which many will find that their idleness has mainly contri buted to the balance against them. From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb, which says, that The devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil; And Prince Eugene informed a confidential friend, that, in the course of his life, he had been exposed to many Potiphars, to all of whom he had proved a Joseph, merely because he had so many other things to attend to.

LXXI.

THERE is no quality of the mind, nor of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him, who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than by the steady beams of the sun. The conquest, therefore, of wit over the mind, is not like that of the Romans over the body; a conquest regulated by policy, and perpetuated by prudence; a conquest that conciliated all that it subdued, and improved all that it conciliated The triumphs of wit should rather be compared to the inroads of the Parthians, splendid, but transient; a victory succeeding by surprise, and indebted more to the sharpness of the arrow, than the strength of the arm, and to the rapidity of an evolution, rather than to the solidity of a phalanx. Wit, however, is one of the few things which has been rewarded more often than it has been defined. A certain bishop said to his chaplain: What is wit? The chaplain replied, the rectory of B.... is vacant, give it to me, and that will be wit. Prove it, said his Lordship, and you shall have it: It would be a good thing well applied, rejoined the chaplain. The dinner daily prepared for the Royal Chaplains at St James's, was reprieved, for a time, from

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suspension, by an effort of wit. King Charles had appointed a day for dining with his chaplains; and it was understood that this step was adopted as the least unpalatable mode of putting an end to the dinner. It was Dr. South's turn to say the grace: and whenever the king honoured his chaplains with his presence, the prescribed formula ran thus: "God save the king, and bless the dinner." Our witty divine took the liberty of transposing the words, by saying, " God bless the king, and save the dinner." "And it shall be saved," said the monarch.

LXXII.

IT is not so difficult to fill a comedy with good repartee, as might be at first imagined, if we consider how completely both parties are in the power of the author. The blaze of wit in the School for Scandal astonishes us less when we remember that the writer had it in his power to frame both the question and the answer; the reply and the rejoinder; the time and the place. He must be a poor proficient, who cannot keep up the game, when both the ball, the wall, and the racket, are at his sole command.

LXXIII.

THE clashing interests of society, and the double, yet equal and contrary demands arising out of them, where duty and justice are constantly opposed to gratitude and inclination, these things must make the profession of a statesman, an office neither easy nor enviable. It often happens that such men have only a choice of evils, and that, in adopting either, the discontent will be certain, the benefit precarious. It is seldom that statesmen have the option of chusing between a good and an evil; and still more seldom, that they can boast of that fortunate situation, where, like the great Duke of Marlborough, they are permitted to chuse between two things that are good. His Grace was hesitating whether he should take a prescription recommended by the duchess;

"I will be hanged," said she, "if it does not cure you." Dr. Garth, who was present, instantly exclaimed, "Take it, then, Your Grace, by all manner of means, it is sure to do good, one way or the other."

LXXIV

HURRY and Cunning are the two apprentices of Dispatch and of Skill; but neither of them ever learn their masters' trade.

LXXV.

SUCCESS seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit. Nelson, when young, was piqued at not being noticed, in a certain paragraph of the newspapers, which detailed an action, wherein he had assisted; "But never mind," said he, "I will one day have a Gazette of my own."

LXXVI.

THE excesses of our youth, are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest, about thirty years after date.

LXXVII.

NONE are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company, as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves.

LXXVIII.

SOME historians, like Tacitus, Burnet, and the Abbé Raynal, are never satisfied, without adding to their detail of events, the secret springs and causes that have produced them. But, both heroes and statesmen, amid the din of arms, and the hurry of business, are often necessitated to

invert the natural order of things; to fight before they deliberate, and to decide before they consult. A statesman may regulate himself by events; but it is seldom that he can cause events to regulate themselves by him. It often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together, a main-plot, and an under-plot; and he that understands only one of them, will, in all probability, be the dupe of both. A mistress may rule a monarch, but some obscure favourite may rule the mistress. Doctor Busby was asked how he contrived to keep all his preferments, and the head mastership of Westminster School, through the successive, but turbulent, reigns of Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell, Charles the Second, and James; he replied, "The fathers govern the nation; the mothers govern the fathers; but the boys govern the mothers, and I govern the boys."

LXXIX.

FORTUNE has been considered the guardian divinity of fools; and, on this score, she has been accused of blindness; but it should rather be adduced as a proof of her sagacity, when she helps those who certainly cannot help themselves.

LXXX.

LITERARY prizes, and academical honours, are laudable objects of any young man's ambition; they are the proofs of present merit, and the pledges of future utility. But, when hopes excited within the cloister, are not realized beyond it; when academical rewards produce not public advantage, the general voice will not squander away upon the blossom, that praise and gratitude, which it reserves only for the fruit. Let those, therefore, who have been successful in their academic career, be careful to maintain their speed, "servetur ad imum," otherwise these petty kings, within the walls of their colleges, will find themselves de

throned monarchs when they mix with the world; a world through which, like Theodore, they will be doomed to wander, out of humour with themselves, and useless to society; exasperated with all who do not recognise their former royalty, and commiserate their present degradation. The Senior Wrangler, of a certain year, piping hot from the Senate House at Cambridge, went to the play at DruryLane; it so happened, that a certain great personage entered at the same moment, on the other side of the house, but unobserved by the mathematician. The whole house testified their respect, by a general rising and clapping of hands. Our astonished academic instantly exclaimed, to the no small of his London friends, "Well, well, this is more than I expected; how is it possible that these good people should so soon have discovered that I um the Senior Wrangler!!"

amusement

LXXXI.

MEN spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period or other, when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future are not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age. Let our happiness, therefore, be a modest mansion, which we can inhabit, while we have our health and vigour to enjoy it; not a fabric, so vast and expensive, that it has cost us the best part of our lives to build it, and which we can expect to occupy only when we have less occasion for an habitation than a tomb. It has been well observed, that we should treat futurity as an aged friend, from whom we expect a rich legacy. Let us do nothing to forfeit his esteem, and treat him with respect, not with servility. But let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old, otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had King of Corsica.