have sketched such dangerous pictures. Dangerous because they not only afford a plausible excuse to the voluptuous, who disguises sheer sensuality under a sentimental veil, but as they spread affectation, and take from the dignity of virtue. The lively heated imagination draws the picture of love, as it draws every other picture; with those glowing colors, which the daring hand will steal from the rainbow that is directed by a mind condemned in a world like this to prove its noble origin by panting after unattainable perfection, ever pursuing what it acknowledges to be a fleeting dream. An imagination of this vigorous cast, can give existence to insubstantial forms, and stability to the shadowy reveries which the mind naturally falls into when realities are found vapid. It can then depict love with celestial charms, and dote on the grand ideal object. It can imagine a degree of mental affection, that shall refine the soul and not expire, and like devotion make it absorb every meaner affection and desire.—

Mary Wolstoncraft's Rights of Women.

817. Courage is in itself the mere rating of the chance of certain evils at less than the good which is sought by incurring it; and just as capable of being employed for the worst purposes as for the best. It is power, and, like every other kind of power, affords temptation to the man who has it to make bad use of it. It has a great effect upon the imagination; and is not without a certain admiration attached to it, even when it is employed mischievously, whence it has been one great cause of the perversion of moral sentiment.-Mill.

818. No Moral Sense. If there be numbers of people that murder and devour their species; that have contradictory notions of beauty; that have deemed it meritorious to offer up human sacrifices, to leave their parents in deserts of wild beasts, to expose their offspring as soon as born, &c. &c. there should seem to be no universal moral sense, and of consequence, none.—Shenstone.

819. On Punning.-There is no kind of false wit which has been so recommended by the practice of all ages, as that which consists in a jingle of words, and is comprehended under the general name of punning. It is indeed impossible to kill a weed, which the soil has a natural disposition to produce. The seeds of punning are in the minds of all men, and though they may be subdued by reason, reflection, and good sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest genius that is not broken and cultivated by the rules of art.-Addison.

820. Travelling.—I think it not fit that every man should travel. It makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.-Feltham.

820. Moderation requisite even in study.--As plants are suffocated and drowned with too much nourishment, and lamps with too much oil, so is the active part of the understanding with too much study and matter, which being embarrassed and confounded with the diversity of things, is deprived of the force and power to disengage itself; and by the pressure of this weight it is bowed, subjected, and rendered of no use.—Anon.

821. Mental Associations.-There are few people who have not, at particular seasons, experienced the effect of certain accidental associations, which obtrude one impertinent idea, or set of ideas, on the mind, to the exclusion of every other. Mr. Locke has noticed this weakness, and he humorously describes it "as a childishness of the understanding, wherein, during the fit, it plays with and dandles some insignificant puppet, without any end in view." Thus, a tune, a proverb, a scrap of poetry or some other trivial object, will steal into the thoughts, and continue to possess them long after it ceases to be amusing. Persuasives

to dismiss a guest that proves so troublesome, can hardly be necessary, and bodily exertion is generally the best remedy for this mental infirmity.-Percival.

822. Virtue. That feeling cannot be called virtuous which produces vicious acts. There is no feeling of which more can be predicated than that it commonly impels us in the right direction, none of which it cannot be predicated that it does often impel us in the wrong. Is it to be followed when it impels in the wrong? If not, then comes another question, how are we to know whether it is impelling us in the right direction or the wrong? Is there any other mode than by asking whether the action to which it urges is good or bad? And is it not good or bad, as it is useful or hurtful? It is not enough to make an act moral that the agent expects from it beneficial consequences to somebody. It is farther necessary that he have no reason to expect from it equivalent evil consequences to any other body; that is, in other words, that he have a conviction of its general utility.-Mill.

823. Charity and Persecution.—Charity never multiplies feuds, nor fosters enmities; and the experience of all ages proves that persecution, whatever form it may assume, or in whatever garb it may appear, never succeeds in making proselytes.-Dr. Fellowes.

824. Rooks always appear to me the clergymen among birds-grave, black-robed, sententious, with an eye to a snug sylvan abode, and plenty of tithes.-Leigh Hunt.

825. Benevolence.-The opportunity of making happy is more scarce than we imagine; the punishment of missing it is, never to meet with it again; and the use we make of it, leaves us an eternal sentiment of satisfaction or repentance.-Rousseau.

826. Wit and Wisdom.--No man is the wiser for his learning; it may administer matter to work in, or objects to work upon; but wit and wisdom are born with a man.-Selden.

827. A Bankrupt.--Ovid finely compares a man of broken fortune to a falling column; the lower it sinks the greater weight it is obliged to sustain. Thus, when a man has no occasion to borrow, he finds numbers willing to lend him. Should he ask his friend to lend him a hundred pounds, it is possible from the largeness of his demand, he may find credit for twenty; and should he humbly only sue for a trifle, it is two to one whether he might be trusted for twopence.—Goldsmith.

