Women who have been happy in a first marriage,

are the most apt to venture upon a second.

MARRIED.

The Drummer, Act II. Scene I. - ADDISON.

Advice to those

Should erring nature casual faults disclose,

Wound not the breast that harbours your repose;

For every grief that breast from

you shall Is one link broken in the chain of love.

prove,

Soon, with their objects, other woes are past,
But pains from those we love are pains that last.
Though faults or follies from reproach may fly,
Yet in its shade the tender passions die.

MAY.

An Advice to the Married.-Dr. JOHN LANGHORNE.

Worshippe, ye that lovers been, this May,
For of your bliss the kalends are begun,
And sing with us, Away, winter, away !
Come, summer, come, the sweet season and sun
Awake, for shame! that have
And amorously lift up your heades all:

your

heavens won,,

Hark, Love, that list

you to his

mercy

call.

Away, winter away!-JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.

MEANS and MIRACLES.

When the angel brought St. Peter out of prison,

the iron gate opened of its own accord. But coming

to the house of Mary, the mother of John, mark, he was fain to stand before the door and knock. When iron gave obedience, how can wood make opposition. The answer is easy. There was no man to open the iron gate, but a portress was provided of course to unlock the door. God would not therefore show his finger, where men's hands were appointed to do the work. Heaven will not superinstitute a miracle, where ordinary means were formerly in peaceable possession. But if they either depart or resign (ingenuously confessing their insufficiency) then miracles succeed in their Scripture Observations, VIII.-THOMAS FULLER.

vacancy.

MEANS and END. The

It is not enough for men to propound pious projects to themselves, if they go about by indirect courses to compass them. God's own work must be done by God's own ways. Otherwise, we can take no comfort in obtaining the end, if we cannot justify the means used thereunto.

Historical Applications, VIII.-THOMAS FULLER.

MEDDLESOMENESS.

Reward of

I saw two men fighting together till a third, casually passing by, interposed himself to part them; the blows of one fell on his face, of the other on his back, of both on his body, being the screen betwixt the fiery anger of the two fighters. Some of the beholders

laughed at him, as well enough served for meddling with matters which belonged not to him.

Mixt Contemplations on these Times, XVIII.-
THOMAS FULLER.

MEDITATION. Advantages of

Meditation is the soul's perspective glass; whereby, in her long remove, she discerneth God, as if He were nearer hand. I persuade no man to make it his whole life's business. We have bodies as well as souls; and even this world, while we are in it, ought somewhat to be cared for. As those states are likely to flourish where execution follows sound advisements; so is man, when contemplation is seconded by action. Contemplation generates; action propagates. Without the first, the latter is defective; without the last, the first is but abortive and embryous. Saint Bernard compares contemplation to Rachel, who was the more fair; but action to Leah, who was the more fruitful. I will neither always be busy, and doing; nor ever shut up in nothing but thought. Yet that which some would call idleness, I will call the sweetest part of my and that is, my thinking. Resolves.-OWEN FELTHAM.

MELANCHOLY. Analysis of

Welcome, folded arms and fixed eyes,
A sigh, that piercing, mortifies,
A look that's fasten'd to the ground,

A tongue chain'd up, without a sound!

life,

Fountain-heads, and pathless groves,

Places which pale passion loves!

The Nice Valour, Act iii.-JOHN FLETCHER.

MELANCHOLY. Joys of

Voluntary solitariness is that which is familiar with melancholy, and gently brings on, like a Siren, a shooinghorn, or some sphinx, to this irrevocable gulf: a primary cause Piso calls it: most pleasant it is at first, to such as are melancholy given, to lie in bed whole days, and keep their chambers; to walk alone in some solitary grove, betwixt wood and water, by a brook side; to meditate upon some delightsome and pleasant subject, which shall affect them most; "amabilis insania," and "mentis gratissimus error." A most incomparable delight it is so to melancholise, and build castles in the air; to go smiling to themselves, acting an infinite variety of parts, which they suppose and strongly imagine they represent, or that they see acted or done.

Anatomy of Melancholy.-ROBERT BURTON.

MELANCHOLY. How to cure

To cure the mind's wrong bias, spleen,
Some recommend the bowling-green;

Some hilly walks; all exercise;
Fling but a stone, the giant dies;
Laugh and be well.

The Spleen.-MATTHEW GREENE.

MELODY. Origin of

O! surely melody from heaven was sent

To cheer the soul, when tired with human strife; To soothe the wayward heart by sorrow rent,

And soften down the rugged road of life.

MEMORY.

Music.-H. K. WHITE.

League after league it hurrieth thee,
Yet never quits its place;

It hath no wings wherewith to flee,
Yet wafts thee over space!
It is the fleetest boat that e'er

The wildest wanderer bore:
As swift as thought itself to bear
From shore to farthest shore;
'Tis here and there, and everywhere,
Ere yet a moment's o'er !

Parables and Riddles-SCHILLER.

MEMORY. Endurance of a thought in the
You may sooner part the billows of the sea,
And put a bar betwixt their fellowships,
Than blot out my remembrance; sooner shut
Old Time into a den, and stay his motion;
Wash off the swift hours from his downy wings,
Or steal eternity to stop his glass,

Than shut the sweet idea I have in me.

The Elder Brother, Act III. Scene v.
JOHN FLETCHER.