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Tir'd nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,

He like the world his ready visit pays,
Where fortune smiles: the wretched he forsakes,
Soft on his downy pinions flies from woe,
And lights on lids unsullied with a tear.

Difficulties in Life.

In our conduct in life, it is the greatest instance of our prudence to be so connected with it, as not to be too much entangled in its concerns; for it is easy to make knots, but very difficult to untie them and liberate ourselves. Alexander the Great, and such men, indeed, may cut the Gordian knot of complicated difficulties, but lesser persons must suffer themselves to be hampered in them for life. An abstinence from the more tumultuous pleasures. is the golden medium of the poets, and the rational content of philosophers. Martial, in some verses to his friend Julius, has in the four last lines given us a good caution for tranquillity of mind, if not for happiness.

Si vitare velis acerba quædam,
Et tristes animi cavere morsus,
Nulli te facias nimis sodalem,
Gaudebis minus, et minus dolebis.

IMITATED.

The way to keep the heart in peace,
And bid each foolish wish to cease,
Is in our minds alone to rest,
Contented to be slightly blest,

Nor to society confide

For joys so mixed with care and pride.

Questioners.

There are some half-witted persons, who, mul tiplying question upon question, puzzle the wisest and fatigue the most patient of men. Christina of Sweden, who seems to have possessed more inclination for learning than a genius, provoked Descartes to say, 66 Madam, I have no power to give you a pourquoi for all your pourquois?" Butler, with his usual acuteness and humour, ridicules this folly of endless interrogation, in his description of his all-accomplished hero

Whatever sceptic could enquire for,
For every why he had a wherefore.

Hudibras, Part 1, Canto 1.

Lavater.

The author of physiognomy seems to have carried into his aphorisms some of the fantastic, and mnch of the obscure, parts of his intellect. Two aphorisms are worth considering a second time, though they may seem dark at the first view of them. To whom nothing is obscure, nothing is plain,' may signify that men pretending to understand the obscure, yet shew their want of sagacity by starting at what is easy to others. There are such intellects; and Butler seems to allude to them in his hero's erudition*

* Hudibras, part 1, line 127.

Besides, he was a shrewd philosopher,
And had read every text and gloss over:
Whate'er the crabbedst author hath,
He understood by th' implicit faith.

The second is,' He who is not intelligible is not intelligent.' This seems to say, that if a man cannot explain himself, most probably he has nothing worth explaining in his head. This may be so in many instances; yet some ingenious and learned persons are very bad expositors of their own thoughts, at least off-hand.

Words.

These signs of our ideas, as the learned Wollaston calls them, vary much in their modes of representation, and indeed become in time signs of opposite ideas. Virtú, in Italian, evidently virtus corrupted, means now a taste in fiddling and painting; among the Romans, a taste for fighting for the good of their country. In our Church Service, we pray that justice may be administered indifferently; but surely a quorum of modern magistrates would not think themselves complimented, were they reported to consult and act so indifferently in their decisions?

Technical Terms.

Many such prevail in commerce, and among professional men, that abstractedly appear very

* Impartially.

ludicrous. A lawyer is concerned for you, though, perhaps, he is your greatest foe; an under-writer is in the way of growing rich, which is quite a different case with his synonym, an inferior author. A warm man in the city does not imply a passionate or warm-hearted man, but an opulent and covetous curmudgeon. We cannot but smile at the common phrases in bulletins from Mark-lane, that peas look up, and pigs look down;' that Mr. Alderman is considered a bear in Changealley, and that a common councilman hobbled out a lame duck.

Satires on Women.

These philippics recoil upon the authors, as the faults and vices of woman generally proceed from the vices of men. The jealousy which many men entertain of the influence of females on society, and on individuals, is the cause of many of these invectives, which are as unjust as they are indecent. Women do certainly aim at and obtain great power, but they cannot do it vi et armis, but by those means of gentle acts of persuasion with which nature has furnished them; but if men will be uncandid, and judge their own causes, women have a right to complain, in the language of the poet,

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
Thou shalt not escape calumny.

Measure for Measure.

Quarrelling, its Modes and Degrees.

There are some men so skilful in this department, that they can manage it so well as to maintain the character of bold men, without venturing any consequences. Such men consider "discretion as the best part of valour;" and though they may be "butchers of a button-hole," they are by no means bloody-minded. A man of quiet and peaceable habits, when involved in a quarrel, wherein his feelings are strongly enlisted, though a man of real courage, yet often appears a bully, because he is unused to be angry, and, in the language of the law, he vouches over the common vouchee.

The Merits of Rhyme Considered.

It seems remarkable that a critic like Dr. John. son, of powers of high discrimination and most ample comprehension on all subjects of literary estimation, should have issued so violent, and seemingly so partial, a decree in favour of rhyme over blank verse. Amidst inferior poets, conversant with inferior subjects, the jingle of rhyme may make music; but among great poets, treating

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