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33. The Prejudiced. The Prejudiced are apt to converse but with one sort of men, to read but one sort of books, to come in hearing but of one sort of notions; the truth is, they canton out to themselves a little Goshen in the intellectual world, where light shines, and as they conclude, day blesses them: but the rest of the vast expansum they give up to night and darkness, and so avoid coming near it. They confine themselves to some little creek, not venturing out into the great ocean of knowledge, to survey the riches that nature has stored other parts with, no less genuine, no less solid, no less useful, than what is to be found within their own little spot.-Barrow.

34-Desire of ease, or relief from present pain. -All men desire ease, not only in proportion to their sufferings, but also according to their character and present state of mind and body; for some persons are at all times much more inpatient under pain than others; and the same persons more or less so at different times. This impatience often causes them to desire immediate relief, even at the very probable risk of incurring yet greater evils; and thus it happens likewise that a man often will not deny himself a pleasure he covets, or submit to continue an effort which is irksome to him, though it be to purchase considerable future advantages. The desire of pleasure is the desire of experiencing a lively enjoyment of some sort; the desire of ease, the desire of relief from pain. The man who desires pleasure may be equally satisfied with the amusement of reading, as of listening to music, &c; but he who suffers is not to be soothed but by the positive alleviation of the pain that at the moment distresses him. The desire of ease, as it is the most universal and frequent feeling we have, so is it that which most forcibly demands the regulation of our reason, since the desire of ease might induce us to make a medicine eventually fatal to us, to relinquish an employment which would obtain us independence, to seek a pleasure destructive to our future health and peace, &c.

The consideration of this subject seems therefore particularly connected with education and government, because it is not in our naturc, seemingly, long quietly to support that state of uneasiness we believe practicable to avoid; consequently, whatever laws or discipline are calculated continually, or even frequently, to irritate the human mind must necessarily be very contrary to a willing, steady, and cheerful obedience.

The following distinction, we imagine, may be made between the desire of Ease and the desire of Happiness; that the one induces us to regulate our actions by our feelings, the other by our reason. Mr Locke has treated

this subject with his wonted sagacity and perspicuity.

35. Punishments.-Voltaire is of opinion that hanging is an advantage only to the executioner, who is paid for putting men openly to death: if punishments are invented for the benefit of society, they should be useful to society; but a man is not good for any thing after he is hanged.

36. Principles.-The change we personally experience from time to time we obstinately deny to our principles.-Zimmerman.

37. True period of human life, and happy disposition of our time. -In life is not to be counted the ignorance of infancy or imbecility of age. We are long before we are able to think, and we soon cease from the power of acting. The true period of human life may be reasonably estimated at forty years; the time we have lost can never be recovered; what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted; we should therefore endeavour to make the best use of that which is to come. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a party,-of doing justice to the character of a deserving man, of softening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced,-which are all of them employments suited to a reasonable nature, and bring great satisfaction to the person who can busy himself in them with discretion. Maxims and Observations.

38. Misery.-To struggle in misery and with misery at the same time, appears to be the acme of human sufferance. Who, acquainted with the number of propitious circumstances required to make a vigorous effort of the mind, can read the advertisement of the great British lexicographer emotionless? "It may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the English Dictionary was written with very little assistance from the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, nor under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience, and distraction; in sickness and sorrow."

39. Men resemble the gods in nothing so much, as in doing good to their fellow creatures.-Tull.

40. Modern Honor.-The only thing of weight that can be said against modern honor is, that it is directly opposite to religion. The one bids you bear injuries with patience, the other tells you if you don't resent them, you are not fit to live. Religion commands you to leave all revenge to God, honor bids you trust your revenge to nobody but yourself, even where the law would do it for you. Religion plainly forbids murder, honor openly justifies it: religion bids you not shed blood upon any account whatsoever, honor bids you fight for the least trifle: religion is built upon humility, and honor upon pride. How to reconcile them must be left to wiser heads than mine.-Mandeville.

41. The True Prop of Good Government is opinion; the perception on the part of the subjects, of benefits resulting from it; a settled conviction, in other words, of its being a public good. Now nothing can produce or maintain that opinion but knowledge, since opinion is a form of knowledge. Of tyrannical and unlawful governments, indeed the support is fear, to which ignorance is as congenial as it is abhorrent from the genius of a free people. Robert Hall.

42. Industry-A noble heart will disdain to subsist like a drone upon honey gathered by others' labour, like a vermin to filch its food out of the public granary, or like a shark to prey upon the lesser fry; but will rather outdo his private obligations to other men's care and toil, by considerable service and beneficence to the public; for there is no calling of any sort, from the sceptre to the spade, the management whereof with any good success, any credit, any satisfaction, doth not demand much work of the head, or of the hands, or of both. Is a man a governor, or a superior in any capacity, what is he but a public servant doomed to continual labour, hired for the wages of respect and pomp to wait on his people, and he will find that to wield power innocently, to brandish the sword of justice discreetly and worthily, for the maintenance of right aud encouragement of virtue, for the suppression of injury and correction of vice, is a matter of no small skill and slight care; and he that is obliged to purvey for so many, and so to abound in good works, how can he want business? How can he pretend to a writ of ease? -Barrow.

43. Social Duties.-When the sacred necessity there is existing, to perform for our own advantage social duties, is made fully apparent, the word favour will soon become obsolete.-Zimmerman.

44. Good Example.-Think not, Sultan, that in the sequestered vale alone dwells virtue, and her sweet companion, with attentive eye, mild, affable benevolence! no; the first great gift we can bestow on others, is a good example.-Sir Charles Morell.

