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478. Middle Age. As we advance from youth to middle age, a new field of action opens, and a different character is required. The flow of gay impetuous spirits begins to subside; life gradually assumes a graver cast; the mind a more sedate and thoughtful turn. The attention is now transferred from pleasure to interest; that is, to pleasure diffused over a wider extent, and measured by a larger scale.

Formerly, the enjoyment of the present moment occupied the whole attention; now, no action terminates ultimately in itself, but refers to some more distant aim. Wealth and power, the instruments of lasting gratification, are now coveted more than any single pleasure: prudence and foresight lay their plan; industry carries on its patient efforts; activity pushes forward; address winds around; here, an enemy is to be overcome; there, a rival to be displaced; competition warms; and the strife of the world thickens on every side.-Dr Blair.

479. Education.-Accustom a child as soon as it can speak to narrate its little experiences, his " chapter of accidents," his griefs, his fears, his hopes to communicate what he has noticed in the world without; and what he feels struggling in the world within. Anxious to have something to narrate, he will be induced to give attention to objects around him, and what is passing in the sphere of his instructions; and to observe and note events, will become one of his first pleasures and this is the ground-work of a thoughtful character. Educational Magazine.

480. The Children of the Poor.-Of all qualities, a sweet temper is perhaps the one least cultivated in the lower walks of life. The peculiar disposition is not watched; care is not taken to distinguish between the passionate child, the sulky, the obstinate, and the timid. The children of the poor are allowed a latitude of speech unknown among the higher orders; and they are free from the salutary restraint imposed by what is termed Company. When in the enjoyment of full health and strength, the ungoverned temper of the poor is one of their most striking faults; while their resignation under affliction, whether mental or bodily, is the point of all others in which the rich might with advantage study to imitate them.

Tales of the Peerage and the Peasantry.

481. Habit hath so vast a prevalence over the human mind, that there is scarce anything too strange, or too strong to be asserted of it. The story of the miser, who from long accustoming to cheat others, came at last to cheat himself, and with great delight and triumph picked his own pocket of a guinea to convey to his hoard, is not impossible or improbable.-Fielding.

482. Art of Beauty.-The true art of assisting beauty consists in embellishing the whole person by the proper ornaments of virtuous and commendable qualities. By this help alone it is, that those who are the favourite work of nature, or, as Mr Dryden expresses it," the porcelain of human kind," become animated, and are in a capacity for exerting their charms; and those who seem to have been neglected by her, like models wrought in haste, are capable in a great measure of finishing what she has left imperfect.—Hughes.

483. How to resent an Injury.—-A gentleman who had filled many high stations in public life, with the greatest honour to himself and advantage to the nation, once went to Sir Eardley Wilmot, in great anger at a real injury that he had received from a person high in the political world, which he was considering how to resent in the most effectual manner. After relating the particulars to Sir Eardley, he asked if he did not think it wonld be manly to resent it? Yes," said

Sir Eardley, "it would doubtless be manly to resent it, but it would be godlike to forgive it." This, the gentleman declared, had such an instantaneous effect upon him, that he came away quite another man, and in a temper entirely altered from that in which he went.

484. A bad Argument.-It is a common argument amongst divines, in the behalf of a religious life, that a contrary behaviour has such consequences when we come to die. It is indeed true, but seems an argument of a subordinate kind: the article of death is more frequently of short duration. Is it not a stronger persuasive, that virtue makes us happy daily, and removes the fear of death from our lives antecedently, than that it smooths the pillow of a death bed.—Shenstone.

485. Radicals. All men have been radicals who ever did any good since the world began. Noah was a prodigious radical. When hearing the world was to be drowned, he went about such a common sense proceeding as making himself a ship to swim in; a Whig would have laid half a dozen sticks together for an ark; and called it a virtual representation.-Westminster Review.

486, Forgiveness.-The brave only know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions, cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes even conquered; but a coward never forgave: it is not in his nature; the power of doing it flows only from a strength and greatness of soul, conscious of its own force and security, and above the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness.-Sterne's Sermons.

487. Complimentary to the Ladies.-It seems sometimes odd enough to me, that while young ladies are so sedulously taught all the accomplishments that a husband disregards, they are never taught the great one he would prize. They are taught to be exhibitors, he wants a companion.-Godolphin.

488. The Effect produced by Schiller's Tragedy of the Robbers on the scholars at the school of Fribourg is well known. They were so struck and captivated with the grandeur and character of its hero, Moor, that they agreed to form a band like his in the forests of Bohemia; had elected a young nobleman for their chief, and had pitched on a beautiful young lady for his Amelia, whom they were to carry off from her parents. To the accomplishment of this design they had bound themselves by the most solemn and tremendous oaths. But the conspiracy was discovered by an accident, and its execution prevented. Schiller afterwards acknowledged with great candour, and reprobated in the strongest terms, the pernicious tendency of his own production. The robberies committed daily in the streets during the representation of the Beggar's Opera, were beyond the example of former times. Several thieves afterwards confessed, in Newgate, that they raised their courage in the playhouse by the songs of their hero, Macheath, before they sallied forth on their desperate nocturnal exploits. So notorious were the evil consequences of its frequent representation become, that in the year 1773 the Middlesex Justices united with Sir John Fielding in requesting Mr Garrick to suspend it, as they were of opinion it was never performed without adding to the number of real thieves.-Essay on the German Theatre, by Mackenzie, and the Life of Gay, in the "Biographia Britannica."

