fond of danger, or daring in battle, being | was now arrived at it with pleasure: wheredelivered from that misery which made life a burden. Plut. in Vit. Pelop. 6. A general in time of peace, a pilot in a calm, and a clergyman when people are in health, are of very little account. War, storm, and sickness, cause them all to be sought to and confided in. 7. A Christian is a warrior by his profession, and has, through life, a succession of enemies to encounter. Lust attacks him in the days of his youth, ambition disquiets his riper years, and avarice infests his old age. His condition reminds one of that observation of Plutarch concerning the Romans of the first ages, that "if ever God designed that men should spend their lives in war, they were the men. In their infancy they had the Carthaginians to contend with for Sicily; in their middle age the Gauls for Italy itself; and in their old age they were obliged again to contend with the Carthaginians and Hannibal."-Vit. Marcell. ad init. fore he besought it to receive him, and restore him to his Master; that the same cross, by which he had been redeemed, might be the instrument of conveying him to his Redeemer. When come to the foot of the cross, he first prayed to Christ, and then exhorted the people to remain steadfast in the faith which he had delivered to them. He lived two days upon the cross, and during all that time never ceased to admonish and instruct the people. FRETFULNESS. The argument urged against it by the Psalmist deserves to be well fixed in our minds; and indeed, if it were so, we should need no other. "Fret not thyself against the ungodly, &c. FOR they shall soon be cut down like the grass," &c. Who could envy a flower, though ever so gay and beautiful in its colors, when he saw that the next stroke of the mower would sweep it away for ever? GREATNESS. 8. When a Christian beholds sickness (his last more especially) coming towards him, he should address it, as St. Andrew did the cross, as that which he had long expected, and A man wishes for it, and cannot be easy which would convey him to his blessed Mas- without it: no sooner has he attained his ter, by whose sufferings it had been sancti- wish, but you hear him lamenting his hard fied. Let us also bear in mind, that even on lot, complaining of cares, and troubles, and the cross St. Andrew ceased not to instruct visits: he has no peace, not an hour to himand admonish those around him. The words self; his expenditure is greater than his of a preacher, in such circumstances, never income, &c. &c. All this is wrong; he fail to make a deep and lasting impression.-only exposes his own weakness. He wanted Ille verò, cum Crucem eminus intueretur, eam honor and exaltation: he has got them, and salutavit, hortatusque est, ut discipulum ejus, must take their necessary appendages with qui ei suffixus fuisset, exciperet; eam dedica- them. If he thinks proper to receive the tam et consecratam esse Christi corpori, ejus- pay, he should not find fault with the duty. que membris, quasi margaritis, ornatam; diu The troubles of a station are designed as an eam defatigari ipsum expectando, quemadmo- antidote to the poison of its temptations. dum Christum magistrum expectâsset; latum They humble the possessor, and show him to se ad illam venire, cujus desiderio jam diu himself. They should be borne with meekteneretur: itaque orare, ut se exciperet, ac ness and patience, and made this use of. See magistro redderet; ut per illam ipsum Christus reciperet, qui per eam ipsum redemisset. Cumque ventum esset ad Crucem, primùm Christum oravit, deinde populum hortatus est, ut in eâ fide et religione, quam tradidisset, permaneret. In Cruce verò biduum vixit, cum interea nullum finem docendi populi fecit.Peronius de Gestis Apostolorum. He saluted the cross when he beheld it afar off, and entreated it to receive him as the disciple of that Master who had himself been nailed upon it. He declared that it was dedicated and consecrated to the body of Christ, and was more adorned with his limbs than if inlaid with pearls; that it had long expected him, as it has expected his Master Christ before him; that he had long looked forward to it with impatience, and what Fenelon has said on the Cross of Prosperity, ii. 143. 155. Also a sermon in Massillon's Petit Carême, where he shows a court to be the best school for learning mortification and self-denial. GRIEF. Grief is fruitless and unavailable in every case but one, viz. sin. We take to it kindly in every instance but that. HAPPINESS, ON FIFTY-SIX POUNDS PER ANNUM. A clergyman applied to the dean of Christ-Church for the little vicarage of Blenddington, then vacant, value, de claro, about 401. per ann. "Sir," ," said he, "I maintain a wife and six children on 567. per ann.