45. Advantages of Knowledge.—As the power of acquiring knowledge is to be ascribed to reason, so the attainment of it mightily strengthens and improves it, and thereby enables it to enrich itself with further acquisitions. Knowledge in general expands the mind, exalts the faculties, refines the taste of pleasure, and opens numerous sources of intellectual enjoyment. By means of it we become less dependent for satisfaction upon the sensitive appetites, the gross pleasures of sense are more easily despised, and we are made to feel the superiority of the spiritual to the material part of our nature. Instead of being continually solicited by the influence and irritation of sensible objects, the mind can retire within herself and expatiate in the cool and quiet walks of contemplation.-Robert Hall.

46. Let Truth and Falsehood grapple. Whoever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?-Milton.

47. Paupers. When paupers evince any consciousness of neglect, they are instantly spurned; if they complain this time of a scanty dole, the next they will have none. Though our donations are made to please ourselves, we insist upon those who receive our alms being pleased with them.-Zimmerman.

48. Anecdotes concerning Rousseau.-Among the many anecdotes related of M. Rousseau, the following may with certainty be relied on:-In a little country town in France, where he took up his residence when he was persecuted for his opinions, the curate of the parish no sooner heard who he was than he publickly preached against him, and in several of his sermons branded him with the appellation of an infidel. The unblameable tenor of his conduct, however, prevented those invectives from taking any effect; and the people in general were regardless about the tendency of his writings, when they found nothing to condemn in his life. The priest, finding that he could do but little in this way, changed his battery, and insinuated wherever he went, that Rousseau had asserted in several parts of his works, that women had no souls. This report gaining an universal belief, "the women, one and all, exclaimed against him as a monster, and never suffered their husbands nor relations to rest till they had driven him out of the neighbourhood."

A virtuous friendship is the sweetest charm of life; the source of every thing that is great, good, and excellent on earth.

Rousseau, equally celebrated for his genius and for his misfortunes, was honoured with the patronage of Prince Eugene, who was his zealous protecter; but the friend of his heart was the Count de Bonneval, who, in the sequel, having unfortunately involved himself in a quarrel with the Prince, "the disinterested Rousseau did not hesitate a moment between his patron and his friend. He warmly defended the latter, and lost the favour of the Prince."-Elegant Anecdotes.

49. Emulation.-Emulation seems to be synonymous with laudable ambition; for when we excite emulation amongst children, what is it, but ambition that we stir in them? And, in doing so, we cannot too carefully guard against provoking their envy and jealousy. But the propensity in human nature to delight in superiority, may however be rendered highly useful both to the teacher and the pupil, if great care be taken to keep it within due bounds, and to attach only a proper degree of importance severally to each advantage, that may be derived from nature, or acquired by care and study. And the teacher, while he excites emulation, ought, in order to check presumption, to take frequent occasion, to remind his successful pupil, that every one gifted with distinguished talents, is justly expected proportionately to excel his competitors; and that it is to be ascertained, if he have not more cause for humiliation than pride, upon comparing his acquirements with his superior powers and opportunities of improving himself. Besides, if he excel them in one respect, they may possibly have some advantage over him in another.

50. The Virtuoso.-The virtuoso takes more pains to discover the curious of inanimate than breathing nature; and meets with the reward of his insensibility in the contempt of all men capable of distinguishing frivolous from useful pursuits.-Zimmerman.

51. Mental Fortitude dependent upon Habit.-When life is in danger, either in a storm or in battle, it is certain that less fear is felt by the commander or the pilot, and even by the private soldier actually engaged, or the common seaman laboriously occupied, than by those exposed to the peril, but not employed in the means of guarding against it. The reason is not that the one class believe the danger to be less. They are likely in many instances to perceive it more clearly. But having acquired a habit of instantly turning their thoughts to the means of counteracting the danger, their minds are thrown into a state which excludes the ascendancy of fear. Mental fortitude entirely depends upon this habitude. The timid horseman is haunted by the horrors of a fall. The bold and skilful thinks only about the best way of curbing or supporting his horse. Even when all means are equally unavailable, and his condition appears desperate to the bystander, he still owes to his fortunate habit that he does not suffer the agony of the coward. Many cases have been known where fortitude has reached such strength, that the faculties, instead of being confounded by danger, are never raised to their highest activity by a less violent stimulant. The distinction between such men and the coward does not depend upon difference of opinion about the reality or extent of the danger, but on a state of mind which renders it more or less accessible to fear.

Sir J. Mackintosh

52. Old Age. As we advance in age our feelings become concentrated. We lose every day something which was dear to us, and which can never be replaced. We die as it were by degrees, until at length, loving only ourselves, we have ceased to feel and to live before we cease to exist. But a heart endued with sensibility contends with all its strength against this anticipated death. It collects around it, when the cold begins at the extremities, all its natural heat. The more it loses the more closely it connects itself with what remains, and it holds, if we may so speak, to the last object by the bands of every other.-Rousseau.

53. Hypocrisy.-Who by kindnes, and smooth attention, can insinuate a hearty welcome to an unwelcome guest, is a hypocrite superior to a thousand plain dealers.-Lavater's Aphorisms.

54. Tyranny.-Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly is a degree of tyranny.-Blackstone.

55. Wisdom often revokes; the opinions of pride and ignorance are irrevocable.-Zimmerman.

LONDON:

Published by J. H. STARIE, 59, Museum Street, J. PATTIE, 17, High Street, St. Giles; and may be had of all Booksellers.

[J. H. Starie, Printer, 59, Museum Street.

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