A noble mansion with an avaricious owner, is like a very fine binding to an ill written book; you must not expect to meet with good entertainment within.-Wit's Magazine.

Satire should not be like a saw, but a sword; it should cut, not mangle.—Ibid.

There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal, whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead. However, such instruments are necessary to politicians; and perhaps it may be with states as with clocks, which must have some dead weight hanging at them to help and regulate the motion of the finer and more useful parts.-Pope.

"That was excellently observed," said I when I read a passage in an author where his opinion agrees with mine: when we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.-Swift.

Wine is a turn-coat: first a friend, then an enemy. Old Proverbs.

It is never too late to learn what it is always necessary to know; and it is no shame to learn, so long as we are ignorant; that is to say, so long as we live.-Rule of Life.

Good qualities are the substantial riches of the mind, but 'tis good breeding sets them off-Locke.

He that understands the weight of each, would rather wield a flail than a sceptre. Art of Contentment.

K

KNOWLEDGE.-No knowledge which terminates in curiosity and speculation is comparable to that which is of use; and of all useful knowledge that is most so which consists in a due care and notion of ourselves.-St. Bernard.

He hath no leisure who useth it not.

Old English Proverbs.

Most people read books as children visit a flower garden; they amuse themselves with this or t'other gaudy knot; the colour calls, their eye from one border to another; the sight of the present banishes the last. It is the man of real taste who takes in the flower and other gardens at one view, who considers the cast of the grounds, the crossing lines, the disposition of the walks, the arrangement of the trees, and the conveniency of the shades and arbours, the propriety of the statues, and perceives the symmetry resulting from the whole.

Letters concerning Mythology.

ANTIQUITY.-An Egyptian priest having confer. ence with Solon, said to him, "You Grecians are ever children; you have no knowledge of antiquity, nor antiquity of knowledge.-Francis Bacon.

FRIENDSHIP. If it be the part of a friend to rejoice at what redounds to his friend's credit, it is no less so, to attempt to drive from that friend's heart what he judges contrary to it.-Boccacio.

REMORSE. Let the virtuous remember, amidst their affliction, that though the heart of a good man may bleed even to death, it will never feel a torment equal to the rendings of remorse.

Man of the World.

However rich or powerful a man may be, it is the height of folly to make personal enemies from any, but particularly personal motives; for one unguarded moment (and who could support the horrors of a never ceasing vigilance?) may yield you to the revenge of the most despicable of mankind.

Lord Lyttelton.

OATHS. The regard due to the Divinity could not, according to Plato, be carried too far in this respect. It was from this principle he desired that, in trials wherein only the temporal interests were concerned, the judges should not require any oath from the parties, in order that they might not be tempted to take any false ones, as it happens, says he, with more than half those who are obliged to swear; it being very uncommon and difficult for a man, when his estate, reputation, or life are at stake, to have so great a reverence for the name of God as not to venture to take it in vain. This delicacy is remarkable in a Pagan, and well worth our serious reflection.-Rollin's Ancient History.

We follow the world in approving others, but we go far before it in approving ourselves.-Smith.

ANECDOTE OF LESSING.The celebrated Lessing was remarked for a frequent absence of mind. Having missed money at different times, without being able to discover who took it, he determined to put the honesty of his servant to a trial, and left a handful of gold on the table. "Of course you counted it," said one of his friends. "Count it," said Lessing rather embarrassed, "I forgot that."

The most provident have commonly more to spare than men of great fortunes-Johnson.

GAIETY.-Gaiety is not a proof that the heart is at ease, for often in the midst of laughter the heart is sad. De Genlis.

That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with viruous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provision which we can make of the goods of fortune.--Blair.

When the ideas of any pleasure strikes your imagination, make a just computation between the duration of pleasure and that of the repentance sure to follow it.-Epictetus.

The Hartwolfe, be he never so hungry and ready to eat, yet if he see another prey, he forsakes his meat and follows after it. Such a wolf in the heart is ambitious covetousness; it makes no use of what it hath gotten, but greedily hunteth after more; and like Æsop's dog, loseth the morsel in his mouth, by snapping at the shadow in the water. He therefore maketh his bargain ill, that taketh a future hope with a present loss, and parts with a certain possession, to make an uncertain purchase.

Aphorisms, by Francis Guicciardini

A prudent man desires as much to inform himself as to instruct others.-Rule of Life.

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue honour. able, though in a peasant.-Addison,

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.-Ibid.

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you what they please.-Pythagoras.

No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience; insomuch that we find ourselves really ignorant of what we fancied our truest interest.Ter. Adelph. act v. sc. 4.

I once heard a gentleman make a very witty reply to one who asserted that he did not believe there was a truly honest man in the whole world: "Sir," said he, "it is quite impossible that any one man should know all the world, but it is quite possible that some one man may know himself.”

Opinions grounded upon prejudice are always maintained with the greatest violence.

Jeffrey's Miscel. Thoughts.

Satire is a composition of salt and mercury; and it depends upon the different mixture and preparation of those ingredients, that it comes out a noble medicine, or a rank poison.-Ibid.

The disease and its medicine are like two factions in a besieged town-they tear one another to pieces, but both unite against their common enemy, Nature. Ibid.

Good-ill like a good name, is got by many ac tions and lost by one.-Ibid.