A MILD GOVERNMENT. moderation; and in general there are not wanting A mild and equitable government than which agents disposed to foment their passions, who, there is no stronger bond of loyalty. FAME. working on minds which delight in cruelty, and know no restraint in the practice of it, exasperate them to acts of blood and slaughter. GOOD MANAGEMENT. Many things, difficult in their nature, are made easy by good management. Euripides (Fr. Antiop. 31) says: "For cities and households are well managed by the pru dence of man, and it is of great power in war, for one wise counsel is superior to many hands; whereas ignorance with a crowd is a greater evil." FOREBODING OF EVIL. A melancholy kind of silence and tacit forebod ing; such a presage of evil as the mind is apt to feel when looking forward with anxiety. SPIRITED COUNSELS. In cases of difficulty and when hopes are small, the most spirited counsels are the safest. REPUBLIC OF PHILOSOPHERS. A republic of philosophers, such as speculative men are fond of forming in imagination, but which was never known. GREAT EVENTS FROM TRIFLING CIRCUMSTANCES. Events of great consequence spring from trifling circumstances. THE GODS. He who slights fame shall enjoy it in its purity. tions for redress, when they can no longer endure To the gods people have recourse with supplica HASTINESS. There is nothing seen clearly and certainly by the man in a hurry; hastiness is improvident and blind. This is the Greek proverb (Zenob. ii. 14): "The fisherman stung will gain experience." This proverb arose from the saying of a fisherman, who, in his over-anxiety to ascertain the contents of his net, got stung from the stray scorpion. EVIL. The evil with which men are best acquainted is the most tolerable. LIBERTY. The words-liberty restored-a sound ever delightful to the ears. GREAT FORTUNE. easy at any moment to resign the possession station; to arrive at and acquire it is tand arduous. THE POPULACE. uch is the nature of the populace; they are her abject slaves or tyrannic masters. Liberty, hich consists in a mean between these, they either undervalue or know not how to enjoy with the violence and injustice of men. So Psalm cxlv. 18: "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." SUPERSTITION. A foolish superstition introduces the influence of the gods even in the smallest matters. So Romans i. 21: "They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." FEAR. Fear, which always represents objects in the worst light. SLIGHT INCIDENTS. Incidents of light moment frequently impel men's minds to hope or fear. FIDELITY OF BARBARIANS. The fidelity of barbarians depends on fortune. A ROMAN CITIZEN. By a severe example to establish it as a maxim to all future ages, that no Roman citizen or soldier in any state of fortune should be injured with impunity. Nothing is so uncertain or so difficult to form a than sufficient resolution to punish them when judgment of, as the minds of the multitude. The committed. Sq Matthew xxvi. 41:— The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." TEMPERANCE. He, who has reined in and curbed his pleasures by temperance, has procured for himself much greater honor and a greater victory than when he conquers an enemy. Genesis iv. 7: **If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." BENEFITS. very measures, which seem calculated to increase their alacrity in exertions of every sort, often inspire them with fear and timidity. DEMAGOGUES. There never are wanting orators who are ready on every occasion to inflame the people-a kind of men who, in all free states, are maintained by the favor of the multitude. LAW. No law perfectly suits the convenience of every member of the community; the only consideration Men have less lively sensations of good than of is, whether upon the whole it be profitable to the evil. GRATITUDE. So deficient are men in gratitude, even at the time when a favor is received; and much less are they apt to retain a proper sense of it afterwards. THE PAST. greater part. AVARICE AND LUXURY. Avarice and luxury, those pests which have ever been the ruin of every great state. PASSIONS. As diseases must necessarily be known before What is past, however it may be blamed, cannot their remedies, so passions come into being before be retrieved. the laws which prescribe limits to them. THE UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN EVENTS. He, whom fortune has never deceived, rarely considers the uncertainty of human events. POVERTY. Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is the being ashamed of frugality or poverty. vorable gales of fortune, nor to be broken by its names; the conquering cause was, no doubt, the adverse blasts. favorite of the gods, but the conquered of Cato. ARROGANCE. Arrogance creates disgust in some and ridicule in others, more especially if it be shown by an inferior towards a superior. LUCAN. BORN ABOUT A.D. 39-DIED A.D. 65. M. ANNEUS LUCANUS, a native of Cordova in Spain, was the son of L. Annæus Mella, of equestrian rank, who had amassed a large fortune by farming the imperial revenues. The poetical talents of Lucan attracted the attention of the Emperor Nero, who became so jealous of his rising reputation that he forbade him to recite in public. Lucan, annoyed at this unjust proceeding, entered into the famous conspiracy of Piso, but was betrayed. Under promise of pardon, he was induced to turn informer, denouncing even his own mother, and then the rest of his accomplices. He