MAXIMS and REFLECTIONS, by the prefent King of Poland. To the Editor of the Univerfal Magazine. Sir, Every Thing is important which relates to a great Character, and I trust the Publication of the following Maxims and Reflections will not be unfeafonabiɛ at prefent, when I inform you that they were written by the (I know not whether to say, reigning or depofed, Stanislaus) King of Poland; a Man, whose Virtues entitle him to a better Fate, and whofe Misfortunes every feeling Mind muft deplore. Many of thefe Reflections are valuulle for their Slidity and good Senfe, and they are all fo from the goodness of heart, which is their Source. They ar not, indeed, always the Reflections of a profound Obferver, for he was but a young Man when they were written, but they are always the Sentiments of a Good Man. D. E. W no one, HEN truth offends it ought to pafs out of the mouth as naturally as the air we breathe. If, with the pains we endue here below we were immortal, we should be the most miferable of all beings. It is fweet and pleafing to hope that we shall not live always. It seems that all we do is but a rough draught, and that always fomething remains to be done to make the work complete. Power is not always proportionate to the will. One fhould be confulted before the other; but the generality of men begin by willing, and act afterward as they can. Affectation difcovers fooner what one is, than it makes known what one would fain appear to be. Lazineis is a premature death. To be in no action, is not to live. Great wants proceed from great wealth, and make riches almost equal to poverty. We feel death but once; he who fears death, dies every time he thinks of it. A mifer of fixty years old refufes himself neceffaries, that he may not want them when he is a hundred. Almost all of us make ourselves unhappy by too much forecast. Nature does not accustom us to fuffer from our infancy, but in order to teach us to fuffer. It is happy for human nature that there are defires, which cannot be fatisfied. Otherwife, the moit forry man would make himself master of the world. He that keeps his promife only to his own advantage, is icarce more bound than if he had prom fed no. thing. Every promife of interest vani hes as foon as the interest ceases. I efteem greatly the ignorance of a man, who believes and confentes his knowledge to be confined to what he knows. None are rah, when they are not feen by anybody. Man is only weak by the difproportion there is between what he can, and what he is willing to do. The only way he has to increafe his ftrength, is to retrench many of his detires. Interested benefits are fo common, that we need not be aitonifhed if ingratitude is fo rare. We only hate the wicked through intereft. If they did us no i jury we fhould look upon them with indifference. The people mot attached to life are almost always thofe, who know leatt how to enjoy it. ticim; too much philofophy to irreligion. The care we take not to fuffer, caufes more torment than we should find in fupporting what we fuffer. We meet with great difficulty in conquering pr.de by renfling it: how potent then mult it be, when flattered? As we cannot hinder young people from being inconfiderate, we fhould remember that they have but a fhort time to be fo. The gene ality of mifers are very good people; they do not ceafe to amafs wealth for others that with their death Life is enjoyed only by bits and fcraps: every nftant terminates its extent: when it exits, the paft is no more, and the inftant that follows is not yet. In this manner, we die without ever having been able to enjoy one inftant. The hypocrite who would fain imitate virtue, can only copy it in watercolours. It is having in fome measure a fort of wit, to know how to ute the wit of others. The indolence of the generality of the great, borders fomewhat upon a lethargic state. I doubt whether a wife and fenfible man would become young again, on the fame conditions he once was fo. The prejudices of youth pafs away with it. Thofe of ol age laft only, because there is no other age to be hoped for. The reafon why fome people fpeak fo much is, that they speak only by How many prodigals are there, who, by dying, pay only nature what they owe her! We mount to fortune by feveral fteps; but require only one step to come down. There are authors who take fo much pains with, and polish fo much their writings, that all they give to the public are nothing but mere dust and filings. The firit faults alarm innocence : thofe that follow ceafe to fright her. Happy that innocence which has not learned to fear, or has held to her first fears. I know no real worth but that tranquil firmnefs which fecks dangers by duty, and braves them without rashnefs. I pity lefs an ignorant perfon who knows nothing, than one who knows but indifferently what he has learned. It is much better to know thoroughly, than to know a great deal. The man of understanding reafons only according to what he has learned, but the man of genius according to himself. It does not fuit all perfons to be model; none but great men ought to be fo. The merit of great men is not underftood, but by thofe who are formed to be fuch themselves: genius speaks only to genius. Great men are in vain criticifed; their illuftrious qualities are fufficient to procure them revenge. Great fpeakers refemble thofe muficians, who, in their airs, prefer noife to harmony. We may recover out of the darknefs of ignorance, but never out of that of prefumption. We have known how to make the elements obfequious to our ingenuity, but we know not how to maller our paflions. True valour braves danger without neglecting refources. Two forts of men do not reßect, the terrified and the rash man. The true courage of the herp is to Though juftice is not fold, it cofts a great deal, and one mult be very rich to obtain it. We are in the wrong to confound taftes with paffions. Taftes are lefs quick, and país away; paffions are more impetuous and durable. Let us feek after our enemies in thofe with whom we live; others, with whom we have an acquaintance, do not think of doing us harm. To hurt with more certainty, we impute to thofe we do not love, either an excess of virtue, or faults that come nearest to the virtues that conftitute their merit. To fpeak evil of a woman's rivals is a fure way of praifing her. How many men are women in this refpect. Jealoufy would fain pass for an excefs of love; but it terrifies in faying that it loves. To be in a paffion is to punish onefelf, for the faults and impertinences of another. Death is always an affured afylum against the labours and troubles of this world. A pilot, fure of entering the port, is in no dread of tempefts. I would be glad to know why the oddeft taftes are always attended with the quickeft fenfations? After death, there remains no regret for life. The most melancholy of deaths is that of youths, which is for a long time regretted. We live too little for the long time we are to remain dead. The word of God proves the truth of religion; the corruption of man its neceffity; government its advantages. Nothing but religion is capable of changing pains into pleatures. We must not be allonished that we have fo ftrong an inclination to idlenefs; it is the natural ftate of man, labour being a punishment to him. In order to be applauded for what we do, we must not too much applaud ourselves. Long ailments wear 'out pain; and long hopes, joy. Thofe that ought to be fecure from calumny, are generally thofe that avoid it least. An ACCOUNT of the ERUPTION of Mount VESUVIUS, in June and N Wednesday June 18, the wind having for a very fhort fpace of time cleared away the thick cloud from the top of Veluvius, we discovered that a great part of its crater, particularly on the wet fide oppofite Naples, had fallen in, which it probably did about four o'clock in the morning of this day, as a violent fhock of an earthquake was felt at that moment at Refina, and other parts fituate at the foot of the volcano. I he clouds of fmoke, mixed with the afbes which, as I have before remarked, This is a view of the enormous cloud of finoke and ashes, replete with ferilli, or volcanic lightning, that firit threatened deftruction to the town of Naples on the 18th of June; and afterward, from the impulfe of the fea wind, bent over the mountain of Somma, and poured its deftru&ive contents on the towns fituate at the foot of that mountain, beating in the roofs of the houfes, and involving all the inhabitants of the Campagna Felice in darknels and danger. This view was taken from Naples, and gives a very good idea of the appearance of Mount Vefuvius, like a molchill, in cornparifon of the enormous mals that hung over it.-The black lines fhow the form of the top of Vesuvius as it was before this eruption, and when the crater was only the width of the upper line. On the fide of the mountain is reprefented the spot from whence the lava firft affued on the 15th of June, with its courfe to Torre del Greco and the fea, B b |