-Not that I should regard the matter, were the income certain but when a man considers it may be taken from him any day of the week, he cannot be quite so easy."-"I will get the living for you, if I can," answered the dean; "but I would not have you raise your expectations too high; because, if any member of the college will take it, by our rules he must have it."-"O sir," replied the divine, "it would make me the happiest man in the world!--but if 1 miss it, I shall not be unhappy. I never knew what it was to be unhappy for one hour in my whole life." HIGH CHURCH. A name invented, according to Mr. Leslie, under which the church of England might be abused with greater security. Such are declared by Steele, in his Crisis, to be worse than Papists, and the very opposite to Protestants. Leslie, in his letter from Barle-duc, speaks of rods and tests prepared for the church of England by the Whigs, &c. had they succeeded in Sacheverel's trial; the intention of which was to make her swallow her own dung, as they said, and abjure her doctrines. HISTORY. 1. History, in general, is an account of what men have done to make each other unhappy. In the history of the present age, it is a striking circumstance, that the historian, amidst a series of murders and calamities, is glad to relieve himself and his reader, by dwelling on so minute an incident, of a different kind, as that of the seeds sown by Anson on the desert isle of Fernandes, which the Spaniards afterwards found to be grown up; and the goats, with their ears cut which served to verify the adventures of Selkirk, who, being left upon the island, had lived there several years.-See Age of Louis XIV. ii. 109. 2. Lord Chesterfield gives a good direction in reading history, viz. to read some short general history of a country; to mark the curious and interesting periods, such as revolutions in the government, religion, laws, &c.; then to consult the larger histories for full information as to them. 3. It is well observed by Hume, that, in reading history, trivial incidents, which show the manners of the age, are often more instructive, as well as entertaining, than the great transactions of wars and negociations, which are nearly similar in all periods, and in all countries of the world. Vol. v. 56. 4. History, while it instructs us, flatters our pride by the manner in which that in struction is conveyed. For what we learn by precept, we are indebted to the wisdom and authority of another. The learning obtained from example is obtained by deductions and applications of our own. HOBBES. "Let us do justice," says Bishop Warburton, " to that great man's memory, at a time his writings seem entirely neglected; whom with all his errors, and those of the most dangerous nature, we must allow to be one of the first men of his age, for a bright wit, a deep penetration, and a cultivated understanding several of whose uncommon specunregarded; but, when taken up by others, ulations, while they remained with him, lay of whom we deservedly have a better opinion, received their due applause and approbation. Mr. Locke borrowed and improved will the finest and most intricate dissertamany—e. g. that liberty belongs not to the tion in his Essay, as he confesses to Limborch." Warburton's Miscell. Translations in Prose and Verse, p. 124, printed 1724, for Barker, with a Latin dedication to Sir Robert Sutton. [Hobbes was a great favorite with Voltaire : "Virtuous citizen! enterprising spirit-the forerunner of Spinosa and of Locke!"—It is said in thy law of nature, "that every man having a right to all things, every one has a right over the life of his fellow-creatures." See Voltaire's Ignorant Philosopher, p. 53.] Is not power here confounded with right? HONESTY. "Honesty," saith Dr. Rees, in his Diction ary, " is a plant supposed to be possessed of eminent medical virtues; but it hath not the fortune to be received into the shops."-The doctor is perfectly grave, but the words ad-, mit of a humorous sense. HOPE. When the soul grows weary in her Christian course, and is ready to faint by the way, she should be refreshed and invigorated by a view of those heavenly joys, which are to reward her labors. For so when the Carthaginian soldiers were well nigh overcome with the difficulty and danger of the passage over the Alps, their wise general, from the top of those stupendous mountains, whence there was a prospect of all Italy, showed them the fruitful plains watered by the river Po, to which they were almost come; and therefore, that they had but one effort more to make, before they arrived at them. He represented to them, that a battle or two would put a glorious period to their toils, and enrich them for ever, by giving them pos- | are then set to watch on purpose to prevent session of the capital of the Roman empire. this catastrophe.