wavering, and changeable; they even dance: yet God, in his wisdom, has made them part of the oak. In so doing, he has given us a lesson not to deny the stout-heartedness within because we see the lightsomeness without.

The intellect of the wise is like glass: it admits the light of heaven, and reflects it.

Orphan children have not so much need of guardians as stupid men.

A Christian life is the great key of the Gospel

Knowledge without practice will only serve to increase our condemnation.

It is the most difficult thing for such as are in any eminent places to escape the temptation of sacrificing truth and righteousness on some occasion or other,

Read the Scriptures, but read them with attention; read the Parables of the prodigal, of the rich man, of him that built new barns, &c.: read them, and see if nothing in them belongs to you; whether you are not "faring sumptuously every day," while others want bread; whether you are

not laying out too much upon fine clothes, while others want clothes to keep them warm, &c.

All other creatures but man look to the earth, and even that is no unfit object, no unfit contemplation for man, for thither he must come; but because man is not to stay there, as other creatures are, man in his natural form is carried to the contemplation of that place which is his natural home, heaven.

The first minister of state has not so much business in public as a wise man has in private: if the one has little leisure to be alone, the other has less leisure to be in company; the one has but part of the affairs of one nation, the other all the works of God and nature, under his consideration.

The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government: the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country.

Great distress has never hitherto taught, and

whilst the world lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any. Men are as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and desperate measures.

Purity is the feminine, Truth the masculine, of Honour.

The most mischievous liars are those who keep on the verge of truth.

How much better the world would go on, if people could but do, now and then, what Lord Castlereagh used to deprecate, and turn their themselves!

backs upon

Most people know not how interesting they are what interesting things they really utter. A true representation of themselves, a record and estimate of their sayings, would make them astonished at themselves—would help them to discover in themselves an entirely new world.

Only as comparing ourselves as men with other rational beings, could we know what we truly are, what position we occupy.

He who desires to guide himself by the rules of wisdom must pass his life in a continual struggle; for in us there are two men, the terrestrial and the spiritual, who are incessantly at war, and agree only when enlightened reason is the pilot and an upright heart the helm.

As the blade of wheat whilst ungrown and empty holds itself proudly up, but so soon as the ear is filled with grain bends humbly down; so is real wisdom and worth modest and unassuming, whilst ignorance and folly is forward and presuming.

Such books as teach wisdom and prudence, and gerve to eradicate errors and vices, are the most profitable writings in the world, and ought to be valued and studied more than all others whatsoever.

In the paroxysm of passion we sometimes give occasion for a life of repentance.

Pride becomes neither the commander nor the commanded. Since there is no absolute freedom to be found below, even kings are but mere splendid servants for the common body.

Idleness is the mother of many wanton children.

Of trees God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall; of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls, the mild and gall-less dove. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar, nor in the sturdy oak, but in a bush; an humble, slender, abject shrub as if by this he would check the conceited arrogance of man.

Objects are effected by exertion, not by wishes. Truly, into the mouth of a sleeping lion the deer do not enter.

Let the servant deserve, and the master recompense and, if they would both be noble, the best way is for those who are subject to forget their services, and for those who command to remember them ;—so, each loving the other for their generous worthiness, the world shall strew praises in both their paths.

Of a son unborn, or dead, or a fool; better the first two, and not the last. The first two inflict sorrow once: the last, perpetually.