'the temper of the house, and knowing when and how to press or to yield.'

Had the Duke of Wellington known how and when to submit, he had never incurred disgrace for having yielded to the Catholic demand at one time, and the not yielding to that for reform at another. It is idle to refuse that at the first, which must be given in the end.

CLXIII.

WHO KNOW WHEN TO STOP.

CÆSAR did not know; Cromwell did. Napoleon did not. Garrick and Siddons, also, knew when to stop; and on this knowledge Apelles is said to have founded his superiority.

CLXIV.

WHO ESCAPE WHAT THEY WISH.

CLAUDE LORRAINE narrowly escaped being a mason; and Salvator Rosa something equally beneath the genius which has immortalized him. Had the learned Prideaux, too, succeeded in his wish to be parish-clerk of Ugborow, he had never been recommended by a congé d'élire to the bishopric of Worcester.

It is fortunate, that many of our wishes bear an analogy with snow, which,

falling on a river,

A moment white, then gone for ever.'

Idleness engenders a thousand wishes, and mars as many. Thus the wizard in Thomson's Castle of Indo

lence :

VOL. II.

P

-Unceasing at the massy gate,

Beneath a spacious palm, the wicked wight
Was placed, and to his lute of cruel fate,

And labour harsh, complain'd ;-lamenting man's estate.'

Young justly says, that to be always wishing is the 'constant hectic of a fool;' and here it may be, also, observed, that the most cruel gift, which fortune can bestow, is, for the most part, that which we most ardently desire.

CLXV.

WHO CANNOT BE CALCULATED UPON TILL THEY HAVE FINISHED THEIR SPEECHES.

THERE is a race of persons, of whose intentions we can never judge till they come to the conclusion of all they have to say. This class was peculiarly characteristic of a small party in the British House of Commons during the whole of the American war, and of them Mr Burke has left the following memento:-' It 'is astonishing,' says he, how much this uncertainty, as to which side they would vote, called the attention ' of all parties on such men. All eyes were fixed upon 'them; each party gazed and looked alternately for 'their votes almost to the end of their speeches. While the house hung in this uncertainty, now the "hear 6.66 hims "" rose from one side, now they rebellowed from 'the other; and that party, to whom they fell at length, 'from their tremulous and dancing balance, always re'ceived them in a tempest of applause.'

In later times, this species of oratory was characteristic of many, belonging to the party of Mr. Wilber

force. At home, with the exclusion of their leader, whose exertions in respect to the slave trade can never be forgotten, they

'Sate at the social fire, and, happy, heard
Th' excluded tempest loudly rave along *?

so is his wife. They appear always to be looking for

something they have lost.

George II. was of this order. But

-"Stillest streams

Oft water finest meadows, and the bird,

That flutters least, is longest on the wing.'

Bustler, however, as he is,

made a shrewd

observation the other day :-' A man may have a mul'titude of little evils, sir, and not know how in the 'world to get rid of them: a great one comes; he rouses himself—all at once-to get rid of that; and, in so doing, the weight of the whole slips off his shoulders.'

CLXVII.

WHO MAKE A FUSS ABOUT NOTHING.

THE following sketch is ample for the subject: for all will recognize the truth of the portraiture in some *Thomson; Autumn, l. 143.

of their acquaintances. A gentleman had sent Johnson a letter. This letter,' said the lexicographer, ' had been written to him by nobody; no matter what about; but he wanted to have it back, and expressed a mighty value for it; he hoped it was to be met with again; he would not lose it for a thousand pounds.

• I laid my hand upon it soon afterwards, and gave it

' him. Oh, then he did not know that it signified anything. So, you see, when the letter was lost, it was 'worth a thousand pounds; and when it was found, it was not worth a farthing.' How many men there are, with whom we can be exceedingly angry one moment, and yet smile at the next!

Seneca describes a sort of persons, who are men of business only in their faces; wandering up and down, like ants, eager and empty; indulging a humour, which may be expressed by the term restless laziness.' I have known many such. Happy are those

'Who seldom vary feature, hue, or muscle;
And can be very busy without bustle.'

Socrates gained his points of conviction by asking questions, apparently foreign, but which brought the points into the centre of the circle. Some men, however, while attempting this, resemble the jay, a bird which, fluttering with powerless wings, makes but little progress or dispatch. It is all Much ado about nothing.'

Even philosophers are, occasionally, guilty of this; and Tycho Brahe was an example; for, judging from appearances in preference to physical and mechanical considerations, to save the earth the trouble, as it were,

of turning upon its axis once in twenty-four hours, he insisted that the sun and planets-nay, the whole universe-turned round the earth! This was, at all times, a doubtful hypothesis; but since we have acquired some insight into the structure of the sidereal system, it becomes a subject almost for our ridicule: the earth being, to the universe, merely as a nut, a pea, or a pin's head.

CLXVIII.

WHO RECEIVE JUSTICE AS A FAVOUR; WHJ RECEIVE FAVOURS AS RIGHTS.

RAIN becomes hail from the circumstance of its meeting, in its descent, a cold air, which freezes it. Hailstones are rather less than the drops of rain; and they remind one of

'I am all ice; thy kindness freezes me.'

Some suffer so much from the injustice of their fellow men, that for any one to abstain from insulting them, when they offer a civility, is regarded by them as an act of kindness. Others, however, grant them what favour we will, take it not as a favour; but as an act of justice due to their desert!

CLXIX.

THREE ORDERS OF PERSONS.

JOHNSON characterized three orders of persons, in General Oglethorpe, Lord Elibank, and Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. Oglethorpe never completed what he had to say; Elibank had nothing conclusive in his talk; and Burnet took no pains to be right. Burnet,'