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EXAMPLE BETTER THAN PRECEPT.

Though "the words of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies," yet sure their examples are the hammer to drive them in to take the deeper hold. A father that whipt his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipt him, did more harm by his example than gcod by his correction.

DANGER A GOOD TEACHER.

Thomas Fuller.

If a man is learning to dance on a rope, if he does not mind what he is about he will break his neck. After that, it will be in vain for him to argue that he did not make a false step. His situation is not like that of Goldsmith's pedagogue :

"In argument they own'd his wondrous skill,

For e'en though vanquish'd, he could argue still."

Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars.

DEFINITION OF A PRESENT.

Hazlitt.

Something you do not care to keep given to a

person who does not want it.

Graham.

HOW TO SPEAK OF THE DEAD.

In speaking of the dead, so fold up your discourse that their virtues may be outwardly shown, while their vices are wrapped up in silence.

ADVANTAGE Of a Good BREAKFAST.

Puckle.

By eating a hearty breakfast, you escape the temptation of luncheon-a snaie into which he who has a sufficient respect for his dinner will rarely fall.

GOVERNMENT.

Maginn.

You

They that govern most make least noise. see when they row in a barge, they that do drudgery work, slash, and puff, and sweat; but he that governs, sits quietly at the stern, and scarce is seen to stir. Selden.

DISTINCTIONS IN KNAVERY.

He who attempts to make others believe in means which he himself despises is a puffer; he who makes use of more means than he knows to be necessary is a quack; and he who ascribes to those means a greater efficacy than his own experience warrants is an impostor. Lavater.

THE ADVANTAGES OF CHEERFULNESS. When Goethe says that in every human condition foes lie in wait for us, "invincible only by cheerfulness and equanimity,” he does not mean that we can at all times be really cheerful, or at a moment's notice; but that the endeavour to look at the better side of things will produce the habit; and that this habit is the surest safeguard against the danger of sudden evils. Leigh Hunt.

HIRING AN EARTHQUAKE.

Some one was saying that it had cost nearly half a million to move the Leviathan only so far as they had got it already. "Why," said the Professor, "they might have hired an EARTHQUAKE for less money!"

Holmes.

MIGHTY WINE.

An Asiatic chief being asked his opinion of wine, said he thought it a juice extracted from women's tongues and lions' hearts; for, after he had drunk enough of it, he could talk for ever and fight the devil. Barker.

LIBERTY MORE IMAGINARY THAN REAL. A contented citizen of Milan, who had never passed beyond its walls during the course of sixty years, being ordered by the governor not to stir beyond its gates, became immediately miserable, and felt so powerful an inclination to do that which he had so long contentedly neglected, that, on his application for a release from this restraint being refused, he became quite melancholy, and at last died of grief. The pains of imprisonment also, like those of servitude, are more in conception than in reality. We are all prisoners. What is life, but the prison of the soul? To some men the wide seas are but narrow ditches, and the world itself too limited for their desires; to roam from east to west, from north to south, is their sole delight; and when they have put a girdle' round the globe, are discontented because they cannot travel to the moon. Burton.

VENTURE CAUTIOUSLY.

He who does not venture gets neither horse nor mule; and he who ventures too much loses both horse and mule. French Proverb.

CONSTITUENTS OF THE NOVEL.

I suppose as long as novels last, and authors aim at interesting their public, there must always be in the story a virtuous and gallant hero; a wicked monster, his opposite; and a pretty girl, who finds a champion. Bravery and virtue conquer beauty; and vice, after seeming to triumph through a certain number of pages, is sure to be discomfited in the last volume, when justice overtakes him, and honest folks come by their own. Thackeray.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Advertisements are sometimes very amusing. They give insights into the manners of the times no less interesting than authentic. Suppose the ancients had possessed a press, and that a volume of a Roman Post or Chronicle had been dug up at Herculaneum, with what curiosity should we not contemplate the millinery of the Roman ladies, or, Wanted, a Gladiator to fight the last new lion ;" or, "Next Ides of November will be published the new poem of 'Quintus Horatius Flaccus.'

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Leigh Hunt.

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