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THE UTILITY OF AN INDEX.

An index is a necessary implement, and no impediment of a book, except in the same sense wherein the carriages of an army are termed impedimenta. Without this, a large author is but a labyrinth without a clue to direct the reader therein. I confess there is a lazy kind of learning which is only indical; when scholars, like adders, which only bite the horse-heels, nibble but at the tables, which are calces librorum, neglecting the body of the book. But, though the idle deserve no crutches-let not a staff be used by them, but on them-pity it is the weary should be denied the benefit thereof, and industrious scholars prohibited the accommodation of an index, most used by those who most pretend to contemn it. Thomas Fuller.

FOLLY OF GOING TO LAW.

To go to law, is for two persons to kindle a fire at their own cost to warm others and singe themselves to cinders; and because they cannot agree as to what is truth and equity, they will both agree to unplume themselves, that others may be decorated with their feathers. Feltham.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE VIRTUOSI.

Virtuosi have been long remarked to have little conscience in their favourite pursuits. A man will steal a rarity who would cut off his hand rather than take the money it is worth. Yet, in fact, the crime is the same. Horace Walpole.

MORALITY VALUELESS WITHOUT RELIGION. Father Taylor, the founder of the Boston Sailors' Home, on one occasion preaching of the insufficiency of the moral principles without religious feelings, exclaimed, "Go heat your ovens with snowballs! What! shall I send you to heaven with such an icicle in your pocket? I might as well put a millstone round your neck to teach you to swim!" Jameson.

A PIPE COMPARED TO A CHRISTIAN.

A pipe is like a Christian in many ways: sure it's made o' clay, like a Christian, and has the spark o' life in it, and while the breath is in it the spark is alive; but when the breath is out of it the spark dies, and then it grows cowld, like a Christian; and isn't it a pleasant companion, like a Christian? Lover.

116 TREASURY OF TABLE TALK.

TEMPER.

A tart temper never mellows with age; and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. Washington Irving.

A HAPPY UNION.

Quin used to say, that of all the banns of marriage he ever heard, none gave him so much pleasure as the union of delicate Ann Chovy with good John Dory. This sentiment was worthy of such a disciple of Apicius. Hone.

THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND.

Omit a few of the most abstruse sciences, and mankind's study of man occupies nearly the whole field of literature. The burden of History is what man has been,-of Law, what he does, of Physiology, what he is, of Ethics,

what he ought to be,-of Revelation, what he shall be. Finlayson

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