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ance, exercise, &c., in that state which has a | fall him in the course of the day, if at rising like benign and salutary influence on the soul. The common practice is exactly the reverse. Men indulge passions in the soul which destroy the health of the body, and introduce distempers into it which impair the powers of the soul. Man being a compound creature, his happiness is not complete till both parts of the composition partake of it. This has been well stated by Saurin, diss. xxiii. p. 200, where mention is made of a treatise of Capellus on the state of the soul after death.

BOOKS.

1. It is with books as with animals: those live longest with which their parents go longest before they produce them.

2. When we study the writings of men, it is well if after much pains and labor we find some few particles of truth amongst a great deal of error. When we read the Scriptures, all we meet with is truth. In the former case, we are like the Africans on the Dust Coast, of whom it is said, that they dig pits nigh the water-falls of mountains abounding with gold, and then, with incredible pains and industry, wash off the sand, till they espy at the bottom two or three shining grains of the metal, that pays them only as laborers. In the latter case, we work in a mine sufficient to enrich ourselves and all about us.

3. Of the Spanish books, says Montesquieu, the only one good for anything is that which was written to show that all the rest were good for nothing.

he happened to put the left shoe upon the right foot :-but we are not therefore to say, that Augustus Cæsar was a fool. The very learned and able Bishop Jeremy Taylor, on a certain topic, asserts what was rather suited to the notions current in his time, than what was philosophically true; but it does not follow, that the Holy Living und Dying, in which this passage occurs, is therefore a foolish book. He would be indeed a foolish man, who should catch at such a passage, and make it a reason for rejecting all the excellent instruction and counsel contained in that golden treatise.

8. Bossuet, before he sat down to compose a sermon, read a chapter in the prophet Isaiah, and another in Rodriguez's tract on Christian perfection. The former fired his genius, the latter filled his heart. Dominichino never offered to touch his pencil, till he found a kind of enthusiasm or inspiration upon him.-Biog. Dict.

9. Patrons are but too apt to reward their authors with compliments, when they want bread. Sorbiere being treated in this manner by his friend Pope Clement IX., is said to have complained in the following humorous terms: "Most Holy Father, you give ruffles to a man who is without a shirt."

10. Valesius used to say, he learned more from borrowed books than from his own; because, not having the same opportunity of reviewing them, he read them with more care.

11. Some books, like some fields, afford plenty of provision for varions creatures— while, as to others,

4. Sir Peter Lely made it a rule, never to look at a bad picture, having found by experience that, whenever he did so, his pencil took a tint from it. Apply this to bad books-Jejuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris and bad company.

5. I have said, and I abide by it, cries Voltaire, that the fault of most books is their being too long. A writer who has reason on his side will always be concise.

6. The books which composed the Alexandrian library were employed to heat the baths in that city, then 4,000 in number; yet were they six months in consuming. The reasoning of the Caliph at that time was: Either these books are agreeable to the book of God, or they are not. If they are, the Koran is sufficient without them; if they are not, they ought to be destroyed.

7. The greatest and wisest men have not been proof against the errors and superstitious conceits of the age in which they lived. Augustus Cæsar thought the skin of a seacalf to be a preservative against lightning; and expected some grievous calamity to be

Vix humiles apibus casias roremque ministrat :
Et tophus scaber, et nigris exesa chelydris
Creta, negant alios æque serpentibus agros
Dulcem ferre cibum, et curvas præbere latebras.
GEORG. ii. 212

The coarse lean gravel, on the mountain sides,

Scarce dewy bev'rage for the bees provides:
Nor chalk, nor crumbling stones, the food of snakes,

That work in hollow earth their winding tracks.
DRYDEN, 293.

12. The Biographia Britannica, a work which, notwithstanding its singular merit, I cannot help calling Vindicatio Britannica, or a defence of every body. Royal and Noble Authors, ii. 68.

13. Voltaire's Universal History, a charming bird's-eye landscape, where one views the whole in picturesque confusion, and imagines the objects more delightful than they are in reality, and when examined separately. Ibid. 87.