received a most just reward. When the whole information had been got from him, the emperor issued his order that ho should die; and, finding escape to be hopeless, he caused his veins to be opened in a warm bath. Finding himself to be dying, though still retaining consciousness, he recalled to recollection and began to repeat aloud some verses which he had once composed descriptive of a wounded soldier, perishing by a like death, and with these lines upon his lips he expired A.D. 65. The only extant production of Lucan is an heroic poem in ten books, entitled "Pharsalia," in which the wars between Cæsar and Pompey are fully detailed, beginning with the passage of the Rubicon. PROSPERITY IS OF SHORT DURATION. The envious malice of the Fates, the refusal to allow what is great to be of long duration, the sinking beneath too great a weight, and Rome unable to support herself, were the causes that drove peace from the world. LIMITS TO HUMAN POWER. Mighty things haste to destruction of themselves; this is the limit that the gods have assigned to human prosperity. NO FRIENDSHIP IN HIGH POWER. There is no friendship between those who are associated in high power; and he who rules will ever be impatient of a partner. RIVALRY. Emulation adds its spur. CATO. Which of the two had the more righteous cause, it is hard to say; each defends itself under mighty THE SHADOW OF A NAME. There stands the shadow of a glorious name. CÆSAR. But in Cæsar there was not merely the past renown and fame of a general, but a valor that was ever restless; and the only time that a blush mantled his cheek was when he failed in some warlike exploit. Fierce and undaunted, he was ready to advance whither hope and vengeance led him, never hesitating to flesh his sword in blood: making a good use of his advantages, he still relied on the favor of heaven; bearing down whatever opposed him in his road to glory, he rejoiced to make his way amidst the ruin of all around him. MIGHT MAKES RIGHT. Might was the measure of right. USURY. Hence devouring usury, and interest ready to be called for at the moment due, and shaken credit and warfare profitable to the multitude who have nothing to lose. ONE WHO HAD CHANGED HIS OPINIONS. The unblushing Curio, with his venal tongue, accompanies them-a voice that once spoke on the side of freedom, and that dared to defend the cause of liberty and to place armed aristocrats on the same level with the lower classes. DELAY. Away with delay; it hath always injured those who are inclined to procrastinate. JUST THINGS. He who refuses what is right, gives up everything to him who has arms in his hands. TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. On your (i.e., Druids) authority the spirits of the dead do not proceed to the silent abodes of Erebus and the dreary realms of Pluto in the depths below; the same spirit directs other limbs in another world; death is the mid-point of a lengthened existence, if your songs speak the truth. Happy indeed are those people on whom the Northern Bear looks down in their error, whom this, the very greatest of terrors, does not movethe fear of death. Hence those manly spirits are ever ready to rush undaunted on the pointed steel, and souls that welcome death, bravely scorning to spare that life that must so soon return. IMAGINED ILLS. Thus every one by his fears gives increased strength to rumors, and though there be no real cause for alarm, they fear fancied ills. the jarring elements, thou divine principle shed CHANGEABLENESS OF FORTUNE. Ye gods, ready to grant the highest prosperity, ding love over the universe. and slow to preserve it! Life may seem short, but it is not so to any wh have sufficient time remaining to look out for thei mode of dying: we shall die with as much honor though death comes to seek us, as if we had gon to meet it. In the darkness and uncertainty o man's doom, your high spirit is equally show whether you sacrifice years or a moment of you choice. To choose death is the characteristic o the brave. Virtue, accompanied with a clear conscience, future existence, provided you do it by your ow will follow whither the fates lead. САТО. These were the stern habits of the man, this was the rigid rule of the unbending Cato, to observe the golden mean, to keep the purposed end in view, to follow nature's laws, to be ready to die in his country's cause, to regard himself born not for his own selfish enjoyments but for the benefit of the whole world. To repress hunger was a banquet, to keep away by a mere roof the winter cold was regarded as a noble palace; to wrap a shaggy toga round his limbs, after the manner of the early Romans, was a costly robe. FEAR. By daring, great fears are concealed. "The dog that means to bite don't bark." A MULTITUDE UNPUNISHED. All go free, when multitudes offend. CRIME. Guilt equal, gives equality of state. THE VULGAR AND THE GREAT. Do you suppose that you have imparted strength to me? Heaven never lowers itself to occupy it self about you, or to think of your death of safety. Everything follows the will of the lordly great. The human race lives at the beck of a few. POVERTY. Oh, the safety of a poor man's life and his humble home! Oh, these are gifts bestowed by heaven, though seldom understood! What tem ples or what cities would not feel alarm with dreadful forebodings if Cæsar knocked at their door with his armed bands! Dante ("Paradiso" xi. 67) refers to this when he says:- SOUNDS. Her gabbling tongue a muttering tone confounds |