CCXLVII.

HE VALUE OF TIME.-The proverbial oracles of our parsimonious ancestors, have informed us, that the fatal waste of fortune is by small expenses, by the profusion of sums too little singly to alarm our caution, and which we never suffer ourselves to consider together. Of the same kind is prodigality of life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.

An Italian philosopher expressed in his motto, that time was his estate: an estate indeed, that will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie waste by negligence, to be over-run by noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.-Johnson.

that those whom he injured, would rather connive at his escape than cloud their minds with the horrors of his death. Johnson.

whereon to moralise. It is not like most topics that are dedicated to philosophy-refining and abstruse :-it is not a closet, that is-it does not touch one man, and avoid the circle which surrounds him ;-it relates to us all-for ill health is a part of Death;-it is its grand commencement. Sooner or later, for a longer period or a shorter, it is our common doom. Some, indeed, are stricken suddenly, and Disease does not herald the Dread Comer;-but such exceptions are not to be classed against the rule; and in this artificial existence-affected by the vices of custom-the unknown infirmities of our Sires-the various ills that beset all men who think or toil-the straining nerve-the heated air-the overwrought or the stagnant life-the cares of poverty-the luxuries of wealth-the gnawings of our several passionsthe string cracks somewhere, and few of us pass even the first golden gates of Life, ere we receive the admonitions of Decay. "Every contingency to every man, and every creature doth preach our funeral sermon, and calls us to look and see how the old Sexton Time throws up the earth and digs a grave, where we must lay our sins, or our sorrows."-Bulwer.

If he has the symptoms never so strong upon him, which he would pronounce infallible in another, they are indications of no such malady in himself: he sees what no one else sees, some secret and flattering circumstances in his favour, which no doubt make a wide difference betwixt his case and the parties which he condemns.

What other man speaks so often and vehemently against the vice of pride, sets the weakness of it in a more odious light, or is more hurt with it in another, than the proud man himself? It is the same with the passionate, the designing, the ambitious, and some other characters in life, and being a consequence of the nature of such vices, and almost inseparable from them, the effects of it are generally so gross and absurd, that where pity does not forbid, it is pleasant to observe and trace the cheat through the several turnings and windings of the heart, and detect it through all the shapes and appearances which it puts on.-Sterne.

CCLV.

EALTH AND LIBERTY.-Health and liberty are, without dispute, the greatest natural blessings mankind is capable of enjoying: I say natural, because the contrary states are purely accidental, and arise from nature debauched, depraved, or enforced. Yet these blessings are seldom sufficiently valued whilst enjoyed: like the daily advantages of the sun and air, they seem scarce regarded, because so common, by those that are in possession of them. But as an Italian, that passes a winter in Greenland, will soon be convinced through his want of the kind influences of that glorious planet, how much misery he endures in comparison of those who dwell in his native country; so he, that knows by experience the trouble of a languishing sickness, or the loss of his liberty, will presently begin to have a right esteem of that which formerly he scarce thought worth his notice. -Lord Molesworth.