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net wrote a work on Education very clumsily, when he was eighteen years of age; and yet, his "Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester" is so excellent in its style, that Dr. Johnson recommends the critic to read it for its elegance. Swift, Dryden, Gibbon, and Johnson, were something like the sun at his rising on a misty morning - rather obscure and unattractive in the commencement of their

career.

Godeau, Bishop of Venice, used to say, that "to compose is an author's heaven; to correct his productions, an author's purgatory; but to revise the press, an author's hell." This, however, will depend on the disposition of the mind, and the facility with which the one or the other may be accomplished. Whatever is easy, and at the same time productive of honour or profit, will constitute a pleasing engagement. Some authors possess a freedom in composing, but they are averse to revising; others are indisposed to writing, but they are pleased with compiling.

A person must understand the subject on which he writes; for if it be obscure to him, it will be unintelligible to his readers: and although it may be granted (agreeably to the opinion of Professor Stewart), that a man may understand a subject, while he is incapable of communicating it to another; yet it will not be found that he will make a subject clear to others, which he does not view distinctly himself. Lord Bacon remarked to a friend, who acted occasionally as his amanuensis, "I can understand whatever you write; but, with regard to my scribes in general, I understand not

what they mean, because they understand it not themselves."

No one should consider himself degraded by receiving information from any source, however low or trivial. The ocean is supplied with water from rivulets, as well as from rivers. It was said of Lord Bacon, by one of his biographers, that "he despised no man's observations, but he would light his torch at any man's candle."

A student should apply himself closely to the subject on which he reads, thinks, or writes. In reading, he should follow the tract of the author throughout all its windings, connecting his newly acquired knowledge with his previous information. In thinking, he should follow the subject closely, and endeavour to view it distinctly; he should examine it in its particular parts, and contemplate it in its general character. In writing, he should stimulate his mental faculties; review his materials as an army disposed for an engagement, and then march them off troop after troop. Both in writing and in speaking, he should accustom himself to plain and expressive phraseology. Loquendum ut vulgus, sentiendum ut sapientes." The Archbishop of Cambray observes,—"A great man does not declaim like a comedian; his expressions in conversation are just and strong; he utters nothing low, nor any thing pompous." And Professor Stewart remarks,-"The works which continue to please from age to age are written with perfect simplicity."

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In writing, the subject will be sometimes below the capacity of the reader, and at other times above

it; but, in conversation, the language and the subject should always be adapted to the taste and capacity of the hearer. Not too high, lest he should feel his ignorance; not too low, lest he be insulted. The self-gratifying but repulsive character of a dictatorial teacher should never be assumed. A tyro in science will be apt to compare his present possessions with his previous attainments: and thus he will fancy that all men are as destitute of knowledge as he himself used to be; and hence, that his tongue cannot fail to impart information, and his lips to distil wisdom!

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The lover of learning is generally economical of his time. His days, his hours, and his minutes, are deemed precious. Wealth, influence, and comfort, he would rather sacrifice than time. laxation, however, is necessary; and this may be best obtained by social intercourse; not by wasting the hours in useless talk or disgusting scandal, but in rational conversation. Gossipers, newsmongers, and mischief-makers, are a disgrace to society. Mr. D'Israeli calls them, "Those unhappy beings who wander from house to house, privileged by the charter of society to obstruct the knowledge which they cannot impart, to tire because they are tired, or to seek amusement at the cost of others." The celebrated Cardan, in order to avoid the visits of such troublesome persons, wrote over the door of his library, "Tempus ager meus."-Time is my estate. Sculter and Ursinus each affixed a gentle hint to the door of his study, that time was precious. Some men have so well managed their time, that they have attended, with diligence and

success, both to worldly and intellectual pursuits. Among those who have united the bustle of mercantile affairs with the tranquil engagements of science, I may mention the great Cosmo de Medicis, Mendelsohn, and Izaak Walton.

A great deal of time might be saved by intellectual men, if they would avoid delays and trifles - if they would be active in their engagements. For a person may frequently perform in five minutes, what would usually occupy ten. At this rate, a man in fifty years would virtually live a hundred. "It is a vast work that any man may do," observes Jeremy Taylor, "if he be never idle." The hours devoted to science should be hours of energetic employment; the time engaged in relaxation should be free from thought. And thus, science, business, and amusement, may harmonise in the life of one person, and produce the pleasing effect of satisfaction and happiness. As we are creatures of novelty, the acquisition of knowledge occasions gratification; and as we are fond of variety, it furnishes a pleasing addition to ordinary engagements.

CHAP. V.

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION AND MEMORY.

THE imagination is the faculty of representing what has no actual existence; or what has existed, but has not been seen by us. If we hear or read of any important event, the imagination will paint the principal circumstances, and the most prominent actors in the scene; or if we read of delightful scenery, the same faculty will represent all the variety of hill and vale, mountain and ocean, precipice and plain. It refers to the past, the present, and the future. As the Huma (a bird peculiar to Oriental countries) is said to be always on the wing-waking or sleeping; so is the imagination. It occasions the majority of our thoughts. Cowper

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"I sum up half mankind,
And add two thirds of the remaining half,
And find the total of their hopes and fears,
Dreams
empty dreams."

The past would be a blank, without the powers of imagination and memory. All the future would be darkness and obscurity, without the illumination of the fancy. The memory shows us what the senses have perceived; but the imagination re

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