which stifle in the human breast its noblest affections. Who, that looks
upon the checkered scene of life, can fail to remark on each woe-worn
visage, the traces left by care-creating avarice. It is this which multiplies
grief in the cottage-it is this which imbitters disappointment in
the palace. What is that which dries up the tears of filial sorrow:
which dissolves the bonds of friendship; and which, while it occupies
the sordid heart, shuts out compassion, and leaves no room for mercy?
It is gold—that false semblance of happiness—that ideal standard of all
other possessions—that idol of human affections—and that universal
Baal, worshipped alike by the Jew and by the Gentile.

O thou sweet king killer, and dear divorce
'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,
That soulderest close impossibilities,

And makʼst them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue
To every purpose! Oh! thou touch of hearts, &c.

TIM. OF ATH.

There may be some reason to think that Lycurgus did not ill consult the happiness of his countrymen, when he banished the use of the precious metals. It is true, indeed, the Lacedemonians soon became strangers to refinement. The merchants of Greece no longer visited their unproductive shores. The fine arts were neglected. No orators thronged the Forum, and no demagogues were known where no gold encouraged faction: no contending sects of sophists and rhetoricians proclaimed their tenets through the crowded streets. The refinements of philosophy were unknown at Sparta: nor were the subtleties of metaphysics understood. But virtue was respected-patriotism flourished— and the social affections were cultivated. The insolence of ambition was repressed, and the sordidness of avarice was unknown.

Sir W. Drummond.

400. Corporeal and mental gratification.—It is well known how small is the value of all the merely corporeal pleasures, when taken nakedly by themselves and without the addition of anything mental. The man who relishes most the pleasures of eating and drinking, flies from a solitary meal, and confesses that his enjoyment in it is reduced to little. Of the pleasures of love, we see that the bodily part is little valued when stripped of the mental, and that it is only the lowest of our species, who are found to be seriously under its influence.—London Review, No. 4.

401. Zealous Men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are shewing you the grounds of it. Shenstone's Essays.

402. Ingenious Speculation.-We are accustomed to take it for granted that all creatures are living at one and the same rate, or that they are going by our clock; whereas in fact, if we duly consider the analogies of the system of nature, we shall see reason to conjecture that, while perhaps some species of animals are living much slower than ourselves, others may be living inconceivably faster. It is by no means unphilosophical to imagine that the ephemera of a summer's noon, which we are apt to pity as short lived, may in the compass of their few sunny hours, be running through a century of joyous sensations; and if the microscope, which exposes to our view the vivacious tenants of a drop of water, had the power also of laying open the whirl of the sentient faculty of these tribes, it might appear, to our amazement, that the busy history of a thousand years is compacted into their life of a day or an hour, so that the diminutiveness of their visible organs is even less astonishing than the compression of their consciousness.-Physical theory of another Life.

403. On Government.-There is not perhaps in human affairs any thing so unaccountable as the indignity and cruelty with which the far greater part of mankind suffer themselves to be used under pretence of government: and some men, falsely persuading themselves that bad governments are advantageous, as most conducing to gratify their ambition, avarice, and luxury; set themselves with the utmost art and violence to procure their establishment. By such men, almost the whole world has been trampled under foot and subjected to tyranny, for want of understanding by what means and methods they were enslaved; for though mankind take great care and pains to instruct themselves in other arts and sciences, yet very few apply themselves to consider the nature of government; an enquiry so useful and necessary both to magistrate and people.-Nay, in most countries, the acts of state being altogether directed either to enslave the people or to keep them under slavery, it is become almost every where a crime to reason about matters of government But if men would bestow a small part of the time and application they throw away upon curious and useless studies, in perusing those excellent rules and examples of government which the ancients have left us, they would soon be enabled to discover all such abuses and corruptions as tend to the ruin of public societies. If any man, however, in compassion to the miseries of a people should endeavour to disabuse them in any thing relating to government, he would certainly incur the displeasure, and perhaps be pursued by the rage of those, who think they find their account in the oppression of the world,—but will hardly succeed in his endeavors to undeceive the multitude: for the generality of all ranks of men, are cheated by words and names, and provided the ancient terms and forms of any government be retained,―(let the nature of it be never so much altered,)—they continue to dream that they still enjoy their former liberty, and are not to be awakened till it prove too late. Andrew Fletcher.

404. Health and long Life.—Whether long life be a blessing or not God Almighty only can determine, who alone knows what length it is like to run, and how it is like to be attended. Socrates used to say, that it was pleasant to grow old with good health and a good friend; and he might have reason: a man may be content to live while he is no trouble to himself or his friends; but after that, it is hard if he be not content to die. I knew and esteemed a person abroad, who used to say, a man must be a mean wretch who desired to live after threescore years old. But so much, I doubt, is certain; that in life, as in wine, he that will drink it good, must not draw it to dregs. Where this happens, one comfort of age may be, that whereas younger men are usually in pain when they are not in pleasure; old men find a sort of pleasure whenever they are out of pain: and, as young men often lose or impair their present enjoyments by raving after what is to come, by vain hopes, or fruitless fears, so old men relieve the wants of their age by pleasing reflections upon what is past. Therefore, men, in the health and vigour of their age, should endeavour to fill their lives with reading, with travel, with the best conversation, and the worthiest actions, either in public or private stations; that they may have something agreeable left to feed on when they are old, by pleasing remembrances.—Sir W. Temple.

405. Sneerers.-The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals, and have no hope of rising in their own esteem, but by lowering their neighbours. The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.-Hazlitt.

