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In Cowper's "Task "we find (1. 170):

"The customary rites Of the last meal commence; a Roman meal. Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull, Nor such as with a frown forbids the play of fancy, or proscribes the sound of mirth. Themes of a graver tone,

Exciting oft our gratitude and love,

While we retrace, with memory's pointing wand,
That calls the past to our exact review,

The dangers we have 'scaped . .

Oh evenings worthy of the gods! exclaimed
The Sabine bard."

Keats ("Sonnets") thus expresses the same idea of love of country life:

"To one who has been long in city pent,

"Tis very sweet to look into the fair

And open face of heaven to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament."

THE WORN-OUT STEED,

Be wise and release from the chariot in time thy aged steed, lest he become the object of laughter, dragging on behind and show his broken wind.

THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

I ponder in deep earnestness, and search out what is true and becoming to man, and my every thought is thus engaged.

INDEPENDENCE.

Bound by no ties to maintain the tenets of any master, I am borne hither and thither, as my in clination leads me, without a fixed object; now, like the Stoics, I am a plodding citizen, and live amidst the bustle of public life, the stern My good friend, come on, take my advice, since guardian and asserter of untainted virtue; now animals have by heaven's decree no existence af-I glide insensibly back to the doctrines of Aris

ENJOY THE PRESENT.

ter death, and there is no escape from death to great or small, be merry while thou mayest, be mindful of how short a span of life thou hast.

Apollodorus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 1108, M.) says:

"When I was a young man, I pitied those cut off prematurely; but now when I see the burial of the old, I weep; for this refers to me, and that did not."

CHANGEABLENESS OF HUMAN NATURE.

A part of mankind pursue one unwearied course

tippus, and instead of accommodating myself to
circumstances, make circumstances bend to me.
Pope ("Essay on Man," ep. iv. 1. 331) says:-

"Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God."
Shakespeare (" Jul. Cæs." act i. sc. 2) says:-
"I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my single self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself."

OF VIRTUE.

of crime, and go on with steady aim; another IT IS SOMETHING TO BE ADVANCING IN THE PATĪ oscillate backwards and forwards, now gliding along the path of virtue, and then the path of vice.

THE STRONG-MINDED.

The more consistent a man is in a vicious course, so much is he less wretched and better off than he who one while struggles against his passions and the next instant yields to their violence.

THE WISE MAN.

Who, then, is free? The wise who can command his passions, who fears not want, nor death, nor chains, firmly resisting his appetites and despising the honors of the world, who relies wholly on himself, whose angular points of character have all been rounded off and polished.

It is always in our power to advance to a cer tain point, if it is not allowed us to go farther.

ADVANTAGES OF A GOOD EDUCATION.

Let a man be ever so envious, passionate, indo lent, drunken, amorous, yet there is no one suchị slave to passion that he may not be improved, he would only lend a docile ear to the lessons wisdom. It is some approach to virtue to try t get rid of vicious propensities, and the highes wisdom is to be free from folly.

Thus we find in Brunck (P. Gnom., p. 320):-
"Education civilizes all men."

So Isaiah (i. 18):—

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they chall be as white snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be wool."

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CHANGEABLENESS OF MAN.

What dost thou do when the sentiments of my mind are equally as much at variance with each other; it refuses what it coveted and desires again what it lately rejected; it is in continual turmoil and inconsistent with itself in the whole tenor of life; it pulls down, builds up, changes square for round; yet thou only regardest me as mad in the same way as the rest of the world.

VICE AND VIRTUE.

wilt be the slave of envious or amorous passions. For why dost thou make haste to remove the things which offend the eye, but if any distemper prey upon thy mind, why dost thou delay from year to year to apply a remedy? He who has begun, has his work half done. Dare to be wise; begin. He who puts off from hour to hour the act of living wisely, is like the rustic who sits waiting on the bank till the river floats past, but it does, and will roll on in an unbroken stream till time shall be no more.

Sophocles in a fragment says (I. T. lviii. 2):—

"If any one has begun a work well, it is likely that he will come to a good ending."

Wordsworth ("The Fountain") says:

"No check, no stay this streamlet fears,
How merrily it goes!

"Twill murmur on a thousand years

And flow as now it flows."

