claimant expires of wrong,

in the midst of right, as mariners

die of thirst, in the midst of water.

XXV.

TOO high an appreciation of our own talents is the chief cause why experience preaches to us all in vain. Hence it happens, that both in public and in private life, we so constantly see men playing that very game at which they know that others have been ruined; but they flatter themselves that they shall play it with more skill. The powerful are more deaf to the voice of experience, than their inferiors, from the very circumstances in which they are placed. Power multiplies flatterers, and flatterers multiply our delusions, by hiding us from ourselves. It is on this principle only, that we can account for such a reign as that of the Second Charles, treading so quickly upon that of the First. The former was restored to a throne that might be said to have been built out of the very materials that composed the scaffold of his father! He converted it into an Altar of Bacehanalians, where he himself officiated as high priest of the orgies, while every principle of purity and of honour, were the costly victims that bedewed with libations, and bedizened with flowers, were led in disgusting splendour to the sacrifice.

an esprit du corps amongst lawyers which is carried to a greater height than in any other profession; its force here is more prominent, because it is more effectual. Lawyers are the only civil delinquents whose judges must of necessity be chosen from themselves. Therefore the "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?" is a more perplexing question with regard to them, than any other body of men. The fact is, that the whole Civil Code is now become a most unwieldy machine, without the least chance of being improved, for to those who manage its movements, its value rises in precise proportion to its complication, and to them it is most profitable, when it performs the least. This machine devours an immensity of paper in the shape of bank notes, and returns to its customers other paper in the shape of legal instruments and documents, from which on examination nothing can be learnt, except that the parties have been regularly ruined according to law. C

VOL. II.

XXVI.

HE that would thoroughly accomplish himself for the government of human affairs, should have a wisdom that can look forward into things that are present, and a learning that can look back into things that are past. But the poring pedant, who will slake his thirst only from antiquity, will find that it abounds with wells so deep, that some of them were not worth the digging, and now so dark that they are not worth the descending; yet so dry withal, that he will come up more thirsty than he went down, with eyes blinded by the dust of time, and with lips unquenched by the living waters of truth. Wisdom, however, and learning, should go hand in hand, they are so beautifully qualified for But it is better to have wisdom without learning, than learning without wisdom; just as it is better to be rich without being the possessor of a mine, than to be the possessor of a mine without being rich.

mutual assistance.

XXVII.

WHEN we have lost a favourite horse or a dog, we usually endeavour to console ourselves, by the recollection of some bad qualities they happened to possess; and we are very apt to tranquillize our minds by similar reminiscences, on the death of those friends who have left us nothing.

XXVIII.

WHEN certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire; wc shall often find this a very consolatory question.

XXIX.

WHY is it that we so constantly hear men complain

* Some contend that the moderns have less strength than the ancients, but it would be nearer the truth, to insist that the moderns have less weakness; the muscularity of their mind on some points is not enfeebled by any ricketty conformation on others, and this enables us to ascend the ladder of science, high enough to be on a level with the wisdom of our forefathers at some times, and above their errors at all times.

ing of their memory,* but none of their judgment; is it that they are less ashamed of a short memory, because they have heard that this is a failing of great wits, or is it because nothing is more common than a fool, with a strong memory, nor more rare than a man of sense with a weak judgment.

XXX.

AS the mean have a calculating avarice, that sometimes inclines them to give, so the magnanimous have a condescending generosity, than sometimes inclines them to receive.

XXXI.

PHILOSOPHY is to Poetry, what old age is to youth; and the stern truths of Philosophy are as fatal to the fictions of the one, as the chilling testimonies of experience are to the hopes of the other.

XXXII.

NO reformation is so hazardous as that of retrenchment; it forces the corrupt to give a practical assent to a system which they outwardly extol, but inwardly execrate. Even the bright talent and still brighter integrity of M. Necker,† were not equal to the host of enemies which his inflexible adherence to economy had created around him. I was placed, says he, in a situation, where I was under the constant necessity of disobliging all those whom I knew, in

Of all the faculties of the mind, memory is the first that flourishes, and the first that dies. Quintilian has said " Quantum memoriæ tantum ingenii;" but if this maxim were either true, or believed to be so, all men would be as satisfied with their memory, as they at present are with their judgment.

† So firm was the confidence reposed in this great man by the whole nation of France, that on his re-assumption of office, the French funds rose thirty per cent in one day. Had M. Necker had plenitude of power, or M. Mirabeau purity of principle, could the former have don: what he would, or the latter what he could, in either case the French revolution had been prevented.

order to secure the interests of those whom I knew not. Even the ladies at court would demand pensions, says Madame De Stael, with as much confidence, as a Marshal of France would complain of being superseded. What, they would say, is three thousand livres to the king: three thousand livres, replied M. Necker, are the taxation of a village.

XXXIII.

SELFLOVE, in a well regulated breast, is as the steward of the household, superintending the expenditure, and seeing that benevolence herself should be prudential, in order to be permanent, by providing that the reservoir which feeds, should also be fed.

XXXIV.

SOME authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labour therefore, to treat with ease, of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicacity, of things that are profound.

XXXV.

WHAT we conceive to be failings in others, are not unfrequently owing to some deficiencies in ourselves; thus plain men think handsome women want passion, and plain women think young men want politeness; dull writers think all readers devoid of taste, and dull readers think witty writers devoid of brilliance; old men can see nothing to admire in the present days; and yet former days were not better, but it is they themselves that have become worse.

XXXVI.

A THOROUGH paced Antiquarian not only remembers what all other people have thought proper to forget, but he also forgets what all other people think it proper to remember.

XXXVII.

SPEAKING, says Lord Bacon, makes a ready man, reading a full man, and writing a correct man. The first position perhaps is true. for those are often the most ready to speak, who have the least to say. But reading will not always make a full man, for the memories of some men are like the buckets of the daughters of Danae, and retain nothing; others have recollections like the bolters of a mill, that retain the chaff and let the flour escape; these men will have fulness, but it will be with the drawback of dulness. Neither will writing always accomplish what his Lordship has declared, otherwise some of our most voluminous writers, would put in their claim for correctness, to whom their readers would more justly award correction. But if we may be allowed to compare intellectual wealth to current, we may say that from a man's speaking, we may guess how much ready money he has; from his reading what legacies have been left him; and from his writing, how much he can sit down and draw for, on his banker.

XXXVIII.

DRUNKENNESS is the vice of a good constitution, or of a bad memory; of a constitution so treacherously good, that it never bends until it breaks; or of a memory that recollects the pleasures of getting drunk, but forgets the pains of getting sober.

XXXIX.

TRUE goodness is not without that germ of greatness that can bear with patience the mistakes of the ignorant,