lancet into a sponge, and so opened it. The maiden had repined should he have ministered the remedy openly, and she, because she suspected it not, suffered the pain.

To check him that is angry and to oppose thyself against him is to cast oil on the fire. Thou shalt attempt him divers ways and after a friendly manner, except, haply, it be so great a person that thou mayest diminish his wrath as Augustus Cæsar did when he supped with Vedius Pollio. One of the servants had broken a crystal glass, whom Vedius commanded to be carried away and to be punished by no ordinary death; for he commanded him to be thrown amongst his lampreys, which were kept in a great fishpond. The boy escaped out of their hands and fled to Cæsar's feet, desiring nothing else but that he might die otherwise and not be made meat for fishes. Caesar was moved with the novelty of the cruelty, and commanded him to be carried away, yet gave orders that all the crystal vessels should be broken in his presence, and that the fishpond should be filled up. So thought Cæsar good to chastise his friend, and well did he use his power. Commandest thou me to be dragged from the banquet and to be tortured by new kinds of punishment? If thy cup be broken, shall men's bowels be rent in pieces? Wilt thou please thyself so much as to command any man to death where Cesar is present?

Let us give repose unto our minds, which we shall do if we dilate continually upon the precepts of wisdom and the acts of virtue, and likewise whilst our thoughts desire nothing but that which is honest. Let us satisfy our conscience; let us do nothing for vainglory's sake; let thy fortune be evil, so thine

actions be good. But, sayest thou, the world admireth those that attempt mighty matters, and audacious men are reported honorable, and peaceable are esteemed sluggards. It may be, upon the first sight, but as soon as a well-governed life showeth that it proceedeth not from the weakness, but the moderation, of the mind, the people regard and reverence it. So, then, this cruel and bloody passion is not profitable in any sort, but contrariwise all evils, fire and blood, feed her; she treadeth all modesty under foot, embrueth her hands with infinite murthers; she it is that teareth children in sunder and scattereth their limbs here and there. She hath left no place void of heinous villanies, neither respecting glory nor fearing infamy, incurable when of wrath she is hardened and converted into hatred.

Let us abstain wholly from this vice; let us purge our mind and pull up those passions that are rooted in it, whose holdfast, be it never so little, will spring again wheresoever it is fastened; and let us not only moderate our anger, but wholly root it out and drive it from us. We may, if so be we will endeavor; neither will anything profit us more than the thought of mortality. Let every one say unto himself as if it were unto another, What helpeth it us, as if we were born to live ever, to proclaim our hatred and misspend so short a life? What profiteth it us to transfer those days which we might spend in honest pleasure in plotting another man's misery and torment? These things of so short continuance should not be hazarded, neither have we any leisure to lose time. Why rush we forward to fight? why beget we quarrels against ourselves? why, being forgetful of our weakness, embrace we

excessive hatreds, and, being ready to break, ourselves rise up to break others? It will not be long but either a fever or some other infirmity of the body will prevent these hatreds which we hatch up in our implacable minds. Behold, Death is at hand, that will part these two mortal enemies. Why storm we? why so seditiously trouble we our life? Death hangeth over our heads, and daily more and more lays hold on him that is dying. That very time which thou destinatest to another man's death shall be the nearest to thine own.

Why rather makest thou not use of this short time of thy life by making it peaceable both to thyself and others? Why rather endearest thou not thyself in all men's love whilst thou livest, to the end that when thou diest thy loss may be lamented? And why desirest thou to put him lower whose authority is too great for thee to contend against? Why seekest thou to crush and terrify that base and contemptible fellow that barketh at thee, and who is so bitter and troublesome to his superiors? Why frettest thou at thy servant, thy lord, thy king? why art thou angry with thy client? Bear with him a little: behold, Death is at hand, which shall make us equals. We were wont to laugh, in beholding the combats which are performed on the sands in the morning, to mark the conflict of the bull and the bear when they are tied one to another: after they have tired one another, the butcher attendeth for them both to drive them to the slaughter-house. The like do we: we challenge him that is coupled with us; we charge him on every side. Meanwhile, both the conquered and the conqueror are near unto their ruin. Rather let us finish that little remainder

of our life in quiet and peace, and let not our death be a pleasure to any man. Ofttimes they that were together by the ears have forsaken their strife because that during their debate some one hath cried fire that was kindled in a neighbor's house, and the interview of a wild beast hath divided the thief and the merchant. We have no leisure to wrestle with lesser evils when greater fear appeareth. What have we to do with fighting and ambushes? Doest thou with him with whom thou art displeased any more than Death? Although thou sayest nothing to him, he shall die; thou losest thy labor; thou wilt do that which will be done. I will not, sayest thou, forthwith kill him, but banish, disgrace or punish him. I pardon him, rather, that desireth his enemy should be wounded than scarred, for this man is not only badly but basely minded. Whether it be that thou thinkest of death or any one more slight evil, there is but a very little difference betwixt the day of thy desire, until the punishment which such a one shall endure, or till the time thou shalt rejoice with an evil conscience at the miseries of another man; for even now, while we draw our breath, we drive our spirit from us. Whilst we are amongst men let us embrace humanity; let us be dreadful or dangerous to no man; let us contemn detriments, injuries and slanders and with great minds suffer short incommodities. Whilst we look behind us, as they say, and turn ourselves, behold Death doth presently attend us.

Translation of THOMAS Lodge.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

S early as 1813, during the first months of his long membership in the national legislature, the speeches of Daniel Webster marked him as a peerless man and drew from a Southern member the expression, "The North has not his equal, nor the South his superior." That high preeminence in statesmanship he held until his death. Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the 18th of January, 1782, and was descended from the hardy yeomanry of New England. His father was a thrifty farmer, and he taught all his sons to labor industriously with their hands. As Daniel emerged from childhood to youth and his physical frame became strong and hardy he labored in the fields during the summer and attended a district school, two miles from his home, in the winter. The remarkable tenacity of his memory was exhibited at a very early age, and at fourteen he could repeat several entire volumes of poetry. At about that time he entered the Philips Academy, at Exeter, New Hampshire, then under the charge of Dr. Abbott. After studying the classics for a while under Dr. Woods of Boscawen, New Hampshire, he entered Dartmouth College, at Hanover, at the age of fifteen years. There he pursued his studies with industry and earnestness, yet with no

special promise of future greatness. He was graduated with high honor, chose law as a profession, and completed a course of legal studies under Christopher Gore of Boston, afterward governor of Massachusetts. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1805, but, preferring the country, he first established himself at Boscawen, and afterward at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He made his residence at the latter place in 1807, and that year he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. There he became noted as one of the soundest lawyers in the State, and during his nine years' residence in Portsmouth he made constitutional law a special study.

Mr. Webster first appeared in public life in 1813, when he took his seat in the House of Representatives at Washington at the extra session of the Thirteenth Congress. It was a most propitious moment for a mind like Webster's to grapple with the questions of state policy, for those of the gravest character were to be then discussed. It was soon after war was declared against Great Britain, and the two great political parties, Federalists and Republicans, were violently opposed. Henry Clay was Speaker of the Lower House, and he immediately placed the new member upon the very important committee on foreign affairs. He made his first speech on the 11th of June, 1813, which at once raised him to the front rank as a debater. His series of speeches at that time took the country by surprise, and he became the acknowledged