of the most skilful arithmetician, Revelation, xiii. 18; puzzle the wisest anatomist, and exercise the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and confutes the wise astronomer; it exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, an unequalled narrative, a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages; it is the best covenant that ever was agreed on, the best deed that ever was sealed, the best evidence that ever was produced, the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was signed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom; it is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, the housewife's best guide, the servant's best directory, and the young man's best companion. It is the school-boy's spellingbook, and the learned man's master-piece; it contains a choice grammar for a novice, and a profound mystery for a sage; it is the ignorant man's dictionary, and the wise man's directory; it affords knowledge of witty inventions for the humorous, and dark sayings for the grave; and it is its own interpreter. It encourages the wise, the warrior, the swift, and the overcomer, and promises an eternal reward to the excellent, the conqueror, the winner, the prevalent. And that which crowns all is, that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy. In whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. J. L. R. As lamps burn silent, with unconscious light, A. Hill. As a man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are, so the sceptic, in a vain attempt to be wise, beyond what is permitted to man, plunges into a darkness more deplorable, and a blindness more incurable than that of the common herd, whom he despises and would fain instruct. For the more precious the gift, the more pernicious the abuse of it, as the most powerful medicines are the most dangerous if misapplied, and no error is so remediless as that which arises, not from the exclusion of wisdom, but from its perversion. The sceptic, when he plunges into the depths. of infidelity, like the miser who leaps from the shipwreck, will find that the treasures which he bears about him, will only sink him deeper in the abyss. Lacon. Agar said, "give me neither poverty nor riches;" and this will ever be the prayer of the wise. Our incomes should be like our shoes, if too small, they will gall and pinch us, but, if too large, they will cause us to stumble, and to trip. But wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little, and wants less, is richer than he that has much, but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Dioge nes, but a world was too little for Alexander.-Ib. There have been many laws made by men, which swerve from honesty, reason, and the dictates of nature. By the law of arms, he is degraded from all honour, who puts up an affront; and by the civil law, he that takes vengeance for it, incurs a capital punishment: he that seeks redress by law for an affront, is disgraced; and he that does not seek redress this way, is punished by the laws. Montaigne. It is a serious doubt whether a wise man ought to accept of a thousand years of life, even provided that these three important advantages of health, youth and riches could be securely guaranteed unto him. But this is an offer that can never be refused, for it will never be made. Taking things as they really are, it must be confessed that life, after forty, is an anti-climax, gradual indeed, and progressive with some, but steep and rapid with others. It would be well if old age diminished our perceptibilities to pain, in the same proportion that it does our sensibilities to pleasure; and if life has been termed a feast, those favoured few are the most favourite guests, who are not compelled to sit at the table, when they can no longer partake of the banquet. But the misfortune is that body and mind, like man and wife, do not always agree to die together. It is bad when the mind survives the body; and worse still when the body survives the mind; but, when both these survive our spirits, our hopes, and our health, this is worst of all.-Lacon. PROEM. Just as the bee collects her sweets To publish others' thoughts as mine, THE END. |