tion of the name of the printer and also the corrector. In the edition of the "Pragmatic Sanction," by Andrew Bocard, at Paris, the following curious couplet occurs. Stet liber hic, donec fluctus formica marinos IMITATED. May this volume continue in motion, Or a tortoise hath crawled round the world. MARRIAGE. I would fain hear from those marriage haters but a shadow of reason, why I should not pronounce a modest wife the greatest of human blessings. She is the safety of that house whose affairs she administers. She is the tender and faithful nurse of your children. She is the joy of your health and your cure and relief in sickness, the partner of your good fortune and comfort in your bad. She soothes and breaks the headlong violence of youth, and tempers the morose austerity of age. Will any one offer to persuade us that the education of children, which are the very images of our bodies and pictures of our minds, and in whom we see as it were our very selves born again anew, affords not a delight sincere to the last degree? or that it is no satisfaction when we come to obey the laws of fate, to see a son of our own to whom we can bequeath those honours and possessions of our families which we received from our parents. Savage's Letters of the Ancients. EXACT.--Many gentlemen turn out of the seats of their ancestors to make way for such new masters as have been more exact in their accounts than themselves. Spectator. EXAMPLE.-A wise and good man will turn examples of all sorts to his own advantage. The good he will make his patterns, and strive to equal or excel them. The bad he will by all means avoid. Thomas a Kempis. Noble examples stir us up to noble actions, and the very history of large and public souls, inspires a man with generous thoughts.-Seneca. Lycurgus intending to put all his people upon an equality with respect to bodily strength and complexion, had recourse to education and gymnasties, prescribing even the food of children and youth in order to form habits and inclinations suitable to the observance of his laws. All these methods did indeed produce good effects in military matters. But at the same time the Lacedæmonians contracted a certain rough blunt air; uncivil, rude, and sometimes brutish, not to say inhuman manners. Equality, the grand object he had in view, was not kept up; arts and sciences did not flourish, and commerce was still more neglected. And why so? because, when we set ourselves to carry any one virtue to the highest pitch, we jump beyond a just medium, and neglect all other virtues.-De Cataneo's Source of Laws. EXTRAVAGANCE.-It is reported of Plato, that seeing once a young spendthrift eating bread and water at the door of an inn, where he had squandered his estate, the philosopher could not help saying, "Young man, if you had dined moderately, you need not have supped so poorly." BORN.-Among the Trauses, when a child is born, his relations, sitting in a circle about him, deplore his condition, on account of the evils he must suffer in the course of life, enumerating the various calamities incident to mankind. But when a man is dead, they inter him with exultation and rejoicings, repeating the miseries he has exchanged for a complete felicity.-Herodotus. WINE.-A vine bears three kinds of grapes, said Anacharsis; the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance.-Idler. A maxim is sometimes like the seed of a plant, which the soil it is thrown into must expand into leaves and flowers, and fruit; so that great part of it must be written as it were by the reader. SELF DENIAL. Brave Conquerors !-for so ye are, AGAINST DELAY. Let's take the instant by the forward top, MISER. Tantalus, it is said, was ready to perish with thirst, though up to the chin in water. Change but the name, and every rich man is the Tantalus in the fable. He sits gaping over his money, and dares no more touch it than he dares commit sacrilege.-Rule of Life. The only gratification a covetous man gives his neighbours is to let them see that he himself is as little better for what he has as they are.-Penn. What can be a more wretched sight than to see a starving miser mortify without religion? To submit to such voluntary hardships to no purpose, and to lose the present without providing for the future. Collier. Zeno said that an avaricious man was like a barren sandy ground, which sucks in all the rain and dews with greediness and thirst, but yields no fruitful herbs or plants to the inhabitants.-Montaigne. FORGIVENESS.-A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.-Archbishop Tillotson. Conviction without conformity, is like a man's seeing and wishing to obtain a new possession, and yet declining to part with an old one, though it is only by the sale of one, that he can raise the purchase money of the other.-Dillwyn's Reflections. A quick apprehension and lively imagination are seldom combined with a strong memory and solid judgment; but are rather like razors, which are managed more by slight than by strength, and are better adapted to nice than to great occasions.-Ibid. WIT.-Wit gives confidence less than confidence gives wit.-Palmer's Aph. LIFE. The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true that no diligence can ascertain success; death may intercept the swiftest career, but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking, has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle though he missed the victory.-Rambler. REPUTATION. The purest treasure mortal times afford O! reputation dearer far than life, Thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell, To its first purity and native sweetness. ADDISON. Sir Walter Raleigh. O'er Addison the muse triumphing sings, Proud that her fav'rite son is mingled with her kings, Dust which will mark, preserve the marble floor, A Poem called Westminster Abbey. PRIDE. By ignorance is pride increas'd; Those most assume who know the least. Gay's Fables. To show the strength and infamy of pride, Satire on Man. |