sympathy, or of wishing the good of others without regard to our own. In the present wretched condition of human society, so unfavourable are the outward circumstances wherein most men are placed, and so bad is the education or training received by most men in their youth, that the benevolence of most men wants the intensity and endurance which are requisite to their own happiness, and to the happiness of their fellow creatures. With most men, benevolence or sympathy is rather a barren emotion, than a strong and steady incentive to vi. gorous and efficient action. Although the feeling or sentiment affects them often enough, it is commonly stifled at birth by antagonist feelings or sentiments. But to deny, with Rochefoucault or Mandeville, the existence of benevolence or sympathy, is rather a wild paradox, ha. zarded in the wantonness of satire, than the deliberate position of a philosopher, examining the springs of conduct, -Prof. Austin on Jurisprudence.

DCLXXXVI.

Rich and Poor.-The rich must be convinced, that while they live sumptuously, and while the poor are fed with a few of the scanty crumbs which fall from their table, they act quite contrary to the tenor of that Gospel, which they say they believe. It is not in nature or reason, that one man should destroy twenty thousand a year, and another should be left without the common necessaries of life. No; every creature which nature has formed with a mouth and digestive powers, has an equal right to participate of her blessings.-Candid Philosopher.

DCLXXXVII.

On the Absurdity of Unalterable Establishments.Highly as we think of "the wisdom of our ancestors," we justly think ourselves, of the present age, wiser; and if we be not blinded by the prejudices of education, must see that we can, in many respects, improve upon the institutions they have transmitted to us. Let us not doubt but that every generation in posterity will be as much superior to us in political, and in all kinds of knowledge, and that they will be able to improve upon the best civil institutions that we can prescribe for them. Instead, then, of adding to the difficulties which we ourselves find, in making the improvements we wish to introduce, let us make this great and desirable work casier to them than it has been to us.

In spite of all the fetters we can lay upon the human mind, notwithstanding all possible discouragements in the way of free inquiry, knowledge of all kinds will increase. The wisdom of one generation will be folly in the next And that though we have seen this verified in the history of near two thousand years, we persist in the absurd maxim of making a preceding generation dictate to a succeeding one, which is the same thing as making the foolish instruct the wise; for what is a lower degree of wisdom but comparative folly.-Priestley on Government,

DCLXXXVIII.

A Church Establishment.-The single end we ought to propose by it, is the preservation and communication of religious knowledge. Every other idea, and every other end, that have been mixed with this, as the making of the church an engine, or even an ally of the state; converting

it into the means of strengthening or diffusing influence; or regarding it as a support of regal, in opposition to popular forms of government; have served only to debase the institution, and to introduce into it numerous corruptions and abuses.-Paley.

DCLXXXIX.

Honour. He is worthy of honour, who willeth the good of every man; and he is much unworthy thereof, who seeketh his own profit, and oppresseth others.-Ci.

cero.

DCXC.

Nobility. Nobility is not only in dignity and ancient lineage, nor great revenues, lands, or possessions, but in wisdom, knowledge, and virtue, which, in man, is `very nobility, and this nobility bringeth man to dignity. Honour ought to be given to virtue and not to riches.-Anarcharsis.

Honour.

DCXCI.

It is a shame for a man to desire honour because of his noble progenitors, and not to deserve it by his own virtue.-St. Chrysostom.

DCXCII.

Talent. One man, perhaps, proves miserable in the study of the law, who might have flourished in that of physic or divinity; another runs his head against the pulpit, who might have been serviceable to his country at the plough; and a third proves a very dull and heavy philosopher, who possibly would have made a good mechanic, and have done well enough at the useful philosophy of the spade or anvil.-South.

DCXCII.

Philosophy of the Human Mind.-The philosophy of the human mind (and this is not the least of its excellences) will fill the soul with charity, and keep the sacred flame always alive, and always bright. His equable and complaisant feelings who understands it, will seldom be interrupted, and but for a moment. The errors of his fellow-mortals will not sever the link which binds him to all of human kind. Willing to sacrifice on the altar of truth all that is dear in life, and life itself, he will deeply lament whatever obstructs his progress, and will exert himself to the utmost of his ability to remove it; but even the grossest and most pernicious errors will excite in his bosom no resentment. He will bear in mind that men's opinions result from circumstances over which they have themselves little or no control: that if they are really and conscientiously believers in any doctrine, they must have such evidence of its truth, as appears to them solid and conclusive; that they cannot believe it without such evidence, and with it, if their discernment enable them to detect no fallacy in it, they cannot avoid believing it; that it is not in the power of the mind to adopt or reject what opinions it pleases; that the measure of knowledge possessed by the individual determines entirely, independently of volition, the conclusion in which he rests; and that to regard him with aversion because he rejects or receives a particular doctrine, is as absurd as to resent his thinking the colour of an object red which is red, or which, from some defect in his organ or vision, or some deception in the medium through which he views it, ap. pears to him to be so. If he perceive that his own mind

is better informed than those around him, he will avail himself of every means in his power, to impart the light of which they are destitute; but that he should regard them with ill will for this which is their misfortune, that he should exclude them from his society and heart, torture their bodies, and enchain, as far as he can enchain, their minds, is as impossible as that he should seriously propose to amputate their hands or their feet in order to remedy a defect of their sight.

Not even on account of their crimes does he cherish the least degree of bitterness against them. Viewing them as placed in unfavourable circumstances for the cultivation of the better principle of their nature, either not knowing or not considering in what their true dignity, honour, and happiness consist, and accustomed to confound their immediate gratification with their ultimate felicity, and their direct gain with their final well being, he regards them with unfeigned compassion; and because these errors are productive of a deeper misery than any bodily maladies, he feels on their account a more profound sorrow. Never does he think of the prison, or the manacle, or the lash, or of the infliction of punishment in any shape, but as it may be the means of correcting their evil propensities, and of establishing better views, and forming better dispositions. And the influence of these enlightened and generous principles extends to the closest and dearest connexions in life, imparting to the father, the husband, the friend, the master, a forbearance and benignity, which can be produced so fully, and sustained so equally by no other means.-Dr. Southwood Smith.