-Watch YE! King's MorThis speech, filled with such pleasing hopes, sels of Criticism. and enforced by the sight of Italy, inspired the dejected soldiers with fresh vigor and alacrity to pursue their march. HUMAN FRAME. 1. Chyle is an emulsion, in making which from the food we take in, the teeth and jaws act as the pestle and mortar; the spittle, bile, pancreatic juice, &c. are the menstruum, instead of the water which the chemist employs; the stomach and intestines are the press; and the lacteal vessels the strainers to separate the pure emulsion from its fæces. Arbuthnot on Aliment, p. 67. 2. What mechanism is that, which can attenuate a fluid compounded of the ingredients of human aliment, as oil, salts, earth, and water, so as to make it flow freely through the lymphatic vessels, though some of them are a hundred times smaller than the arterial capillaries, ten of which are not equal to one hair! What mechamism is that, which from one uniform juice can extract all the variety of vegetable juices to be found in plants; which from such variety of food as enters the stomach of an animal, can make a fluid very nearly uniform, viz. blood; and again from that uniform fluid can produce the variety of juices in the animal's body! Yet all these operations are as mechanically and regularly performed as corn is ground in a mill, or cider made from apples in a press. 3. The lacteal vessels are the roots of an animal, whereby it draws its nourishment from the food in the intestines, as a vegetable does from the mould in which it is set; only a vegetable has its root planted without, and an animal within itself. A fœtus in the womb is nourished like a plant, but afterwards by a root planted within itself. P. 74. 4. Some insects have their wind-pipes on the surface of their bodies, and are therefore killed by the contact of oil, not as a poison, but as it excludes the air.-Arbuthnot on Air, p. 115. IDLENESS. 1. An indolent, idle man is a carcass; and, if he does not take care, the birds of prey (the ministers of vengeance) will be at him. In Romney Marsh, when the ravens, hovering on high, and keeping a sharp lookout, see a sheep turned on his back, so fat and unwieldy that he cannot recover himself, they instantly souse down upon him, pick out his eyes, and then devour the body, carrying it away piece-meal, as they are able. Persons 2. Adam worked in Paradise; afterwards in the world. "My Father worketh hitherto," says our Lord," and I work." There is probably no absolute idleness, but in hell, and in the resemblances of hell.-Ditto, p. 126. 3. The busy man, say the Turks, is troubled with one devil, but the idle man is tormented with a thousand. 4. Idleness is the most painful situation of the mind, as standing still, according to Galen, is of the body.-See Brown's Vulgar Errors, iii. 1. 5. The irksomeness of being idle is humorously hit off by Voltaire's old woman in Candide, who puts it to the philosophers,Which is worst; to experience all the miseries through which every one of us hath passed, or, TO REMAIN HERE DOING NOTHING? 6. Bishop Cumberland being told by some of his friends, that he would wear himself out by intense application, replied," It is better to wear out than to rust out." 7. It was an observation of Swift, that he never knew any man come to greatness and eminence, who lay a bed in a morning. 8. The most sluggish of creatures, called the Potto or Sloth, is also the most horrible for its ugliness-to show the deformity of idleness, and, if possible, to frighten us from it. 9. In the mind, as well as the body natural and politic, stagnation is followed by putrefaction. A want of proper motion does not breed rest and stability, but a motion of another kind; a motion unseen and intestine, which does not preserve, but destroy. 10. Sloth proceeds from want of faith or courage, or love, 2 Peter, i. 8. Add to faith virtue, &c.-These things make you, that you be ovx agyous—not idle and unprofitable.— See Whitby in loc. 11. The following is an admirable observation of Rousseau, in his Confessions, b. v. vol. ii. p. 89.