of curmudgeon, where to the no small amusement, of all etymologists, he had thus derived, it, 'cur. mudgeon, from cœur mechant, an unknown corres pondent!!

The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial* knowledge in others, so much as the profoundly ignorant; on the contrary, they would rather assist it with their advice than overwhelm it with their contempt, for they know that there was a period when even, a Bacon or a Newton was superficial, and that he who has a little knowledge is far more likely to get more than he that has none. When the great Harvey was whipped at school for an experiment upon a cat, his Orbilius could not foresee in the little urchin that he was flagellating, the future discoverer of the circulation of the blood. The progress of the mind in science, is not very unlike the progress of science herself in experiment. When the air-balloon was first discovered, some one flippantly asked Dr. Franklin what was the use of it? The doctor answered this question by asking another: What

* Desperately wounded, and at a fearful distance from all surgical help, I owe my own life, under Providence, to a slight smattering in anatomy, by which I knew that the pressure of the finger close to the clavis would effectually stop the whole circulation of the arm; but this served my purpose at that time, as well as if I had been sufficiently skilled in the science, to be the demonstrator to a Cline or a Brodie. I cannot express my gratitude better to those very able and skilful surgeons who attended me on that occasion, than by saying that their success has excited the astonishment of some of the most eminent practitioners in this metropolis, who have also expressed their doubts even as to the attempt of saving the limb, had such an accident occurred in London.

is the use of a new-born infant? It may

man.'

become a

When I hear persons gravely affirm that they have made up their minds to forego this or that improper enjoyment, I often think in myself that it would be quite as prudent, if they could also make up their bodies as well. Falstaff would have been as abstemious at the banquet as a hermit, and as firm in the battle as a hero, if he could have but gained over the consent of his belly in the one case, and of his legs. in the other. He that strives for the mastery, must join a well-disciplined body, to a well-regulated mind; for with mind and body, as with man and wife, it often happens that the stronger vessel is ruled by the weaker, although in moral, as in domestic economy, matters are best conducted, where neither parties are unreasonable, and where both are agreed.

6

Those who visit foreign nations, but who associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs, cœlum non animum mutant :'* they see new meridians, but the same men, and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home, with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds.

Conversation is the music of the mind, an intellectual orchestra, where all the instruments should bear a part, but where none should play together. Each of the performers should have a just appre

They change their climate, not their character.-PUB.

ciation of his own powers, otherwise an unskilful novice, who might usurp the first fiddle, would infallibly get into a scrape. To prevent these mistakes, a good master of the band will be very particular in the assortment of the performers, if too dissimilar, there will be no harmony, if too few, there will be no variety; and if too numerous, there will be no order, for the presumption of one prater,* might silence the eloquence of a Burke, or the wit of a Sheridan, as a single kettledrum would drown the finest solo of a Gionowich or a Jordini.

Man is an imbodied paradox, a bundle of, contradictions; and as some set-off against the marvellous things that he has done, we might fairly. adduce the monstrous things that he has believed. The more gross the fraud,f the more glibly will it go down, and the more greedily will it be swallowed, since folly will always find faith wherever impostors will find impudence.

Although the majority of the inhabitants of Lon don will stop to gaze at the merest trifles, will be amused by the heaviest efforts of dulness, and will believe their grossest absurdities, though they are

* Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to racehorses, which go the faster the less weight they carry; and Cuinberland has observed, that they take possession of a subject as a highwayman does of a purse, without knowing its contents, or caring to whom it belongs.

+ Who could have supposed that such a wretch as Joanna Southcote could have gained numerous and wealthy proselytes, in the nineteenth century, in an era of general illumination, and in the first metropolis of the world? I answer, none but philosophers, whose creed it is 'nil admirari,' when the folly of mankind is the subject.

the dupes of all that is designing abroad, or contemptible at home, yet, by residing in this wonder ful metropolis, let not the wisest man presume to hink that he shall not add to his wisdom, nor the most experienced man to his experience.

He that dies a martyr, proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool; since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith. If, as was the case of the primitive Christian martyrs, it should clearly appear that the sufferer could not have been himself deceived, then, indeed, the evidence rises high, because the act of martyrdom absolves him from the charge of wilfully deceiving others.

Of governments, that of the mob is the most sanguinary, that of soldiers the most expensive, and that of civilians the most vexatious.

When a man has displayed talent in some particular path, and left all competitors behind him in it, the world are too apt to give him credit for a universality of genius, and to anticipate for him success in all that he undertakes. But to appear qualified to fill the department of another, is much more easy, than really to master our own; and those who have succeeded in one profession, have seldom been able to afford the time necessary to the fully understanding of a second. Cromwell could manage men, but

when he attempted to manage horses,* he encountered more danger than in all his battles, and narrowly escaped with his life. Neither can we admit that definition of genius that some would propose, a power to accomplish all that we undertake,' for we might multiply examples to prove that this definition of genius contains more than the thing defined, for Cicero failed in poetry, Pope in painting, Addison in oratory, yet it would be harsh to deny genius to these men. As a man cannot be fairly termed a poor man, who has a large property in the funds, but nothing in land, so we cannot deny genius to those who have discovered a rich vein in one province of literature, but poverty of talent in another. This tendency, however, to ascribe a universality of genius to great men, left Dryden to affirm, on the strength of two smart satirical lines, that Virgil could have written a satire equal to Juvenal. But with all due deference to Dryden, I conceive it much more manifest, that Juvenal could have written a better epic than Virgil, than that

* Nero made a similar mistake; but he proved himself as unequal to the task of governing horses as of men, and as unfit to hold the reins of a chariot, as of a kingdom: he made his appearance at the hippodrome of Olympia, in a chariot drawn by ten horses, although he himself had formerly censured Mithridates for the same temerity; he was thrown from his seat, but unfortunately the fall was not fatal, although it prevented him from finishing the race; nevertheless, the halladonics, or stewards of the course, proclaimed the emperor victor, and assigned him the Olympic crown, for which upright decision they were rewarded with a magnificent present. Galba, however, obliged them afterwards to refund it, and they themselves, partly from shame, and partly from pique, erased that Olympiad out of the calendar.