in their rudiments of robbery, they might, by proper discipline, and useful labour, have been disentangled from their habits; they might have escaped all the temptations to subsequent crimes, and passed their days in reparation and penitence; and detected they might all have been, had the prosecutors been certain their lives would have been spared. I believe every thief will confess, that he has been more than once seized and dismissed; and that he has sometimes ventured upon capital crimes, because he knew, that those whom he injured, would rather connive at his escape than cloud their minds with the horrors of his death.-Johnson.

CCCXLV.

Moderation in Disputes.-When we are in a condition to overthrow falsehood and error, we ought not to do it with vehemenee, nor insultingly and with an air of contempt: but to lay open the truth, and with answers full of mildness to refute the falsehood.-Hierocles.

CCCXLVI.

Avarice. When a miser contents himself with giving nothing, and saving what he has got, and is in other respects guilty of no injustice, he is, perhaps, of all bad men the least injurious to society; the evil he does is properly nothing more than the omission of the good he might do. If, of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested, it is the effect of an avidity common to all men: it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers.-Helvetius.

CCCXLVII.

Society. Notwithstanding all we meet with in books, in many of which, no doubt, there are a good many hand

some things said upon the sweets of retirement, &c., yet still "it is not safe for man to be alone:" nor can all which the cold-hearted pedant stuns our ears with upon the subject ever give one answer of satisfaction to the mind; in the midst of the loudest vauntings of philosophy, nature will have her yearnings for society and friendship; -a good heart wants something to be kind to-and the best parts of our blood, and the purest of our spirits, suffer most under the destitution.-Sterne's Sermons.

CCCXLVIII.

Error.

O hateful error, melancholy's child?

Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men,
The things that are not! O error soon conceived,
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth,

But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee.

CCCXLIX.

Shakspeare.

Religion and Morals.—If we are told a man is religious we still ask what are his morals? But if we hear at first that he has honest morals, and is a man of natural justice and good temper, we seldom think of the other question, whether he be religious and devout?-Shaftesbury.

CCCL.

Liberty of Conscience.-Experience teaches that the sword, the fagot, exile, and proscription, are better calculated to irritate than to heal a disease, which, having its source in the mind, cannot be relieved by remedies that act only on the body. The most efficacious means

are sound doctrines and repeated instructions, which make a ready impression when inculcated with mildness. Every thing else bows to the sovereign authority of the magistrates and the prince: but religion alone is not to be commanded.-Turgot.

CCCLI.

Happiness. Inward peace of mind, consciousness of integrity, and a satisfactory review of our own conduct, are circumstances very requisite to happiness.

Those who possess them will, besides, have the frequent satisfaction of seeing knaves, with all their pretended cunning and abilities, betrayed by their own maxims; but were they ever so successful, the honest man, if he has any tincture of philosophy, will discover that knaves are themselves in the end the greatest dupes, and have sacrificed the invaluable enjoyment of a good character, for the acquisition of worthless gew-gaws. How little is required to supply the necessities of nature; and in a view to pleasure, what comparison between the unbought satisfaction of conversation, society, study, even health and the common beauties of nature, but above all, the peaceful reflection of one's own conduct-what comparison, I say, between these and the feverish, empty, amusements of luxury and expense? These natural pleasures, indeed, are really without price; both because they are below all price in their attainment, and above all price in their enjoyment.-Hume.

CCCLII.

Endurance of the Evils of Life.-Never let us wonder at any thing we are born to; for no man has reason to complain, where we are all in the same condition. He

that escapes might have suffered, and it is but equal to submit to the laws of morality. We must undergo the colds of winter, the heats of summer, the distempers of the air, and the diseases of the body. A wild beast meets us in one place, and a man, more brutal, in another. It is the part of a great mind to be temperate in prosperity, and resolute in adversity; to despise what the vulgar admire, and to prefer a mediocrity to excess. We are subject to ill accidents, unkind seasons, distempers, or diseases, and why may we not reckon the actions of wicked men among those accidents? He who is truly tempered, will stand all shocks without perturbation. It is inward fear that makes us curious to know what is doing abroad.-Seneca.

Advice to Instructers of Youth.-The preceptors of youth, of either sex, ought, however, to be again and again admonished of the importance of the task which they have undertaken, and also of its difficulty.

It is their duty to be patient with the dull, and steady with the froward-to encourage the timid, and repress the insolent-fully to employ the minds of their pupils, without overburdening them-to awaken their fear, without exciting their dislike-to communicate the stores of knowledge according to the capacity of the learner, and to enforce obedience by the strictness of discipline. Above all, it is their bounden duty to be ever on the watch, and to check the first beginnings of vice. For valuable as knowledge may be, virtue is infinitely more valuable; and worse than useless are these mental accomplishments, which are accompanied by depravity of heart. Shepherd and Joyce's Systematic Education.

CCCLIV.

Of doing Injuries to others.-Propitious conscience, thou equitable and ready judge, be never absent from me! Tell me, constantly, that I cannot do the least injury to another, without receiving the counter-stroke; that I must necessarily wound myself, when I wound another.Mercier.

CCCLV.

The Passions. The passions founded on the wants of the organization, are appeased by their gratification; and their indulgence, if not excessive, tends to health, vigour, and happiness. But the factitious passions of envy, ambition, gaming, &c., increase in intensity with their gratification; and by their unrelenting tyranny, tend necessarily and inevitably to disappointment and misery.-Sir T. C. Morgan.

CCCLVI.

Depravity of Man.—Various are the causes which contribute to the factitious depravity of man. Defective and erroneous education corrupts him; the prevalent examples of a degenerate community corrupt him; but bad government corrupts him more than all other causes combined. -Knox-Spirit of Despotism.

CCCLVII.

Taxes on Justice.-We pity the barbarism of our Saxon forefathers, who established a scale of payments, by which every crime might be expiated; we forget that their pe'cuniary atonements for guilt, may almost find a parallel in the taxes with which we burden every legal process. For where is the great difference between allowing the