pleasure than on a new vessel that is cankered with rust.

I might further observe, that as cleanliness ren ders us agreeable to others, it makes us easy to ourselves; that it is an excellent preservative of health; and that several vices, destructive both to mind and body, are inconsistent with the habit of it.

In the third place, it bears a great analogy with purity of mind, and naturally inspires refined sentiments and passions. We find from experience, that, through the prevalence of custom, the most vicious actions lose their horrour, by being made familiar to us: on the contrary, those who live in the neighbourhood of good examples, fly from the first appearance of what is shocking: and thus pure and unsullied thoughts are naturally suggested to the mind by those objects that perpetually encompass us, when they are beautiful and elegant in their kind.

In the East, where the warmth of the climate makes cleanliness more immediately necessary than in colder countries, it is a part of religion : the Jewish law (as well as the Mahometan, which in some things copies after it) is filled with bathings, purifications, and other rites of the like nature; and we read several injunctions of this kind in the book of Deuteronomy. Addison.

ENVY AND EMULATION.

AT one of the celebrated schools of painting in Italy, a young man, named Guidotto, produced a

piece so excellent, that it gained the admiration of all the masters in the art. This performance was looked upon with very different eyes by two of his fellow scholars.

Brunello, the elder of them, who had himself acquired some reputation in his studies, regarded all the honour Guidotto had acquired as so much taken from himself; and longed for nothing so much, as to see him lose the credit he had gained. Afraid openly to decry the merit of a work which had gained the approbation of the best judges, he threw out secret insinuations that Guidotto had been assisted in it by one or other of his masters; and he affected to represent it as a sort of lucky hit, which the reputed author would probably never equal.

Not so Lorenzo. Though a very young proficient in the art, he comprehended in its full extent the excellence of Guidotto's performance, and became one of the sincerest of his admirers. Fired with the praises he daily heard bestowed on Guidotto, his fellow-pupil, he ardently longed to deserve the same; and placed him before his eyes as a model, which it was his highest ambition to equal. He entered with his whole soul into the career of improvement, was the first and last of all the scholars in the designing-room, and devoted to practice at home those hours, which other youths passed in amusement. It was long before he could please himself with any of his attempts, and he was continually repeating to himself, Alas, how far distant is this from Guidotto's! At length, however, he had the satisfaction of becoming sensible of his progress; and having re

ceived considerable applause for one of his performances, he ventured to say to himself, ' And why may not I too become a Guidotto?'

Guidotto had now prepared, for the anniversary of the day when prizes were awarded in the school, a piece which was to excel all he had before executed. He had just finished it on the evening before the exhibition, and nothing remained but to heighten the colours by means of a transparent varnish. The malignant Brunello contrived artfully to convey into the phial containing this varnish, some drops of a caustic preparation, the effect of which would be entirely to destroy the beauty and splendour of the piece. Guidotto laid it on by candle-light, and then with great satisfaction hung up his picture in the public room against the morrow. Lorenzo, with vast application, had finished a piece, which he humbly hoped might appear not greatly inferior to some of Guidotto's earlier performances.

The important day arrived. The company assembled in the great room, where the light had just been fully admitted by drawing a curtain. All went up to Guidotto's picture; when behold, instead of the beauty which they had conceived, there was nothing but a dead surface of confused and blotched colours. The unfortunate youth burst into an agony of grief, and exclaimed, that he was betrayed and undone. Lorenzo, little less affected than Guidótto himself, cried out'Gentlemen, this is not Guidotto's work: I saw it when only half finished, and it was then an exquisite performance.*

Every one admired Lorenzo, and sympathised

in the disgrace of Guidotto; but it was impossible to adjudge the prize to his picture, in the state in which they beheld it. It was therefore awarded to Lorenzo, who immediately presented it to Guidotto, saying, Take what merit would have acquired you, had not the basest malice and envy defrauded you of it. If hereafter I may aspire to equal you, it shall be by means of fair competition, not by the aid of treachery.'

Lorenzo's noble conduct excited the warmest encomiums among the judges, who at length determined that for this time there should be two equal prizes distributed; for, if Guidotto had deserved the prize of painting, Lorenzo was entitled to that of virtue. Barbauld.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

MONTAIGNE thinks it some reflection upon human nature itself, that few people take delight in seeing beasts caress or play together, but almost every one is pleased to see them lacerate and worry one another. I am sorry this temper is become almost a distinguishing character of our own nation, from the observation which is made by foreigners of our beloved pastimes, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, and the like. We should find it hard to vindicate the destroying of any thing that has life, merely out of wantonness: yet in this principle our children are bred up; and one of the first pleasures we allow them, is the licence of inflicting pain upon poor animals: almost as soon as we are sensible what life is ourselves, we

make it our sport to take it from other creatures. I cannot but believe a very good use might be made of the fancy which children have for birds and insects. Mr. Locke takes notice of a mother who permitted them to her children, but rewarded or punished them, as they treated them well or ill. This was no other than entering them betimes into a daily exercise of humanity, and improving their very diversion to a virtue.

I fancy, too, some advantage might be taken of the common notion, that it is ominous or unlucky to destroy some sorts of birds, as swallows and martins. This opinion might possibly arise from the confidence these birds seem to put in us, by building under our roofs: so that this is a kind of violation of the laws of hospitality to murder them. As for robin red-breasts in particular, it is not improbable they owe their security to the old ballad of The Children in the Wood. However it be, I do not know, I say, why this prejudice, well improved and carried as far as it would go, might not be made to conduce to the preservation of many innocent creatures, which are now exposed to all. the wantonness of an ignorant barbarity.

There are other animals that have the misfortune, for no manner of reason, to be treated as common enemies, wherever found. The conceit, that a cat has nine lives, has cost at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them: scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone Hercules himself, who was famous for killing a monster that had but three lives. Whether the unaccountable animosity against this useful domestic may be any cause of the general persecution of owls (who are