-"In my opinion, idleness is no less the pest of society, than of solitude. Nothing contracts the mind, nothing engenders trifles, tales, backbiting, slander, and falsities, so much as being shut up in a room, opposite each other, reduced to no other occupation than the necessity of continual chattering. When every one is employed, they speak only when they have something to say; but, if you are doing nothing, you must absolutely talk incessantly; and this, of all constraints, is the most troublesome, and the most dangerous. I dare go even farther, and maintain, that, to render a circle truly Intention is the same in the inner man, as the eye is in the outer. While the eye is clear, it illuminates the whole body; each member is perfectly enlightened for the performance of its functions as if itself were an eye. If any humors suffuse the eye, the whole body is instantly overwhelmed with darkness. So the system of a man's conduct by a pure or vitiated intention. The intention is the view in which the action is performed, the aim, as we say, taken before the performance of it. If the light be darkness, if that which ought to direct the action be itself perverted and depraved, how great must be that depravity! KINGS. 1. "Before an opera is to be performed at Turin, the king himself takes the pains to read it over, and to erase every line that can admit of an indecent or double meaning. This attention is particularly paid to the theatre, on account of the morals of the royal family." Mrs. Miller's Letters from Italy, i. 200. for some time cover the natural deformity of a prince, he cannot always keep it on. He must take it off scmetimes, in order to breathe; and one single opportunity is sufficient to satisfy the curious. Artifice, then, shall seat itself in vain on the lips of a prince. We do not form a judgment of men from their words, but by comparing their actions with them, and with each other. Falsehood and dissimulation can never stand this test. A man can act well no part but his own; and, to appear to advantage, must appear in his proper character.-Ibid. 4. Be not thou, then, wicked with the wicked, but be thou virtuous and intrepid among them. Thou wilt make thy people virtuous as thyself; thy neighbors will imitate thee, and the wicked tremble.—Ibid. 5. Inundations which lay countries waste, lightnings which reduce cities to ashes, the poison of the plague which dispeoples provinces, are not so fatal to the world, as the dangerous morals and unruly passions of kings. Calamities from heaven endure but for a time; they destroy but some countries; and those losses, though grievous, are retrievable: but the crimes of kings cause whole nations to suffer, from generation to generation.—Ibid. LANGUAGE (FIGURATIVE) OF THE SS. Respecting the figurative language of the Scripture, there is this curious and important question to be determined-Whether God adopted it, because it was the style of the eastern nations; or it became the style of the eastern nations, because God originally constituted and employed it? LAWS. The observation, made by a great casuist 2. Kings honor human nature, when they on human laws, holds much stronger with distinguish and reward those who do most regard to divine ones-"The obedience of honor to it, and while they give encourage- that man is much too delicate, who insists ment to those superior geniuses, who employ upon knowing the reason of all laws, before themselves in perfecting our knowledge, and he will obey them. The lawgiver must be who devote themselves to the worship of supposed to have given his sanction to the truth. Happy are the sovereigns who them- law from the reason of the thing; but, where selves cultivate the sciences; who think with we cannot discover the reason of it, the Cicero, that Roman consul, the deliverer of sanction is to be the only reason of our obehis country, and father of eloquence; "Lit-dience." Bp. Taylor's Duct. Dub. b. iii. c. erature is the accomplishment of youth, and vi. rule 3. the charm of old age. It gives a lustre to prosperity, and a comfort to adversity; at home and abroad, in travel and in retirement, at all times and in all places, it is the delight of life."—A king, guided by justice, has the universe for his temple, and good men are the priests that sacrifice to him-Critical Essay on Mac. 3. Though the mask of dissimulation should LEARNING. 1. There is no kind of knowledge which, in the hands of the diligent and skilful, will not turn to account. Honey exudes from all flowers, the bitter not excepted; and the bee knows how to extract it. 2. Cicero's apology for the great men of Rome who employed their leisure hours in LOCKMAN. philosophical disquisitions is worthy notice: | him; as when the disciples saw Jesus walksome, it seems, thought such employment ing upon the sea, and knew not who it was, unworthy of them.