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into it grows sour. Despise pleasures; pleasure Unless the vessel be pure, whatever thou pourest bought with pain is hurtful. The avaricious is always poor; set fixed bounds to thy desires. The envious sickens at another's joys; Sicily's tyrants could not invent a greater torment than envy. He who cannot control his angry passions, will wish undone what mad resentment shall have prompted, while he hastens to gratify his feelings of insatiate hate. Anger is a brief fit of madness; govern thy temper which rules, unless it is under thy control;

Who tells what is becoming, what is base, what curb it with bit; bind it in chains. The docile colt is is useful, what is the reverse?

SUBJECT SUFFERS WHEN KINGS DISPUTE.

The Greeks suffer for the follies of their princes. Inside and outside the walls of Troy, sedition, fraud, lust, and violence are everywhere found.

THE VULGER HERD.

We are mere cyphers, and, like the suitors of Penelope, formed by nature to devour the fruits of the earth, mere effeminate and luxurious subjects of Alcinous, a race too much occupied with the pleasures of the table, whose delight is to sleep till mid-day and sooth our cares with melting airs of music.

Euripides (Heracleid. 937) says:

formed by gentle skill to move obedient to the rider's will. The hound is taught to bay in the woods from the time when he has barked at a buck

skin hung up in the court-yard. Now in the days of thy youth drink in thy pure breast the words of instruction; put thyself under those who are wiser than thyself. A jar will long retain the odor of the liquor with which, when new, it was first seasoned.

Moore says:

"You may break, you may shatter the vase, as you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

BOUNTY OF THE GODS TO MAN. Nature did not form thee a mere senseless clod of earth. The gods have bestowed on thee beauty,

“Knowing that thy son was not one of the many, but really riches, and taught thee how to enjoy them.

a man of note."

And again (Troad. 475):

"And I then gave birth to children of distinguished bravery not merely belonging to the mass, but the chiefest among the Phrygians."

Shakespeare ("Coriolanus," act iii. sc. 1) calls them:

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The mutable rank-scented many."

WISDOM.

Menander (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 889, M.) says:"Happy the man who has wealth and sense; for he can use it rightly for what is required."

AN EPICUREAN.

What more could an affectionate nurse pray for her dear boy than that he, like thou, be blessed

York with wisdom, eloquence, public influence, good Unless thou callest for a book and lights before health, and comforts of life, with a purse that break of day, devoting thy thoughts to Honorable never fails in time of need? 'Midst hopes and pursuits and studies, in thy waking moments thou cares, fears and passions, never forget that this

may be the last day that shall ever dawn upon thee. The day that comes unlooked for will shine with double lustre. Thou wilt find me fat and sleek, in good plight, whenever thou carest to visit a hog by Epicurus fed.

See Bishop Kerr's "Morning Hymn":

"Live this day as if the last."

FORTUNE.

If I am not allowed to use the gifts of fortune, what benefit are they to me when they come ?

WINE.

What can wine not effect? It brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the coward fight, drives dull care away, teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes: whom have the soul-inspiring cups not made eloquent? Even in the depth of poverty, whom has it not relieved?

Aristotle (Ethic. iii. 8) says:

"This is the case with drunken men; for they become sanguine in hope."

Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus (ii. 2), says:

"O Bacchus, most grateful to the wise and also most wise in thyself, how pleasant thou art! who alone causest the poor to have lofty thoughts of himself, makest the grave to laugh, the timid to be daring, and the coward to be brave." Alcæus (Fr. 44, S.) says:

"For wine is a mirror to men.”

And Eschylus (Fr. 13) says:

"Polished brass is the mirror of the body and wine of the mind."

Shakespeare ("Othello," act ii. sc. 3) says:

GOLDEN MEAN.

Let the wise be called a fool, the followers of

what is right as the opposite, if they both pursue virtue itself beyond the bounds of moderation.

Cicero (Tusc. iv. 25) says somewhat to the same effect:"The pursuit even of the best of things ought to be calm and tranquil."

TIME.

Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will conceal and cover up what is now shining with the greatest splendor.

Sophocles (Ajax, 646) says:

"Time, the long, the countless, brings to view everything that is hidden, and conceals what is disclosed."

Antoninus, in his "Meditations" (ix. 28), says:

The things of this world revolve in a circle up and down." then it will change us to something else." from age to age; by and by the earth will cover us up, and

Euripides (Eol. Fr. 26) says:

"Time will unveil all things to posterity; it is a chatterer and speaks to those who do not question it.” Shakespeare ("Troilus and Cressida," act iii, sc. 3) says:— "Beauty, wit,

High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all
To envious and calumniating time."

