ON DREAMING OF MY MOTHER. Stay, gentle shadow of my mother stay!

Thy form but seldom comes to bless my sleep. Ye faithless slumbers, fleet not thus away,

And leave my wistful eyes to wake and weep. Oh! I was dreaming of those golden days,

When, Will my guide, and pleasure all my aim, I rambled wild through childhood's flowery maze, And knew of Sorrow scarcely by her name. Those scenes are fled;—and thou, alas! art fled, Light of my heart, and guardian of my youth! Then come no more to slumbering Fancy's bed, To aggravate the pangs of waking Truth.

Or if kind sleep these visions will restore,
O let me sleep again and never waken more.-Anon.

ON MY FATHER'S TOMB.

No splendid stone adorns this honour'd dust,
Or points me, where my father's relics lie;
No beauteous urn, or nicely sculptur'd bust
Recall his once lov'd image to my eye.

But memory still his features can impart,
When by his evening fire he sweetly smil'd,
Or when with serious look and swelling heart
He kindly check'd the wanderings of his child.

Ah! there are those who gratefully can tell,
How oft his skill detained the parting breath,
Compos'd the tortur'd bosom's throbbing swell,
And smooth'd to soft repose the bed of death.

Can tell how oft he eas'd the racking pain,
How oft he cool'd the fever's burning glow,
And bade fair health revisit once again
The hapless child of sickness and of wo.

All these can speak-although no splendid tomb
Recount his virtues or adorn his grave,
No yew-trees weave their dark funereal gloom,
Nor bending willows o'er his relics wave.

James G. Percival.

Men may live fools but fools they cannot die.

MORNING.

Beautiful earth! O how can I refrain
From falling down to worship thee? Behold,
Over the misty mountain springs amain

The glorious Sun, his flaming locks unfold
Their gorgeous clusters, pouring o'er the plain
Torrents of light. Hark! chanticleer has toll'à
His matin bell, and the lark's choral strain
Warbles on high hosannas uncontrolled.

All nature worships thee, thou new-born day!
Blade, flower, and leaf, their dewy offerings pay,
Upon the shrine of incense-breathing earth;
Birds, flocks, and insects, chaunt their morning lay.
Let me, too, join in the thanksgiving-mirth,
And praise, through thee, the God that gave thee birth.

Anon.

MEMORY.-Quintus Hortensius pronounced his pleadings just as he had meditated them, without writing one word, and forgot nothing that was said by his adversaries. What Seneca says of him is much more remarkable. Upon a challenge that was given Hortensius, he staid a whole day at a public auction, and repeated in order what had been sold, to whom, and at what price. His recital was compared with the clerk's accounts, and his memory was found to have served him faithfully in every particular.- Bayle.

RETIREMENT.-A man who can retire from the world to seek entertainment in his closet, has a thousand advantages which other people have no idea of. He is master of his own company and his own pleasures, and can command either the one or the other, according to his present circumstances or temper. All nature is ready for his view, and all ages of mankind appear at his call. He can transport himself to the most distant regions, and enjoy the best and politest company that ever the world afforded.

Hibernicus's Letters.

Religion is the best armour in the world, but the worst cloak.-Rule of Life.

Whilst the poor man groaneth on the bed of sickness, whilst the unfortunate languish in the horrors of a dungeon, or the hoary head of age lifts up a feeble eye to thee for pity-O how canst thou riot in superfluous enjoyments, regardless of their wants, unfeeling of their woes!-Economy of Human Life.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and dividing of our grief. Spectator.

Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light, takes off in some measure from the deformity of vice, and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.—Ibid.

Plato speaking of passionate persons, says, they are like men who stand on their heads; they see all things the wrong way.-Select Tales and Fables.

When we seem to blame ourselves, we mean only to extort praise.

Complaisance renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable. It smooths distinction, sweetens conversation, and makes every one in the company pleased with himself. It produces good nature and benevolence. Encourages the timorous, soothes the turbulent, humanizes the fierce, and distinguishes a society' of civilized persons from a confusion of savages.

Guardian.

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind. The Freeholder.

Virtue outbuilds the Pyramids

Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.-Young,

REASON.

Dim as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars
To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers,
Is reason to the soul; and as on high
Those rolling fires discover but the sky,
Nor light us here, so reason's glimmering ray
Was lent not to assure our doubtful way,
But guide us upwards to a better day,
And as those mighty tapers disappear,

When day's bright Lord ascends our hemisphere,
So pale grows reason at religion's sight,
So dies and so dissolves in supernat❜ral light.

Dryden.

Prosperity too often has the same effect on a Christian, that a calm hath at sea on a Dutch mariner, who frequently, it is said, in those circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep.

Dillwyn.

Good nature and evenness of temper, will give you an easy companion for life; virtue and good sense an agreeable friend; love and constancy a good wife or husband.-Spectator.

RETIREMENT. Before you think of retiring from the world, be sure you are fit for retirement. In order to which it is necessary that you have a mind so composed by prudence, reason, and religion, that it may bear being looked into; a turn to rural life, and a love for study.

The Dignity of Human Nature.

DUELS. It is foreign to our present purpose to detect the fallacy of those arguments in defence of duels, when men from sudden anger upon some trifling or imaginary affronts, the despising of which would appear honourable in every wise man's eyes, expose themselves, and often their dearest friends, to death, and hazard the ruin of their own families as well as that of their adversary; though the success in such attempts can have no tendency to justify them against the dishonourable charge, or to procure any honour from men of worth.

The Nature and Conduct of the Passions.

APHORISMS.-Perhaps the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abtruse sentiment, as the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.-Rambler.

WRITING. It is a most improving exercise as well with regard to style as to morals, to accustom ourselves early to write down every thing of moment that befals us."

Archbishop Tillotson's common-place book.

TRIFLES.-Plato would say, there was nothing more unworthy of a wise man, and which ought to trouble him more than to have allowed more time for unnecessary, trifling and useless things, than they deserved.-M. Dacier's Plato.

IDIOTS AND MADMEN.-Herein seems to be the difference between idiots and madmen, that madmen put wrong ideas together and so make wrong propositions, but argue and reason right from them, but idiots make very few or no propositions and reason scarce at all.--Locke.

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