coat the moment the fashion of it is passed, till they can fell either into the country.

If a man's eyes, ears, or memory decay, he ought to conclude that his understanding decays alfo; for the weaker it grows the lefs likely he is to perceive it.

ENVY deferves pity more than anger, for it hurts nobody fo much as itself. It is a diftemper rather than a vice; for nobody would feel envy if he could help it. Whoever envies another fecretly, allows that perfon's fuperiority.

WHEN flatterers compliment kings for virtues that are the very reverfe of their characters; they remind me of the ftory of a little boy, who was apt to tell people of any remarkable defect in their perfons. One day, a gentleman who had an extraordinary large nofe, being to dine with the boy's parents, his mother charged him not to fay any thing of the gentleman's large nofe.When he arrived the child ftared at him, and then turning to his mother, faid-" Mamma, what a pretty little nofe that gentleman has."

EXPERIENCE becomes prefcience.

NOTHING is more vain than for a woman to deny her age; for he cannot deceive the only perfon that cares about it, herfelf. If a man diflikes a woman because he thinks her of the age fhe is, he will only dislike her the more for being told the is younger than the feems to be, and confequently looks older than the ought to do. The Anno Domini of her face will weigh more than that of her register.

CENSORIOUS old women betray three things; one, that they have been gallant; the next, that they can be fo no longer; and the third, that they are always wishing they could be.

No Woman ever invented a new religion, yet no new religion

religion would ever have been spread but for women. Cool heads invent fyftems, warm heads embrace them.

POSTERITY always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

It is unfortunate to have no mafter but our own errors. If we profit ever so much under them, the unjust public always recollect the mafter more than they take notice of the improvement of the scholar.

MEN are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are fent into the world with bills of credit, and feldom draw to their full extent.

DR. JOHNSON.

The following beautiful Ode to Friendship, was one of his earliest compositions :—

Friendship, peculiar boon of heav'n,
The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only giv'n,
To all the lower world deny'd.
While love, unknown among the bleft,
Parent of thousand wild defires,
The favage and the human breaft
Torments alike with raging fires.
With bright, but oft deftructive gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flow of guiltlefs joys
On fools and villains ne'er defcend;
In vain for thee the tyrant fighs,
And hugs a flatt'rer for a friend.

Direct'refs of the brave and juft,
O guide us thro' life's darkfome way
And let the tortures of mistrust

On felfifh bofoms only prey.

Nor

Nor fhall thine ardours ceafe to glow
When fouls to blifsful climes remove,
What rais'd our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.

HIS RIDICULE.

WHEN Dr. Percy first published his collection of Ancient English Ballads, perhaps he was too lavish in commendation of the beautiful fimplicity and poetic merit he supposed himself to discover in them.

This circumftance provoked Johnson to obferve one evening at Mifs Reynolds's tea-table, that he could rhyme as well and as elegantly in common narrative and converfation. For instance, fays he,

As with my hat upon my head

I walk'd along the Strand,
I there did meet another man

With his hat in his hand.

Or to render fuch poetry fubfervient to my own immediate ufe,

I therefore pray thee, Renny dear,
That thou wilt give to me,

With cream and fugar foften'd well,
Another dish of tea.

Nor fear that I, my gentle maid,
Shall long detain the cup,
When once unto the bottom I

Have drank the liquor up.

Yet hear, alas! this mournful truth,
Nor hear it with a frown:-
Thou canst not make the tea fo faft
As I can gulp it down.

KING WILLIAM.

THE courage, activity, and prefence of mind of this monarch at the battle of the Boyne, in July 1690, were extremely confpicuous during the whole of the engage

ment,

ment, in the courfe of which he repeatedly charged the enemy fword in hand. An English foldier, in the heat of the battle, pointing his piece at the king, he turned it afide without emotion, faying only, "Do you not know your friends?" The day was far advanced, when the Irish at length began to retire on all fides; and General Hamilton, who commanded the horse, making a furious charge, in the defperate hope of retrieving the battle, was wounded and taken prifoner. On being brought into the prefence of the King, who knew him to be the life and foul of the Irish army, William asked him, " If he thought the enemy would make any farther refistance? to which Hamilton replied, Upon my honour I believe they will." The king eying him with a look of difdain, repeated, "your HONOUR!" but took no other notice of his treachery.

66

JAMES THE SECOND.

THE rival monarch, far from contending for the prize of empire in the fame fpirit of heroifm, kept his ftation with a few squadrons of horfe on the hill of Dunmore, to the fouth of the river, viewing through a telescope from the tower of the church the movements of the two armies. On receiving intelligence from Count Lazun that he was in danger of being furrounded, he marched off to Duleek, and thence in great hafte to Dublin. This daftardly conduct expofed him to the perfonal contempt of thofe who were most ftrongly attached to the caufe, Colonel Sarsfield, as it is faid, declaring, "that if they could change kings, he should not be afraid to fight the battle over again."

ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON

WAS a prelate who, in a very difficult and critical fituation, had conducted himself with great wisdom, temper, and moderation. He had a clear head, with a tender and compaffionate heart, and like his celebrated

predeceffor,

predeceffor, Cranmer, was a faithful and zealous friend, but a gentle, generous, and placable adversary.

VISCOUNT DUNDEE.

THIS celebrated man had formed himself on the model of the heroic Montrofe, and was poffeffed of the fame commanding talents and graceful accomplishments. Having left the convention with the reft of the seceders, he quitted Edinburgh at the head of about fifty horfe. Being afked whither he was going, he replied, "Whereever the fpirit of Montrofe thall direct me." He was foon after killed at the battle of Killicranky, May 1689.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

THE firft ftone was laid on June 12, 1675, by Sir Chriftopher Wren, and the building was completed by him in 1710, but the whole decorations were not finished till 1723. It was a moft fingular circumstance, that notwithstanding it was thirty-five years building, it was begun and finished by one architect, Sir Chriftopher Wren, and under one prelate, Henry Compton, bishop of London. Whereas the church of St. Peter, at Rome, was a hundred and thirty-five years in building, in the reigns of nineteen popes, and went through the hands of truelve architects. In the reigns of James I. and Charles I. the body of this cathedral was the common refort of the politicians, the newfmongers, and the idle in general. It was called Paul's walk. It is mentioned in the old plays, and other books of the times.

JUDGE JEFFERIES.

THE fallen Lord Chancellor Jefferies, the cruel inftrument of defpotifm under James II. died imprisoned in the Tower of London, of a broken heart, aided by intemperance. Whilft there he received, as he thought, a prefent of a barrel of Colchester oysters, and expreffed great fatisfaction at the thought of having fome friend

yet