So Matthew (x. 26):

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

VIRTUE.

If virtue alone can accomplish this, give up thy luxurious life and resolutely pursue her. If thou

"Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature, if it think virtue to be a mere name, as groves are be well used; exclaim no more against it."

CALMNESS.

Not to be startled by anything that appears, is of all means the best to make and keep us happy. There are some men so little under the influence of this feeling that they can look unmoved at yon sun in the firmament, the stars, and the ever-varying changes of the seasons that take place at fixed periods.

Plato (Theœt. c. xi.), however, says the very opposite of this:

"For wonder is very much the affection of a philosopher;

for there is no other beginning of philosophy than this." And Aristotle (Metaph. i. 2) says:

"It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize."

Cicero (Tusc. v. 28), however, says:

"No wise man ought to wonder at anything, when it happens, so that it should appear to have happened sudden and unexpected to him."

We find Dante (Purgat. xxvi. 71) express himself thus:"Amaze,

Not long the inmate of a noble heart." Perhaps Horsely, in his "Sermons " (vol. i. p. 227), gives the best idea of this quality;

"Wonder, connected with a principle of rational curiosity, is the source of all knowledge and discovery, and it is a

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The abandoned crew of Ulysses who preferred principle even of piety; but wonder, which ends in wonder, the enjoyment of forbidden pleasure to a return

and is satisfied with wonder, is the quality of an idiot." Jeremiah (x. 2) says:-

"Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them." St. Augustine (Serm. 1500) says:

"Tell us, Epicurus, What makes a man happy? Answer, The picasure of the senses. Tell us, Stoic, The virtue of the mind. Tell us, Christian, The gift of God."

to their fatherland.

MIRTH.

If, as Mimnermus thinks, there is nothing pieasant without love and mirth, live then a life of love and mirth. Long mayest thou live; farewell. If

thou canst tuggest anything better than such | leave those joys, which you vaunt to the sky with maxims as these, impart them, if not, make use of rapturous applause.

what I place before thee.

Amphis (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 646, M.) says:

"Drink and play: life is mortal; there is little time upon earth: death is eternal when we are once dead."

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NATURE.

Shouldst thou attempt to drive out nature by force, yet it will be ever returning, and in silent triumph break through thy affected disdain. Aristophanes (Pax. 637) says to the same effect:"They drove out this goddess with two-pronged clamors." And again (Vesp. 1457):

"For it is difficult to renounce one's nature, which one has always had."

Cicero (Tusc. Quæst. v. 27) speaks of nature in the same way:

"Custom could never get the better of nature, for she always comes off victorious."

Seneca (Ep. 119) says:

"Nature is obstinate; she cannot be overcome, she demands what is her own."

And again (Ep. 90):

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This is thus paraphrased by Lord Melbourne (see "Hay-ing ward's Essays"):—

"Tis late, and I must haste away,
My usual hour of rest is near:
And do you press me yet to stay;
To stay, and revel longer here?
Then give me back the scorn of care

Which spirits light in health allow,
And give me back the dark brown hair
Which curl'd upon my even brow;
And give me back the sportive jest,

Which once could midnight hours beguile; The life that bounded in my breast,

And joyous youth's becoming smile. And give me back the fervid soul

Which love inflamed with strange delight, When erst I sorrowed o'er the bowl

At Chloe's coy and wanton flight.

'Tis late ...

But give me this, and I will stay,

Will stay till morn, and revel here."

LITTLE FOLKS.

For little folks become their little fate.
So Callimachus (Fr. 179):-

"The gods always give little things to little folks."

NOT TO VENTURE BEYOND ONE'S LAST. It is a sound maxim for every man to measure himself by his own proper standard.

Cicero (Off. i. 1. 31) says to the same effect:

"Let us follow our natural bias, so that even, though other pursuits may be of greater importance and excellence, we may yet regulate ourselves by a regard to our natural disposition and character."

WISDOM.

"Beware, while thou art too much engrossed with the fleetpleasures of life, lest thou shouldst learn to attach too much value to them, so that, if they take wings and fly away, thou shouldst be thrown into a state of misery."

POVERTY.

In the same way as the stag in the fable, the man who from fear of poverty loses his liberty, more precious than all the wealth of this world, intemperate in his desires, carries on his shoulders a master, and will live in eternal bondage because he could not find enjoyment in a frugal meal.

