MISCELLANIES.

"And join both profit and delight in one." CREECH'S HORACE.

SCHOLAR.-The life that is devoted to knowledge passes silently away, and is very little diversified by events. To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of a scholar. He wanders about the world without pomp or terror, and is neither known nor valued but by men like himself.-Rasselas.

EPITAPH ON THE POET GAY,

In Westminster Abbey, 1732.

In manners gentle; of affections mild;
In wit a man; simplicity a child;

With native humour tempering virtuous rage,
Proud to delight at once and lash the age;

Above temptation in a low estate,
And uncorrupted e'en among the great;
A safe companion and an easy friend,
Unblam'd thro' life, lamented in thy end.
These are thy honours! Not that here thy bust
Is mix'd with heroes or with kings thy dust-
But that the worthy and the good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms, here lies Gay.

Pope.

WRITING.-Among all the productions and inventions of human wit, none is more admirable and useful than writing, by means whereof a man may copy out his very thoughts, utter his mind without

A

opening his mouth, and signify his pleasure at a thousand miles distance; and this by the help of twenty-four letters, by various joining and infinite combinations of which all. words that are attainable and imaginable may be framed; and the several ways of joining, altering and transposing these letters, do amount, (as Calvin the jesuit has taken pains to compute) to 52,636,738,497,664,000 ways, so that all things that are in heaven and earth may be expressed by the help of this wonderful alphabet, which may be comprised in the compass of a farthing. Palmer's Aphorisms.

How

MAN.-What a piece of work is man. noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God! the beauty of the world-the paragon of animals.

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder, he who made him such,
Who centred in our make such strange extremes
From diff'rent nature, marvellously mixt,
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds!
Distinguish'd link in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
Dim miniature of greatness absolute !
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
Helpless immortal! insect infinite!

A worm! a God!-Young's Night Thoughts.

What is man,

If his chief good, and market of his time.

Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Surely he that made us with such large discourse
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That expability, and God-like reason,
To rust in us unused.

DANGER.

The absent danger greater still appears;

Less fears he who is near the thing he fears.-Daniel.

There is no darkness like the cloud of mind.

Corsair.

Experience proves, that to indulge in what is fallacious, though it may please the imagination, vitiates the taste, indisposes the mind to a pursuit after truth, and impairs the judgment by giving it a false bias. Hence, it is observable, that those who are most inclined to that kind of entertainment, have generally but little relish for serious subjects, and least of all for the truths of religion.-Dillwyn.

SIR WILLIAM JONES.-Minute circumstances frequently tend to mark and develop character. As a further instance of this observation, the application of Sir William Jones to himself, of two lines of Milton in his own writing, under a card with his printed name, in addition to more substantial proof, may be quoted in evidence of his habitual frame of mind:

Not wand'ring poor, but trusting all his wealth

With God, who called him to a land unknown. On another scrap of paper, the following lines appear; they were written by him in India, but at what period is unknown, nor is it indeed of any consequence:

Sir Edward Coke says

Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer-the rest on nature fix.
Rather,

Six hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.

Memoirs of the Life of Sir Wm. Jones.

Daily Studies for the long vacation of 1758.
Morning-One Letter,

Ten chapters of the Bible,
Sanscrit Grammar,

Hindu Law, &c.

Afternoon-Indian Geography.
Evening-Roman History, &c.

Memoirs of the Life of Sir Wm. Jones:

AN EPITAPH.

My name-my country-what are they to thee?
What whether base or proud, my pedigree?
Perhaps I far surpass'd all other men-
Perhaps I fell below them all, what then?-
Suffice it stranger, that thou seest a tomb,-
Thou knowest its use-it hides-no matter whom.
Cowper.

ETERNITY. That the conception of eternity may be more distinct and affecting, it is useful to represent it under some temporal resemblances that sensibly, though not fully represent it. Suppose that the vast ocean were distilled drop by drop, but so slowly that a thousand years should pass between every drop, how many millions of years were required to empty it? Suppose this great world in its full compass from one pole to another, and from the top of the firmament to the bottom, were to be filled with the smallest sand, but so slowly that every thousand years only a single grain should be added, how many millions would pass away before it were filled? If the immense superficies of Heaven, wherein are innumerable stars, the least of which equals the magnitude of the earth, were filled with figures of numbers without the least vacant space, and every figure signified a million, what created mind could tell their numbers, much less their value? Having these thoughts I reply the sea will be emptied drop by drop, the universe filled grain by grain,