and take its place in the repositories of the dead.—Bishop Horne.

DCCCCXXIV.

Astrology, &c.-A fond belief in the powers of certain delusive arts, particularly astrology, natural magic, and alchemy, has greatly retarded the progress of knowledge, by engrossing the attention of many of the finest geniuses which the world has ever produced, and by introducing, into medicine especially, a multitude of false facts, founded on the grossest superstition and delusion. These arts, which promised to be of infinite use in life, laid such fast hold of the imagination, that no power of reason was able to free men from their enchantment. At the same time, they have accidentally given rise to important discoveries, and would furnish some excellent materials for a natural history of the human imagination.-Gregory.

DCCCCXXV.

Devotion of a Great Mind to its Duties.-Milton, who, during an active life in the most troublesome times, was unceasing in the cultivation of his understanding, thus describes his own habits::-"Those morning haunts are where they should be, at home; not sleeping or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but up and stiring; in winter, often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour or devotion; in summer as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them to be read till the attention be weary, or memory have its full fraught; then with useful and generous labours preserving the body's health and hardness, to tender lightsome, clear and not lumpish obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion and our country's liberty.

DCCCCXXVI.

The Drum.

I hate that drum's discordant sound,
Parading round and round and round;
To thoughtless youth it pleasure yields,
And lures from cities and from fields,
To sell their liberty for charms

Of tawdry lace and glittering arms;
And when ambition's voice commands,

To march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands.

I hate that drum's discordant sound,
Parading round and round and round;
To me it talks of ravag'd plains,
And burning towns and ruin'd swains,
And mangled limbs and dying groans,
And widow's tears, and orphan's moans,
And all that misery's hand bestows,
To fill the catalogue of human woes.

DCCCCXXVII.

Scott of Amwell.

Longing after Immortality.—The desire of being remembered when we are no more is deeply implanted in the human mind. We all cast "a longing lingering look behind," and desire to know what will be said of us when we are no more. "I shall not altogether die!" was the triumphant exclamation of a poet of antiquity, when speaking of the productions of his brain: "I shall leave a memorial of myself" is the idea of the swain who rudely carves the initials of his name on the glossy surface of a beech tree in the forest.

The idler who cuts letters with his knife on the benches in our public walks, the poet who writes verses with his pencil on the boards of the summer-house are equally anxious that at least some part of them may escape the ravages of the gloomy Libitina.

We do not attempt to condemn this propensity merely because it discovers itself in trifles. No: had circumstances favoured the ambition of these candidates for immortality, they might have plundered cities, ravaged kingdoms, established empires, and become "mighty hunters" on the earth. This is the same principle which induced men in early ages to say to each other: "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name."-The Savage,

DCCCCXXVIII.

Liberty and Necessity.—If libertarians acknowledge that any action will follow their willing it, they must know that the action, and their willing it, are necessarily associated together. But they cannot presume from this, that the necessity begins with their will.-That which necessarily causes any thing, has itself been necessarily caused; for if it had not, that, which it necessarily produced, and which, therefore, necessarily existed, might not have been, which is contradictory and impossible.— In this manner, then, these reasoners establish the "doctrine of necessity," as fully as any necessarian can do it for them.-Drummond.

DCCCCXXIX.

The Poor.-Honour be to all honest conditions of human life, and to that of honest poverty among the rest. Let the poor only turn their misfortunes to the improve

ment of themselves; let them presume not to think that suffering authorizes them to commit crimes, or to foster hatred; and they cannot be wholly unhappy. Never, however, under any circumstances, ought we to be severe in our judgment of them. Have deep compassion upon the really poor, although they are often goaded by im. patience even to rage. Consider how hard a thing it is to suffer extreme want on the highway or in the hovel, while within a few steps the wretched man beholds his fellow-creatures, splendidly arrayed and daintily fed, pass by him. Forgive him if he have the weakness to regard you with malice, and relieve his wants because he is a man.-Coleridge.

DCCCCXXX.

Conversation.-When five or six men are together, it is curious to observe the anxiety every one has to speak. No one wishes to hear; all he desires is an auditor. Ra. ther than defer telling their respective stories, they frequently all speak at the same time.

Every one has a subject of his own that he wishes to introduce; therefore he is miserable until he has an opportunity to drag it in. One is desirous to discuss some religious subject: another would engage in a political dis. quisition. One would talk of the price of stocks; and another would expatiate upon the merits of a favourite horse. The glass circulates, and the confusion becomes general.

The tower of Babel would be an excellent sign for a modern tavern.-The Savage.

DCCCCXXXI.

Attachment to Antiquity or Novelty.-The opinions which men entertain of antiquity, is a very idle thing, and almost incongruous to the word; for the old age and length of days of the world, should in reality be accounted antiquity, and ought to be attributed to our own times, not to the youth of the world, which it enjoyed among the ancients: for that age, though with respect to us it be ancient and greater, yet, with regard to the world, it was new and less. And as we justly expect a greater knowledge of things, and a riper judgment from a man of years than from a youth, on account of the greater experience, and the greater variety and number of things seen, heard, or thought of, by the person in years; so might much greater matters be justly expected from the present age, (if it knew but its own strength, and would make trial and apply,) than from former times; as this is the more advanced age of the world, and now enriched and furnished with infinite experiments and observations.

Sir Henry Wotton, in his answer to Bacon's presenta tion of the Novum Organum, says, "of your Novum Organum I shall speak more hereafter; but I have learnt thus much already by it, that we are extremely mistaken in the computation of antiquity by searching it backwards; because, indeed, the first times were the youngest.”Basil Montague.

DCCCCXXXII.

Friendship.-A likeness of inclinations in every particular is so far from being requisite to form a benevolence in two minds towards each other, as it is generally imagined, that I believe we shall find some of the firmest