takes place, and this excites a play of the powers of life. An Indian, at table with an Englishman, at Surat, expressed his surprise by loud exclamations, on seeing a vast quantity of froth ooze out of a bottle of porter, as soon as the cork was drawn. Being asked, What surprised him so? Nay, said he, don't suppose I wonder it comes out; but how did you ever contrive to squeeze it in? We do not laugh at this story, because we find ourselves wiser than the poor Indian, or because the understanding finds it in any thing satisfactory, but our expectation was strained, and suddenly vanishes. A rich man's heir is desirous to celebrate his funeral with all solemnity, but he complains that he cannot accomplish his purpose: for, says he, the more I give my mourners to look sorrowful, the more cheerful do these fellows appear. The reason why we laugh aloud at this, is the sudden vanishing of expectation. Let a person of humour, by way of reply, seriously and circumstantially relate how a merchant, on his return home with all his whole fortune in goods, was obliged to throw them all overboard during a violent storm, and that the loss affected him so, that the very same night his periwig turned grey; and we shall laugh aloud. For we feel pleasure in striking to and fro the idea we are catching at, as if it were a ball. Assuming that, with all our thought, corporeal movements are harmonically connected, we can pretty well conceive how the sudden removal of the mind, from station to station, in order to consider its object, is answered by a reciprocating contraction and dilatation of the elastic parts of our viscera. These are communicated to the diaphragm, which (as from tickling) throws the air out by sudden jerks, and occasions a healthy concussion. This alone, and not what passes in the mind, is the true cause of the pleasure derived from a thought, which in reality contains nothing. Voltaire says, that Providence has given us hope and sleep, as a compensation for the many cares of life. He might have added laughter, if the wit and originality of humour, necessa ver; so that, as poor Richard says, A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.-Franklin. MII. Think you, a little din can daunt mine ears? Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang? That gives not half so great a blow to the ear, MIII. Though I cannot see my king, Yet, contemplation is a thing That renders what I have not mine. Shakspeare. My king, from me what adamant can part, MIV. Song-1662. I caution all writers without genius in one material point, which is never to be afraid of having too much fire in their works. I should advise rather to take their warmest thoughts, and spread them abroad upon paper; for they are observed to cool before they are read.Pope. MV. Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities, it floats between virtue and vice: there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought to be supplied by prudence.—Bruyere. MVI. Though the world is crowded with scenes of calamity, we look upon the general mass of wretchedness with 253 very little regard, and fix our eyes upon the state of particular persons, whom the eminence of their qualities marks out from the multitude; as, in reading an account of a battle, we seldom reflect on the vulgar heaps of slaughter; but follow the hero with our whole attention, through all the varieties of his fortune, without a thought of the thousands that are falling round him.— Johnson. MVII. As Sussex men, that dwell upon the shore, That some well-laden ship may strike the sands; MVIII. Congreve. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment, But not express'd in fancy; rich, and gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France, of the best rank and station, And it must follow, as the night the day, MIX. Shakspeare. The case is alter'd since we liv'd in the country; Our kitchen does not smell of beef, the cellar MX. Were there on earth another voice like thine, On Mrs. A. Hunt-Congreve. MXI. His preaching much, but more his practice wrought; (A living sermon of the truths he taught;) For this by rules severe his life he squared, That all might see the doctrine which they heard. (The gold of heaven, who bear the God impressed;) Character of a good Parson-from Chaucer-Dryden. MXII. Some young men of distinction are found to travel through Europe, with no other intent, than that of understanding and collecting pictures, studying seals, and describing statues; on they travel from this cabinet of curiosities to that gallery of pictures; waste the prime of life in wonder; skilful in pictures; ignorant in men; yet impossible to be reclaimed, because their follies takes shelter under the names of delicacy and taste.-Goldsmith. MXIII. Temper your heat, And lose not, by too sudden rashness, that Valour the pupil; and, when we command With cheerfulness, a prosperous end must crown MXIV. Massinger. Now that good heart bursts, and he is at rest-with that breath expired a soul who never indulged a passion unfit for the place he has gone to. Where are now thy plans of justice, of truth, of honour? Of what use the volumes thou hast collated, the arguments thou hast invented, the examples thou hast followed? Poor were the expectations of the studious, the modest, and the good, if the reward of their labours were only to be expected from man. No, my friend, thy intended pleadings, thy intended good offices to thy friends, thy intended services to thy country, are already performed (as to thy concern in them) in his sight, before whom, the past, present, and future appear at one view. While others with thy talents were tormented with ambition, with vain-glory, with envy, with emulation, how well didst thou turn thy mind to its own improvement in things out of the power of fortune: in probity, in integrity, in the practice and study of justice! silent thy passage, how private thy journey, how glorious thy end! Many have I known more famous . How |