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866. Crimes. Are the crimes which necessity occasions necessarily objects of punishment?-Zimmerman.

867. Pompous Titles a Substitute for Personal Merit.-After personal merit, it must be confessed that high stations and pompous titles are the principal and the most splendid marks of distinction; and he who cannot be an Erasmus must think of being a Bishop.-Bruyere.

868. Opportunity to be seized on all Occasions of Life.—
There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is found in shallows, and in miseries;
On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.-Shakspeare.

869. Moderation in Praise and Blame.-Warm passions and a lively imagination, dispose men to panegyric and to satire; but nimium nec laudare, nec lædere, that is, neither to deify, nor to duncify, seems to be no bad rule for those who would act consistently and live quietly.

Jortin.

870. The Country Esquire limits his ambition to a pre-eminence in the knowledge of horses; that is, of an animal that may convey him with ease, credit, and safety, the little journeys he has to go. The philosopher directs his ambition to some well-grounded science, which may, with the same credit, ease, and safety, transport him through every stage of being; so that he may not be overthrown by passion, nor trailed insipidly along by apathy.-Shenstone.

871. Metaphysics.-Most men take least notice of what is plain, as if that were of no use; but puzzle their thoughts, and lose themselves in those vast depths and abysses, which no human understanding can fathom.-Sherlock.

872. Languages.-It is a silly conceit, that men without languages are often without understanding: it is apparent in all ages, that some such have been even prodigies for ability: for it is not to be believed that wisdom speaks to her disciples only in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Fuller.

873. Ignorance.-It is as great a point of wisdom to hide ignorance, as to discover knowledge.-Anon.

874. Drunkenness.-All the crimes on earth do not destroy so many of the human race, nor alienate so much property, as drunkenness.

Bacon.

875. The Ballot.-An ingenious mechanic in Hertford, Mr. William Thomas, carpenter, anticipating, we suppose, that sooner or later such an article will be in considerable request, has invented a machine for taking votes by ballot. It is remarkably simple in its construction, but admirably adapted to the purposes for which it is intended-namely, secrecy, expedition, and prevention of fraud. Mr. Thomas, it seems, was induced to construct his instrument, with which, by the bye, he is not a little pleased, in consequence of a controversy at an inn in Hertford, where an opponent of the ballot thought he had successfully argued on its impractability-as of all the plans which had been devised, not one secured the voter from observation, and at the same time incapacitated him from abusing such secrecy. This much, however, Mr. Thomas has completed effectually.-Merlin.

876. Useful Knowledge can have no enemies, except the ignorant: it cherishes youth, delights the aged, is an ornament in prosperity, and yields comfort in adversity.-Anon.

877. Wise Men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience: the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts by nature. Cicero.

878. Wasting Time.--If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again, and what we call time enough, always proves little enough. Franklin.

879. Conversation.-Let your subject, says Epictetus, be something of necessity and use; something that may advance the love and practice of virtue, reform the passions, or instruct the understanding; such as may administer advice to men in difficulties, comfort them under afflictions, and assist them in the search of truth.-Anon.

880. Consolation.--It may serve as a comfort to us in all our afflictions and calamities, that he that loses any thing, and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss.-Anon.

881. Heirs.---What madness is it for a man to starve himself, to enrich his heir, and so turn a friend into an enemy! For his joy at your death will be proportioned to what you leave him.---Seneca.

882. Conscience is usually defined to be an inward feeling, implanted by nature in the heart of man, for the purpose of warning him to avoid evil, and of inducing him to follow good; and as such is generally conceived to be something independent of the individual. A little reflection will, however, serve to convince us that conscience is nothing more than a feeling directly resulting from the ideas which a human being may have been led to acquire of good and evil, of right and wrong. A decided proof of which is, that while the conscience of one man will reproach him for having committed a particular action; that of another will applaud him for a similar mode of proceeding.

Greatly is it to be desired that the directors of youth should ever be sufficiently aware of the importance of giving to those placed under their charge just and clear notions of right and wrong. Furnished, as these young persons then would be, with a constant and unerring guide for the regulation of their conduct during life, they would never fail to become eminently virtuous, and useful members of society.---Anon.

883. Law, in its present state, like orthodoxy in religion, is a mystery where reason ends and faith begins. None of the uninitiated can enter even the vestibule of the Temple. Law ought not to be a branch merely, but the chief branch of social Ethics. Society knows nothing about it by means of the Lawyer. A digested code of plain, undeniable legal principles, founded on the morality of common sense, applied to every day's transactions, might render the whole community wiser, better, more prudent, more cautious, and less litigious. Men would be better able to judge when they ought, and when they ought not, to go to law. They would be better Jurors, better Arbitrators, wiser and better Citizens.---Cooper.