828. Value of Friendship discovered.-Pericles though indebted to Anaxagoras for much valuable knowledge, suffered his friend and instructor to be reduced to such distress, that partly from want, and partly from vexation, he determined to starve himself to death, and having muffled up his head in a cloak, he threw himself on the ground to expect its coming. Indeed, Pericles no sooner heard of this, but he flew to his assistance; begging him to live, and bewailing his own loss, in case he was deprived of so wise a counsellor. When opening his cloak, the philosopher, in a feeble and low voice said to him, "Ah, Pericles! they who need a lamp do not neglect to supply it with oil." A gentle reproof; but therefore the more piercing to an ingenuous mind.—Anon.

829. Boy. Perhaps in the whole vocabulary of language there is no word (when applied to himself) so offensive to the aspirant for the dignity of manhood. While age looks back wistfully on youth, and would buy back its unearned glories with all that age has accomplished, youth pants on impatient for the wreath that withers while 'tis winning.

Mrs. Grimstone.

830. Notions of the Deity.-The whole history of our species bears testimony to that tendency of the human mind when not restrained and guided by better knowledge, to pourtray in some visible form its conception of the Deity. However far many superior minds of the heathen world might advance in deducing from the contemplation of all around them more correct views of the goodness and wisdom of an all-ruling Power. There were ideas far too refined for the mass who felt the want of something more apparent to the senses, something on which the mind could repose from vain imaginings and real fears. Hence the deity was invested with various forms of familiar objects, under which he was venerated as a protector and friend, or feared as an avenging or angry power.-Egyptian Antiquities.

831. Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites, for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior. Shenstone.

832. The road to knowledge is through the portal of Doubts.-When there is a great deal of smoke and no clear flame, it argues much moisture in the matter: yet it witnesseth certainly, that there is fire there. And therefore, dubious questioning is much better evidence than that senseless deadness, which most take for believing. Men that know nothing in sciences, have no doubts.

He never truly believed, who was not made first sensible and convinced of unbelief. Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have the disposition to believe; and doubt, in order that you may end in believing the truth.-Leighton in Coleridge's “Aids.”

833. Wisdom and Folly.-Ferdinand (not the beloved) King of Spain used to say, that he could distinguish a wise man from a fool by the following marks:-Moderation in Anger, Government in Household Affairs, and writing a letter without useless repetitions.---Anon.

834. On Death.--

To die is landing on some peaceful shore,
Where billows never beat, nor tempests roar ;
Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, 'tis o'er.

Garth.

835. The Common People do not accurately adapt their thoughts to the objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts: they do not mean to lie: but, taking no pains to be exact, they give you very false accounts. A great part of their language is proverbial: if any thing rocks at all, they say it rocks like a cradle ; and in this way they go on.---Johnson.

836. Republics.—In republics the sovereign power, or the power over which there is no controul, and which controuls all others, remains where nature placed it, in the people. In a country under a despotic form of Government the Sovereign is the only free man in it. In a republic the people retaining the sovereignty themselves, naturally and necessarily retain freedom with it: for wheresoever the sovereignty is, there must the freedom be: the one cannot be in one place, and the other in another.---Paine.

837. Labour.--

Weariness

Can snore upon the flint, when restive sloth,
Finds the down pillow hard.---Shakspeare.

838. Chance is but a mere name and really means nothing in itself, a conception of our minds, and only a compendious way of speaking, whereby we would express that such effects are commonly attributed to chance, which were verily produced by their true and proper causes, but without their design to produce them.---Bentley.

839. Duty of Parents.---The sacred books of the Ancient Persians say if you would be holy instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.---Montesquieu.

840. The mischiefs of Monarchy are tyranny, expense, exaction," military domination, unnecessary wars waged to gratify the passions of an individual, a want of constancy and uniformity in the rules of Government, and proceeding from thence insecurity of person and property.-.-Paley.

841. War.---I have been as enthusiastic and joyful as any one after a victory, but I confess that even the sight of a field of battle has not only struck me with horror, but even turned me sick, and now that I am advanced in life I cannot understand any more than I could at fifteen years how beings who call themselves reasonable, and who have so much foresight, can employ this short existence not in loving and aiding each other, and passing through it as gently as possible, but on the contrary, in endeavouring to destroy each other, as if Time did not do this himself with sufficient rapidity, what I thought at fifteen years I still think :—war, which society draws upon itself is but an organized barbarism, and an inheritance of the savage state, however disguised or ornamented.---Louis Buonaparte.

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