may be considered as a sort of supplement to the legislative authority of his country; as assisting the unavoidable defects of all legal institutions for the regulation of manners, and striking terror, even where the divine prohibitions themselves are held in contempt.-Crousaz.

POLITENESS.-Lewis XIV. was told, that Lord Stair was one of the best-bred men in Europe. "I shall soon put him to the test," said the king, and asking Lord Stair to take an airing with him, as soon as the door of the coach was opened, he bade him pass and get in. The other bowed and obeyed. The king said, "the world is in the right, in the character it gives-another person would have troubled me with ceremony."

Generosity wrong placed becometh a vice; a princely mind will undo a private family.

Fuller's Prudentia.

ARGUMENTS. The Straits of Thermopyla were defended by only three hundred men, but they were all Spartans, and in advocating our own cause, we ought to trust rather to the force than to the number of our arguments; and to care not how few they be, should those few be incontrovertible. When we hear one argument refuted, we are apt to suspect that the others are weak; and a cause that is well supported, may be compared to an arch that is well built-nothing can be taken away without endangering the whole.-Lacon.

When it was said to Anaxagoras, "The Athenians have condemned you to die," he merely replied, "And nature them."-Apothegms.

BLINDNESS. MILTON'S COMPLAINT OF.
Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sov'reign vital lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill.—
Thus with the year

Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev❜n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

. Presented with an universal blank,

Of nature's wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.-Milton.

CROMWELL. AGE OF, CHARACTERIZED. When Cromwell fought for pow'r, and while he reign'd The proud protector of the pow'r he gained,

Religion harsh, intolerant, austere,

Parent of manners like herself severe,

Drew a rough copy of the Christian face,

Without the smile, the sweetness, or the grace;

The dark and sullen humours of the time

Judg'd ev'ry effort of the muse a crime:
Verse, in the finest mould of fancy cast,
Was lumber in an age so void of taste.-Cowper.

Inscription over the Door of a Gentleman's Retreat. BENEATH this moss-grown roof, within this cell, Truth, liberty, content and virtue dwell; Say you who dare this happy place disdain, What splendid palace boasts so fair a train?

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with. the other.-Lord Bacon.

Some will read over, or rather over read a book, with a view only to find fault; like venomous spiders extracting a poisonous quality, where the industrious bees sip out a sweet and profitable juice. Sir Roger L'Estrange.

Wise men mingle innocent mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget them or overcome them; but to be intemperate for the ease of one's mind, is to cure melancholy with madness.-Charron.

At twenty years of age the Will reigns; at thirty, the Wit; and at forty, the Judgment.—Gracian.

MEDIOCRITY. For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

The scriptures contain, independently of a divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer, strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the same compass from all other books that were ever composed in any age or in any idiom. The two parts of which the scriptures consist, are connected by a chain of compositions which bear no resemblance in form of style, to any that can be produced from the stores of Grecian,

Indian, Persian, or even Arabian learning. The antiquity of those compositions no man doubts; and the unrestrained application of them to events long subsequent to their publication, is a solid ground of belief, that they were genuine predictions, and consequently inspired.-Written at the end of his Bible, by Sir William Jones.

Many things in the course of human life are grievous for want of rightly pondering this truth; that if we needed them not we should hardly meet with them; and if we do need them, we ought not to wish an exemption from them.-Dillwyn.

A prudent woman is in the same class of honour as a wise man.- Tatler.

Hurry and cunning are the two apprentices of despatch and skill, but neither of them ever learn their master's trade.-Lacon.

If I am asked, who is the greatest man? I answer, the best and if I am required to say who is the best; I reply, he who has deserved most of his fellow creatures.-Sir Wm. Jones.

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one of another; therefore let men take heed of their company.

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other; and he only that knows how to accommodate himself to their periodical returns, and can wisely extract the good from the evil, knows how to live. Sterne's Sermons.

RELIGION, the balm of life, the anchor of hope, the dispeller of fears, the haven of rest, will carry us into the arms of him, who is mighty to save from every trouble; defended by his shield, though afflictions spring not out of the dust, they shall not hurt us; supported by his power, though the mighty rage, they shall not prevail against us; guided by his wisdom, though snares and evils encompass our paths, we shall escape them all. In vain may be our toil for riches to secure us; but our trust in him will never be in vain. The arrows of affliction may reach the very pinnacle of greatness, and cares and terrors climb up to us, however high we may place ourselves; but he is a tower of defence, a place of safety, a rock of salvation. O then! amidst all the storins and tumults of the world, give ear to that voice which speaketh peace, and says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burthen is light."-Anon.

Hasty words often rankle the wound which injury gives, but soft words assuage it, forgiving cures it, and forgetting takes away the scar.-Dillwyn.

If we calculate the time of life for seventy years, and take from it the time of our infancy and childhood, ignorance and irregeneracy, sleep and recreation, eating and drinking, sickness and old age, but a very little will remain for service.--Fuller.

Common-place-books are things of great services they are a kind of promptuaries or store-houes, wherein to reposit the choicest and most valuable parts of authors, to be ready at hand when wanted.