884. Perseverance merits neither blame nor praise; it is only the duration of our inclinations and sentiments, which we can neither create nor extinguish.---Rochefoucault.

885. Reading serves for delight, for ornament, and for ability; it perfects Nature, and is perfected by experience.

The crafty contemn it, the simple admire it, and the wise use it. Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. He that writes little, needs a great memory; he that confers little, a present wit; and he that reads little, needs much cunning to make him seem to know that which he does not.---Bacon.

886. Riches are the baggage of virtue.---Ibid.

LONDON; Printed and Published by J. H. STARIE, 59, Museum Street, and to be had of all Booksellers.

Materials for Thinking,

EXTRACTED FROM THE WORKS OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORS.

WHATEVER CHARITY WE OWE TO MEN'S PERSONS, WE OWE NONE TO

No. XXXIV.

THEIR ERRORS.

-Bishop Burnet.

Published Weekly.

[Price One Penny.

887. Definition of Wit.-Wit may be divided into two sorts, serious and comical. First, with respect to that which is serious or grave, the original signification of the Saxon word signifies wisdom, and therefore a wittee was anciently a wise man; and so late as the reign of Elizabeth, a man of great wit signified a man of great judgment; and indeed we still say, if a man has the use of his reason, that he is in his wits; and if the contrary, that he is out of his wits. Serious wit, therefore, is neither more nor less than quick wisdom, or, according to Pope, True wit is nature to advantage drest,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest. Second, as to comic wit, this is the general acceptation of wit amongst us, and is of the easiest kind, for it is much more easy to raise a laugh, than to excite admiration by quick wisdom: however, comic wit has great merit, as the ancients allow; but, perhaps, in this the moderns excel them. This wit in writing consists in an assimilation of remote ideas oddly or humorously connected, as in the poem of Hudibras, &c.; but more particularly comic wit is applied to speaking and conversation, and the definition of Pope may be adopted, "it is a quick conception and an easy delivery." In order to have wit for this purpose, the principal requisites are, a good imagination, a fund of ideas and words, and a fluency of speech; but all these will be insufficient, unless the speaker knows how to adapt his remarks and replies to particular persons, times, and occasions; and, indeed, if he would be truly witty, he must know the world, and be remarkably quick in suiting the smallest word or turn of an expression to the subject.-Bennett.

888. Wealth. It is commonly seen that the more mankind are favoured with the gifts of fortune, the less they are disposed to assist those that are destitute.-Anon.

889. Pursuit of Pleasure.-Cast an eye into the gay world, what see we, for the most part, but a set of querulous, emaciated, fluttering, fantastical beings, worn out in the keen pursuit of pleasure; creatures that know, own, condemn, deplore, yet still pursue their own infelicity? The decayed monuments of error! The thin remains of what is called delight!-Young.

890. Women.-Some are so uncharitable as to think all Women bad; and others are so credulous as to believe they are all good. Though every man speaks as he finds, there is reason to direct our opinion without experience of the whole sex, which, on a strict examination, makes more for their honour than most men have acknowledged.

Their easy natures make them somewhat more irresolute; whereby men have argued them of fear and inconstancy. But men have always held the Parliament, and have enacted their own wills, without ever hearing them speak; and then how easy is it to conclude them guilty! Besides, Education makes more difference between men and them than Nature does.--Feltham.

891. Time. Whether we play, or labour, or sleep, or dance, or study, the sun posteth and the sand runs.

In all the actions that a man performs, some part of his life passeth. We die with doing that for which only our sliding life was granted. Nay, though we do nothing, Time keeps his constant pace, and flies as fast in idleness as in employment.

The

An hour of vice is as long as an hour of virtue; but the difference which follows upon good actions is infinite from that of ill ones. good, though it diminishes our time here, yet it lays up a pleasure for eternity, and will recompense what it taketh away with a plentiful return at last. When we trade with virtue, we do but buy pleasure with expense of time; so it is not so much a consuming of time as an exchange.

Time is a ship which never anchors: while I am aboard, I had better do those things that may advantage my landing, than practise such as shall cause my commitment when I come to the shore.

892. Poets and Poetry.-Abundance of men read the Poets, who don't know what a Poet is, or at least can't express what they mean by it. A Poet is one who invents, either in whole or in part, the subject he treats of who disposes it in a certain order, proper to surprise the reader, and make him attentive. In short he is one who expresses himself in a different manner from the vulgar, not only in respect of the cadence but likewise of the elocution, that is to say, when a man sets himself to read a Poem, he ought to consider that he is going to read the work of a liar, who intends to entertain him with fictions, or at

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