21 DISSIPATION, 19 dancing, piping! ney." "I can't say,” replied the son, "but I'm sure you have spent many hundred pounds of my Father's money!" Diamond cut diamond!. We hope Colley cashed-up. . 20To see a man roll himself up, like a snow-ball, from base beggary to right worshipful and right honourable titles, unjustly to screw himself into honours and offices; another to starve his genius, damn his soul, to gather wealth, which he shall not enjoy, which his prodigal son melts and consumes in an instant."-Robert Burton. 21" Besides, how many Villaines are advanc'd Whilst Vertue lies obliviously entranc'd, That is in such mundanities mis-use." A Fig Fortune, 1596. 22 "In seeking virtue if thou find poverty, be not ashamed: the fault is none of thine. Thy honor, or dishonor is purchased by thy own actions. Though virtue give a ragged livery, she gives a golden cognizance: if her service make thee poor, blush not. Thy poverty may disadvantage thee, but not dishonor thee."-Enchiridion, by Francis Quarles. 1681. "He whose mind Is virtuous, is alone of noble kind; Though poor in fortune, of celestial race; And he commits the crime who calls him base. Dryden. Base DETRACTION 23 -ever first 23 Thearidas, being asked, as he ground his sword, if it were not sharp enough, said, "Not so sharp as slander." "There was something noble," said Alexander, “in hearing myself ill spoken of while I was doing well." People do not, as a general rule, lightly charge others with crimes of which they are themselves incapable, or of which they have a genuine horror. 24 We should look at superior abilities not with envy, but admiration, and a desire to imitate.-The world however is not of this opinion. Its littleness would lower the gifted mind to its own level, its vanity would crush the excellence that wounds its self-love. If, in some adverse hour, Genius, too sorely tempted, "stoop, reluctant, to low arts of shame," how sternly will your worldly-wise wind-bags, flatulent with fury! arraign the offender at their bar. A donkey eloquently discoursing over his thistles is not more musical! From such mere syphons of victuals and drink, fruges consumere nati! genius expects nor jus tice nor sympathy. It appeals to nobler natures and to higher powers- It demands to be tried by its peers. Its glorious inspirations and fine sensibilities, its triumphs and its trials, its firmness and its failings, touched by a truthful yet tender hand, shall present a picture of mingled light and shade at which the generous heart will throb with admiration, and melt with pity and forgive ness; since the shade that darkened was the dust of the world, but the light that illumined was "light from heaven!" SELF-the plague-spot that infects That opes to every vice the door, JUSTICE 28-deaf, as well as blind! 25"What is Truth?" of TRUTH INCARNATE (For earth and sky will soon reply) Appall'd Creation's funeral cry, The rushing wind, the darken'd sun, The thunder, and the opening grave To Pilate's question answer gave!- Uncle Timothy. 26 We laugh at the wisdom of our ancestors, and posterity (for whom we are attempting such great things!) will laugh at the wisdom of theirs. Our aspirations are as big as the genius that came out of the tin kettle in the Arabian Tale, and their realisation will be as small as that same genius when he was soldered up in the same kettle again! "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over, for I found that generally what was new was false."—" A fine passage," remarks Dr. John"that Goldsmith was fool enough to expunge" from his Vicar of Wakefield. son, ... 27 "I know so much of that sort of people called lawyers, that I pity most heartily any one that is obliged to be concerned with them: if you are not already, I hope you will be soon safe out of their hands.”—The Earl of Oxford's Letter to Dr. Swift, July 15, 1730. 28 In the Olden Time Kings bestowed their bounty, and CHARITY 29-retiring soul! That hangs her lantern on a pole. administered justice in their own persons. An appeal to the sovereign was not made through an official go-between. The humblest subject might place in the royal hand his petition, and receive summary relief or redress. Kings walked, and rode abroad like other folks, without having their whereabouts watched by a court lord, and chronicled by a court newsman. If they did any thing moderately good, or said any thing immoderately bad, the doing and the saying were not blown by the trumpet of a penny-aliner. It was no remarkable event for a prince to visit a peasant, to partake of his frugal fare, joke with the 66 Gudeman," ‚” make himself agreeable to his buxom wife and bonny daughters, and listen to their humble joys and sorrows. In those primitive days the King saw and heard for himself. He cut short the intricate and roundabout road of the law, and made its sharp sword fall heavily on the wrong-doer. If justice was deaf and blind, the touch imperial soon restored her hearing and sight; if lagging, it quickened her halting, hobbling pace; and if her scales were out of order it was an " annoyance jury" with a vengeance! His Majesty thought a hasty decision not so dangerous as a vexatious delay; and if sometimes he proved a little "fast," the hearts of his suitors were not made sick by hope long deferred. Royalty (in this sense) has ceased to be a reality and a refuge. The Sovereign is a ceremony, to be approached through automaton files of gentlemen-pensioners with Fool's coats and gilt battleaxes! and should the subject intrude his petition upon the "Presence" his presumption would be made a privycouncil job! Pleasant tales have been told how, in the Olden Time, princes, by accident or design, came in familiar contact with plebeians. Who has not read the story of the King and the Miller of Mansfield, and the nocturnal rambles of HONOR 30 -that blows out your brains, England's Merry Monarch? The true secret of kingly popularity lies in a good-humoured condescension, that can temporally discrown the monarch without compromising him. The half-gracious smile and the stiff state-bow are highly picturesque; but Charles the Second, before the morning dew was off the grass in St. James's Park, striding among the trees, playing with his spaniels, and flinging corn to his ducks is, to our fancy, a far more agreeable exhibition. 29 Those who expend their charity on remote objects, but neglect their family, are said to "hang a lantern on a pole," which is seen afar, but gives no light below. -Chinese Proverb. 30 Duelling was long an exclusive privilege. The aristocratical poltroon, if he could muster up resolution to become a locomotive target, was suddenly metamorphosed into a man of honor! The law, by its silence, gave consent, and pistols popped with impunity. But the people grew jealous. They had bodies to be riddled as well as their betters! Then the éclat of two rival tailors winging one another, a pugnacious apprentice introducing a few inches of cold steel between the recreant ribs of a tyrannical shopwalker, or a terrible tallow-chandler transfixing a brother Dip! The temptation was too strong for plebeian resistOne of a brace of belligerent linendrapers received his quietus from a pistol ball. Then (for the first time!) it was discovered that an affair of honor was an unlawful luxury, only because it had been contaminated by the vulgarians of Tottenham Court Road! . ance. Our notions of Honor are widely different to those of the ancients. A Lacedæmonian tutor, being asked, What he would teach his disciple, replied, Honor: intimating that all precepts are contained in that. . . . 31 "Though the lowest orders of the Chinese are cer C |