ALONE. To a person who knows how to think justly, it would be as great a mortification never to be alone, as to be always so.--Female Spectator.

HAPPINESS.-Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share with them in their happiness.-Bishop Taylor.

Wealth is nothing in itself; it is not useful but when it departs from us, its value is found only in that which it can purchase, which if we suppose it put to its best use by those who possess it, seems not much to deserve the envy or desire of a wise man. It is certain that with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues of pleasure, nor block up the passages of anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed, that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment, or elevate the imagination, but may by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error and harden stupidity.-Dr. Johnson.

TRIALS.-Use yourself to little trials first. If a cruise of oil be broken, or a pint of your wine stolen, reflect immediately that this is the purchase of constancy and a composed mind; and, since nothing can be had free of cost, he that gets these so cheap, hath a good bargain. So again, when you call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not attend you; or if he do, that he may not do what you command him; and it is too great an advantage, which you give him over yourself, if you put it in his power to say whether your mind shall be easy or not.-Stanhope's Epictetus.

POETS AND RHYMERS.

Let me for once presume to instruct the times,
To know the poet from the man of rhymes;
'Tis he who gives my heart a thousand pains,
Can make me feel each passion that he feigns;
Enrage, compose with more than magic art,
With pity and with terror tear my heart;
And snatch me o'er the earth, or through the air,
To Thebes, to Athens, when he will and where.
Horace imitated by Pope.

Epitaph on Mrs. Higgins, of Weston.
Laurels may flourish round the conqu'ror's tomb,
But happiest they who win the world to come:
Believers have a silent field to fight,

And their exploits are veiled from human sight;
They in some nook where little known they dwell,
Kneel, pray in faith, and rout the hosts of hell;
Eternal triumphs crown their toil divine,
And all those triumphs, Mary, now are thine.

PYTHAGORAS.

He great ideas form'd

Cowper.

Of the whole moving, all-informing God;
The sun of beings! beaming unconfined;
Light, life and love, and ever active power,
Whom naught can image, and who best approves
The silent worship of the mortal heart.

Thomson, Liberty.

CUSTOM.-Plato seeing a young man play at dice, reproved him sharply; the other answered, "What, for so small a matter!" "Custom," says Plato," is no small thing. Let idle hours be spent more usefully."-Penn's works.

The original of all men is the same, and virtue is the only nobility.-Seneca.

RELIGION. As men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we in this world are ever within the reach of temptation: And herein do we serve God, if we avoid what we are forbid, as well as do what he commands. It were better to be of no church than to be bitter for any. It is as great presumption to send our passions upon God's errands, as it is to palliate them with God's name.-Ibid.

When charity keeps pace with gain, industry is blessed; but to slave to get, and keep it sordidly, is a sin against Providence, a vice in government, and an injury against their neighbours. Such are they that spend not one fifth of their income; and it may be give not one tenth of what they spend to the needy.-Ibid.

SINGULARITY.-Singularity is laudable, when in contradiction to a multitude, it adheres to the dictates of morality and honour. In these cases we ought to consider that it is not custom but duty, which is the rule of action; and that we should be only so far sociable, as we are reasonable creatures. Truth is never the less so for not being attended to, and it is the nature of actions, not the number of actions, by which we ought to regulate our behaviour. Singularity in concerns of this kind is to be looked upon as heroic bravery, in which a man leaves the species only as he soars above it. What greater instance can there be of a weak and pusillanimous temper, than for a man to pass his whole life in opposition to his own sentiments? or are not to be what he thinks he ought to be.-Spectator.

There cannot be a greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.-Locke.

CHEERFULNESS AND MIRTH.--I have always. preferred cheerfulness to mirth; the latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the highest transports of mirth, who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, yet it prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment--cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.--Spectator.

Happiest of all men to me seems the private man, nor can the opinion of ill-judging crowds make him less happy, because they think others more so. He who can live alone without uneasiness, who can survey his past life with pleasure, who can look back without compunction or shame, forward without fear of rebuke; he whose every day hath produced some good, at least is passed with innocence; the silent benefactor, the ready and faithful friend; he who is filled with secret delight because he feels his heart is full of benevolence, who finds pleasure in relieving or assisting. The domestic man, perhaps little talked of, perhaps less seen, beloved by his friends, trusted and esteemed by all that know him; often useful to such as know him not, enjoys such high felicity as the wealth of kingdoms and bounty of kings cannot afford.-Cato's Letters.

MEMORY. The memory is a treasurer to whom we must give a fund, if we will draw the assistances we need.-Rowe.

ADMONITION.-To retract or mend a fault at the admonition of a friend, hurts your credit or liberty, no more than if you had grown wiser upon your own thought; for it is still your own judgment and temper, which makes you see your mistake, and willing to retract it.-Marcus Antoninus.

BELIEF.-Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.

Shenstone's Works.

FLAWS. The finest composition of human nature, as well as the finest China, may have a flaw in it, though the pattern may remain of the highest value.

FAULTS.-In the form of the mind, it is a true rule, that a man may mend his faults with as little labour as cover them.

Excellent Instructions for Travellers.

CONTENT. The method of knowing whether your sum total in arithmetic be right, is to try it by the figures which compose it. The method of knowing whether your content in the world is just, is not by the causes which produce it, for the produce itself is a proof that the causes are what they should be.--Montesquieu.

PHILOSOPHY.-Aristippus having demanded fifty drachmas (about twenty-five shillings,) of a man for teaching his son: "How! fify drachmas," cried the father, "why that's enough to buy a slave !". "Indeed!" replied Aristippus, " buy him, then, and you'll have two."--Rollin's Ancient History.