An old miser kept a tame jackdaw, that used to steal pieces of money, and hide them in a hole, which the cat observing, asked why he would hoard up those round shining things that he could make no use of. "6 Why," said the jackdaw, "my master has a whole chest full, and makes no more use of them than I."

I never wonder to see men wicked; but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them; as he, who in a melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the wall or the wainscot,can,, by two or three touches with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing with what he fancied.

When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.

Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.

Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

Kings are commonly said to have long hands; I wish they had as long ears.

I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbors and passengers, but not the owner within.

If a man would register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning, &c., beginning from his youth, and so go on to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last.

The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for who ever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of

ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in, and these are always ready at the mouth; so people come faster out of church when it is almost empty then when a crowd is at the door.

I never yet knew a wag (as the term is) who was not a dunce.

The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions he had contracted in the former.

FROM POPE.

There is nothing meritorious but Virtue and Friendship; and, indeed, Friendship itself is but a part of Virtue.

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

Our passions are like convulsive fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us weaker ever after.

To relieve the oppressed is the most glorious act a man is capable of; it is, in some measure, doing the business of God and Providence.

It is not so much the being exempt from faults as the having overcome them, that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with the weeds of a field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their birth, enrich and improve it more then if none had ever sprung there.

FROM LAVATER.

He who begins with severity in judging of another, ends commonly with falsehood.

There is a manner of forgiving so divine that you are ready to embrace the offender for having called it forth.

The wrath that on conviction subsides into mildness is the wrath of a generous mind.

If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? No; I shall say indolence: who conquers indolence will conquer all the rest.

Avoid the eye that discovers with rapidity the bad, and is slow to see the good.

The manner of giving shows the character of the giver more than the gift itself: there is a princely manner of giving, and a royal manner of accepting.

The most abhorred thing in nature is the face that smiles abroad, and flashes fury when it returns to the lap of a tender, helpless family.

Trust not him with your secrets who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.

THE STRANGER.

Hodnet is a village in Shropshire. Like all other villages in Shropshire, or anywhere else, it consists principally of one long street, with a good number of detached houses scattered here and there in its vicinity. The street is on a slight declivity, on the sunny side of what in England they call a hill. It contains the shops of three butchers, five grocers, two bakers, and one apothecary. On the right hand, as you go south, is that very excellent inn, the Blue Boar; and on the left, nearly opposite, is the public hall, in which all sorts of meetings are held, and which is alternately converted into a dancing-school, a theatre, a chapel, a ball-room, an auction-room, an exhibition-room, or any other kind of room that may be wanted. The church is a little further off, and the parsonage is, as usual, a white house surrounded with trees, at one end of the village. Hodnet, is, moreover, the market-town of the shire, and stands in rather a populous district; so that, though of small dimensions itself, it is the rallying place, on any extraordinary occasion, of a pretty numerous population.

One evening in February, the mail from London stopped at the Blue Boar, and a gentleman wrapped in a travelling cloak alighted. The guard handed him a small portmanteau, and the mail drove on. The stranger entered the inn, was shown into a parlor, and desired that the landlord and a bottle of wine should be sent to him. The order was speedily obeyed; the wine was set upon the table, and Gilbert Cherryripe himself was the person who set it there. Gilbert next proceeded to rouse the slumbering fire, remarking, with a sort of comfortable look and tone, that it was a cold, raw night. "You

His guest assented with a nod. call this village Hodnet, do you not?" said he inquiringly.

"Yes, sir, this is the town of Hodnet." (Mr. Cherryripe did not like the term "village.") And a prettier little place is not to be found in England."

"So I have heard; and as you are not upon any of the great roads, I believe you have the reputation of being a primitive and unsophisticated race."

"Privitive and sofiscated did you say, sir? Why, as to that I cannot exactly speak; but, if there is no harm in it, I dare say we are. But you see, sir, I am a vintner, and don't trouble my head much about these matters."

