My good friend, come on, take my advice, since animals have by heaven's decree no existence after 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

THE WORN-OUT STEED,

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 inclination 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 guardian and asserter of untainted virtue; now I glide insensibly back to the doctrines of Aristippus, 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.

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.

THE RESULTS OF ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.

Adversity usually reveals the genius of a general, while good fortune conceals it.

INCREASING AGE.

His youth, his genius now no more the same. Byron says:

"My days of love are over: me no more

The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow, Can make the fool of, that they made before; In fact I must not lead the life I do."

And again:

"Now my sere fancy 'falls into the yellow
Leaf,' and imagination droops her pinion:
And the sad truth, which hovers o'er my desk,
Turns what was once romantic to burlesque.”

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, inde lent, drunken, amorous, yet there is no one such: slave to passion that he may not be improved, i he would only lend a docile ear to the lessons o 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):66 'Education civilizes all men."

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."

And in Tennyson's "Brook: "

"But I go on forever."

A COMPETENCE.

Let him who is blessed with a competence wish for nothing more.

PLEASURE, ANGER.

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;

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."

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:"The mutable rank-scented many.' "9

WISDOM.

Unless thou callest for a book and lights before break of day, devoting thy thoughts to Honorable pursuits and studies, in thy waking moments thou

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:

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 (Thert. 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

groves, take care less some one else reach the port before thee.

The last words of Brutus (Dion xlvii. 49) were:"O wretched Virtue, thou wast then a mere name, for I followed thee as a real business, whereas thou wast a slave to Fortune."

Shakespeare (“ Hamlet,” act iii. sc. 4) says:

"Such a deed . . . sweet religion makes a rhapsody of words."

GOLD.

For gold, the sovereign queen of all, can bestow a wife with a large dowry, credit, friends, birth, and beauty. Persuasion and Venus pay their court to the well-moneyed man.

HOW HAPPINESS IS TO BE PROCURED.

If riches alone can make and keep a man happy. early and late, we should toil to procure this blessing; if splendor and the breath of popular paplause make a man happy, come, let us purchase a slave to tell us the name of our fellowcitizens.

LICENTIOUS.

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

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."

Mimnermus (Fr. 1, S.) says:

"What is life? what pleasure is there without the presence of golden Venus? May I die, when such things are no longer cared for by me."

Shakespeare ("Taming of the Shrew," Ind. sc. 2) says:"Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life."

THE GOOD AND WISE MAN.

The spendthrift and fool gives away what he despises and hates. It is such a soil as this that has produced and will produce at all times a crop of ungrateful men. The good and wise declare that they are ready to bestow favors on the worthy, and yet are not ignorant of the difference between a coin and a counter.

Seneca (Ep. 120) says:

"There are many who do not give, but throw away their money."

GIVE BACK MY YOUTH.

But if thou be unwilling that I should leave, thou wilt have to give me back my healthful lungs, my coal-black hair over my narrow forehead; thou wilt have to give me back my beautiful toned voice; thou wilt have to give me back my enticing smile, and my feelings of regret for the escape of the wanton Cinara over my wine.

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 fleetmuch 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."

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. We 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.

In Diogenes Laertius (vi. 7, 4, or 98) we find a passage from Crates, the tragic writer, to this effect:

"My dwelling place is not one tower or house, but the cities and houses of the whole earth prepared for us to dwell in." Æschines (Adv. Ctesiph. 78) says:

“For he did not change his passions, but merely the place

of his abode."

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 ac quainted."

BE WHAT YOU SEEM.

AL

Thou livest as thou oughtest if thou takest care to be what thou art considered by the world. we Romans have long declared thee happy, but am afraid lest thou shouldest listen more to 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.

Æschylus (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.

66 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.