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The poor inhabitant below

Was quick to learn and wise to know,
And keenly felt the friendly glow,

And softer flame,

But thoughtless follies laid him low,

And stain'd his name!

Reader, attend-whether thy soul
Soars fancy's flights beyond the pole,
Or darkling grubs this earthly hole,

In low pursuit;

Know, prudent, cautious, self-control

Is wisdom's root.

TESTIMONY is like an arrow shot from a long bow; the force of it depends on the strength of the hand that draws it. Argument is like an arrow from a cross bow, which has equal force though shot by a child.

BACON.

НОРЕ,

Though 'tis pale sorrow's only cordial,
Has yet a dull and opiate quality,
Enfeebling what it lulls.

MASON.

PHILOSOPHICAL happiness is to want little, and to enjoy much. Civil or vulgar happiness is to want much, and to enjoy little.

THERE is a manifest marked distinction, which ill men, with ill designs, or weak men, incapable of any design, will constantly be confounding, that is, a marked distinction between Change and Reformation. The former alters the substance of the objects themselves, and gets rid of all their essential good, as well as of all the accidental evil annexed to them. Change is novelty; and whether it is to operate any one of the effects of reformation at all, or whether it may not contradict the very principle upon which reformation is desired, cannot be certainly known beforehand. Reform is, not a change in the substance, or in the primary modification of the object, but a direct application of a remedy to the grievance complained of. So far as that is removed, all is sure. It stops there; and if it fails, the substance which underwent the operation, at the very worst, is but where it was. To innovate is not to reform.

BURKE.

ON THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

WHEN was there contract better sealed by fate,
Or celebrated with more truth of state?
The world the Temple was, the priest a King,
The spoused pair two Realms-the Sea the ring.

BEN JONSON.

ETERNAL Hope! when yonder spheres sublime
Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time,
Thy joyous youth began, but not to fade ;--
When all the sister planets are decay'd,

When, wrapp'd in fire, the realms of ether glow,
And Heav'n's last thunder shakes the world below,
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile.

CAMPBELL.

To forget all benefits, and to conceal the remembrance of all injuries, are maxims by which political men lose their honour, but make their fortunes.

BISHOP WATSON.

Or Time! no, that's a period too confined
To fill th' unbounded mind,

Which o'er the barrier leaps of added years,
Of ages, eras, and revolving spheres,
And leaves the flight of numbers still behind.
When the loud clarion's dreadful roll
Shall rend the globe from pole to pole;
When worlds and systems sink in fire,
And Nature, Time, and Death expire;
In the bright records of the sky

Shall Virtue see her honours shine;

Shall see them blazing round the sacred shrine

Of bless'd Eternity.

HANNAH MORE.

BEHOLD this ruin-'tis a skull
Once of ethereal spirit full,

This narrow cell was life's retreat,

This place was thought's mysterious seat;
What beauteous pictures fill'd this spot,
What dreams of pleasure long forgot!
Nor love, nor joy, nor hope, nor fear,
Has left one trace, or record here.

Beneath this mouldering canopy
Once shone the bright and busy eye;
But start not at the dismal void:
If social love that eye employ'd,

If with no lawless fire it gleam'd,

But through the dew of kindness beam'd,
That eye shall be for ever bright,

When suns and stars have lost their light.

Here in this silent cavern hung

The ready, swift, and tuneful tongue.

If falsehood's honey it disdain'd,

And where it could not praise, was chain'd;

If bold in virtue's cause it spoke,

Yet gentle concord never broke;

That tuneful tongue shall plead for thee

When Death unveils Eternity.

Say did these fingers delve the mine,

Or with the envied ruby shine,
To hew the rock, or wear the gem,
Can nothing now avail to them;

But if the page of truth they sought,
Or comfort to the mourner brought,

These hands the richer meed shall claim,
Than all that waits on wealth or fame.

Avails it whether bare or shod,
These feet the path of duty trod,
If from the bowers of joy they fled
To soothe the poor man's friendless bed;
If grandeur's guilty tribe they spurn'd,
And home to virtue's lap return'd,
These feet with angel wings shall vie,
And head the palace of the sky.

SEE a fond mother, and her offspring round,
Her soft soul melting with maternal love;
Some to her breast she clasps, and others prove
By kisses her affection: on the ground
Her ready foot affords a rest for one;
Another smiling sits upon her knee;
By their desiring eyes and actions free,
And lisping words their little wants are known,
To those she gives a smile, a frown to these,
But all in love. Thus awful Providence
Watches and helps us-oft denies our sense,
But to invite more earnest prayer and praise,
Or, by withholding that which we implore,
In the refusal gives a blessing more.

F

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