DO GHOSTS EXIST?

It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it, but all belief is for it.

THE VALUE OF SKILL.

It is not the worth of the thing, but the skill in forming it, which is so highly estimated. Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. The first man who balanced a straw upon his nose; Johnson, who rode upon three horses at a time; in short, all such men deserved the applause of mankind, not on account of the use of what they did, but of the dexterity which they exhibited.

PART OF THE BUSINESS OF LIFE.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

ATTENTION TO TRUTH.

Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.

THE EXPANSION OF MIND.

A man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place, whose mind is enlarged only because he has lived in a large place: but what is got by books and thinking is preserved in a narrow place as well as in a large place. A man cannot know modes of life as well in Minorca as in Lonbut he may study mathematics as well in Minorca.

don;

THE INFLUENCE OF INTEREST.

We are all, more or less, governed by interest. But interest will not make us do everything. In a case which admits of doubt, we try to think on the side which is for our interest, and gene

rally bring ourselves to act accordingly. But the subject must admit of diversity of colouring; it must receive a colour on that side. In the House of Commons there are members enough who will not vote what is grossly unjust or absurd. No, there must always be right enough, or appearance of right, to keep wrong in counte

nance.

SPEAK ONLY OF THE ABSENT.

Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive.

THE PROGRESS OF LITERAture.

Literature was in France long before we had it, Paris was the second city for the revival of letters Italy had it first, to be sure. What have we done for literature equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer and Gower, that were not translations from the French; and Chaucer, we know, took much from the Italians. No, sir, if literature be in its spring in France, it is a second spring; it is after a winter.

We are now before the French in literature; but we had it long after them in England. Any man who wears a sword and a powdered wig is ashamed to be illiterate. I believe it is not so in France. Yet there is, probably, á great deal of learning in France, because they have such a number of religious establishments; so many men who have nothing else to do but to study. I do not know this; but I take it upon the common principles of chance. Where there

are many shooters, some will hit.

TOWN PREFERABLE TO COUNTRY LIFE.

No wise man will go to live in the country, unless he has something to do which can be better done in the country. For instance: if he is to shut himself up for a year to study a science, it is better to look out to the fields than to an opposite wall. Then, if a man walks out in the country, there is nobody to keep him from walking in again; but if a man walks out in London, he is not sure when he shall walk in again. A great city is, to be sure, the school for studying life; and "The proper study of mankind is man, as Pope observcs.

ON A MAN SPEAKING OF HIMSELF.

A man cannot with propriety speak of himself except he relates simple facts, as, "I was at Richmond," or what depends on mensuration, as "I am six feet high." He is sure he has been at Richmond, he is sure he is six feet high; but he cannot be sure he is wise, or that he has any other excellence. Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the reproach of falsehood.

LIBERTY.

All boys love liberty, till experience convinces them them they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined. We are all agreed as to our own liberty; we would have as much of it as we can get; but we are not agreed as to the liberty of others; for in proportion as we takė others must lose. I believe we hardly wish that the mob should have liberty to govern us. When that was the case some time ago, no man was at liberty not to have candles in his windows.