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CCLXXVI.

SLAVE.-Independence is the birth-right of man, and that which each of us ought to cherish beyond all earthly possessions. I will tell you what a slave is. A slave is he who watches, with abject spirit, the eye of another; he waits timidly till another man shall have told him whether he is to be happy or miserable to-day: his comforts and his peace depend on the breath of another's mouth. No man can be this unless he pleases. If he has fallen as to externals, into another's power, still there is a point that at his own will he can reserve. He may refuse to crouch; he may walk fearless and erect; the words that he utters may be supplied by that reason, to which the high and low, rich and poor, have equally access; and if he that the mis-judging world calls a slave may retain all that is most substantial in independence, is it possible that he whom circumstances have made free, should voluntarily put the fetters on his own feet, the manacles on his own hands, and drink the bitter draught of subjection and passive obedience ?-Mandeville.

CCLXXVII.

HE DEBASING TENDENCY OF ANGER.-What a wretched thing is anger, and the commotion of the soul. If any thing interposes itself between me and the object of my pursuits, what is incumbent upon me is, that I should put forth my powers, and remove it. How shall I do this? By the exercise of my understanding. To the employment of this power, a cool and exact observation is necessary; but the moment I am the slave of passion, my power is lost;

I am turned into a beast, or rather into a drunkard; I can neither preserve my footing, nor watch my advantage, nor strike an effectual blow. Did you never see a passionate and a temperate man pitched against each other? How like at fool did the former appear! how did his adversary turn and wind him as he pleased, like some god controlling an inferior nature! It is by this single implement, his reason, that man tames horses, camels, and elephants, to his hand, that he tames the lion of the desert, and shuts up the hyena with bars.-Ibid.

CCLXXVIII.

LORY OF A PRINCE.-It should be the glory of a prince to govern others, as he is governed by him who is most merciful and almighty! It should be his glory to prevent crime rather than display his power in punishment; to diffuse happiness rather than enforce subjection, and to animate with love rather than depress by fear. Let us govern as we are governed, let us seek our happiness in the happiness we bestow, and our honour in emulating the benevolence of heaven.-Hawkesworth.

CCLXXIX.

N ABUSED AUTHORITY.-A learned prelate of the church of England has declared, that authority is the greatest and most irreconcilable enemy to truth and rational argument that this world ever furnished out since it was in being; against it there is no defence; it is authority alone that keeps up the grossest, and most abominable errors in the countries around us ;-it was authority that would

HE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS.-The repeal of the corporation and test acts, was a most encouraging event, as it indicated the slow but certain triumph of reason and justice over the dull resistance of intolerance and superstition, the offspring of ignorance and timidity, which, though wanting a name, is ever an extensive agent in obstructing the advancement of society.

CCLXXXI.

ANT OF INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION AMONG THE MASS OF

MANKIND.-Education and early habits, form the grand outline of every human character much earlier than any of us are willing to admit; and after a certain arrangement of predisposing causes, we all know that their effects will follow in regular course. The mass of mankind, like the stars in the firmament, seem to observe one simple order of motion. This arises from the general indisposition among men to exercise the powers of their understandings, it being a work of much less labour to imitate others, to adopt opinions upon mere authority, to glide with the stream of common manners, than to pursue investigation closely, or analyze received opinions, and deduce principles for their own conduct from reason and from nature.-Letters on the Character of Mary Wolstonecroft.

CCLXXXII.

F REASON.-Reason is a faculty or power of the mind, whereby it distinguishes good from evil; whereby

man is distinguished from beasts, and wherein he greatly surpasses them: or reason is that principle where, by comparing several ideas together, we draw consequences from the relations they are found to have.—Anon.

CCLXXXIII.

TILITY ALONE THE TEST OF MERIT.-Antiquity is worthless, except as parent of experience; that which is useful is alone venerable; that which is virtuous is alone noble, and there is nothing so illustrious as the dedication of the intellect and the affections to the great end of human improvement and happiness; an end which will be the ultimate test and touch-stone of our institutions; by a reference to which they will be judged, and either perpetuated or swept away.-Westminster Review.

CCLXXXIV.

USTICE SUPERIOR TO MERCY.-All the humanity which a criminal has a right to appeal to, is found in a just sentence. There is a senseless habit of accounting mercy superior to justice! But the idea of justice contains every conceivable perfection; and the mercy that sets aside real justice, is treason to society. Had justice always ruled the world, the name of mercy would have been unknown among men. Had justice always appeared in the history of the heavens themselves, the name of mercy would not have filled our prayers. The plausible claptrap of tem

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pering justice with mercy is stark nonsense, nonsense in its very terms; consider the grand force of the word just, and the absurdity appears at once.-London Magazine.

CCLXXXV.

E ARE THE DUPES OF SHOW AND CIRCUMSTANCES.— When the Gauls laid waste Rome, they found the senators clothed in their robes, and seated in stern tranquility in their curule chairs; in this manner they suffered death without resistance or supplication. Such conduct was in them applauded as noble and magnanimous; in the hapless Indians it was reviled as both obstinate and sullen. How truly are we the dupes of show and circumstances! How different is virtue, clothed in purple and enthroned in state, from virtue, naked and destitute, and perishing obscurely in a wilderness.-Washington Irving.

CCLXXXVI.

MPORTANCE OF THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. Nothing can be a greater check to the wantonness of power, than the privilege of unfolding private grievances at the bar of the public. Thus the cause of individuals is made a public concern, and the general indignation which their wrongs excite forms at once the severest punishment which can be inflicted on the oppressor, and one of the strongest bulwarks that can be raised in defence of the unprotected.Anon.