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DRAMA AND HISTORY.

The drama is as history brought before the eyes. It presents the images of things as if they were present, while history treats of them as things past.

POETRY DEFINED.

Bacon.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing. Burke.

A QUADRU-BIPED.

They said to the camel-bird (ostrich,) "Carry;" it answered, "I cannot, for I am a bird." They said, "Fly;" it answered, "I cannot, for I am a camel." Arabic Proverb.

DISCONTENT THE LOT OF MAN.

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"Philus," saith a Latin writer, was not so. rich as Laelius; Laelius was not so rich as Scipio; Scipio was not so rich as Crassus; and Crassus was not so rich as he wished to be!" If John Bull were once contented, Manchester might shut up its mills. It is the "little more" that makes a mere trifle of the national debt.

Long life to it!

Bulwer.

SPEECH.

Speech is as a pump, by which we raise and pour out the water from the great lake of Thought,— whither it flow back again. Sterling.

A YOUNG UNICORN.

A painter being challenged for having painted a unicorn without a horn, replied, "It was not yet a year old, and that with time the horn would come." Drummond.

PREVENTATIVES OF MELANCHOLY.

I once gave a lady two-and-twenty recipes against melancholy. One was a bright fire; another to remember all the pleasant things said to her; another to keep a box of sugarplums on the chimneypiece, and a kettle simmering on the hob. I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how true it is that these little pleasures often drive melancholy away better than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or in others.

Sydney Smith.

QUALITIES REQUIRED FOR BUSINESS. Much depends upon the temperament of a man of business. It should be hopeful, that it may bear him up against the faintheartedness, the folly, the falsehood, and the numberless discouragements which even a prosperous man will have to endure. It should also be calm; for else he may be driven wild by any great pressure of business, and lose his time and his head in rushing from one unfinished thing to begin something else. Helps.

ADVICE TO AN AUTHOR.

If you be an author, never disturb yourself about little squibs, &c., against you. If you do, you will never be at rest. If you want to annoy the squibber, pretend never to have heard of them. Maginn.

PROSE AND POETRY.

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, Prose words in their best order; Poetry the best words in the best order.

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Coleridge.

DEATH.

If some men died, and others did not, Death would indeed be a most mortifying evil.

MEN WORTHY OF HONOUR.

Bruyère.

These things are comely and pleasant, and worthy of honour from the beholder:-A young saint; an old martyr; a religious soldier; a conscientious statesman; a great man courteous; a learned man humble; a child that understands the eye of its parents; a cheerful companion without vanity; a friend not changed with honours; a sick man happy; a soul departing with comfort and assurance.

Bishop Hall.

LAUGHTER CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVITY. Democritus, who was always laughing, lived one hundred and nine years; Heraclitus, who never ceased crying, only sixty. Laughing, then, is best; and to laugh at one another is perfectly justifiable, since we are told that the gods themselves, though they made us as they pleased, cannot help laughing at us.

Steevens.

FUNCTIONS OF THE NOVELIST.

The great novelist should be a poet, philosopher, and man of the world, fused into one. Understanding man as well as men, the elements of human nature as well as the laws of their combinations; he should possess the most extensive practical knowledge of society, the most universal sympathies with his kind, and a nature at once shrewd and impassioned, observant and creative, with large faculties harmoniously balanced. His enthusiasm should never hurry him into bigotry of any kind, not even into bigoted hatred of bigotry; for never appearing personally in his work as the champion of any of his characters, representing all faithfully, and studious to give even Satan his due, he must simply exhibit things in their right relations, and trust that morality of effect will result from truth of representation. Whipple.

COUNSEL TO AUTHORS.

Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry

on it.

Richter.

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