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duct ordinary business; and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do admirably well, as long as things go on in their common order. When the high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, and a far more extensive comprehension of things, is requisite than ever office gave, or than office can give." To these observations let us add, that personal courage is seldom found amidst the habits of service; and in public danger, that quality most wanted is not there to be sought, wherein, as the poet describes such a state,

"Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap." Richard II, scene 6.

The Retort Valiant, or Hints to Jokers.

An indifferent author, but of high self-value, described a person in company as

"A reader

"Of all such readings as were never read."

The gentleman heard the accusation very plainly; and turning to his next neighbour, and looking at his accuser, calmly replied, "that gentleman is very much mistaken, I never read any of his publications."

Then leave to low buffoons, by custom bred,
And form'd by nature to be kick'd and fed,
The vulgar and unenvied task to hit

All persons, right or wrong, with random wit.
Essay on Conversation, Dodsley's collect, vol. i,

Travellers.

A true Englishman is often disgusted with the imported manners and the speeches of many of his countrymen, who have visited France and Italy. In the former, they ape the foreigner, and by their tongues disgrace themselves, by their preference of other nations to their own. My Lord Bacon very wisely guards young persons against this vice and folly. "Let his travel rather appear in his discourse, than in his apparel and gesture; let him rather be advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories; and let it appear that he doth not change his manners for those of foreign parts, but only in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country." We find great truth in the following picture of a traveller, by a satiric poet in Queen Elizabeth's time.

This is that Colax, that from foreign lands
Hath brought that new infection that undoes
His country's goodness, and impoisons all.
His being abroad would mar us all at home;
'Tis strange to see, that by his going out
He hath outgone that native honesty,
Which here the breeding of his country gave,
Daniel's Arcadia.

Silent Men.

The reserve of silence is frequently the offspring of dulness and pride, and often the trait of conscious inability to command attention equal to its wishes. The former character did not escape the notice of nature's prime secretary."

"There are a sort of men, whose visages
"Do cream and mantle like a standing pool,
"And do a wilful stilness entertain,

"With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
"Of wisdom," &c.

This reserve of the vain and foolish will remind the reader of a story of a poor but proud man, who always kept a strong lock on one of his largest chests, which at his decease was discovered to be empty.

Modern Composition and Oratory.

The ultra-metaphorical style in writing and speaking, which is at present in vogue, cannot be described better, or more forcibly ridiculed, than by the following passage in Hudibras:

His ordinary rate of speech

In loftiness of sound was rich,
A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect.
It was a party-colour'd dress

Of patch'd and pye-ball'd languages;
'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,
Like fustian heretofore on satin.

Cant. 1.

The ridicule of this description is rendered more poignant when it applies to an ignorant man, as was the hero of Butler.

Milton.

"One of the greatest faults in this poet," says Bishop Newton, in a note on this passage, "is an excessive ostentation of learning." The following passage proves that it was not always correct: Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, Built like a temple, whose pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars, overlaid With golden architrave.

Here this illustrious poet wrote without book, or he would have known that a pilaster is a flat square, projecting out of the walls; and over Doric pillars the plainest architrave was raised, as that was the simplest order of all the three.--See Essai sur l'Architecture, by Le P. L'Augier. A Paris, 1755.

Friendship.

That which subsisted between Henry IV. of France and his Prime Minister Sully, conferred the greatest honour on both personages. The following Epitaph on the Duke de Sully is written with a classical brevity and elegance, which are not often seen in the poetry of the French:

Souverains, adorez la cendre
De l'Homme en ces lieux endormi;
Le premier il fut vous apprendre
Qu' un Roi peut avoir un Ami.

IMITATED.

Ye Sovereigns all o'er Sully's grave
With gratitude and reverence bend;
He first the bright example gave
That e'en a King may have a Friend.

Elegant Epitaph:

The following elegant Epitaph on a Westminster Scholar will delight any classical readers who have either not seen it before, or have forgotten it. Time is supposed to speak it, and who is represented by a small statue with a tablet in his hand, and is worthy of the classical taste of the lines which he recites.

Quid breves te delicias tuorum
Næniis Phabi chorus omnis urget,
Et meæ falcis subito recisum
Vulnere plangit !

En puer, vitæ pretium caducæ,
Hic tuas custos vigil ad fuvillas
Semper adstabo, et memori tuebor
Carmine famam.

Audies, clarus pietate, morum
Integer, multæ studiosus artis,

Hæc frequens olim leget, hæc sequetur
Amula Pubes.

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