and opinions in succeeding ages. So that, if the invention of the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which as ships pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other! MEMORY AND THE MUSES. Francis Bacon. Time and education beget experience; experience begets memory; memory begets judgment and fancy; judgment begets the strength and structure, and fancy begets the ornaments, of a poem. The ancients therefore fabled not absurdly in making Memory the mother of the Muses. For memory is the world, though not really, yet so as in a looking glass, in which the judgment, the severer sister, busieth herself in a grave and rigid examination of all the parts of Nature, and in registering by letters their order, causes, uses, differences and resemblances; whereby the fancy, when any work of art is to be performed, finds her materials at hand and prepared for use, and needs no more than a swift motion over them, that what she wants, and is there to be had, may not lie too long unespied. That which giveth a poem the true and natural color consisteth in two things, which are, to know well, that is, to have images of Nature in the memory distinct and clear, and to know much. A sign of the first is perspicuity, propriety and decency, which delights all sorts of men, either by instructing the ignorant or soothing the learned in their knowledge. A sign of the latter is novelty of expression, and pleaseth by excitation of the mind, for novelty causeth admiration, and admiration curiosity, which is a delightful appetite of knowledge. REFLECTIONS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Thomas Hobbes. For myself, if things go badly in London, the magic wand of the Unknown will be shivered in his grasp. He must then, faith, be termed the Too well known. The feast of fancy will be over with the feeling of independence. It is a bitter thought; but, if tears start at it, let them flow. My heart clings to the place I have created. There is scarce a tree on it that does not owe its being to me. What a life mine has been!-half educated, almost wholly neglected, or left to myself. Nobody in the end can lose a penny by me—that is one comfort. Men will think pride has had a fall. Let them indulge their own pride in thinking that my fall will make them higher, or seem so at least. I have the satisfaction to recollect that my prosperity has been of advantage to many, and to hope that some at least will forgive my transient wealth on account of the innocence of my intentions, and my real wish to do good to the poor. Sad hearts, too, at Darnick, and in the cottages of Abbotsford. I have half resolved never to see the place again. How could I tread my hall with such a diminished crest? How live a poor indebted man, where I was once the wealthy-the honored? I was to have gone there on Saturday in joy and prosperity to receive my friends. My dogs will wait for me in vain. It is foolish-but the thoughts of parting from these dumb creatures have moved me more than any of the painful reflections I have put down. Poor things, I must get them kind masters! There may be yet those who, loving me, may love my dog, because it has been mine. I must end these gloomy forebodings, or I shall lose the tone of mind with which men should meet distress. I feel my dogs' feet on my knees. I hear them whining and seeking me everywhere. This is nonsense, but it is what they would do could they know how things may be. OF STUDIES. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business: for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one, but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others, but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man, and therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit, and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Francis Bacon. THE LORD HELPETH MAN AND BEAST.. 66 During his march to conquer the world, Alexander, the Macedonian, came to a people in Africa who dwelt in a remote and secluded corner in peaceful huts, and knew neither war nor conqueror. They led him to the hut of their chief, who received him hospitably, and placed before him dates, figs, and bread. At the close of their conversation two citizens en tered as into their court of justice. The plaintiff said, I bought of this man a piece of land, and, as I was making a deep drain through it, I found a treasure. This is not mine, for I bargained only for the land, and not for any treasure that might be concealed beneath it, and yet the former owner of the land will not receive it." The defendant answered, “I hope I have a conscience as well as my fellow citizen. I sold him the land with all its contingent as well as existing advantages, and consequently the treasure inclusively." The chief, who was at the same time their supreme judge, recapitulated their words, in order that the parties might see whether or no he understood them aright; then, after some reflection, said, "Thou