489. Pleasures.-Put this restriction on your pleasures; be cautious that they injure no being which has life.---Zimmerman.

490. The readiest mode to corrupt a Christian Man is to bestow upon vice the pity and the praise which are due only to virtue.---Scott.

491. Life is not a State of Rest, but of incessant operation; the most perfect perpetuum mobile; a continual circulation of action and being; a compound of working powers, maintained by one principle, for one end. Every thing bodily in Man is subject to changes and alterations; every thing on which the vital principle exercises its action, is in a continual alteration of increase and decrease, of loss and reparation, of growing old, renovation and restoration. Scarcely have a few years elapsed when our substance, in regard to the bodily part, is entirely renewed, and, as it were, again created from the surrounding elements.---Strave.

492. Female Dress-It is well known that a loose and easy dress contributes much to give both sexes those fine proportions of body that are observable in the Grecian Statues, and which serve as models to our present artists: nature being too much disfigured among us to afford any such. The Greeks knew nothing of those gothic shackles, that multiplicity of ligatures and bandages, with which our bodies are compressed. Their women were ignorant of the use of whalebone stays, by which ours distort their shape instead of displaying it.

This practice, carried to so great an excess as it is in England, must in time, degenerate the species, and is an instance of bad taste. Can it be a pleasant sight to behold a woman cut in two in the middle, as it were, like a wasp? On the contrary, it is as shocking to the eye as it is painful to the imagination. A fine shape, like the limbs, hath its due size and proportion; a diminution of which is certainly a defect. Such a deformity also would be shocking in a naked figure; wherefore then should it be esteemed a beauty in one that is dressed? Every thing that confines and lays nature under a restraint, is an instance of bad taste; this is as true in regard to the ornaments of the body as to the embellishments of the mind. Life, health, reason, and convenience ought to be taken first into consideration. Gracefulness cannot subsist without ease; delicacy is not debility; nor must a woman be sick in order to please. Infirmity and sickness may excite our pity, but desire and pleasure require the bloom and vigour of health.-Rousseau.

493. Progress of the Human Mind.—The human mind considered as that of an individual, or collectively as that of an age, or a nation, is slow and gradual in its development. At times it meets with obstructions, that seem to prevent its expansion, and to retard its growth. But still it is on the whole, found to be progressive in its march, and continual in its increase. The augmentation of its ideas to-day, becomes the preparation for a greater increase to-morrow. Every generation makes an intellectual advance beyond the preceding. Whatever doubts

might exist on this subject, before the invention of printing, there can be no doubt that that art has not only accelerated, but perpetuated the intellectual progression of man. It is the opening of a better day on the prospects of the human race ;—the dawn of a new era of mental improvement and intellectual activity.

Religion of the Universe, by R. Fellowes.

494. The Deity unchangeable in his Decrees.—If the Deity were as finite and imperfect a Being, as limited in his views and as mutable in his resolves, as some theologians seem to think, and some formularies of worship would lead us to suppose, we might well imagine that he would be willing, now and then, to suspend the execution of his resolves; or to make an alteration in his providential schemes. But if enlight

ened reason can teach us any thing of the Infinite, it is, that he must be just in all his acts; benevolent in all his purposes; invariable in all his schemes; and immutable in all his determinations. What he wills, he wills once and for ever. There is no variablenes nor even shadow of turning in him. As he is infinite in all his attributes, his will as it respects us, must be benevolent, however it may appear the contrary in its immediate influence and effects; and for us therefore to pray him to alter his will, or change his purpose, is at once a mark of folly and impiety. It is, in fact, to suppose that the Deity is not infinite in wisdom and goodness. To ask the infinite to do what we wish rather than what he intends, is to doubt whether he knows what is best for us, as well as we do ourselves.-Ibid

495. Perfidy.-The dead, the absent, the innocent, and him that trusts me, I will never deceive willingly. To all these we owe a nobler justice, in that they are the most certain trials of human equity. As that grief is the truest which is without a witness, so is that honesty best which is for itself, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. Those virtues that are sincere, do value applause the least. It is when we are conscious of some internal defect that we look out for others' approbations. Certainly, the world cannot tempt the man that is truly honest: and he is certainly a true man, that will not steal when he may without being impeached.

The two first are hindered, that they cannot tax my injury; and deceit to them is not without cowardice, throwing nature into the lowest degree of baseness. To wrong the third, is savage, and comes from the beast, not man. It was an act like nature in Xenocrates, when the pursued sparrow flew into his bosom, to cherish and dismiss it. How black a heart is that which can give a stab for the innocent smiles of an infant!

The last I cannot defraud without ingratitude, which is the very lees of vice, and makes my offence so much the greater, by how much he was kinder in making me master of himself.

A deceived trust exasperates affection into an enemy, and cancels all the bonds of nature, When we prosecute a deceiver and a violator of faith, we undertake the cause of all mankind; for every one is concerned that a traitor and an impostor be banished out of the world; for he that premeditately cozens one, does not cozen all, only because he cannot.-Feltham.

496. Man.-Man is an animal formed for and delighting in society; for in this state alone, his various talents can be exerted, his numberless necessities relieved, the dangers he is exposed to can be avoided, and many of the pleasures he eagerly affects, enjoyed.-Fielding.

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