of a proposition; and to receive and utter for truth, what it never gives itself the trouble to examine. There is no paradox among all the enormities of despotism, but what finds its advocates from this very circumstance. We must not, therefore, scorn to encounter an argument because it is foolish. The business of sober philosophy is often a task of drudgery; it must sometimes listen to the most incoherent clamours, which would be unworthy of its attention, did they not form a part of the general din, by which mankind are deafened and misled.-Barlow's Advice to the Privileged Orders.

DCCCXXVIII.

The Love of Freedom.-None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license, which never hath more scope, or more indulgence, than under tyrants. Hence it is, that tyrants are not oft offend. ed by, nor stand much in doubt of, bad men, as being all naturally servile; but in whom virtue and true worth most is eminent, them they fear in earnest, as by right their masters; against them lies all their hatred and suspicion.-Milton.

DCCCXXIX.

Opinion is omnipotent; it is more powerful than the fear of bodily pain or death, as appears in gladiators, and duellists, and soldiers, and in the agony of a young woman who, having erred and strayed, will suffer any thing to conceal her shame; and as appears also in religious devotees and martyrs. It is more powerful than the desire between the sexes, as appears in the sacred love between brother and sister, and in devotees and religious seclusions.

It is more powerful than the love of friends, as appears in the duellist, who, to opinion, sacrifices the life of his friend, and exposes his widow and children to misery. It is more powerful than the love of a mother for her child, as in India where a mother throws her child to the sharks in the Ganges; or in England, where a misguided young woman destroys her infant, the pledge of her misplaced love. It may brand harmless or innocent acts as crimes, as in witchcraft, or the marriage of the clergy, or usury. It may inflict punishment of unlimited severity, as appears by the barbarities which at different periods of society have been inflicted by man in authority upon his offending or unoffending fellow-creatures.

The gladiators, says Bishop Taylor, were exposed naked to each other's short swords, and were to cut each others souls away in portions of flesh, as if their forms had been as divisible as the life of worms; they did not sigh or groan; it was a shame to decline the blow, but according to the just measures of art. The women that saw the wound, shrieked out, and he that received it, held his peace. He did not only stand bravely, but would also fall so; and when he was down, scorned to shrink his head, when the insolent conqueror came to lift it from his shoulders. The soldier, says Bishop Taylor, will stand in his arms and wounds, patiens luminis atque solis, pale and faint, weary and watchful; and at night shall have a bullet pulled out of his flesh, and shivers from his bones, and endure his mouth to be sewed up from a violent rent to its own dimension; and all this for a man whom he never saw, or if he did, was not noted by him, but one that shall condemn him to the gallows if he runs from all this misery.—Montague's Thoughts, &c.

VOL. II.-15

DCCCXXX.

The strength of Government does not consist in any thing within itself, but in the attachment of a nation, and the interest which the people feel in supporting it. When this is lost, government is but a child in power; and though, like the old government of France, it may harass individuals for a time, it but facilitates its own fall.

DCCCXXXI.

Sophists. Of all human forms and characters, none is less improveable, none more intolerable, and oppressive, than the race of sophists. They are intolerable against all nature, against all that is called general, demonstrated truth; they attempted to demolish the most solid and magnificent fabric with a grain of sand, picked from off its stones. Such knaves, whom to tolerate exceeds almost the bounds of human toleration, avoid like serpents. If you once engage with them, there is no end of wrangling.-Lavater's Aphorisms.

DCCCXXXII.

Anecdote of Whiston.-The late King being very fond of Mr. Whiston, celebrated for his various strictures on religion, happened to be walking with him one day in Hampton Court gardens, during the heat of his persecu tion. As they were talking upon this subject, his Majesty observed, "That however right he might be in his opinions, it would be better if he kept them to himself." "Is your Majesty really serious in your advice?" answered the old man." I really am," replied the King.—

"Why, then," says Whiston, "had Martin Luther been of this way of thinking, where would your Majesty have been at this time?"-Elegant Anecdotes.

DCCCXXXIII.

Combinations of wickedness would overwhelm the world, by the advantage which licentious principles afford, did not those who have long practised perfidy grow faithless to each other.-Johnson.

DCCCXXXIV.

Life. He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance, rather by the simple impulse of the wind, than the strokes of the oar; and many founder in their passage, while they lie waiting for the gale.— lbid.

DCCCXXXV.

On the Pursuit of Truth.-The pure wish to arrive at truth is, indeed, as rare as the integrity which strictly observes the golden rule to act towards others as we would wish others to act towards us. For this several reasons may be assigned. A principal one is, that men's interests are often indissolubly connected with the prevalence of certain opinions; they are, therefore, naturally anxious to find out every possible ground why these opinions should be held: their personal consequence, too, is often implicated in their support; they are pledged by their rank or office, or previous declarations, to the maintenance of a determinate line of argument, and they feel that it would be a disparagement to their intellectual

powers and to their reputation, were it proved to be unsound.

Another reason is, that such opinions are sometimes really objects of affection, and things of habit. We are accustomed to regard them as true, and it is troublesome to look at them in a different light; or perhaps we love them as the rallying points of pleasant ideas and cherished feelings.

In addition to all this, men are glad to find in their opinions some excuse for their practices. They naturally, therefore, wish to meet with a confirmation of those doctrines which are conducive to their self-complacency.

These, and other similar circumstances, create in the mind a desire to find some given opinion true; and of course as far as their influence extends, extinguish the desire to find the truth.-Essays on the Pursuit of Truth, &.c.

DCCCXXXVI.

Pride and Vanity.-No two qualities in the human mind are more essentially different, though often confounded, than pride and vanity: the proud man entertains the highest opinion of himself; the vain man only strives to infuse such an opinion into the minds of others; the proud man thinks admiration his due; the vain man is satisfied if he can but obtain it: pride, by stateliness, demands respect; vanity, by little artifices, solicits ap. plause: pride, therefore, makes men disagreeable, and vanity, ridiculous.-Zimmerman's Reflections,