hast a son, friend, I believe?" "Yes!" "And thou, addressing the other, "a daughter?" "Yes!" "Well then, let them be married, and bestow the treasure on the young couple for their marriage portion." Alexander seemed surprised and perplexed. "Think you my sentence unjust ?'' the chief asked him. “O, no,” replied Alexander, “but it astonishes me.” "And how, then," rejoined the chief, "would the case have been decided in your country?" confess the truth," said Alexander, "we should have taken both parties into custody, and have seized the treasure for the king's use." "For the king's use!" exclaimed the chief, "To 66 greatly astonished. "Does the sun shine on that country ?” “O, yes!""Does it rain there ?" "Assuredly.' ""Wonderful! but are there tame animals in the country that live on the grass and green herbs?” “Very many, and of many kinds." 'Ay, that must be the cause," said the chief, "for the sake of those innocent animals, the All-gracious Being continues to let the sun shine and the rain drop down on your country." Coleridge. SENSUAL DELIGHTS LOWEST. In the scale of pleasure, the lowest are the sensual delights, which are succeeded by the more enlarged views and gay portraitures of a lively imagination, and these give way to the sublimer pleasures of reason, which discover the causes and designs, the frame, connection and symmetry of things, and fill the mind with the contemplation of intellectual beauty, order and truth. Hence I regard our schools and universities not only as nurseries of men for the service of Church and State, but also as places designed to teach mankind the most refined luxury, to raise the mind to its due perfection, and give it a taste for those entertainments which afford the highest transport, with · out the grossness or remorse that attend vulgar enjoyments. LIFE BEFORE THE FLOOD. I have wondered in former days at the patience of the antediluvian world, that they could endure a life almost millenary, with so little variety as seems to have fallen to their share. It is probable that they had much fewer employments than we. Their affairs lay in a narrower compass; their libraries were indifferently furnished; philosophical researches were carried on with much less industry and acuteness of penetration, and fiddles, perhaps, were not even invented. How could these seven or eight hundred years of life be supportable? I have asked this question formerly and been at a loss to resolve it, but I think I can answer it now. I will suppose myself born a thousand years before Noah was born or thought of. I rise with the sun; I worship; I prepare my breakfast; I swallow a bucket of goat's milk, and a dozen good-sizeable cakes. I fasten a new string to my bow, and my youngest boy, a lad of about thirty years of age, having played with my arrows till he has stript off all the feathers, I find myself obliged to repair them. The morning is thus spent in preparing for the chase, and it is become necessary that I should dine. I dig up my roots; I wash them; I boil them; I find them not done enough, I boil them again; my wife is angry; we dispute; we settle the point; but in the mean time the fire goes out, and must be kindled again. All this is very amusing. I hunt; I bring home the prey; with the skin of it I mend an old coat, or I make a new one. By this time the day is far spent; I feel myself fatigued, and retire to rest. Thus, what with tilling the ground and eating the fruit of it, hunting, and walking, and running, and mending old clothes, and sleeping and rising again, I can suppose an inhabitant of the primeval world so much occupied as to sigh over the shortness of life, and to find, at the end of many centuries, that they had all slipped through his fingers, and were passed away like a shadow. William Cowper. 118.-THE CHARMER. MRS. H. B. STOWE. Socrates. However, you and Simmias appear to me as if you wished to sift this subject more thoroughly, and to be afraid, like children, lest, on the soul's departure from the body, winds should blow it away. ** ** Per Upon this Cebes said, "Endeavor to teach us better, Socrates. haps there is a childish spirit in our breast, that has such a dread. Let us endeavor to persuade him not to be afraid of death, as of hobgoblins." "But you must charm him every day," said Socrates, "until you have quieted his fears." "But whence, O Socrates," he said, "can we procure a skillful charmer for such a case, now you are about to leave us?" "Greece is wide, Cebes," he replied; "and in it surely there are skillful men, and there are also many barbarous nations, all of which you should search, seeking such a charmer, sparing neither money nor toil, as there is nothing on which you can more reasonably spend your money."-Plato. "We need that Charmer, for our hearts are sore "What is this life? and what to us is death? Whence came we? whither go? and where are those "Are they all dust? and dust must we become? And live anew beyond the waves of time? |