seem to rely with a confidence equal to its merit.— Boulainvillier's Life of Mahomet.

RELIGION. Our religion is a religion that dares to be understood; that offers itself to the search of the inquisitive, to the inspection of the severest and most awakened reason; for being secure of her substantial truth and purity, she knows that for her to be seen and looked into, is to be embraced and admired, as there needs no greater argument for men to love the light than to see it.-Johnson's Dictionary.

CONVERSATION.-Never think to entertain people with what lies out of their way, be it ever so curious in its kind; who would think of regaling a circle of ladies with the beauties of Homer's Greek, or a company of country squires with Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries.-Scott.

CONCISENESS.-Nothing is more certain than that much of the force as well as grace of arguments, or instructions depends on their conciseness.-Pope.

MAN.

O! wretched man! in what a mist of life
Inclosed with dangers and with noisy strife,"
He spends his little span and over feeds,

His cramm'd desires with more than nature needs;
For nature wisely stints an appetite

And craves no more than undisturb'd delight,
Which minds unmix'd with cares and fears obtain,
A soul serene, a body void of pain.

Lucretius, translated by Dryden.

SILENCE. Love silence, even in the mind, for thoughts are to that, as words to the body, troublesome; much speaking as much thinking spends, and in many thoughts as well as words there is sin.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue. It covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin. Penn.

It is not uncommon for one called an amateur, to be so pleased with the skill of the artist, as to prefer the likeness of a flower, which owes all its beauty to paint, to the fragrant original.—Dillwyn.

A woman had need be perfectly provided with virtue, to repair the ruins of her beauty.-Spectator.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer of a wise man.-Wm. Penn's Maxims.

OLD AGE. The third charge against old age was, that it is (they say) insensible to pleasure, and the enjoyments arising from the gratification of the senses; and a most blessed and heavenly effect it truly is, if it eases us of what in youth was the sorest and cruelest plague of life.

M. T. Cicero on Old Age.

Epitaph on Epictetus, the Stoic Philosopher. Epictetus, who lies here, was a slave and a cripple; poor as the beggar in the proverb, and the favourite of heaven.

Virtue has secret charms, which all men love;
And those that do not choose her yet approve.

What a great deal of time and ease that man gains, who is not troubled with the spirit of curiosity, who lets his neighbour's thoughts and behaviour alone,

confines his inspections to himself, and takes care of the point of honesty and conscience.-Anon.

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.

AGE. They talk idly who pretend that age disables from business. They might with as much justice assert, that a pilot on board a ship does nothing, because he neither mounts the shrouds, hauls the ropes, nor works at the pump; but without any bodily labour, minds only the steerage, and directs the helmsman, which is of more importance to the ship's preservation than the work of all the rest besides. For, it is neither by bodily strength, nor swiftness, nor agility, that momentous affairs are carried on; but by judgment, counsel, and authority: the abilities for which are so far from failing in old age, that they truly increase by it.

Cicero on Old Age.*

* The translation of "Cicero on Old Age," with copious notes, which is deservedly a favourite with the English reader, was made by the Hon. James Logan, the most eminent scholar of the Province of Pennsylvania. He has justly entitled himself to the gratitude of Philadelphians, by his noble gift to the public of his rare and valuable library, the second in the United States, and still the pride of that city. It was printed first by Benjamin Franklin, and afterwards erroneously republished in London as his translation. James Logan came to this country as secretary to Penn; thus abandoning a Lucrative profession at home; and by his uniform probity, information and public virtues, he acquired the confidence of the Proprietaries, and rose to several important stations of trust and honour. He was the uniform friend of the Indian natives, who looked upon him, after Penn's return and death, as his successor and the guardian of their interests. He died at Stenton, near Germantown, 1751.

By reading we enjoy the dead, by conversation. the living, and by contemplation, ourselves. Reading enriches the memory, conversation polishes the wit, and contemplation improves the judgment. Of these, reading is the most important, which furnishes both the others.-Lacon.

GOVERNMENT.-Government, take it in any of its complex forms, can be carried on but in three ways: by unsullied principle and undeviating virtue in the governors, and perhaps in the people; by force and terror; or by mitigated law and influence. Who does not wish for the first? Who expects to see it? In states highly civilized, the mixed mode of law and influence on the minds of free agents appears to me the only mode in which tranquillity, security, and general happiness can be tolerably preserved, with the allowance of human frailty. Pursuits of Literature.

PROVIDENCE.

"Tis God alone with unimpassion'd sight,
Surveys the nice barrier of wrong and right;
And while subservient, as his will ordains,
Obedient nature yields the present means;
While neither force nor passions guide his views,
E'en evil works the purpose he pursues!
That bitter spring, the source of human pain,
Heal'd by his touch, does mineral health contain!
And dark affliction, at his potent rod,

Withdraws its cloud, and brightens into good.-Boyse.

If while on earth triumphat Vice prevails,
Celestial Justice balances her scales,
With eye unbiass'd all the scene surveys,
With hand impartial ev'ry crime she weighs;
Oft close pursuing at his trembling heels,
The man of blood her awful presence feels;
Oft from her arm amidst the blaze of state,
The regal tyrant, with success elate,

Is forced to leap the precipice of fate!
Or if the villain pass unpunish'd here,
'Tis but to make the future stroke severe;
For soon or late, eternal Justice pays

Mankind, the just desert of all their ways.-Boyse.

RELIGION. If we were to be hired to religion, it is able to outbid the corrupted world with all it can offer us, being so much the richer of the two in every thing where reason is admitted to be a judge of the value.-Marquis of Halifax.

Man being made a reasonable, and so a thinking creature, there is nothing more worthy of his being, than the right direction and employment of his thoughts, since upon this depends both his usefulness to the public, and his own present and future benefit in all respects.-Wm. Penn.

We part more easily with that we possess than with our expectations of what we wish for; the reason of it is, that what we expect, is always greater than what we enjoy.-The World.

RELIGION. Those who make religion to consist in the contempt of this world and its enjoyments are under a very fatal and dangerous mistake. As life is the gift of heaven, it is religion to enjoy it. He therefore, who can be happy in himself, and who contributes all that is in his power towards the happiness of others, (and none but the virtuous can so be and so do,) answers most effectually the ends of his creation, is an honour to his nature and a pattern to mankind.—Ibid.

LIBERALITY consists not so much in giving a great deal, as in giving seasonably.-De la Bruyere,