for he was thus deprived of a great means of cheering the barbarians, who then particularly required consolation. It happened that some men, who were rambling about at night for other purposes, fell in with the deer and caught it, for they knew it by the colour. Sertorius hearing of this, promised to give them a large sum of money if they would mention it to nobody; and, concealing the deer for several days, he came forward with a joyful countenance to the tribunal, and told the barbarian chiefs that the deity prognosticated to him in his sleep some great good fortune. He then ascended the tribunal, and transacted business with those who applied to him. The deer being let loose by those who had charge of it close by, and, seeing Sertorius, bounded joyfully up to the tribunal, and, standing by him, placed its head on his knees, and touched his right hand with its mouth, having been accustomed to do this before. Sertorius cordially returned the caresses of the animal, and even shed The spectators were at first surprised; then clapping their hands and shouting they conducted Sertorius to his residence, considering him to be a man superior to other mortals and beloved by the Gods; and they were full of good hopes. LONG'S PLUTARCH

tears.

If then thou

164. HOW TO PROCURE CONTENTEDNESS. fallest from thy employment in public, take sanctuary in an honest retirement, being indifferent to thy gain abroad or thy safety at home. If thou art out of favour with thy prince, secure the favour of the King of kings, and then there is no harm come to thee. And when Zeno Citiensis lost all his goods in a storm, he retired to the studies of philosophy, to his short cloak, and a severe life, and gave thanks to fortune for his prosperous mischance. When the northwind blows hard and it rains sadly, none but fools sit down in it and cry, wise people defend themselves against it with a warm garment or a good fire and a dry roof. When a storm of a sad mischance beats upon our spirits, turn it into some advantage by observing where it can serve another end, either of religion or prudence, or more safety or less envy: it will turn into something that is good, if we list to make it so. JEREMY TAYLOR

165. PUNISHMENT BY EX POST FACTO LEGISLATION. My lords, where hath this fire lain all this while, so many hundred years together, that no smoke should appear 'till

it burst out now to consume me and my children? hard it is and extreme hard, in my opinion, that a punishment should precede the promulgation of a law, that I should be punished by a law subsequent to the act done; I most humbly beseech your lordships, take that into consideration ; for, certainly it were better a great deal to live under no law but the will of man, and to conform ourselves in human wisdom as well as we could, and to comply with that will, than to live under the protection of a law, as we think, and then a law should be made to punish us for a crime precedent to the law; then I conceive no man living could be safe, if that should be admitted.

I can

166. VIRTUE REQUIRES TRIAL AND EXERCISE. not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial; and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that Vice promises to her followers and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure; her whiteness is but an excremental whiteness; which was the reason why our sage and serious poet Spenser-whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas-describing true temperance under the person of Guyon, brings him in with his Palmer through the cave of Mammon and the Bower of earthly Bliss, that he might see and know and yet abstain.

J. MILTON

167. VISIT TO THE RUINS OF THE HOUSE OF CORNELIA. On the promontory of Misenus is yet standing the mansion of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi; and, whether from the reverence of her virtues and exalted name, or that the gods preserve it as a monument of womanhood, its exterior is yet unchanged. Here she resided many years, and never would be induced to revisit Rome after the murder of her younger son. She cultivated a variety of flowers, and naturalised several plants, and brought together trees from vale and mountain, trees unproductive of fruit but affording her in their superintendence and management a tranquil and expectant pleasure. We read that the Babylonians and

Persians were formerly much addicted to similar places of recreation. I have no knowledge in these matters; and the first time I went thither I asked many questions of the gardener's boy, a child about nine years old. He thought me still more ignorant than I was, and said among other such remarks, "I do not know what they call this plant at Rome, or whether they have it there; but it is among the commonest here, beautiful as it is, and we call it cytisus." "Thank you, child!" said I smiling; and pointing towards two cypresses, "pray what do you call those high and gloomy trees, at the extremity of the avenue, just above the precipice?" "Others, like them,” replied he, “are called cypresses; but these, I know not why, have always been called Tiberius and Caius."

168. INSTANCES OF IMPIETY. The Cynic philosopher Diogenes used to say of Harpalus, a freebooter of great repute in those days for lucky enterprises, that a life of such long-continued good fortune as his was a standing witness against the being of gods.

