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He one day observed, " All knowledge is of itself of fome value. There is nothing so minute or inconfiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the fame manner, all power, of whatever fort, is of itself defirable. A man would not submit to hem a ruffle of his wife, or his wife's maid; but if a mere wish could obtain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle."

To Mr. Bofwell (while studying at Utrecht) he gave the following advice :

"You will, perhaps, wish to ask what study I would recommend. I shall not speak of theology, because it ought not to be confidered as a question whether you shall endeavour to know the will of GOD. I shall, therefore, confider only fuch studies as we are at liberty to pursue or to neglect; and of these I know not how you will make a better choice, than by studying the civil law, as your father advises, and the ancient languages, as you had determined for yourself; at least refolve, while you remain in any fettled residence, to spend a certain number of hours every day amongst your books. The diffipation of thought of which you complain, is nothing more than the vacillation of a mind suspended between different motives, and changing its direction as any motive gains or loses strength. If you can

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but kindle in your mind any strong defire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for fome particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory.

"There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a defire of dictinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has given him something peculiar to himself. This vanity makes one mind nurse aversions, and another actuate defires, till they rise by art much above their original state of power; and as affectation, in time, improves to habit, they at last tyrannise over him who at first encouraged them only for show. Every defire is a viper in the bosom, who, while he was chill, was harmless; but when warmth gave him ftrength, exerted it in poison. You know a gentleman, who, when first he fet his foot in the gay world, as he prepared himself to whirl in the vortex of pleasure, imagined a total indifference and universal negligence to be the most agreeable concomitants of youth, and the strongest indication of an airy temper and a quick apprehenfion. Vacant to every object, and sensible of every impulse, he thought that all appearance of diligence would deduct something from the reputation of genius; and hoped

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hoped that he should appear to attain, amidft all the ease of carelessness, and all the tumult of diverfion, that knowledge and those accomplishments which mortals of the common fabrick obtain only by mute abstraction and folitary drudgery. He tried this scheme of life awhile, was made weary of it by his sense and his virtue; he then wished to return to his studies; and finding long habits of idleness and pleasure harder to be cured than he expected, ftill willing to retain his claim to fome extraordinary prerogatives, resolved the common confequences of irregularity into an unalterable decree of destiny, and concluded that Nature had originally formed him incapable of rational employment.

"Let all fuch fancies, illusive and destructive, be banished henceforward from your thoughts for ever. Resolve, and keep your resolution; choose, and pursue your choice. If you fpend this day in study, you will find yourself ftill more able to study to-morrow; not that you are to expect that you shall at once obtain a complete victory. Depravity is not very cafily overcome. Resolution will fometimes relax, and diligence will fometimes be interrupted; but let no accidental surprise or deviation, whether short or long, dispose you to despondency. Confider these failings as incident to

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all mankind. Begin again where you left off, and endeavour to avoid the seducements that

prevailed over you before."

CONDUCT.

"I BELIEVE (said Johnson) it is best to throw life into a method, that every hour may bring its employment, and every employment have its hour. Xenophon observes, in his 'Treatise of Economy,' that if every thing be kept in a certain place, when any thing is worn out or consumed, the vacuity which it leaves will shew what is wanting, so if every part of time has its duty, the hour will call into remembrance its proper engagement."

He observed, that " it was a most mortifying reflection for any man to confider what he bad done, compared with what he might have done."

He would allow no fettled indulgence o idleness upon principle, and always repelled every attempt to urge excuses for it. A friend one day suggested, that it was not wholesome to study foon after dinner. "Ah, Sir, (faid Johnfon) don't give way to fuch a fancy. At one time of my life I had taken it into my head

that it was not wholesome to study between breakfast and dinner."

Mr. Bofwell one day told him, that he had been to sce a man ride upon three horses. "Such a man, Sir, (faid he) should be encouraged; for his performances shew the extent of the human powers in one instance, and thus tend to raise our opinion of the faculties of

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He shews what may be attained by persevering application; so that every man may hope, that by giving as much application, although perhaps he may never ride three horfes at a time, or dance upon a wire, yet he may be equally expert in whatever profeffion he has chosen to purfue."

At one time he said, "The more a man extends and varies his acquaintance the better." This, however, was meant with a just restriction; for on another occafion he observed, "A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing."

At a late period of his life he said to Sir Jofhua Reynolds, "If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will foon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in conftant repair."

During a vifit at Oxford, the following conversation passed between the Doctor and Mr. Bofwell