the fancy, and best worth being committed to memory; but it should be recollected that such selections are intended to excite, not to satisfy, juvenile curiosity. Great care should be taken to introduce young people, before the first impression is vanished, to an intimate acquaintance with the Original Authors, and to give them a relish for the regular perusal and study of their works.*

*

The value of a taste for this kind of reading is much greater than is commonly perceived. In solitude, the elegant entertainment which it affords is an effectual security against the intrusion of idleness and spleen. In society, it provides innumerable topics of conversation, which afford ample scope for the display of judgment and taste, and which might, without much diminution of social enjoyment, supply the place of certain fashionable amusements. By furnishing the mind with elevated conceptions, and refined sentiments, it renders it superior to gross and vulgar pleasures. In fine, while science enriches the understanding, the study of polite literature cultivates the taste, and improves the heart; and both unite to form the Accomplished and Happy Man.

*To supply advice in private study, and a choice of books according to every taste and capacity, giving a simple outline for the young to be gradually filled up by the reading of after years, Pycroft's Course of English Reading' is recommended by the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' as "the best of all school prizes."

BOOK I.

SELECT SENTENCES.

CHAPTER I.

To be ever active in laudable pursuits, is the distinguishing characteristic of a man of merit.

There is a heroic innocence, as well as a heroic courage. There is a mean in all things. Even virtue itself has its stated limits, which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.

It is wiser to prevent a quarrel beforehand than to revenge it afterward.

It is much better to reprove, than to be angry secretly. No revenge is more heroic than that which torments envy, by doing good.

The discretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

Money, like manure, does no good till it is spread. There is no real use of riches, except in the distribution: the rest is all conceit.

A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and live upon contentedly.

A contented mind, and a good conscience, will make a man happy in all conditions. He knows not how to fear who dares to die.

B

There is but one way of fortifying the soul against all gloomy presages and terrors of mind; and that is, by securing to ourselves the friendship and protection of that Being, who disposes of events, and governs futurity.

Philosophy is then only valuable, when it serves for the law of life, and not for the ostentation of science.

CHAPTER II.

WITHOUT a friend the world is but a wilderness.

A man may have a thousand intimate acquaintances, and not a friend among them all. If you have one friend, think yourself happy.

When once you profess yourself a friend, endeavour to be always such. He can never have any true friends that will be often changing them.

Prosperity gains friends, and adversity tries them.

Nothing more engages the affections of men, than a handsome address, and graceful conversation.

Complaisance renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable.

That

Excess of ceremony shows want of breeding. civility is best which excludes all superfluous formality. Ingratitude is a crime so shameful, that the man was never yet found who would acknowledge himself guilty of it.

Truth is born with us; and we must do violence to nature, to shake off our veracity.

There cannot be a greater treachery, than first to raise a confidence, and then deceive it.

By the faults of others, wise men correct their own. No man has a thorough taste of prosperity, to whom adversity never happened.

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we leave them.

It is as great a point of wisdom to hide ignorance, as to discover knowledge.

Pitch upon that course of life which is the most excellent, and habit will render it the most delightful.

CHAPTER III.

CUSTOM is the plague of wise men, and the idol of fools.

As to be perfectly just, is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

No man was ever cast down with the injuries of fortune, unless he had before suffered himself to be deceived by her favours.

Anger may glance into the breast of a wise man, but rests only in the bosom of fools.

None more impatiently suffer injuries, than those that are most forward in doing them.

By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy: but in passing it over, he is superior.

To err is human: to forgive, divine.

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

The prodigal robs his heir, the miser robs himself.

We should take a prudent care for the future, but so as to enjoy the present. It is no part of wisdom to be miserable to day, because we may happen to be so to-morrow.

To mourn without measure is folly; not to mourn at all, insensibility.

Some would be thought to do great things, who are but tools and instruments; like the fool who fancied he played upon the organ, when he only blew the bellows.

Though a man may become learned by another's learning, he never can be wise but by his own wisdom.

He who wants good sense is unhappy in having learning, for he has thereby more ways of exposing himself.

It is ungenerous to give a man occasion to blush at his own ignorance in one thing, who perhaps may excel us in many.

No object is more pleasing to the eye, than the sight of a man whom you have obliged; nor any music so agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefactor.

The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is, that by hearing what we are not, we may be instructed what we ought to be:

The character of the person who commends you is to be considered, before you set a value on his esteem. The wise man applauds him whom he thinks most virtuous, the rest of the world him who is most wealthy.

The temperate man's pleasures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is calm and serene, because it is innocent.

A good man will love himself too well to lose, and his neighbour too well to win, an estate by gaming. The love of gaming will corrupt the best principles in the world.

CHAPTER IV.

AN angry man who suppresses his passions thinks worse than he speaks; and an angry man that will chide speaks worse than he thinks.

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.

It is to affectation the world owes its whole race of coxcombs. Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part; she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making.

It is the infirmity of little minds, to be taken with every appearance, and dazzled with every thing that sparkles: great minds have but little admiration, because few things appear new to them.

It happens to men of learning, as to ears of corn; they shoot up and raise their heads high while they are empty; but when full and swelled with grain, they begin to flag and droop.

He that is truly polite knows how to contradict with respect, and to please without adulation; and is equally remote from an insipid complaisance, and a low familiarity.

The failings of good men are commonly more published in the world than their good deeds; and one fault of a deserving man shall meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues, praise: such is the force of ill will and ill nature.