14. By the writers of dialogues matters was so fond of her, was her exceeding good are often contrived, as in the combats of temper: she never was seen peevish or out the Emperor Commodus in his gladiatorial of humor; obliging and civil to all, and capacity. The antagonist of his imperial never forgetful of her former condition.majesty was allowed only a leaden weapon. Coxe, i. 568, from Gordon.-Peter was sub15. It is said of Ascham, that "he lost ject to occasional horrors, which at times no time in the perusal of mean and unprofit- rendered him gloomy and suspicious, and able books." See the reflection on it in Biog. raised his passions to such a height as to proBr. 2d edit. duce a temporary madness. In these dreadful moments Catharine was the only person who ventured to approach him; and such was the kind of fascination she had acquired over him, that her presence had an instantaneous effect, and the first sound of her voice composed his mind and calmed his agonies. From these circumstances she seemed necessary, not only to his comfort, but to his very existence: she became his inseparable companion on his journeys into foreign countries, and even in all his military expeditions. -P. 554.

16. "Fronti nulla fides" is a just maximotherwise, one should be prejudiced against a book with this title-Fog Theologiæ Speculativæ Schema.

17. "To read while eating was always my fancy, in default of a tête-á-téte. 'Tis the supplement to society I want. I alternately devour a page and a piece: 'tis as if my book dined with me." Rousseau, b. 6, vol. ii. p. 137.

18. Genuine knowledge should be diffused. "Quid magni faceres," said Archbishop Warham to Erasmus, " si uno agresti popello predicâris? Nunc libris tuis omnes doces pastores, fructu longé uberiore." Cooper's Charge, p. 22.-"What great work could you have wrought, had your preaching been confined to one small and rustic flock? But now, with much more extensive benefit, your books instruct the shepherds of all other flocks."

BRACHMANS AND ALEXANDER. Great indeed was the stateliness of the Brachmans! When Alexander expressed a desire to converse with them, he was told, these philosophers made no visits; if he wanted to see them, he must go to their houses. The tradition of a fall and restoration was strong among them.

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CHARACTERS AND ACTIONS OF REMARKABLE

PERSONS.

1. It will be hereafter with a wicked man, when he is punished for his sins, as it was with Apollodorus, when he dreamed that he was flayed and boiled by the Scythians, and his heart spoke to him out of the cauldron, σε Εγω σοι τέτων αιτια.—I am the cause of these thy sufferings."

2. Lysimachus, for extreme thirst, offered his kingdom to the Getæ, to quench it. His exclamation, when he had drank, is wonderfully striking-"Ah! wretched me! who, for such a momentary gratification, have lost so great a kingdom! 4 тng eμng naxias, os, δε ηδονην στα βαρειαν, ετέρημαι βασιλείας τηλι ."-How applicable is this to the case of him, who, for the momentary pleasures of sin, parts with the kingdom of heaven!

καυτης.

employment of man, so it is what great ge3. Horticulture, as it was the primitive niuses, after having passed through the busiest scenes in the political and military world, retire to with pleasure towards the close of their days.-See Sir W. Temple's Gardens of Epicurus.

4. A truly great genius doth not think it beneath him to attend to little things. When Paulus Emilius, after his conquest of Macedon, entertained the principal men of Greece, he showed that he understood the ordering and placing of his guests, and how every man should be received according to his rank and quality, to such an exact nicety, that the Greeks were surprised to find him so expert and careful even about trifles, and that a man engaged in so many weighty affairs should observe a decorum in such little matters. He told them, the same spirit

was required in marshaling a banquet as an | when all his enemies were upon him, and his army. See Plutarch.

5. The same Paulus Emilius, when he had followed to the grave two of the best of sons, one a few days before his triumph, the other a few days after it, told a convention of the Romans, that, after such a tide of success, he had feared a reverse of fortune either to them or himself; that he now felt his mind perfectly at rest, as, by the stroke falling on him and his family, he looked upon his country to be safe. There is a generosity and greatness of soul in this behavior not easy to be paralleled, as it came from a heart, says Plutarch, truly sincere, and free from all artifice.

