THE FATE OF PLAGIARISTS.

There is a very pretty Eastern tale, of which the fate of plagiarists often reminds us. The slave of a magician saw his master wave his wand, and heard him give orders to the spirits who arose at the summons. The slave stole the wand, and waved it himself in the air; but he had not observed that his master used the left hand for that purpose. The spirits thus irregularly summoned, tore the thief to pieces instead of obeying his orders. Macaulay.

THE POWER OF MUSIC.

Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into time and tune. Such the extensiveness thereof, that it stoopeth so low as brute beasts, yet mounteth as high as angels. For horses will do more for a whistle than for a whip, and-by hearing their bells, jingle away their weariness. Thomas Fuller.

NOTHING.

He who takes hold of an eel by the tail, and a woman at her word, may say he holds nothing. Italian Proverb.

A NATURAL INFERENCE.

They who lengthen their nights shorten their days. Southey.

COUNSEL TO A YOUNG MAN.

Might I give counsel to any young hearer I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters; in books and life that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly-the great pleasure of life is that. Note what the great men admired; they admired great things: narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly. Thackeray.

PUNCH-MAKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL ASPECT. Among punch-drinkers, the necessity of a right manufacture of a most intricate kind calls forth habits of industry and forethought, induces a taste for chemical experiment, improves us in geometry and many other sciences, to say nothing of the geographical reflections drawn forth by the pressure of the lemon, or the colonial questions which press upon every meditative mind on the appearance of white sugar.

Maginn.

ELEMENTS OF MODERN HISTORY.

History, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy. It impresses general truths on the mind by a vivid representation of particular characters and incidents. But, in fact, the two hostile elements of which it consists have never been known to form a perfect amalgamation; and, at length, in our own time, they have been completely and professedly separated. Good histories, in the proper sense of the word, we have not. But we have good historical romances, and good historical essays. The imagination and the reason, if we may use a legal metaphor, have made partition of a province of literature of which they were formerly seized per my et per tout; and now they hold their respective portions in severalty, instead of holding the whole in Macaulay.

common.

HONESTY.

He who freely praises what he means to purchase, and he who enumerates the faults of what he has to sell, may set up a partnership with honesty. Lavater.

C

THE TRUE WORKMAN.

Every man can say B to a battledore, and write in praise of virtue and the seven liberal sciences, thrash corn out of full sheaves, and fetch water out of the Thames. But, out of dry stubble, to make an after-harvest, and a plentiful crop without sowing, and wring juice out of a flint, that is the right trick of a workman. Nash.

HOW TO TREAT AN AUTHOR.

Be very careful how you tell an author he is droll. Ten to one he will hate you; and if he does, be sure he can do you a mischief, and very probably will. Say you cried over his romance or his verses, and he will love you and send you a copy. You can laugh over that as much as you like—in private. Holmes.

THE TRUE PANTHEISM.

A full mind is the true Pantheism, plena Jovis. It is only in some corner of the brain which we leave empty that Vice can obtain a lodging. When she knocks at your door, be able to say, "No room for your ladyship,-pass on."

Bulwer.

GUNPOWDER.

Such I hold to be the genuine use of gunpowder that it makes all men alike tall. Nay, if thou be cooler, cleverer than I, if thou have more Mind though all but no Body whatever, then canst thou kill me first, and art the taller. Hereby at last is the Goliath powerless and the David resistless; savage Animalism is nothing, inventive Spiritualism is all. Carlyle.

WIT AND WISDOM.

Wit and wisdom differ; wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is bringing about ends.

TRUTH.

Selden.

Truth is a good dog; but beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out. Coleridge.

POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION.

Public opinion is the powerful lever which in these days moves a people for good or for evil, and to public opinion we must therefore appeal, if we would achieve any lasting and beneficial results. Prince Albert.