spirits elevate them to the regions of fancy. Our great poet had seen them

This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons pease;
And utters it again, when Jove doth please:
He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares

At wakes and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we, that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
Love's Labour Lost, act v. scene 2.

Modern Figure of Composition.

Nothing seems to have escaped the prying eye and satiric wit of the great bard of our island. The trick in composition, so great a favourite with Dr. Johnson, Gibbon, and other inferior imitators of these wide-mouthed orators, is well taken off in the following panegyric of the Curate, in the eloquence of Holofernes, the schoolmaster. Nathaniel-" I praise God for you, Sir: your reasons* at dinner have been sharp and sententions; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection,t audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy.§" This jingling antithetical mode of writing is now become so common, that it is hoped that the fashion will soon give room to something new, and at least as witty and elegant.

* Discourses. + Affectation.

Opiniativeness.

Love's Labour Lost, act v. scene 1.

Morals.

When any sect of religionists puts aside morals as no part of their religious system, it is high time for the magistrate to be upon his guard. The sect is now new, if we may credit these lines in Hudibras, whose author was no novice in these manners, and no dull observer of his times.

What makes morality a crime,
The most notorious of the time;
Morality, which both the saints,
And wicked too, cry out against ?
'Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of sin,

And therefore no true saint allows
They should be suffer'd to espouse;
For saints can need no conscience,
That with morality dispense;
As virtue's impious, when tis rooted
In nature only, and not imputed.
But why the wicked should do so
We neither know, nor care to do.

Hudibras, third part, canto 1.

Love of Novelty.

There is in some writer an ingenious reason assigned to this passion, viz. "our dislike of any thing old, because it reminds us of our decay, and final exit from the world." Upon this ground, perhaps, the recommendation of an ancient great

philosopher arose, of recommending the company of the young. Perhaps on this ground, also, is built the universal craving for newspapers and novels, merely because they are new.

Varieties of Disposition.

Some men are of such easy tempers, that they become ductile to every opinion and humour; and others are so perverse, that they accommodate themselves to none. The latter reminds us of a rusty weathercock, which is moveable by no wind but a storm; and the other is so much at the mercy of every opposite gale, that he is always in motion.

Association of Ideas.

This philosophical axiom accounts for many a thing which must otherwise seem a mere phenomenon. Mr. D, in the latter part of his life, furnished his house with tables, chairs, &c. of the most antique structure, I cannot say fashion; and he defended himself before his more genteel neighbours, by saying that he was fond of seeing the faces of his contemporaries. His wife, indeed, made some objection to the practice as well as the theory, till she had discovered a remarkably good looking-glass in a very old frame, in which not only her face but her figure was fully displayed.

Persuasion.

There is no more effectual way of using a superior understanding than the most gentle one. Persons of different opinions with you will oppose you with all their might, not because they differ with you essentially on the point, but because you endeavour to conquer them by force. There are many trees that will break, but not bend to the most furious tempests. Every man has his share of vanity, and whatever opinions he may advance, he will continue to support them against violent and arrogant opponents. The Bard to whom nature has discovered her secrets, has made "Falstaff" say, even to his prince,

Are very often. unjustly accused of avarice, because they live very much within their income; yet they are not called lazy, because they take less exercise than they did when younger; or too sparing of their lungs, when they speak less loudly than formerly. The fact is, old men are less expensive, because their sumptuary pleasures are lower, and their passions more sluggish in the pursuit of indulgencies. Young men, though often as penurious in disposition as old men, yet,

from their activity and passions, pursue more ardently their amusements, and they are of course more expensive; as the buyers are more numerous "at vanity fair" than the sellers.

National Schools.

This extensive mode of propagating literature among all ranks and degrees of persons may not be attended with those hopes of advantage that the promoters of it no doubt imagine. Plato relates, that when the Athenian people grew more fond of reading, and had more opportunities for it, they became orators and legislators, and every one wished to govern, and no one to be governed; or, in the short expressive words of the original, « Ηπαντων €15 παντα σοφίας δοξα και wagavoua."-Plato de Legibus, lib. 3.

Language often capable of misleading our
Conjectures.

It is roundly asserted by some theorists in the very difficult philosophy of language, that we may judge of the manners and disposition of natives by the terms in use among them. Two striking instances occur, which are hostile to this theory. Good-nature seems a phrase peculiar to the English nation, if not exclusive; and yet the English are