"So much the better," said the stranger, smiling. "You and I shall become better

acquainted; I may stay with you for some weeks, perhaps months. In the meantime get me something comfortable for supper, and desire your wife to look after my bed

room."

Mr. Cherryripe made one of his profoundest bows, and descended to the kitchen, inspired with the deepest respect for his unexpected guest.

Next day was Sunday. The bells of the village church had just finished ringing, when the stranger walked up the aisle and entered, as if at random, a pew, which happened to be vacant. Instantly every eye was turned towards him, for a new face was too inportant an object in Hodnet to be left unnoticed.

"Who is he?"

"When did he come ?"

"With whom does he stay?" "How long will he be here?" "How old may he be?"

"Do you think he is handsome ?"

These, and a thousand other questions flew about in whispers from tongue to tongue, whilst the unconscious object of all this interest, cast his eyes calmly, and yet penetratingly, over the congregation. Nor was it altogether to be wondered at that his appearance had caused a sensation among the good people of Hodnet, for he was not the kind of person whom one meets with every day. There was something both in his face and figure that distinguished him from the crowd. You could not look upon him once, and then turn away with indiffer

ence

His features arrested your attention, and commanded your admiration. His high Roman nose, his noble brow, his almost feminine lips, and beautifully regular teeth, his pale but not delicate cheek, his profusion of dark and curling hair, his black bright eyes, whose glance, without being keen, was intense, all, taken together, produced an effect which might have excited attention on a wider stage than that of Hodnet. In stature he was considerably above the middle height; and there was something in his air which they who were not accustomed to it did not understand, and which some called grace, others dignity, and others hauteur. When the service was over, our hero walked out alone, and shut himself up for the rest of the day in his parlor at the Blue Boar. But speculation was busily at work, and at more than one tea-table that evening in Hodnet, conjectures were poured with the tea and swallowed with the toast.

A few days elapsed, and she stranger was almost forgotten; for there was to be a sub

scription assembly in Hodnet, which engrossed entirely the minds of men. It was one of the most important events that had happened for at least a century. Such doings had never been known before. There was never such a demand for milliners since the days of Ariadne, the first milliner of whom history speaks. Needles worked unremittingly from morning till night, and from night till morning. Fiddles were scraped on in private, and steps danced before looking-glasses. All the preparations which Captain Parry made for going to the North Pole, were a mere joke to the preparations made by those who intended to go to the Hodnet assembly. At length, the great, the important night arrived, big with the fate" of many a rustic belle. The three professionable fiddlers of the village were elevated on a table at one end of the hall, and every body pronounced it the very model of an orchestra. The candles were tastefully arranged, and regularly snuffed. The floor was admirably chalked by a travelling sign-painter, engaged for the purpose; and the refreshments in an adjoining room, consisting of negus, apples, oranges, cold roast-beef, porter and buiscuits, were under the immediate superintendence of our very excellent friend, Mr. Cherry ripe. nine o'clock, which was considered a fashionable hour, the hall was nearly full, and the first country dance (quadrilles had not as yet poisoned the peace, and stirred up all the bad passions of Hodnet,) was commenced by the eldest son and presumptive heir of old Squire Thoroughbred, who conducted gracefully, through its mazes, the chosen divinity of his heart, Miss Wilhelmina Bouncer, only daughter of Tobias Bouncer, Esq., justice of peace, in the county of Shropshire.

At

Enjoyment was in its height, and the three professional fiddlers had put a spirit of life into all things, when suddenly one might perceive that the merriment was for a moment checked, whilst a more than usual bustle pervaded the room. The stranger had entered it; and there was something so different in his looks and manner from those of any of the other male creatures, that everybody surveyed him with renewed curiosity, which was at first slightly tinctured with awe.

"Who can he be ?" was the question that instantaneously started up like a crocus in many a throbbing bosom.

"He knows nobody, and nobody knows him; surely he will never think of asking any body to dance."

"Dance!" said Miss Coffin, the apothe