moderation becoming a great man. The United States, having obtained their independence, adopted each its own form" of government, retaining, however, almost universally, their admiration for the British constitution. Franklin now stepped forward as a* legislator, disengaged the political machine from multiplied movements, which rendered it too complicated, and reduced it to a simple principle—that of a single legislative body-thus forming the tiez which alone could give it strength and durability. Having given law to his country, Franklin again undertook to serve it in Europe, by negotiating treaties with several powers. From France he returned to America. During three years he was President of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania;a and his last act was a grand example for those who are employed in the legislation of their country. In the Convention that established the new form of the federal government, he had differed in some points from the majority of the members; but when the articles were ultimately decreed, he said to his colleagues: "We ought to have but oneh opinion; the good of our country requires that the resolution be unanimous ;" and he signed them.

155. Franklin died in the year 1790. As an author, his writings bear invariably the marks of his observing genius and mild philosophy. He wrote several short tracts for that rank of people who have no opportunity for study, and whom it is yet of so much consequence to1 instruct: he was well skilled in m reducing useful truths to maxims easily retained,。 and sometimes to proverbs or little tales, adorned with those simple natural graces which acquire a

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new value when associated with the name of their author. The whole life of Franklin, his meditations, and his labours, have all been directed tor public utility; but this grand object, which he had always in view, did not shuts his heart againstt private friendship: he loved his family and was beneficent. In society he listened more than he talked, and was somewhat impatient of interruption:" he often praised the custom of the Indians, who always remain silent▾ some time before they give an answer to a question, showing thereby much more sensey than the Europeans; for, in the politest societies in Europe, the shortest discourses are commonly interrupted by an over-eagerness to answer. Franklin died universally regretted. The epitaph inscribed on his tombstone,a and which was composed by himself, is worthy of him, and shows his fond belief in a life to come, when, as he expresses it in an ingenious simile: "He shall appear once more in a new and beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.”

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LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTER

DEAR BOY,

TO HIS SON.

BATH, Oct. 19th, 1748.

156. Having in my last letter pointed out what sort of company you should keep,d I will now give you some rules for your conduct in it; rules which my own experience and observation enable me to lay down, and communicate to you with some degree of confidence. I have often given you hints of this kind

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before, but then it has been by snatches;h I will now be more regular and methodical. I shall say nothing with regard to your bodily carriage and address, but leave them to the care of your dancing-master, and to your own attention to the best models: remember, however, that they arek of consequence.

Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treatm the whole company. Tell stories very seldom, and absolutely never but where they are very apt and very short. Omit every circumstance that is not material, and beware of digressions. To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays a great want of imagination. Never hold any body by the button, or the hand, in order to be heard out; for, if people are not willing tot hear you, you had much better hold your tongue than them.

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157. Very few people" are good economists of their fortune, and still fewer of their time; and yet, of the two, the latter is the most precious. I heartily wish you to be a good economist of both; and you are now of an age to begin to think seriously of these two important articles. Young peoples are apt to2 think they have so much time before them, that they may squander what they please of it, and yet have enough left; as very great fortunes have frequently seduced a people to a ruinous profusion. Fatal mistakes, always repented of, but always too late! Old Mr. Lowndes, the famous secretary of the Treasury in the reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George I., used to say: "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves."

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This holds equally true as to time; and I most earnestly recommend to you the care of those minutes and quarters of hours, in the coursef of the day, which people thinks too short to deserve their attention, and yet, if summed up at the end of the year, would amount to a very considerable portion of time.

158. Many people lose a great deal of their time by laziness; they loll and yawn in a great chair, tell themselves that they have not time to begin anything then, and that it will do as well another time. This is a most unfortunate disposition, and the greatest obstruction to1 knowledge and business. At your age you have no right to laziness. You are but just listed in the world, and must be active, diligent, indefatigable. If ever you propose" commanding with dignity, you must serve up to it* with diligence. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. Dispatch P is the soul of business; and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method. Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it invariably, as far asr unexpected incidents may allow. Fix one certain hour and day in the week for your accounts, and keep them together in their proper order;s by which means they will require very little time, and you can never be much cheated. Whatever letters and papers you keep, dockett and tie them up in their respective classes," so that you may instantly have recourse to any one.

ST. PETERSBURG.

ITS FOUNDATION.

159. St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, so called from having a been founded by Peter the Great, standsb upon the river Neva, near the Gulf of Finland; and is built partly on some islands in the mouth of that river, and partly upon the continent. The ground on which it now stands was, at the beginning of the last century, a morass occupied by a fewe fishermen's huts. Peter having wrested Ingria from ♦ thes Swedes, and having advanced the boundaries of his empire to the shores of the Baltic, determined to erect a fortress on an island at the mouth of the Neva, for protecting his conquests, and opening a new channel of commerce. This fortress was begun on the 16th of May, 1703; and within iti a few wooden habitations were erected. For his own residence, he ordered a hut to be raised in an adjacent island, which he called the island of St. Petersburg. This hut was low and small, and is still preserved in its originalm state, in memory of the sovereign who condescended to dwell in it.n

*

On * the 30th of May, 1706, Peter demolished the small citadel, and began the foundation of a new fortress on the same spot. In 1710, Count Golovkin built the first edifice of brick; and, in * the following year, Peter, with his own° hand, laid the foundation P of a house, to be erected of the same materials. From these beginnings rose the present" metropolis of Russia; and, in less thans nine years, the seat of empire was transferred from Moscow to Petersburg.

160. The houses int Petersburg are of brick, covered with" a white stucco, which gives them the