"I can easily overlook any present

is in my power to be happy a thousand years hence."

sorrow,

when I reflect that it

Need-Necessity.

Need is exigent and pressing; necessity is stern and unyielding. Necessity demands; need requires. Those who are in necessity are in the lowest degree of poverty, and have no means of supplying their commonest wants; those who are in need are in a temporary difficulty, from which a moderate help will relieve them. Necessity forces us to act for ourselves; We in our need, we require the assistance of our friends. may manage to do without what is needful, but what is necessary cannot be dispensed with.

[Lear. O, reason not the need; our basest beggars
Are in the poorest things superfluous;
Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beasts';

Commands me name myself.

necessity

Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God
Can satisfy that need some other way.
So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds
Long patience hath such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing of which
He hath no need.
WORDSWORTH.
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain.

Exercise.

If the old saying-" A friend in

King Lear, ii. 4.

Coriolanus, iv. 5.

P. R., ii. 253.

P. L., iv. 393.

'Poems on Old Age.'

'Character of the Happy Warrior.']

is a friend indeed"-be true, how

much more valuable must be a friend in!

I find that I shall be able to manage the business perfectly well by myself, and shall stand in no

The maxim "

of assistance from any one.

has no law" is one of the most ancient in existence,

and is quoted or alluded to by almost all the writers of antiquity. We should be always ready to assist our fellow-creatures in time of their

It is our duty, as far as lies in our power, to relieve the who are in distress.

of those

We found the poor people in a state of the most horrible destitution; they had been obliged to part with every piece of furniture they possessed to pur

chase food, and to complete their misery, in the midst of their eral of them were attacked with a malignant fever!

sev

"One of the many advantages of friendship is, that we can say to our friend the things that stand in

of pardon."

"The cause of all the distractions in his court or army proceeded from the extreme poverty and his majesty was in."

Obstruction-Obstacle.

Both these words are expressive of what interferes with our progress. The difference between them is, that an obstruction hinders our proceeding as fast as we wish; whereas an obstacle effectually prevents our advancing. An obstacle is something standing before us; an obstruction is something thrown in our way. We stumble at an obstruction; we are stopped by an obstacle. Hence, an obstacle is a more serious matter than an obstruction. A heavy, wet road, is an obstruc

tion to the wheels of a carriage. A gate placed across a road is an obstacle to the progress of a carriage. Metaphorically, the same distinction exists. Obstructions are removed; obstacles are surmounted.

The river being now clear of all the two sailing vessels started at eleven o'clock, and were expected to return from the Nore the same night. The Duke of Gloucester, who allowed nothing to stand in the way of his designs, procured the death of the young princes. his nephews, as well as of all those whose influence or example presented any to his ambition.

to our improvement.

Self-conceit is one of the greatest The opposition, during this session, was more violent than ever, and every conceivable ——was thrown in the way of the government.

The pertinacity with which the Saxons clung to their own customs and language seemed to increase with the cruel policy of their haughty conto his desires. queror, and was for a long time an effectual

66 Оде

must have stood not a little in the way of that preferment

after which Young seems to have panted. Though he took orders, he never entirely shook off politics."

"In his winter quarters, the king expected to meet with all the and difficulties his enraged enemies could lay in his way."

Pertinacity-Obstinacy.

Pertinacity is but an intensive degree of tenacity, which expresses the quality of holding-to. Obstinacy is holding to a purpose when violently opposed. People cling to what they consider their natural rights with pertinacity; but if an attempt be made to deprive them of those rights, they defend them with obstinacy. The word obstinacy contains the idea of opposition. We speak of an obstinate dispute, defence, &c. We are pertinacious in maintaining opinions; we are obstinate in maintaining prejudices.

[Cam. The queen is obstinate, Stubborn to justice

Anger and obstinacy, and hate and guile.

Exercise.

Henry VIII., ii. 4.
P. L., x. 114.]

