Let this estate from parent's care descend;
The getting it too much of life does spend.
Take such a ground, whose gratitude may be
A fair encouragement for industry.

Let constant fires the winter's fury tame;
And let thy kitchens be a vest flame.
Thee to the town let never suit at law,
And rarely, very rarely, business draw.
Thy active mind in equal temper keep,
In undisturbed peace, yet not in sleep.
Let exercise a vigorous health maintain,
Without which all the composition's vain.
In the same weight prudence and innocence take;
And one of each does the just mixture make.
But a few friendships wear, and let them be
By nature and by fortune fit for thee.
Instead of art and luxury in food,

Let mirth and freedom make thy table good.
If any cares into thy day-time creep,

At night, without wine's opium, let them sleep.
Be satisfied, and pleased with what thou art,
Act cheerfully and well the allotted part;
Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past,
And neither fear, nor wish, the approaches of the last.

Martial.

Curiosity, from its nature, is a very active principle; it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects, and soon exhausts the variety which is common to be met with in nature: the same things make frequent returns, and they return with less and less of any agreeable effect. In short, the occurrences of life, by the time we come to know it a little, would be incapable of affecting the mind with any other sensations than those of loathing and weariness, if many things were not adapted to affect the mind by means of other passions besides curiosity in ourselves. Some degree of novelty must be one of the materials in almost every instrument which works upon the mind, and curiosity blends itself, more or less, with all our pleasures.-Burke.

What is more reasonable, than that they who take pains for any thing, should get most in that particular for which they take pains? They have taken pains for power, you for right principles; they for riches, you for a proper use of the appearances of things see whether they have the advantage of you in that for which they have taken pains, and which they neglect. If they are in power, and you not, why will not you speak the truth to yourself, that you do nothing for the sake of power, but that they do every thing? No, but since I take care to have right principles, it is more reasonable that I should have power. Yes, in respect to what you take care about, your principles. But give up to others the things in which they have taken more care than you. Else it is just as if, because you have right principles, you should think it fit when you shoot an arrow, you should hit the mark better than the archer, or that you should forge better than a smith. Epictetus.

It appears evident that frugality is necessary even to complete the pleasure of expense; for it may be generally remarked of those who squander what they know their fortune not sufficient to allow, that in their most jovial expense, there always breaks out some proof of discontent and impatience; they either scatter with a kind of wild desperation and affected lavishness, as criminals brave the gallows when they cannot escape it, or pay their money with a peevish anxiety, and endeavour at once to spend idly, and to save meanly: having neither firmness. to deny their passions, nor courage to gratify them, they murmur at their own enjoyments, and poison the bowl of pleasure by reflection on the cost.

Johnson.

The mere philosopher is a character which is commonly but little acceptable in the world, as being supposed to contribute nothing either to the advantage or pleasure of society; while he lives remote from communication with mankind, and is wrapped up in principles and notions equally remote from their comprehension. On the other hand, the mere ignorant is still more despised; nor is any thing deemed a surer sign of an illiberal genius in an age and nation where the sciences flourish, than to be entirely destitute of all relish for those noble entertainments. The most perfect character is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation, that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy. In order to diffuse and cultivate so accomplished a character, nothing can be more useful than compositions of the easy style and manner, which draw not too much from life, require no deep application or retreat to be comprehended, and send back the student among mankind full of noble sentiments and wise precepts, applicable to every exigence of human life. By means of such compositions, virtue becomes amiable, science agreeable, company instructive, and retirement entertaining.

How many bright

And splendid lamps shine in heaven's temples high! Day hath her golden sun, her moon the night, Her fix'd and wand'ring stars the azure sky;

So fram'd all by their creator's might,

That still they live and shine, and ne'er shall die;
Till in a moment, with the last day's brand,
They burn, and with them burn sea, air, and land.
Fairfax-T'asso's Jerusalem delivered.

It is wonderful that the frequent exercise of reading the Common Prayer should not make the performers of that duty more expert in it. This inability, as I conceive, proceeds from the little care that is taken of their reading while boys, and at school, where, when they have got into Latin, they are looked upon as above English, the reading of which is wholly neglected, or at least read to very little purpose, without any due observations made to them of the proper accent and manner of reading. Steele.

Temper your heat,

And lose not, by too sudden rashness, that
Which, be but patient, will be offer'd to you,
Of an enemy three-parts vanquished, with desire
And greediness of spoil, have often wrested
A certain victory from the conqueror's gripe.
Discretion is the victor of the war,

Valour the pupil; and, when we command
With lenity, and our directions follow'd
With cheerfulness, a prosperous end must crown
Our works well undertaken.
Massinger.

Let any one who knows what it is to have passed much time in a series of jollity, mirth, wit, or humorous entertainments, look back at what he was all that while a doing, and he will find that he has been at one instant sharp to some man he is sorry to have offended, impertinent to some one it was cruelty to treat with such freedom, ungratefully noisy at such a time, unskilfully open at such a time, unmercifully calumnious at such a time; and from the whole course of his applauded satisfactions, unable in the end to recollect any circumstance which can add to the enjoyment of his mind alone, or which he would put his character upon, with other men.

Steele.

Such is the present state of our literature, that the ancient sage, who thought a great book a great evil, would now think the multitude of books a multitude of evils. He would consider a bu.xy writer who engrossed a year, and a swarm of pampheteers who stole each an hour, as equal wasters of human life, and would make no other difference 'between them, than between a beast of prey and a flight of locusts.-Johnson.

Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is procured; but thousands and millions are of small aval to alleviate the protracted tortures of the gout, to repair the broken organs of sense, or resuscitate the powers of digestion. Poverty is, indeed, an evil from which we naturally fly; but let us not run from one enemy to another, nor take shelter in the arms of sickness. Johnson

None has more frequent conversations will. Cisar greeable self than the man of pleasure: dis entie siasms are but few and transient: nis appe'nes at angry creditors, continually making mu jest mands for what he is unable to pay his former preasures the more siren in regie more impatient is expectation.