406. Time, the most precious of all possessions, is, commonly, the least prized. It is, like health, regretted when gone; but rarely improved while present. We know it is irrecoverable, yet throw it wantonly away. We know it is fleet, yet fail to catch the current moment. It is the space of life, and while we never properly occupy its limits, we nevertheless murmur at their narrowness. It is the field of exertion, and while we continually leave it fallow, we yet sorrow over our stinted harvest.

The most listless are, however, those that are most ready to cry 'What is life?' As the Chinese, who, unable to wind up the watch, threw it aside, exclaiming 'It is dead.' Energy knows that time, like the invested talent, pays a large percentage on its employment. Johnson and Godwin both speak of the sufficiency of time, and have given immortal evidence to attest the truth. Erasmus, it is recorded, composed 'The Praise of Folly' on horseback, during a journey in Italy. Of such men we may say, as the poet does of Shakspeare, that—

'Panting time toils after them in vain.’

they gain on his march, and he never overtakes them; it is the sluggard he passes with contempt, and leaves to oblivion.

'I measure life,' says Mrs. Barbauld, 'by life's employment' By such admeasurement, many minors have earned the meed the centenarian has missed. Few of the great works of genius have grown amid luxurious and abundant leisure; they have, in general, been the product of laborious effort in the intervals of less congenial toils; during the pauses of dull drudgery, enjoined by necessity and exacted by avarice, they have been elaborated amid neglect, anxiety, and privation. They that have spread light through the world had often scarcely oil for the lamp by which they worked: they that have left imperishable records of their mind, had often little to support the body, and gave forth the incense, in which knowledge is embalmed 'in self consuming flames.'

All that have obtained for themselves great and permanent reputation, have won and secured it by patient and persevering labour: by treating time, not as a waste land fit only for the stubble and the goose, but as a true estate, of which no corner is to be left uncultivated. Locke carried his note-book in his pocket, to catch the scintillations of even common conversation. Pope employed the wakeful moments of the night. They felt as did Arnaut, when he replied to the objection of Nicole, who, on a new work being proposed, said—'We are now old, is it not time we should rest?'-'Rest!' exclaimed Arnault, 'Have we not all eternity to rest in? Hear how Hazlitt, in the green vigour of his genius, speaks to us from his grave-The more people do, the more they can do. He that does nothing, renders himself incapable of doing anything. While we are executing one work, we are preparing ourselves to undertake another.' He that neglects time, time will neglect. The idler, like the idiot, stands in the lowest scale of humanity, morally considered, even lower; for indolence wastes: but imbecility wants: the one abandons himself, the other has been abandoned. The stream of time is fraught with golden sand; but it flings to the idler nothing but its froth, and he falls, like 'the fat weed on Lethe's stream,' without ever having flourished. M. L. G.

407. What pleasure it is to pay one's debts! I remember to have heard Sir T. Lyttleton make the same observation. It seems to flow from a combination of circumstances, each of which is productive of pleasure. In the first place it removes that uneasiness which a true spirit feels from dependence and obligation. It affords pleasure to the creditor, and therefore gratifies our social affection. It promotes that future confidence, which is so very interesting to an honest mind: it opens a prospect of being readily supplied with what we want on future occasions: it leaves a consciousness of our own virtue: and it is a measure we know to be right, both in point of justice and of sound economy. Finally, it is a main support of simple reputation.-Shenstone.

408. Gaming is the child of avarice, but the parent of prodigality.

C. C. Colton,

409. Assistance.-Those who are constrained to solicit for assistance are really to be pitied; those who receive it without, are to be envied; but those who bestow it unasked, are to be admired.-Zimmerman.

410. Judgments.—When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to impute them to the settled course of things.-Shenstone.

411. Inequality of Fortune.Of all the numberless evils that have crept into society, perhaps there is not one which ultimately produces more fatal consequences than that vast inequality of fortune which prevails; and the evil is barbarously increased by the vile abuse of it in the possessors : that any man should revel in all the superfluities of millions, while so many wretched paupers in his neighbourhood are in want of absolute necessaries, is shocking to humanity. Well may our goals be crowded while such enormities exist: yet government takes no pains to remedy them; it is employed only in providing proper bastiles for the reception of criminals, but never devotes its labours to the prevention of crimes. In a country burthened like England with taxation, all property vested in an individual, exceeding five thousand a year, should be charged at the rate of twenty shillings in the pound, which would operate some relief to the lower conditions of life. Manners of the Age, 1792.

412. The People corrupted by their Governors.—Of a piece with the rest, is a stupid cunning of some statesmen, and practised by most foreign courts, to blame the poor people for the misery they bring upon them. They say they are extremely corrupt, and so keep them starving and enslaved, by way of protection. They corrupt them by all manner of ways and inventions, and then reproach them for being corrupt. whole nation cannot be bribed, and if its representatives are, it is not the fault but the misfortune of the nation; and if the corrupt save themselves by corrupting others, the people, who suffer by the corruptions of both, are to be pitied, and not abused. Nothing can be more shameless and provoking, than to bring a nation, by execrable frauds and extortions, against its daily protestations and remonstrances, into a miserable pass, and then to father all those villanies upon the people, who would gladly have hanged the authors of them.-Thomas Gordon.

413. Superstition ably Reproved. Diagoras, surnamed the Atheist, being on shipboard, and in danger of wreck, the sailors were disposed to attribute the storm to the presence of so impious a person, on which he pointed to other vessels in the same danger, and asked if he were aboard all of them.-Anon.