cisms on their faults! This fact brings a story to recollection of a gentleman from the Herald's College, who was much disappointed on the view of the lious in the Tower, as he found them so very different from what he had used to delineate them, rampant, couchant, &c. at the College.

Best Practice in Medicine.

The great Sydenham [born 1624] relates of himself, that ever since he had applied to the practice of physic he had been of opinion, and the opinion every day had been confirmed in him, that the medical art could not be learnt so surely as by use and experience; and that he that should pay the nicest and most accurate attention to the symptoms of distempers would infallibly succeed best in searching out the true means of cure. For this reason be adds, "I give myself up entirely to this proceeding, secure and confident that while I followed Nature I could not err."-Sydenham's letter to Dr. Mapletoft.

Simplicity of Style.

There seems a deal ofcant in praising this excellent quality in writing; and as it happens in all other canting praises, they are more especially brought forward by those persons who possess very little of that virtue themselves. In the "English Garden" by Mason, we see a panegyric

on simplicity of style in the initial lines of the poem, out of which many passages might be produced to shew that Mason was no practical admirer of simplicity in general style of poetry, where his "idle epithets" as Quintilian calls them, hang heavy weights on the flimsy texture of his compo sition.

Mobs philosophically described.

The imperfections of individuals being great, they are moreover enlarged by their aggregation, and being erroneous in their single numbers, being huddled together, they will be error itself; for being a confusion of knaves and fools, and a farraginous concurrence of all conditions, tempers, sexes, and ages, it is but natural, if their determinations be monstrous, and in many ways inconsistent with truth.-( Vulgar Errors, Sir T. Brown, b. 1. c. 3.)

Virtue.

How many men are virtuous, from knowing not how many are the temptations to vice in the world; as many others are very bold, from an ignorance of the danger which may be in the way of their pursuits. Many men are bullies, because they never met a bolder man than themselves. Knowledge of the world makes men very quiet,

as they know how many there are, from various reasons, inclined to be otherwise.

The Stoics.

This sect among the ancients cannot be reckoned among their sages. All attempts, and even boasts, to have driven all the passions from their agency, are at once ridiculous and impossible. What should we think of a navigator, who should wish to check every wind, and to fit up his vessel only with ballast, and leave out the sails?

Attachment to Theories.

Whatever objections they may express to arguments à priori, the most obstinate attachment to their favourite theories is visible in many persons who deem themselves no mean philosophers. I knew one man, that every winter was hazarding his neck on the ice, in spite of sundry bad falls and contusions, because, as he said, his theory of skaiting was complete. Another acquaintance would never get into a coach of any kind, because, according to his theory, they ought to be subject to an overturn every step which they moved.

Mrs. Radcliffe's Romances.

Many readers object to her frequent picturesque descriptions of landscape in her narratives; and.

the critics say, that they do not assist the main story all this may be objectionable, yet the descriptions are so beautiful in themselves, that we would not have them expunged. Mrs. R.'s heroines make their journies like travellers of virtù, who carry with them eminent painters, that they may adorn their narratives by that pleasing art of bringing their prospects before the eyes of the reader.

John Locke.

In most minds, the treatises of this profound Philosopher on the human mind are likely to produce a modest and humble opinion of the faculties of our understanding; yet have I known some persons who, from the reading of Locke, have assumed greater confidence in their intellects, and become more disputatious and verbose in conversation, than they were before. Surely such men were ill qualified to peruse the writings of this sober philosopher.

Coquetry.

Tacitus seems as well acquainted with the foibles of his female, as with the vices of his male, characters. Speaking of the Empress Poppaa, when she appeared in public, he says, she came forth velata oris parte ne satiaret aspectum. She

concealed part of her face, lest she glut the spectator The lady, no doubt, knew, as well as the historian, that exposed beauties by custom pall upon the eye. In a facetious paper in the World,' on • naked bosoms,' the writer introduces a beau saying, on viewing this too common and frequent exposure of these charms, "It is very pretty, but I have seen it before."

Merry Stories.

Among the minor miseries of life may be reckoned the telling a lively anecdote to a mere matter-of-fact man. Persons of a mercurial disposition explode into laughter when the train is hardly laid, and the heartiness of their mirth is truly patronizing. But alas, how often is the narrator of a frolic tale reminded, to his cost, of the poets observation

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue

Of him that tells it.

Same subject continued. A Sly Question.

Mr. B

was complaining to a friend that

his neighbour H

was a fellow so dull and

impracticable in his intellect and conversation, that if you told him a very smart story, he was certain that he would not understand it. 66

Pray,