On Human Knowledge.

"A climbing height it is without a head,

Depth without bottom, way without an end
A circle with no line environed,

Not comprehended, all it comprehends;
Worth infinite, yet satisfies no mind

Till it that infinite of the Godhead find."

;

SIR FULK GREVILLE.

How vast a circle doth man's knowledge run;
A million million miles it knows to mount
Through space and time: to measure, weigh, and

count

The stars; and tell by what fix'd laws they shun
Ruin; and keep their order once begun :

It hath enslav'd the lightning; search'd the fount
Of heat and primal light; summ'd up the amount
Of elemental atoms, from the sun

Down to earth's centre; traced, ere yet Man was, Unnumbered ages, slowly toiling, frame,

Pile upon pile, this inorganic mass;

And scann'd the cells whence living Being came : Yet 'tis a round whence man no more may spring, Than the daz'd scorpion from the fiery ring.

On Human Knowledge.

(Continued.)

"What is it to be wise?

'Tis but to know how little can be known."-POPE.

MAN's clearest knowledge doth most clearly show
His ignorance; effect may teach him cause,
Whence he may lay down fundamental laws,
And reason from induction, sure as slow,
Of Gravitation and the Electric flow:

But how these agents work must give him pause:
How earth draws apples; amber gathers straws;
Will acts on muscle, he may never know.

Learning is like a river, whose small source

The child may stride; which through a land of dreams

Winds with an ever-deep'ning, wider course,

Till with a thousand tributary streams

Its giant waters are in Ocean pour'd,
Unsail'd, unfathomable, and unshor'd.

Perseverance.

οὐδὲν τῶν μεγάλων ἄφνω γίνεται.—ARRIAN.

"Adde parum parvo, tandem fit magnus acervus :
Gutta cavat lapidem."―OVID.

"Io vos propongo grandes premios mas embueltos en grandes trabajos; pero la vertud ne quiere osiocidad.'-CORTES to his Soldiers.

Τῶν πονών πωλοῦσιν ἡμῖν πάντα τ ̓ ἀγαθ' οἱ Θέοι.

EPICTETUS.

ONWARD, still onward! Though each setting sun
Adds but a trifle to your learning's store,

Quail not, but fix your earnest gaze before,
Nor look behind, until thy task be done;
So gazeth, when the mountain top is won,

The traveller on the track he wandered o'er-
To Heaven's high gate with lark-like passage soar,
Up.-To thine harvest look; but daily shun
Counting each golden grain-all great and good
By love and labour are accomplish'd. Think
On coral isles that pierce old Ocean's flood
From depths where plummet never yet could sink :
The planets sweep through space, though mortal

glance

Scans not each motion of their tireless dance.

Idem Aliter.

"Quâ vehimur navi, fertur, cum stare videtur."-LUCRETIUS.

"As one by one, majestic, they advance,

In vain the waves their bounding strength oppose,
On, on, her country's pride, the vessel goes."-Moxon.

"A piuma, a piuma, se pela l'oca ;

A gotta, a gotta, il mar si secherebbe."-Italian Proverb.

HAVE you on glassy lake, or boundless sea,
Gazed from the prow upon your path below?
How tedious looked the way, and seeming-slow!
Then turning, from the stern look'd steadfastly?
What magic change is there? How swift and free,
(As glides an ocean bird, whose wings of snow
Sail even-pois'd, nor noise, nor motion know,)
Your boat skims now the wave mysteriously!

Such, restless spirit, who dost chafe to mark
Each hour's slow progress on the vasty deep
Of knowledge, be your habit, and your cheer-
Look back upon the waters, where your barque
Pass'd lately; and with joy your heart shall leap
At your wake's line of light, long, straight, and clear!

Contentedness.

"Quod satis est, cui contigit, hic nihil amplius optat."-HORACE.

"Nave ferar magnâ an parvâ, ferar unus et idem."-HORACE.

3."-HORACE.

"Privatusque magis vivam te rege beatus.'

"Cui non conveniet sua res, ut calceus olim,

Si pede major erit, subvertit, si minor, uret."-HORACE.
"Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus
Si ventri bene, si lateri est pedibusque tuis nil
Divitiæ poterunt regales addere majus."-HORACE.
"Qui fit, Mæcenas, ut nemo quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu Fors objecerit illâ,
Contentus vivat?"

HORACE.

"Never compare thy condition with those above thee, but to secure thy content, look upon the thousands with whom thou wouldst not for any interest change thy fortune and condition."-TAYLOR's Holy Living.

THOU, who repining at thy lowly lot,

Dost envy others their much wealth, or birth,
Rightly reflect on thine own station's worth,
By viewing those below thee, and thus blot
From the heart's fleshly tablets the vain thought.-
How many wretched thousands mourn the dearth
Of your youth, talents, liberty, on earth?
Think on the captive, in his cell forgot,

Or groaning, tortured on the wheel or rack;
Of travellers snow-swept from their lonely track;
Of frames deformed, or by disease down-bent;
Of starving beggars; deaf men; dumb; and blind;
Oh! think upon the madness-stricken mind;
And with thy state appointed be content.