Birth. Blind Boy. Glows a repentant blush - Our greatest heroes, WHO first the catalogue shall grace? Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge, BLIND BOY. O fay, what is that thing, call'd light, 57 But fure with patience I can bear Although a poor blind boy. - Colley Cibber. BUILDING. THE man who builds, and wants wherewith to pay, Provides a home, from which to run away. CLOWN. A clownish mein, a voice with rustic found, And stupid eyes, that ever lov'd the ground; The ruling rod, the father's forming care, Were exercis'd in vain, on wit's despair; The more inform'd, the lefs he understood, And deeper funk by flound'ring in the mud. His corn and cattle were his only care; And his fupreme delight a country fair. A quarter-staff, which he ne'er could forfake, Hung half before, and half behind his back. He trudg'd along, unknowing what he fought, And whistled, as he went, for want of thought. --Dryden. CAMP I have been led by folitary care To yon dark branches, spreading o'er the brook, hen his fortune fets before him all CLEANLINESS mark of politeness. It is universally agreed upon, one, unadorned with this virtue, can go into company giving a manifest offence. The easier or higher any ortune is, this duty rises proportionably. The different of the world are as much diftinguished by their cleanlis by their arts and sciences. The more any country zed, the more they confult this part of politeness. We but compare our ideas of a female Hottentot and an beauty, to be fatisfied of the truth of what hath been ced. the next place, cleanliness may be faid to be the foster r of love. Beauty indeed most commonly produces affion in the mind, but cleanliness preserves it. An rent face and person, kept in perpetual neatness, has nany a heart from a pretty flattern. Age itself is not able, while it is preserved clean and unfullied: like a of metal conftantly kept smooth and bright, we look on h more pleasure, than on a new veffel which is cankered ruft. might observe farther, that, as cleanliness renders us able to others, so it makes us easy to ourselves; that it excellent preservative of health; and that several vices, active both to mind and body, are inconsistent with the : of it. But these reflections I shall leave to the leifure of my ers, and shall obferve in the third place, that it bears a tanalogy with purity of mind, and naturally inspires refined iments and paffions.-Spectator. CHARACTER. of good and evil in the fame character, that it may require a very accurate judgment, and a very elaborate enquiry, to determine on which side the balance turns. - Fielding. THE first impressions which mankind receive of us, will be ever after difficult to eradicate. How unhappy, therefore, must it be, to fix our characters in life, before we can possibly know the value, or weigh the consequences of those actions which are to establish our future reputation.-Ibid. CUSTOM. CUSTOM is commonly too strong for the most resolute refolver, though furnished for the affault with all the weapons of philofophy. "He that endeavors to free himself from an ill habit (fays Bacon) must not change too much at a time, left he should be discouraged by difficulty; nor too little, for then he will make but flow advances." Idler. SUPPOSE we have freed ourselves from the younger prejudices of our education, yet we are in danger of having our mind turned aside from truth by the influence of general custom. Our opinion of meats and drinks, of garments and forms of falutation, are influenced more by custom, than by the eye, the ear, or the taste. Custom prevails even over sense itself; and therefore no wonder if it prevail over reason too. What is it, but custom, that renders many of the mixtures of food and fauces elegant in Britain, which would be aukward and nauseous to the inhabitants of China, and indeed were naufeous to us when we first tasted them? What but custom could make those salutations polite in Muscovy, which are ridiculous in France and England? We call ourselves indeed the politer nations: but it is we who judge thus of ourselves; and that fancied politeness is oftentimes more owing to custom than reason. Why are the forms of our present garments counted beautiful, and those fashions of our ancestors the matter of fcoff and contempt, which in their days, were all decent and genteel? It is cuffom that forms our opinion of dress, and reconciles us by degrees to those habits which at first seemed very odd and monstrous. It must be granted, there are fome garments and habits which have a natural congruity or incongruity, modefty or immodesty, gaudiness or gravity; though, for the most part, there is but little reason in these affairs: but what little there is of reason, or natural decency, custom triumphs over it all. It is almost impossible to perfuade a young lady that any thing can be decent which is out of fashion. Watts. CUSTOM may lead a man into many errors; but it juflifies none.-Fielding. COMPLAINT. WHAT cannot be repaired is not to be regretted. The usual fortune of complaint, is to excite contempt more than pity -Johnson. TO hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship: and though it must be allowed, that he fuffers most like a hero, who hides his grief in filence, yet it cannot be denied, that he who complains, acts like a man-like a focial being, who looks for help from his fellow-creatures. Idem. THE CHURCH-YARD. "Your WHAT a number of hillocks of death appear all round us! What are the tomb-ftones, but memorials of the inhabitants of that town, to inform us of the period of all their lives, and to point out the day when it was faid to each of them, " time shall be no longer." O, may I readily learn this important lesson, that my turn is hastening too; such a little hillock shall shortly arife for me in fome unknown spot of ground: it shall cover this flesh and these bones of mine in darkness, and shall hide them from the light of the fun, and from the fight of man, till the heavens be no more. Watts. PERHAPS in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celeftial fire: The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear; And walle its sweetness on the defert air. Some Cromwell, guiltkfs of a's country's blood.-Gray. F |