"One of the dissenters appeared to Dr. Sanderson to be so bold, so troublesome, and illogical in the dispute, as forced him to say, that he had never met a man of more confidence, and less abilities."

He was extremely tenacious of his own opinions, and defended them on all occasions with the most determined though his arguments never

carried conviction to the minds of any who heard them.

is never convinced of its own integrity; it resists reason, and opposes common sense; has to do with our feelings, prejudices, national character, &c.: in the latter, there is an amiable weakness; in the former, a self-sufficient pride.

This controversy was distinguished by the violence with which it was conducted on both sides; for nothing could exceed the which the two parties exhibited in maintaining their opinions, unless it was the malignity with which they denounced those of their opponents.

"Most writers use their words loosely and uncertainly, and do not make plain and clear deductions of words from one another, which it were not difficult to do, did they not find it convenient to shelter their ignorance or under the obscurity of their terms."

"In this reply was included a very gross mistake, and if maintained with -, a capital error."

Persuasion-Conviction.

In order to persuade, we address the feelings and the imagination. In order to convince, we address the reasoning faculty. The tinsel and glitter of rhetoric persuade; the arguments of the reasoner convince. After persuasion, a doubt may remain in the mind; but we have a positive certainty of what we are convinced of. A conviction implies firm belief. We may have misgivings concerning the truth of what we are persuaded to believe. Persuasion is liable to change. Conviction is firm and lasting.

[Fal. profiting

may'st thou have the spirit of persuasion, and he the ears of
1 Henry IV., i. 2.

By winning words to conquer willing hearts
And make persuasion do the work of fear
subtle shifts conviction to evade.

Exercise.

"When men have settled in themselves a

P. R., i. 223.

Id., iv. 308.]

that there is nothing

honorable which is not accompanied with innocence; nothing mean but what has guilt in it; riches, pleasures, and honors will easily lose their charms, if they stand between us and our integrity."

"Let the mind be possessed with the

of immortal happiness an

nexed to the act, and there will be no want of candidates to struggle for the glorious prerogative."

"I should be glad if I could

him to write such another critique on

any thing of mine; for when he condemns any of my poems, he makes the world have a better opinion of them."

but so as all hearts must

"That which I have been all this while endeavouring to - men of, and to them to, is no other than what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for human consideration." "Philoclea's beauty not only yield; Pamela's beauty used violence, and such as no heart could resist." History is all the light we have in many cases, and we receive from it a great part of the useful truths we have, with a

evidence."

quence, to use all imaginable insinuations and entreaties that he might prevail with his hearers to believe that three and three make six!"

Pleasure-Happiness.

Pleasure is a temporary gratification. Happiness is a continued state of enjoyment. We are happy in the exercise of

our faculties; we are pleased with whatever is agreeable to our perceptions. Pleasure is derived through the senses. We feel pleasure from what we eat or drink, see or hear. Happiness is an inward feeling, and is derived from consciousness. The beauty of a landscape, the sound of music, the fragrance of flowers, give us pleasure; the consciousness of our power to enjoy these pleasures makes us happy.

Having inspected the whole establishment, and partaken of some refreshment which had been prepared for him, he departed, expressing great

at every thing he had seen.

Wealth, though it assists our

A consciousness of our integrity is a never-failing source of

does not consist in the

variety they be enjoyed.

cannot procure us

of sense, in whatever profusion or

When we are in perfect health and spirits, we feel in ourselves a

independent of any particular outward gratification whatever, and of which we can give no account.

There is hardly any delusion by which men are greater sufferers in their

than by expecting too much from what is called

In strictness, any condition may be denominated amount of exceeds that of pain; and the degree of upon the quantity of this excess.

in which the

depends

"That every day has its pains and sorrows, is universally experienced; but if we look impartially about us, we shall find that every day has likewise its

and its joys."

"The various and contrary choices that men make in the world argue that the same thing not good to every man alike; this variety of pursuit shows that every one does not place in the same thing."