UNSUITABLENESS OF FORTUNE.

The man whom his fortune does not fit, is like the man in the fable with a shoe, which if too large, trips him up, if too small, pinches him.

Demophilus (Orellii Opusc. i. p. 6) says:—

"Both a shoe and a life that fits gives no pain."

Lucian (Pro. Imagg. 10) says:

"He says, let not the shoe be larger than your foot, lest it throw you on your face, as you are walking."

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I live and am as happy as a king as soon as I the fool command."

ENJOY THE PRESENT.

Receive with gratitude the hours that fortune bestows upon thee, and put not off the enjoyment of life to some distant time, that thou mayest be able to say, in whatever region of the world thou art, that thou hast lived happily; for, if it is a wise understanding and prudent conduct that rid us of the cares of life, and not the beauty of the landscape that surrounds us, those who cross the sea change the climate but not their passions. are occupied in busy idleness, seeking happiness in yachts and carriages. Whereas what thou seekest is here, is even in the midst of deserted Ulubræ, if only thou possess a well-balanced mind.

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Cowper ("The Task," towards end of "Sofa ") says'-
"Who borne about

In chariots and sedans, know no fatigue
But that of idleness."

As to happiness, Pope ("Essay on Man," Ep. iv. 1. 15) says:

"Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,

"Tis nowhere to be found or everywhere."

And Milton ("Paradise Lost," i. 253):—

"A mind is not to be changed by place or time, The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." And of idleness, Goldsmith ("Traveller," 1. 256) says:"Thus idly busy rolls their world away."

ENOUGH.

Cease thy grumbling; he is not poor who has enough for the simple wants of nature. If thou art sound in stomach, side, and feet, the riches of a king will add nothing to thy happiness.

Plutarch (Sol. 2) quotes the following verses of Solon:"The man who has stores of silver, gold, and wheat-bearing fields, I call not happier than the swain who has enough for his support, is sound in body, and has a youthful wife and blooming children."

DISCORDANT CONCORD.

Discordant concord.

DISCONTENT.

He who envies another's lot is evidently dissatisfied with his own. All are foolish who blame the place where they live as the cause of their distress: in the mind alone the fault lies, the mind that can never fly from itself. Pope says:

"Men would be angels, angels would be gods."

FOLLIES.

I am not ashamed to own my follies, but I am ashamed not to put an end to them.

CONTENTMENT.

The lazy ox wishes for the horse's trappings; the horse wishes to plough. In my opinion each should follow with cheerfulness the profession which he best understards.

Aristophanes (Vesp. 1431) says:

"Let every one practise the craft with which he is a quainted."

BE WHAT YOU SEEM.

Thou livest as thou oughtest if thou takest care to be what thou art considered by the world. A we Romans have long declared thee happy, but am afraid lest thou shouldest listen more t others regarding thyself than to the suggestions of thine own conscience, and mayest imagine that one may be happy who is other than wise and good.

Eschylus (S. C. Th. 588) says:—

"For he does not wish to seem, but to be the noblest." Publius Syrus says:

"The question is what you are, not what you are reckoned."

FALSE SHAME.

It is the false shame of fools alone that hides ulcered sores.

A GOOD MAN ACCORDING TO THE WORLD.

Whom does undeserved honor delight or lying calumny terrify, except the vicious and the man

Pope (“Essay on Man," iv. 56) expresses the principle thus:- whose life requires to be amended. Who, then, is

"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." And again, in his "Windsor Forest ":-

"The world harmoniously composed:
Where order in variety we see:

And where, though all things differ, all agree."
Ben Jonson (" Cynthia's Revels," act v. sc. 2) says:-
"All concord's born of contraries."

Compare what Burke ("French Revolution," p. 81) says:"You had that action and counteraction, which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant parties draws out the harmony of nature."

THE GOOD EASILY SATISFIED.

We can get a crop of friends at a cheap rate, when it is the good who are in distress.

This is very much the same idea in Xenophon (Mem. ii. 40, 4):

"Now, on account of the state of public affairs, it is possible to get good men as friends at a very cheap rate."

the good man? The world answers, He whe carefully observes the decrees of the senate, and swerves not from the known rules of justice and the laws; by whose judgment many and weighty causes are decided, whose bail secures, whose oath maintains a cause, yet his own household and all his neighbors know that he is inwardly base, though imposing on the world with a fair outside.

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