Another instance of impiety is that of the tyrant Dionysius, who, after pillaging a shrine sacred to Proserpine at Locri on his voyage to Syracuse, was scudding along with a very fair breeze, when he begged his friends to mark what a fine sail the gods were pleased to grant to persons guilty of sacrilege. On another occasion he landed on the Peloponnese, and coming to a temple of Jupiter Olympius he pulled off the shoulders of the statue a short but heavy cloak of gold in which the tyrant Gelo had dressed it as an offering out of his Carthaginian spoils: whereupon he was not even afraid to vent his wit; for a gold cape, he said, was heavy in summer and cold in winter; and he therefore threw a woollen mantle over it, because that would do for any time of year. At Epidaurus he ordered the gold beard of an Esculapius to be taken off, because it was not at all proper that the son should have a beard when his father Apollo was not allowed one in any temple. The next thing we hear of him is that he ordered the silver slabs in all the temples he visited to be carried off; and as according to the ancient Greek custom there was generally an inscription assigning them to the Good Deities, he would say that he desired nothing more than to avail himself of their goodness: nor did he ever scruple to take away the little gold images of

Victory which were usually supported by statues with hands outstretched, saying that, so far from taking anything away from them, he only received what they offered; for it was folly to pray to them for blessings, and then not like to take those which they actually held out their hands to give us. The articles which he so sacrilegiously took from the temples of the gods he sold in the market-place by public auction; then after extorting the money, he issued a notice commanding all who had any sacred treasures in their possession to restore them by a certain day to their proper shrines, thereby crowning acts of the grossest impiety towards the gods with a most wanton outrage against his fellow-creatures.

169. THE BATTLE OF EDGEHILL, A. D. 1642. In this doubt of all sides, the night, the common friend to wearied and dismayed armies, parted them; and then the king caused his cannon, which were nearest the enemy, to be drawn off, and with his whole forces himself spent the night in the field, by such a fire as could be made of the little wood, and bushes which grew thereabouts, unresolved what to do the next morning, many reporting, 'that the enemy was gone': but when the day appeared, the contrary was discovered: for then they were seen standing in the posture and place in which they fought, from whence their general, wisely, never suffered them to stir all that night: presuming reasonably, that if they were drawn off never so little from that place, their numbers would lessen, and that many would run away: and therefore he caused all manner of provisions, with which the country supplied him plentifully, to be brought thither to them for their repast, and reposed himself with them in the place: besides, that night he received a great addition of strength, not only by rallying those horse and foot, which had run out of the field of battle, but by the arrival of two thousand fresh foot, (which were reckoned among the best of the army,) and five hundred horse, which marched a day behind the army for the guard of their ammunition, and a great part of their train, not supposing there would have been any action that would have required their presence. All the advantage this seasonable recruit brought them was to give their old men so much courage as to keep the field, which it was otherwise believed they would hardly have been persuaded to have done. LORD CLARENDON

170. EFFECTS OF EDUCATION UPON CHARACTER. It is certain that a serious attention to the sciences and liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those fine emotions in which true virtue and honour consists. It rarely, very rarely, happens that a man of taste and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whatever frailties may attend him. The bent of his mind to speculative studies must mortify in him the passions of interest and ambition, and must, at the same time, give him a greater sensibility of all the decencies and duties of life. He feels more fully a moral distinction in characters and manners, nor is his sense of this kind diminished, but, on the contrary, it is much increased by his speculations. Besides such insensible changes upon the temper and disposition, 'tis highly probable that others may be produced by study and application. The prodigious effects of education may convince us, that the mind is not altogether stubborn and inflexible, but will admit of many alterations from its original make and structure. Let a man propose to himself the model of a character, which he approves of: let him be well acquainted with those particulars in which his own character deviates from this model: let him keep a constant watch over himself, and bend his mind by a continual effort from the vices towards the virtues ; and I doubt not but in time he will find in his temper an alteration for the better. Habit is another powerful means of reforming the mind, and implanting in it good dispositions and inclinations. A man who continues in a course of sobriety and temperance will hate riot and disorder: if he engage in business or study, indolence will seem a punishment to him: if he constrain himself to practise beneficence and affability, he will soon abhor all instances of pride and violence. Where one is thoroughly convinced that the virtuous course of life is preferable; if he has but resolution enough for some time to enforce a violence on himself, his reformation needs not be despaired of.

D. HUME

171 RECEPTION OF THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR AT THE COURT OF THE EMPEROR OF MOSCOVIA A. D. 1583. Having given the embassador his hand to kiss, and inquired of the queen's health, he willed him to go sit in the place provided for him, nigh ten paces distant; from thence to send him the queen's letters and present. Which the embassador thinking not reasonable stepped forward; but the chancellor