6. It is finely observed by Plutarch, that, "as that body is most strong and healthful which can best support extreme cold and excessive heat, in the change of seasons; and that mind the strongest and firmest which can best bear prosperity and adversity, and the change from one to the other; so the virtue of Emilius was eminently seen, in that his countenance and carriage were the same upon the loss of two beloved sons, as when he had achieved his greatest victories and triumphs."-How doth this example reproach and shame the weakness and inconstancy of Christians!

7. The old proverb, Mocking is catching, was remarkably exemplified in the great Mr. Boyle; who, when yonng, by imitating stuttering children, acquired himself a habit of stuttering, of which he was never after perfectly cured.

8. Lord Orrery (Dr. Bentley's antagonist) was fond of two sorts of company. He either improved himself by conversing with men of real genius and learning; or else diverted himself with those in whose compo

sition there was a mixture of the odd and ridiculous: the foibles of such he would touch and play off with a delicacy and tenderness that prevented any offence from being taken even by the parties themselves, who enjoyed the humor, and joined in the laugh as heartily as the rest of the company. 9. The day after Charles V. (one of the wisest as well as most fortunate of princes) had resigned all his kingdoms to his son Philip, he introduced, and recommended to his service, his faithful counsellor and secretary, with these remarkable words: "The present I make you to-day is a far more valuable one than that I made you yesterday."

10. I am ashamed to think, that a little business and few cares should indispose and hinder me in my religious exercises, when I read, that Frederic, king of Prussia, at a time

affairs seemed absolutely desperate, found lei. sure to write a kind of philosophical testament in French verse. See Age of Louis XV. ii. 213.

11. Children should be inured as early as possible to acts of charity and mercy. Čonstantine, as soon as his son could write, employed his hand in signing pardons, and delighted in conveying through his mouth all the favors that he granted. A noble introduction to sovereignty, which is instituted for the happiness of mankind.-Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

12. Cyrus had taken the wife of Tigranes, and asked him what he would give to save her from servitude? He replied, all that he had in the world, and his own life into the bargain. Cyrus, upon this, very generously restored her, and pardoned what had passed. All were full of his praises upon this occasion, some commending the accomplishments of his mind, others those of his person. Tigranes asked his wife whether she did not greatly admire him? "I never looked at him," said she. "Not look at him!" returned he; "upon whom then did you look?" "Upon him," replied she, "who offered his own life to redeem me from slavery."-This charming example should be copied into our behavior in the house of God; where we should behold and contemplate the beauties and perfections of that blessed Person alone, who actually did give his life a ransom for us.-See Xenoph. Cyropæd. iii. 147.

13. When Constantine was instigated by his courtiers to make examples of the Arians, who had insulted his statues, he silenced them by raising his hand to his face, and saying, "For mine own part, I do not feel my

self hurt."

14. Would you see human vanity and misery at the highest? Behold the globe of the world carried in procession before the corpse of the Emperor Charles VII. who, during the short course of his wretched reign, could not keep possession of one small unfortunate province.

15. Victor Amadeus, tired of business and of himself, capriciously abdicating his crown, and a year afterwards as capriciously repenting, and desiring to have it again, displayed fully the weakness of human nature, and how difficult it is to gratify the heart, either with or without a throne.

16. Claude Lorrain studied his art in the open field, where he frequently continued from the rising to the setting sun. He sketched whatever he thought beautiful or striking, and marked, in similar colors, every curious

-Pent in his cage

Th' imprison'd eagle sits, and beats his bars;
Has seen him pine in sad captivity-
His eye is rais'd to heav'n. Though many a moon
-still he thirsts to dip

His daring pinions in the fount of light.

