OF Prejudice it has been truly said, that it has the singular ability of accommodating itself to all the possible varieties of the human mind. Some passions and vices are but thinly scattered among mankind, and find only here and there a fitness of reception; but Prejudice, like the spider, makes every where its home. It has neither taste, nor choice of place, and all that it requires is room. There is scarcely

a situation, except fire and water, in which a spider will not live. So let the mind be as naked as the walls of an empty and forsaken tenement, gloomy as a dungeon, or ornamented with the richest abilities of thinking; let it be hot, cold, dark or light, lonely or inhabited, still Prejudice if undisturbed, will fill it with cobwebs, and live like the spider, where there seems nothing to live on. If the one prepares her food, by poisoning to her palate and her use, the other does the same; and as several of our passions are strongly characterized by the animal world, Prejudice may be denominated the spider of the mind.

ALL faiths are to their own believers just;
For none believe because they will, but must;
Faith is a force from which there's no defence,
Because the reason it does first convince;
And reason, conscience into fetters brings,
And conscience is without the power of Kings.

DRYDEN.

AFTER the most humble competence, outward circumstances have very little to do with human happiness; all depends on the discipline of the mind and feelings. A due estimate of things, according to their degrees of value, and a superiority to the vain parade of life, puts it in the power of almost every one, to enjoy as much satisfaction as the frail condition of our being will permit; and he who tasks his intellect to enforce these moral lessons, is the most useful of all teachers.

EGERTON BRYDGES.

THEY are not lost

Who leave their parents for the calm of Heaven.
I know well

That they who love their friends most tenderly
Still bear their loss the best. There is in love,
A consecrated power, that seems to wake
Only at the touch of death from its repose.
In the profoundest depths of thinking souls,
Superior to the outward signs of grief,

Sighing or tears,—when these have passed away,
It rises calm and beautiful, like the moon,
Saddening the solemn night, yet with that sadness
Mingling the breath of undisturbed peace.

TROUTH is the hiest thing that man may kepe.

CHAUCER.

WHAT man can turn the stream of Destiny ?
Or break the chain of strong necessity,

Which fast is tied to Jove's eternal seat.

SPENSER.

VANITY is a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs and chuck us over; but Pride is a fine horse, who will carry us over the ground, and enable us to distance our fellow travellers. How often have I read of people rising from nothing, and becoming great men! This was from talent, sure enough, but it was talent with Pride to force it onward, not talent with Vanity to check it.

MARRYATT.

BROTHER! know the world deceiveth!
Trust on him who safety giveth!

Fix not on the world thy trust,

She feeds us-but she turns to dust;
And the bare earth or kingly throne
Alike may serve to die upon !

FROM THE PERSIAN.

PIETY requires us to consider the deceased as sacred; justice calls upon us to spare those who are not in being; and good policy to prevent the perpetuity of hatred.

'Tis best sometimes your censure to restrain,
And charitably let the dull be vain.

POPE.

THIS place affords no news-no subjects of amusement for such fine men as you. Men of pleasure and wit in town understand not the language, nor taste the charms, of the inanimate world. My flatterers here are all mutes. The oaks, the beeches, and the chesnuts, contend which of them shall best please the lord of the manor. They cannot deceive; they will not lie. I in sincerity admire them, and have as many beauties round me to fill up all my hours of dangling, and no disgrace attends me from sixty-seven years of age.

Within doors we come a little nearer to real life, and admire upon the almost speaking canvas, all the airs and graces which the proudest of the town ladies can boast; with these I am satisfied, because they gratify me with all I want, and all I wish, and expect nothing in return, which I cannot give. If these, dear Charles, are any temptations, I heartily invite you to come and partake of them.

A LETTER FROM ROBERT EARL OF ORFORD TO
GENERAL CHURCHILL, WRITTEN IN 1743.

TRUE valour

Lies in the mind, the never yielding purpose,
Nor owns the blind award of giddy fortune.

THOMSON.

ALL men are better than their ebullitions of evil; but they are also worse than their outbursts of noble enthusiasm.

J. P. RICHTER.

MUT ABILITY.

THE flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow dies;

All that we wish to stay,

Tempts, and then flies.
What is this world's delight?
Lightning that mocks the sight,
Brief even as bright.

Virtue, how frail it is,

Friendship, too rare!

Love, how it sells poor bliss

For proud despair!

But we, though soon they fall,

Survive their joy, and all

That ours we call.

Whilst skies are blue and bright,

Whilst flowers are gay,

Whilst eyes that change ere night

Make glad the day;

Whilst yet the calm hours creep,

Dream thou-and from thy sleep

Then wake to weep.

BYSSHE SHELLEY.