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light; that the world grows younger by age; and that knowledge and experience are diminished, by a constant and uninterrupted accumulation.

XLIX.

THERE is but one pursuit in life which it is in the power of all to follow, and of all to attain. It is subject to no disappointments, since he that perseveres, makes every difficulty an advancement, and every contest a victory; and this is the pursuit of virtue. Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her, and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them. Those that seek her early, will find her before it is late; her reward also is with her, and

she will come quickly. For the breast of a good man is a little heaven commencing on earth; where the Deity sits enthroned with unrivalled influence, every subjugated passion, “like the wind and storm, fulfilling his word."

L.

EVEN human knowledge is permitted to approximate in some degree, and on certain occasions, to that or the Deity, it's pure and primary source; and this assimilation is never more conspicuous that when it converts evil, into the means of producing its opposite good. What for instance appears at first sight to be so insurmountable a barrier to the intercourse of nations as the ocean; but science has converted it into the best and most expeditious mean, by which they may supply their mutual wants, and carry on their most intimate communications. What SO violent as steam? and so destructive as fire? What so uncertain as the wind? and so uncontrolable as the wave? vet art has rendered these unmanageable things, instrumental and subsidiary to the necessities, the comforts, and even the elegancies of life. What so hard, so cold, and so in

sensible as marble? Yet the sculptor can warm it into life, and bid it breathe an eternity of love. What so variable as colour? so swift as light? or so empty as shade? Yet the pencil of a Raphael can give these fleeting things, both a body and a soul; can confer upon them an imperishable vigour, a beauty that increases with age, and which must continue to captivate generations. In short, wisdom can draw expedient from obstacle, invention from difficulty, safety from danger, resource from sterility, and remedy from poison. In her hands all things become beautiful, by their adaptment; subservient by their use; and salutary by their application.

LI.

AS there are none so weak, that we may venture to injure them with impunity, so there are none so low, that they may not at some time be able to repay an obligation. Therefore what benevolence would dictate, prudence would confirm. For he that is cautious of insulting the weakest, and not above obliging the lowest, will have attained such habits of forbearance and of complacency, as will secure him the good-will of all that are beneath him, and teach him how to avoid the enmity of all that are above him. For he that would not bruise even a worm, will be still more cautious how he treads upon a serpent.

LII.

THE only things in which we can be said to have any property, are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison, they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken from us by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we can

not say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world. Our actions must cloathe us with an immortality loathsome, or glorious; These are the only titled eeds of which we cannot be disinherited; they will have their full weight in the balance of eternity, when every thing else is as nothing; and their value will be confirmed and established by those two sure and sateless destroyers of all other earthly things, ---Time—and Death.

LIII.

For when we abuse

HE that abuses his own profession, will not patiently bear with any one else who does so. And this is one of our most subtle operations of self-love. our own profession, we tacitly except ourselves; but when another abuses it, we are far from being certain that this is the case.

LIV.

THERE are minds so habituated to intrigue and mystery in themselves, and so prone to expect it from others, that they will never accept of a plain reason for a plain fact, if it be possible to devise causes for it that are obscure, farfetched, and usually not worth the carriage. Like the miser of Berkshire, who would ruin a good horse to escape a turnpike, so these gentlemen ride their highbred theories to death, in order to come at truth, through byepaths, lanes, and alleys; while she herself is jogging quietly along, upon the high and beaten road of common sense. The consequence is, that those who take this mode of arriving at truth, are sometimes before her, and sometimes behind her, but very seldom with her. Thus the great statesman who relates the conspiracy against Doria, pauses to deliberate upon, and minutely to scrutinize into divers and sundry errors committed, and opportunities neglected, whereby he

would wish to account for the total failure of that spirited enterprise. But the plain fact was, that the scheme had been so well planned and digested, that it was victorious in every point of its operation, both on the sea and on the shore, in the harbour of Genoa, no less than in the city, until that most unlucky accident befel the Count de Fiesque, who was the very life and soul of the conspiracy. In stepping from one galley to another, the plank on which The stood, upset, and he fell into the sea. His armour happened to be very heavy-the night to be very dark—the water to be very deep-and the bottom to be very muddy. And it is another plain fact, that water, in all such cases, happens to make no distinction whatever, between a conqueror and a cat.

LV.

IN the tortuous and crooked policy of public affairs, as well as in the less extensive, but perhaps more intricate labyrinth of private concerns, there are two evils, which must continue to be as remediless as they are unfortunate; they have no cure, and their only palliatives are diffidence and time. They are these-The most candid and enlightened, must give their assent to a probable falsehood, rather than to an improbable truth; and their esteem to those who have a reputation, in preference to those who only deserve it.

LVI.

HE that acts towards men, as if God saw him, and prays to God, as if men heared him, although he may not obtain all that he asks, or succeed in all that he undertakes, will most probably deserve to do so. For with respect to his actions to men, however he may fail with regard to others, yet if pure and good, with regard to himself and his highest interests, they cannot fail; and with respect to his prayers

to God, although they cannot make the Deity more willing to give, yet they will and must make the supplicant, more worthy to receive.

LVII.

WE did not make the world, we may mend it, and must live in it. We shall find that it abounds with fools, who are too dull to be employed, and knaves who are too sharp. But the compound character is most common, and is that with which we shall have the most to do. As he that knows how to put proper words in proper places, evinces the truest knowledge of books, so he that knows how to put fit persons in fit stations, evinces the truest knowledge of men. It was observed of Elizabeth, that she was weak herself, but chose wise counsellors; to which it was replied, that to chuse wise counsellors, was, in a prince, the highest wisdom.

LVIII.

IF all seconds were as averse to duels as their principals, very little blood would be shed in that way.

LIX.

IF we cannot exhibit a better life than an atheist, we must be very bad calculators, and if we cannot exhibit a better doctrine, we must be still worse reasoners. Shall we then burn a man, because he chooses to say in his heart there is no God? To say it in his head, is incompatible perhaps with a sound state of the cerebellum. But if all who wished there were no God, believed it too, we should have many atheists. He that has lived without a God, would be very happy to die without one; and he that by his conduct has taken the word not out of the commandments, would most