Poetical Epistle to Anstey, on the Eng. Poets

tinge of light on all kinds of objects. These were afterwards improved into landscapes, universally allowed to be superior to those of all other artists who have painted in the same style. In like manner Shakspere and Ben Jonson travelled and associated with all sorts of people, to mark different traits in 23. In treating of the human mind, and the characters and tempers of mankind, the management of it, the two great sources which were afterwards worked up into their of illustration are agriculture and medicine. inimitable plays. Every writer should fol--Bacon's Advancement of Learning, vii. low these examples, and take down thoughts as they occur in reading or conversing, to be ready for use afterwards when he sits down

to compose.

17. To the hasty correctors of the sacred text may be applied what an ingenious author has observed, when speaking of the critics on classical writers." The learning of the ancients had been long ago obliterated, had every man thought himself at liberty to corrupt the lines which he did not understand." Adventurer, vol. ii. p. 189. No. 58. 18. Obscurity of expression is elegantly called, by Mrs. Montague," that mist common to the eve and morn of literature, which in fact proves it is not at its high meridian." See Essay on Shakspere, p. 286.

19. Some make the discharge of the Christian ministry to consist in asserting the rights of the church, and the dignity of their function; others, in a strenuous opposition to the prevailing sectaries, and a zealous attachment to the established church government; a third sort, in examining the speculative points and mystical parts of religion; few, in the meantime, considering either in what the true dignity of the ministerial character consists; or the only end for which church government was at all established; or the practical influence, which can alone make speculative points worth our attention the reformation of the lives of men, and the promotion of their truest happiness here and hereafter. Gilpin's Life, p. 160.

20. It is observed of King, Bishop of London, in 1611, that he was so constant in preaching, after he was a bishop, that he never missed a Sunday when his health permitted. Biog. Dict. from Fuller.

21. The morning after the massacre of Paris, when the streets were covered with the bodies of slaughtered men, women, and children, before they were thrown into the Seine, the Catholics bethought themselves of a charitable device, which was, to strip them naked, in order to distribute their bloody clothes to the poor!-Saint Foix, Histoire de l'Ordre du S. Esprit.

22. To the soul confined in this material world, but aspiring to another and a better, apply the following lines:

3.-Our Saviour therefore so frequently applied to them (as the prophets had done before) for the illustration of his doctrine.

24. Champagne, a celebrated painter, was given to understand, he might have anything from Cardinal Richelieu, if he would leave the service of the queen mother-" Why," said he, "if the cardinal could make me a better painter, the only thing I am ambitious of, it would be something; but since that is impossible, the only honor I beg of his eminency is the continuance of his good graces."

25. It was a saying of Lord Clarendon's father, that he never knew a man arrive to any degree of reputation in the world who chose for his friends and companions persons in their qualities inferior, or in their parts not much superior to himself. And Huetius, I think, tells us, that as often as he heard of any one of very eminent character in the republic of letters, he never rested till, by some means or other, he had obtained an introduction to his acquaintance, and this from his earliest youth.

26. It happened formerly that a Rotterdam produced an Erasmus. And it happened lately, as the General Evening Post (March 14, 1771,) informs us, that a goose hatched four-and-twenty canary birds. these are events that do not happen every day.

66

But

27. When the Mexican Emperor Gatimozin was put upon the rack by the soldiers of Cortes, one of his nobles, who lay in tortures at the same time, complained piteously to his sovereign of the pain he endured. you think," said Gatimozin, "that I lie upon roses?" The nobleman ceased moaning, and expired in silence.-When a Christian thinks his sufferings for sin, in sickness, pain, &c., intolerable, let him remember those of his Lord, endured patiently on that bed of sorrow, the cross; and he will think so no longer.

28. When Gatimozin, just taken, was brought into the presence of Cortes, he noblemen taken with the emperor should be (Cortes) gave strict orders that the Mexican secured and strictly looked to, lest they should escape. "Your care," said Gatimo

zin, "is needless; they will not fly; they became Bishop of Winton, a distant relation, are come to die at the feet of their sovereign!" a blacksmith, applied to him to be made a -Such should be the disposition and resolu- gentleman, i. e. to be ordained, and provided tion of the disciples and soldiers of Christ. with a good benefice. No said the bishop, 29. Little circumstances convey the most you shall have the best forge in the county; characteristic ideas; but the choice of them but-every man in his own order and station. may as often paint the genius of the writer, as of the person represented.-Well exemplified in the instance of the Duchess of Marlborough. See Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. 200.

