imagination, is like the sea when the sun shines upon it and turns it into an ocean of light.

9. Illustrations are peculiarly beautiful, where they are fetched from something near akin to the subject which they are employed to adorn: as e.g. Sprat's observations on the age of learning among the Arabians-" Methinks that small spot of civil ❝arts, compared to their long course of ignorance "before and after, bears some resemblance with "the country itself; where there are some few "little vallies, and wells, and pleasant shades of " palm trees; but those lying in the midst of deserts " and unpassable tracts of sand." 'Hist. of Roy. Soc. p. 45.

10. Zeuxis, the famous painter, before he sat down to a picture, used to animate his fancy by reading some passage in Homer relative to his subject.-A good hint to those who are about to compose in prose and verse.

11. Every man has a certain manner and character in writing and speaking, which he spoils and loses by a too close and servile imitation of another; as Bishop Felton, an imitator of Bishop Andrews, observed-" I had almost marred my own natural '" trot, by endeavouring to imitate his artificial "amble."-Wanley, 647.

12. It was a rule with Archbishop Williams, to give himself some recreation before he sat down to compose, and that in proportion to the importance of the composition.—See his life in Lloyd's Worthies, p. 379.-Dr. H. More, after finishing one of his most laborious and painful works, exclaimed-" Now, "for these three months, I will neither think a "wise thought, nor speak a wise word, nor do an ill "thing."-Life in the Biog. Dict.

13. In an oration, one would wish that the whole should be well composed, and suitable to the dignity of the subject. But let the progress to what is great and brilliant be gentle and gradual. Such is the rule and method of Nature in all her works. At the first dawning of the brightest day that ever shone, light and darkness were scarcely distinguishable. Lawson, 380.

14. In compositions, young writers produce the most, but old ones the best, as Lord Bacon observes of grapes." The vine beareth more grapes

when it is young; but grapes that make better "wine when it is old; for that the juice is better " concocted."

15. Style should resemble the atmosphere of Italy, which " embellishes all objects by shewing "them with clearness; for which reason, its gulfs, "its woods, its cascades, and its meads, have a

grace unknown beneath other skies." M.Sherlock's Letters, p. 21.

16. The author of Hudibras had a commonplace-book, in which he had reposited, not such events or precepts as are gathered by reading; but such remarks, similitudes, allusions, assemblages, or inferences, as occasion prompted, or meditation produced; those thoughts that were generated in his own mind, and might be usefully applied to some future purpose. Such is the labour of those who write for inmortality. Johnson, 1. 288.

17. Augustus loved correctness and accuracy in all his compositions, and never delivered his mind on any serious matter, even in his own family, without memorials or written notes. Ferguson, Rom. Hist.-A method practised and recommended by Bolingbroke and Chesterfield, to attain a habit of correctness in speaking.-So Bishop Atterbury of writing, "Let nothing, though of a trifling nature, "pass through your pen negligently." Letters, 1.

118.

CONSCIENCE.

1. A MAN reproached with a crime of which he knows himself to be innocent, should feel no more

uneasiness than if he was said to be ill when he felt himself in perfect health.

2. When Cleomenes was on the point of taking a bribe from Aristagoras, his virtue was preserved by his daughter, a child of nine years old, who exclaimed, "Fly, father, or this stranger will corrupt you."-Conscience would often perform this office for us, if we would attend to its admonitions.

66

3. The same power (conscience) should do for us, respecting our passions and appetites, what an attendant was ordered every day at dinner to do for Darius, after the burning of Sardis, respecting his enemies-cry out, Remember the Athenians.

CONTENTMENT.

1. WHEN Christ bade us limit our cares to the day that is passing over us, he consulted our natural quiet no less than our spiritual welfare; since the chief sources of most men's uneasiness are chagrin at what is past, and forebodings of what is to come. Whereas, "what is past ought to give us

no uneasiness, except that of repentance for our "faults; and what is to come ought much less to "affect us, because, with regard to us and our

concerns, it is not, and perhaps never will be."

2. Plutarch, speaking of that inviolable friendship which subsisted between Pelopidas and Epaminondas, says, "The true and only cause of this "excellent conduct was their virtue, which kept ❝them, in all their actions, from aiming at wealth "and glory, which fatal contentions are always at"tended with envy; but being both equally in "flamed with a divine ardour to make their coun"try prosperous and happy by their administra❝tion, they looked upon each other's success as "their own."

3. In general, as he observes, among the Gre cians, the personal enmity borne by great men of the same city to each other, exceeded that which they bore to the enemies of their country. The same passions have operated in the same manner, among Christians; of which we have a remarkable instance at the siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II. when such was the animosity subsisting between the Greeks and Latins, within the city, that one of the former declared, he had rather see a Turk's turban in Constantinople than a Cardinal's cap.

4. When old Dioclesian was called from his retreat, and invited to resume the purple, which he had laid down some years before, "Ah! (said he)