—“ Quasi verò clarorum they were scared with the appearance; and virorum aut tacitos congressus esse oporteat, therefore our Lord, to take off their fear, aut ludicros sermones, aut rerum colloquia only made himself better known to them: It leviorum.Nec quidquam aliud viden-is I, says he, be not afraid. See Norris's dum est nobis, quos populus Romanus hoc in Sermons, xi. 194. gradu collocavit, nisi ne quid privatis studiis de operâ publicâ detrahamus. Quod si, quum fungi munere debeamus, operam nostram nunquam a populari cœtu removemus, quis reprehendet nostrum otium, qui in eo non modò nosmetipsos hebescere et languere nolumus, sed etiam ut plurimis prosimus enitimur?"-Acad Lucull. sect. 6.-As if it were proper for eminent men to remain mute in company, or to confine their conversation to drollery and trifles. Placed as we are by the Roman people in this elevated station, our only concern is to take care, that private study never withdraws us from a due attention to the public service. But if we are ever ready to perform every duty we owe to our country, who shall grudge us an application of our leisure, by which we not only rescue ourselves from indolence, but endeavor to produce fruits advantageous to others? 1. The famous oriental philosopher, Lockman, while a slave, being presented by his master with a bitter melon, immediately ate it all. How was it possible, said his master, for you to eat so nauseous a fruit? Lockman replied, "I have received so many favors from you, that it is no wonder I should once in my life eat a bitter melon from your hand." This generous answer of the slave struck the master to such a degree, that he immediately gave him his liberty. With such sentiments should man receive his portion of sufferings at the hand of God. 2. The same Lockman, being informed by angels (as the legend goes) that God would make him a monarch, replied-" If he would grant me liberty to choose my condition of life, I had rather continue in my present state, and be kept from offending him: other 3. There are some who have too mean an opinion of their own abilities, and by fancy-wise all the grandeur and splendor of the ing themselves to be useless, become so, and dare not attempt many things, in which they are capable of succeeding, and which they ought to perform. This behavior arises more from INDOLENCE OF MELANCHOLY, than from humility. Jortin's Sermons, iv. 24. 4. Inventors and projectors, however wild and visionary, often afford matter, which a wise man will know how to qualify and turn to use, though they did not. See Account of Settlement in America, i. 65. 5. Mr. Locke always used to say, "I like your builders; for, whether they succeed or not in constructing the edifice, they bring together materials very valuable to a more skilful architect." See Sublime and Beautiful, 92. 6. An original genius resembles the eagle, who disdains to share the plunder of another bird; and will take up with no prey, but that which he has acquired by his own pur suit. 7. "I pity unlearned gentlemen in a rainy day" was the usual saying of Lord Falkland. LIGHT AND LOVE. Light is the great source of blessing in the natural world, love in the moral. The excellencies of both are united in the Divine Nature: God is light, and God is love. A slavish and superstitious fear of God proceeds, therefore, from a misapprehension of world would be troublesome to me." "Speak the truth," said the same philosopher;" keep your word;—and intermeddle not in affairs which do not concern you." "Be a learned man, a disciple of the learned, or an auditor of the learned; at least be a lover of knowledge, and desirous of improvement." LYNCH (DEAN.) He was a constant preacher through life, either at the cathedral, one of his livings, or at Grove, his family estate; in short, wherever he happened to be. Of his charities a judgment may be formed from the following circumstance. His son was sent for by the citizens of Canterbury, and chosen burgess, without a shilling expense. "Sir," said the poorer freemen, sitting sober in their houses when he went round to thank them, "you had a right to command our votes; your father fed us, and your mother clothed us." Communicated to me by Dr. Beauvoir, who went round with him. The dean never forgot anything once treasured up in his memory. MACDONALD (HUGH.) The world tempts and disappoints; it excites desires after happiness, but satisfies them not. The case of its votaries too much resembles that of the perfidious rebel, Hugh |