30. Inscription (not perfectly Augustan) on the Earl of Shrewsbury's sword: "Sum Talboti, pro occidere inimicos."-"I am Talbot's, for to slay his foes."

31. Wraxall, speaking of a cathedral, or abbey, in Livonia, demolished by the Russians, expresses himself thus:-" Posterity will see the standard wave where the crucifix has stood, and the matin bell will be succeeded by the trumpet."-P. 278.

37. It was a good rule of Dr. Hammond's always to have a subject in hand; in which case he observed, that, whatever course of reading he happened to be in, he never failed of meeting with something to his purpose. For this reason, no sooner had he finished one sermon, or tract, but he immediately put another upon the stocks. Thus he was never idle, and all his studies turned to present account. He never walked out alone without a book, and one always lay open in his chamber, from which his servant read while he dressed or undressed himself. His Life by Fell, though written in a style far from clear and agreeable, is one of the most improving books I ever read.

32. In former times, when Lord Keeper North applied close to his studies, and spent 38. Jordano (Luca) the painter was so his days in his chamber, he was subject to engaged in his business, that he worked at it the spleen, and apprehensive of many imagi- even on holidays. Being reproached for nary diseases; and, by way of prevention, this by a brother artist-"Why," said he, he went thick clad, wore leather skull-caps," if I was to let my pencils rest, they and inclined much to physic. But now, when he was made attorney-general, and business flowed in upon him, his complaints vanished, and his skull-caps were destined to lie in a drawer, and receive his money.-Life of Lord Keeper North.

33. As men are preferred, their zeal and diligence often remit, instead of increasing. Urban III. thus inscribed a letter to Archbishop Baldwin-"Monacho ferventissimo, Abbati calido, Episcopo tepido, Archiepiscopo remisso."-"Most fervent as a Monk, warm as an Abbot, lukewarm as a Bishop, cold as an Archbishop."-Life of Baldwin in Biog. Britan.

34. To instruct, and to govern, are two things; and a man may do the former well, who does the latter very indifferently. It is part of Dr. Allestry's character, as drawn in his epitaph: "Episcopales infulas eâdem industria evitavit, quà alii ambiunt; cui rectius visum ecclesiam defendere, instruere, ornare, quam regere."-He shunned the mitre as industriously as others seek it; he chose rather to defend, edify, and adorn, than govern the church."-Biog. Brit.

35. Bishop Andrews, when a lad at the university, used every year to visit his friends in London, and to stay a month with them. During that month, he constantly made it a rule to learn, by the help of a master, some language, or art, to which he was before a stranger. No time was lost.

36. When the same eminent person first

would grow rebellious, and I should not be able to bring them to order, without trampling on them."-This man had so happy a memory, that he recollected the manner of all the great masters, and had the art of imitating them so well as to occasion frequent mistakes.

39. Grove, the Presbyterian, published in 1728 a funeral sermon on the Fear of Death. The subject was treated in so masterly a manner, that a person of considerable rank in the learned world declared, that, after reading it, he could have laid down and died, with as much readiness and satisfaction, as he had ever done anything in his life.-Biog. Dict. Art. Grove.-The sermon must have been a good one to have wrought such a persuasion: but how the persuasion would have kept its ground, had the person been taken at his word, and ordered to prepare for instant death, is another question.

40. Remarkable is the following passage of Josephus, relative to the wickedness of his countrymen before Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans-"That time abounded with all manner of iniquity, so that none was left undone. Yea, though one endeavored to invent some new villany, yet could he invent none that was not then practised."

41. Sauveur, the French mathematicia n when he was about to court his mistress would not see her till he had been with a notary, to have the conditions on which he

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