perhaps, in rational estimation, greater than Cæsar's, warned posterity against a mistake into which he had fallen. "So much (says Celsus) does the open and artless confession of an error become a man conscious that he has enough remaining to support his character!" Rambler, vol. 1.

Epitaph.

To define an epitaph is useless; every one knows it is an inscription on a tomb; an epitaph, therefore, implies no particular character of writing, but may be composed in verse or prose. It is, indeed, commonly panegyrical, because we are seldom distinguished with a stone but by our friends; but it has no rule to restrain, or modify it, except this, that it ought not to be longer than common beholders may be expected to have leisure and patience to peruse.

Dissertation on the Epitaphs of Pope.

Expectation.

Expectation, when once her wings are expanded, easily reaches heights which performance never will attain; and when she has mounted the summit of perfection, derides her follower, who dies in the pursuit. Plan of an English Dictionary.

Effects not always proportioned to
their Causes.

It seems to be almost the universal error of historians, to suppose it politically, as it is physically, true, that every effect has a proportionate cause. In the inanimate action of matter upon matter, the motion produced can be but equal to the force of the moving power; but the operations of life, whether public or private, admit no such laws. The caprices of voluntary agents laugh at calculation. It is not always there is a strong reason for a great event; obstinacy and flexibility, malignity and kindness, give place alternately to each other; and the reason of those vicissitudes, however important may be the consequences, often escapes the mind in which the change is made. Falkland Islands.

Elegance.

Elegance is surely to be desired, if it be not gained at the expense of dignity. A hero would wish to be loved, as well as to be reverenced. Life of Pope.

Essay-Writing.

He that questions his abilities to arrange the dissimilar parts of an extensive plan, or

fears to be lost in a complicated system, may yet hope to adjust a few pages without perplexity; and if, when he turns over the repositories of his memory, he finds his collection too small for a volume, he may yet have enough to furnish an essay. Rambler, vol. 1.

Exercise.

Such is the constitution of man, that labour may be styled its own reward: nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.

Ibud. vol. 2.

Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are decreed; but, while the soul and body continue united, it can make the association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they shall be disjoined by an easy separation. It was a principle among the ancients, that acute diseases are from heaven, and chronical from ourselves: the dart of death, indeed, falls from Heaven; but we poison it by our own misconduct. Ibid

Fame.

The true satisfaction which is to be drawn from the consciousness that we shall share the attention of future times, must arise from the hope, that, with our names, our virtues shall be propagated, and that those, whom we cannot benefit in our lives, may receive instruction from our example, and incitement from our renown.

Friendship.

Rambler, vol. 1.

So many qualities are necessary to the possibility of friendship, and so many accidents mist concur to its rise and its continuance, that the greatest part of mankind content themselves without it, and supply its place as they can with interest and dependence.

Ibid. vol. 2.

Many have talked in very exalted language of the perpetuity of friendship; of invincible constancy and unalienable kindness; and some examples have been seen of men who have continued faithful to their earliest choice, and whose affections have predominated over changes of fortune and contrariety of opinion. But these instances

are memorable because they are rare. The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other. Idler, vol. 1.

When Mr. Addison was made secretary to the marquis of Wharton, then lord lieutenant of Ireland, he made a law to himself, never to remit his regular fees in civility to his friends. "For," said he, "I may have a hundred friends; and, if my fee be two guineas, I shall, by relinquishing my right, lose two hundred guineas, and no friend gain more than two; there is, therefore, no proportion between the good imparted and the evil suffered."

Life of Addison.

There are few who, in the wantonness of thoughtless mirth, or heat of transient resentinent, do not sometimes speak of their friends and benefactors with levity and contempt, though, in their cooler moments, they want neither sense of their kindness nor reverence for their virtues. This weakness is very common, and often proceeds rather from negligence than ingrati tude. Life of Savage