establish a lie, would set fire to the temple of truth, with a fagot stolen from her altar.

Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority. The first page of an author not unfrequently suffices all the purposes of this latter class, of whom it has been said, they treat books as some do lords; they inform themselves of their titles, and then boast of an intimate acquaintance.

The two most precious things on this side the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. A wise man, therefore, will be more anxious to deserve a fair name, than to possess it, and this will teach him so to live, as not to be afraid to die.

He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do, exercises the truest humility; and few things are so disgusting as the arrogant affability of the great, which only serves to show others the sense they entertain of their inferiority, since they consider it necessary to stoop so low to meet it. A certain prelate, now no more, happened to meet at a large party, his old collegiate acquaintance, the celebrated Dr. G., of coursing and clas sical notoriety. Having oppressed the doctor with a plentiful dose of condescension, his lordship, with a familiarity evidently affected, inquired of the doctor, how long it might be since they had last the pleasure of seeing one another? The last time I had the honour of seeing your lordship,' said the doctor, happened to be when you were walking to serve your curacy at Trumpington, and I was riding to serve my church at Chesterford; and as the rain happened to be particularly heavy, your lordship most graciously condescended to mount my servant's horse. The animal not having been used to carry double, was unruly, and when your lordship dismounted, it was at the expense of no small number of stitches in your small-clothes. I felt not a little embarrassed for your lordship, as you had not then an apron to cover them; but I remember that you soon set me at ease, by informing me, that a sermon, enclosing some black thread and a needle, were thrce articles which you never travelled without; on hearing which, I ventured to congratulate your lordship on the happy expedient you had hit upon for giving a connected thread to your discourse, and soine polish no less than point to your arguments.' His lordship was never afterwards known to ask an old friend how long it was since he had last the pleasure of seeing him.

Most females will forgive a liberty, rather than a slight, and if any woman were to hang a man for stealing her picture, althougn it were set in gold, it would be a new case in law; but if he carried off the setting, and left the portrait, I would not answer for his safety, even if Alley were his pleader, and a Middlesex jury his peers. The felon would be doomed to feel experimentally, the force of two lines of the poet, which, on this occasion, I shal unite :

' Fæmina quid possit,

'Spretæque injuria forme.*

Habit will reconcile us to every thing but change and even to change, if it recur not too quickly Milton, therefore, makes his hell an ice house, as well as an oven, and freezes his devils at one period, but bakes them at another. The late Sir George Staunton informed me, that he had visited a man in India, who had committed a murder, and in order not only to save his life, but what was of much more consequence, his caste, he submitted to the penalty imposed; this was, that he should sleep for seven years on a bedstead, without any mattress, the whole surface of which was studded with points of iron resembling nails, but not so sharp as to penetrate the flesh. Sir George saw him in the fifth year of his probation, and his skin was then like the hide of a rhinoceros, but more callous; at that time, however, he could sleep comfortably on his bed of thorns,' and remarked that at the expiration of the term of his sentence, he should most probably continue that system from choice, which he had been obliged to adopt from necessity.

Those who have a thorough knowledge of the human heart, will often produce all the best effects of the virtues, by a subtle appeal to the vanities of those with whom they have to do ;-and can cause the very weakness of our minds, indirectly, t

• What things a woman, when despised, can do.--lus.

!

contribute to the furtherance of measures, from whose strength the powers of our minds would perhaps reccil, as unequal and inefficient. A preacher in the neighbourhood of Blackfriars, not undeservedly popular, had just finished an exhortation strongly recommending the liberal support of a certain very meritorious institution. The congregation was numerous, and the chapel crowded to excess. The discourse being finished, the plate was about to be handed round to the respective pews, when the preacher made this short address to the congregation: From the great sympathy I have witnessed in your countenances, and the strict attention you have honoured me with, there is only one thing I am afraid of; that some of you may feel inclined to give too much; now it is my duty to inform you, that justice, though not so pleasant, yet should always be a prior virtue to generosity; therefore, as you will all immediately be waited upon in your respective pews, I wish to have it thoroughly understood, that no person will think of putting any thing into the plate, who cannot pay his debts.' I need not add, that this advice produced a most overflowing collection.

Little errors ought to be pardoned, if committed by those who are great, in things that are greatest. Paley once made a false quantity in the church of St. Mary's; and Bishop Watson most feelingly laments the valuable time he was obliged to squander away, in attending to such minutie. Nothing, however, is more disgusting than the triumphant crowings of learned dunces, if by any chance they can fasten a slip or peccadillo of this kind upon an illustrios name. But these spots in the sun, they should remember, will be exposed caly by those who have made use of the smoky glass of envy οι of prejudice; it is to be expected that these trifles should have great importance attached to them by such men, for they constitute the little intellectual all of weak minds, and if they had not them, they would have nothing. But he, that like Paley, has actually measured living men, may be allowed the privilege of an occasional false quanti ty in dead languages; and even a false concord in words, may be pardoned in him, who has produced a true concord between such momentous things as the purest faith and the profoundest reason.

Nobility is a river that sets with a constant and undeviating current, directly into the great Pacific ocean of time; but, unlike all other rivers, it is more grand at its source, than at its termination.

The greatest difficulty in pulpit eloquence, is to give the subject all the dignity it so fully deserves, without attaching any importance to ourselves ; some preachers reverse the thing; they give so much importance to themselves, that they have none left for the subject.

Ingratitude in a superior, is very often nothing more than the refusal of some unreasonable request; and if the patron does too little, it is not unfrequently because the dependant expects too much. A certain pope, who had been raised froin an obscure situation, to the apostolic chair, was immediately waited upon by a deputation sent from a small district, in which he had formerly officiated as cure. It seems that he had promised the