7. 8 Was that a laugh? — Ay, 't was a fiend that laughed Offended Heaven! have mercy! I will give In alms all this vile rubbish, aid me thou In this most dreadful strait! I'll build a church- Heaven knows the miser's heart too well to trust him! Heaven's cause on earth, in human hearts and homes? But must I die here — in my own trap caught? Die die? and then! Thou who canst save O! mercy! Grant me timegrant me a little time, And I'll redeem the past- - undo the evil Nor man nor God will heed my shrieks! All's lost! Osborne. CXXIII. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 1. Ir thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it. Better say nothing than not to the purpose. And, to speak pertinently, consider both what is fit and when it is fit to speak. In all debates, let truth be thy aim; not victory, or an unjust interest; and endeavor to gain rather than to expose thy antagonist. WILLIAM PENN. 2. " Sleep is so like death," says Sir Thomas Browne, “that I dare not trust myself to it without prayer." And their resemblance is, indeed, striking and appar'ent. They both, when they seize the body, leave the soul at liberty; and wise is he that remembers of both, that they can be made safe and happy only by virtue. SIR W. TEMPLE. 3. When a king asked Euclid, the mathematician, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner, he was answered that there was no royal way to geometry. Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement. DR. JOHNSON. 4. Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil, and a scarred or crooked oak will tell of the act for centuries to come. So it is with the teachings of youth, which make impressions on the mind and heart that are to last forever. ANON.EL 5. Thought engenders thought. Place one idea upon paper, another will follow it, and still another, until you have written a page. You cannot fathom your mind. There is a well of thought there that has no bottom. The more you draw from it, the more clear and abounding will it be. Learn to think, and you will learn to write; the more you think, the better you will express your ideas. ANON. 6. Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of. Spend it in nothing on which you might not pray for the blessing of God. Spend it in nothing which you could not review with a quiet conscience on your dying bed. Spend it in nothing which you might not safely and properly be found doing if death should surprise you in the act. BAXTER. ΕΙ 7. Truth is to be sought only by slow and painful progress. Error is in its nature flippant and compendious; it hops with airy and fastidious levity over proofs and arguments, and perches upon assertion, which it calls conclusion. — CURRAN. -- 8. Accuracy of perception, and truthfulness in all the details' of statement, should be included as among the most valuable elements of education and character. Dr. Johnson is reported to have said, "If the child says he looked out of this window when he looked out of that, whip him." And many a grown-up person might be better if he were whipped until this kind of falsehood was beaten out of him, ANON. 9. It is not by books alone, or chiefly, that one becomes in all points a man. Study to do faithfully every duty that comes in your way. Stand to your post; silently devour the chagrins of life; love justice; control self; swerve not from truth or right; be a man of rectitude, decision, conscientiousness; one that fears and obeys God, and exercises benevolence to all; and in all this you shall CARLYLE. possess true manliness. 10. I tell you honestly what I think is the cause of the complicated maladies of the human race; it is the gormandizing and stuffing, and stimulating their digestive organs to an excess, thereby producing nervous disorders and irritations. The state of their minds is another grand cause; the fidgeting and discontenting yourselves about what cannot be helped; passions of all kinds. Malignant passions pressing upon the mind disturb the cerebral action, and do much harm. - DR. ABERNETHY. 11. Physic, for the most part, is nothing else but an attempted substitute for exercise or temperance. Nothing, says Hufeland, can supply the place of exercise in the open air. Without it, the body very soon evidently grows languid, the cir culation is impeded, the general nervous energy impaired, the digestive functions ener'vated and disordered, and the body becomes a prey to some chronic disorder. -- DR. BRigham. 12. By the mis'anthrope mankind are described as knaves and fools a set of beings deserving nothing but hatred and contempt. He always excepts himself. All but I are wretches this is the form'ula of his belief. Truly it would be a strange chance which should have made all bad but he. To one who said, "I do not believe there is an honest man in the world," another replied, "It is impossible that any one man should know all the world, but quite possible that one may know himself." CHAMBERS. 13. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is, not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 14. A clergyman was once accosted by a doctor, a professed unbeliever in religion, who asked him if he followed preaching to save souls. "Yes."—"If he ever saw a soul?" "No.". "If he ever "No." "If he ever heard a soul?" tasted a soul?" "No." "If he "No." "If he ever felt a soul?" the doctor, "there are four of the five senses against one upon the question whether there be a soul." 15. The clergyman then asked if he were a doctor of medicine. 66 Yes."- "If he ever saw a pain?". "No."- · If - he ever heard a pain?" "No." "If he ever tasted a pain?". No."-") 66 '—“ If he ever smelt a pain?”—“ No.”· "If gyman," there are also four senses against one upon the question whether there be a pain; and yet, sir, you know that there is a pain, and I know that there is a soul."— ANON. EI CXXIV.- LOKMAN. 1. LOKMAN, surnamed the Wise, lived in very early times, probably in the days of King David and King Solomon, and his name is still famous in the East as the inventor of many fables and parables, and various stories are told of his wisdom. It was said that he was a native of Ethiopia, and either a tailor, a carpenter, or a shepherd; and that afterwards he was a slave in various countries, and was at last sold among the Israelites. 2. One day, as he was seated in the midst of a company who were all listening to him with great respect and attention, a Jew of high rank, looking earnestly at him, asked him whether he was not the same man whom he had seen keeping the sheep of one of his neighbors. Lokman said he was. "And how," said the other, "did you, a poor slave, come to be so famous as a wise man?" 3. "By exactly observing these rules," replied Lokman: "Always speak the truth without disguise, strictly keep your promises, and do not meddle with what does not concern you." Another time, he said that he had learned his wisdom from the blind, who will believe nothing, but what they hold in their hands meaning that he always examined things, and took great pains to find out the truth. 4. Being once sent, with some other slaves, to fetch fruit, his companions ate a great deal of it, and then said it was he who had eaten it; on which he drank warm water to make himself sick and thus proved that he had no fruit in his stomach; and the other slaves, being obliged to do the same, were found out. . 5. Another story of him is, that his master having given him a kind of melon, called the coloquin'tida, which is one of the bitterest things in the world, Lokman immediately ate it al! up without making faces, or showing the least dislike. His master, quite surprised, said, "How was it possible for you to swallow so nauseous a fruit?" Lokman replied, "I have received so many sweets from you, that it is not wonderful that I should have swallowed the only bitter fruit you ever gave me." His master was so much struck by this generous and grateful answer, that he immediately rewarded him by giving him his liberty.* 6. At this day, "to teach Lokman" is a common saying in the East, to express a thing impossible. It is said, too, that he was as good as he was wise; and, indeed, it is the chief part of wisdom to be good. He was particularly remarkable for his love to God, and his reverence of His holy name. He is reported to have lived to a good old age; and, many centuries after, a tomb in the little town of Ramlah, not far from Jerusalem, was pointed out as Lokman's. AIKIN. The German army of liberators, on their return from France, are said to have burst into a national chant of welcome to the Rhine, on coming in sight of that celebrated river. The chorus of this song is well adapted for the purpose of simultaneous reading on the part of a class. SINGLE VOICE. It is the Rhine! our mountain vineyards laving, I see the bright flood shine! Sing on the march, with every banner waving - See a poem founded on this incident, page 182. |