The climate of England is variable, but temperate; being surrounded by the sea, we do not experience those extremes of cold and heat common to other countries in the same latitude.

Charles II., in speaking of the climate, remarked "there was no country in Europe in which he could be abroad in the air more hours in the day, and more days in the year, without inconvenience, than in England," the remark was perhaps, just.

The soil of England is generally fertile, and is rendered still more so by very superior cultivation; it produces in great abundance all the substantial necessaries of life.

London, the capital of the whole British empire, and the largest and richest city in the world, is finely situated on the banks of the Thames, and for the extent of its commerce, and the number and usefulness of its charitable institutions, it stands unrivalled.

The houses of many of the nobility and wealthy are splendid, and the principal commercial streets are lined with elegant shops, fitted up regardless of expense; on the Royal Exchange may be daily seen merchants from every part of the world, dressed in the costumes of their respective countries.

The river Thames, in magnitude and grandeur, is much inferior to many of the European rivers, yet, for the purposes of commerce, it is equalled by few, and perhaps excelled by none.

The other leading commercial ports, are Liverpool, Bristol, Devenport, Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne, Southampton, Sunderland, and Yarmouth; the largest and most important manufacturing towns, are Manchester, Birminghan, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Nottingham, Leicester, and Norwich.

WALES, a small principality, lying on the west of

England, is divided into North and South Wales, each containing six counties, with a population of about a million.

North Wales is mountainous, and much admired for its beautiful and romantic scenery; its highest mountains are Snowden and Plynlimmon.

The Welsh are a hospitable people, but not having much intercourse with the world, in the country districts, they are simple and homely in their manners; they however are said to pride themselves on their ancestry.

LESSON XCIII.

SELECT SENTENCES.

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think-rather to improve our minds so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.

Read not to contradict and refute, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be digested; that is, some books are to be read only in part; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, and writing a correct man.-Lord Bacon.

Philosophers have puzzled themselves how to define man, so as to distinguish him from other animals. Burke says "Man is an animal that cooks his victuals." Dr. Adam Smith says, "Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this-one dog does not exchange a bone with another."

K

In conversation there is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly, and speaking seasonably; it is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments to the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable, is thoughtless and cruel.

The mind has a certain vegetative power which cannot be wholly idle; if it be not laid out and cultivated into a beautiful garden, it will of itself shoot up in weeds, or flowers of a wild growth.

There is nothing of which men are more liberal than their good advice, be their stock of it ever so small, because it seems to carry in it an intimation of their own influence, importance, or worth.

In early life we are apt to believe all men honest till we find them the contrary; in later life, we, perhaps, become too suspicious of their principles; thus, in our journey through life we pass from one extreme to the other; at first we think too well of human nature, and at last perhaps, too ill of it.

It is to labour, and to labour only, that man owes everything possessed of exchangeable value; labour is the tal'isman which has raised him from the condition of the savage; that has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields; that has covered the earth with cities, and the ocean with ships; that has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance; instead of want, misery, and barbarism.

The Chinese Emperor Tchou set out on a journey to visit the vast provinces of his empire, accompanied by his eldest son. One day he stopped his carriage in the midst of some fields where the people were hard at work.

"I took you with me," said he to his son, "that you

might be an eye-witness of the painful toils of the poor husbandmen, and that the feeling, their laborious station should excite in your heart, might prevent your burdening them with taxes."

The common fluency of speech in many men, and in most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language, and has a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both.

Whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in, and these are always ready for the tongue; thus, people come faster out of the church when it is almost empty, then when a crowd is at the door.

We ought always to deal justly, not only with those that are just to us, but likewise with those that endeavour to injure us; and this also, for fear lest by rendering them evil for evil, we should fall into the same vice; so we ought likewise to have friendship, that is to say, humanity and good-will, for all who are of the same nature with us.

Thinking leads a man to knowledge; he may see and hear, and read and learn, whatever he pleases, and as much as he pleases; he never will know any thing of it, except that which he has thought over, that which by thinking he has made the property of his mind; it is then not saying too much, if I say, that man by thinking only, becomes truly man.

Though wit is the most captivating, yet it is the most dreaded of all talents; the most dangerous to those who have it, and the most feared by those who have it not; he who has grown rich without it, shuns it as a disease, and looks upon poverty as its invariable companion.

LESSON XCIV.

THE MOUNTAIN OF MISERIES, CONCLUDED.

In my former paper, I gave the reader a sight of that mountain of miseries which was made of those several calamities that afflict the minds of men.

As we were regarding very attentively this confusion of miseries, this chaos of calamity, Jupiter issued a second proclamation, that every one was now at liberty to exchange his affliction, and return to his habitation with any such other bundle as should be delivered to him.

Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself, and, parcelling out the whole heap with incredible activity, recommended to every one his particular packet. The hurry and confusion at this time, cannot be expressed. Some observations however that I made, I will communicate to the public.

A venerable grey-headed gentleman, who had laid down the spasms, and, who, I found, wanted an heir to his estate, snatched up an undutiful son, that had been thrown into the heap by an angry father.

The graceless youth, in less than an hour, was pulling his new father by the beard, and threatening to take his life, so that meeting the true father he begged him to take his son again, and give him back his complaint; but they were incapable, either of them, to recede from the choice they had made.

A poor galley slave, who had thrown down his chains, took up the gout in their place, but he made such wry faces, that one might easily perceive he was no great gainer by the bargain; it was pleasant enough to see

*Kal-os.