not choose to part with it. My father took a pair of scissars, and, humouring me all he could, he cut off the tail and head of the scorpion, without my having received any injury.

2. A little girl sat on a fine summer's morning by the side of a river, eating her bread and milk from a small basin which she held in her hand. A snake crept up the bank, raised itself, and, bending over, took a piece of the bread and instantly shrunk back. The child, pleased with the beautiful colours and flexible form of the creature, looked eagerly, but in vain, for its retreat. She returned disappointed to finish her meal. In a few moments the snake again raised itself, and was just taking the largest piece of bread, when the child, lifting up her hand, said, "Not so fast, speckled back."

3. Near to the Hartz Mountains in Germany, a gigantic figure has from time immemorial occasionally appeared in the heavens. It is indistinct, but always resembles the form of a human being. Its appearance has ever been a certain indication

of approaching misfortune. It is called the Spectre of the Broken. It has been seen by many travellers. In speaking of it, Monsieur Jordan says: "In the course of my repeated tours through the Hartz Mountains, I often, but in vain, ascended the Broken, that I might see the Spectre. At length, on a serene morning, as the sun was just appearing above the horizon, it stood before me, at a great distance, towards the opposite mountain. It seemed to be the gigantic figure of a man. It vanished in a moment." In September 1796, the celebrated Abbé Haiy visited this country. He says: “After having ascended the mountain for thirty times, I at last saw the Spectre. It was just at sun-rise in the middle of the month of May, about four o'clock in the morning. I saw distinctly a human figure of a monstrous size. The atmosphere was quite serene towards the east. In the south-west a high wind carried before it some light vapours, which were scarcely condensed into clouds and hung round the mountains upon

which the figure stood. I bowed. The colossal figure repeated it. I paid my respects a second time, which was returned with the same civility. I then called the landlord of the inn; and having taken the same position which I had before occupied, we looked towards the mountain, when we clearly saw two such colossal figures, which, after having repeated our compliment by bending their bodies, vanished.—When the rising sun throws his rays over the Broken upon the body of a man standing opposite to fleecy clouds, let him fix his eye steadfastly upon them, and in all probability he will see his own shadow extending the length of five or six hundred feet, at the distance of about two miles from him."

4. Ignorance can shake strong sinews with idle thoughts, and sink brave hearts with light sorrows, and doth lead innocent feet to impure dens, and haunts the simple rustic with credulous fears, and the swart Indian with that more potent magic, under which spell he pines and dies. And by ignorance is

a man fast bound from childhood to the grave, till knowledge, which is the revelation of good and evil, doth set him free.

5. Wisdom makes all the troubles, griefs and pains incident to life, whether casual adversities, or natural afflictions, easy and supportable, by rightly valuing the importance, and moderating the influence of them. It suffers not busy fancy to alter the nature, amplify the degree, or extend the duration of them, by representing them more sad, heavy and remediless than they truly are. It allows them no force beyond what naturally and necessarily they have, nor contributes nourishment to their increase. It keeps them at a due distance, not permitting them to encroach upon the soul, or to propagate their influence beyond their proper sphere.

6. Knowledge mitigates the fear of death and adverse fortune: for, if a man be deeply imbued with the contemplation of mortality and the corruptible nature of all things, he will easily concur with

a Barrow, and see note P at the end of this Tract.

Epictetus who went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken; and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead: and thereupon said, "Heri vidi fragilem frangi; hodie vidi mortalem mori." And therefore Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears as concomitant:

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,

Quique metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari⚫.

II.

KNOWLEDGE REJECTS FALSE AND SELECTS TRUE
PLEASURES.

1. Wisdom doth balance in her scales those true and false pleasures which do equally invite the senses; and rejecting all such as have no solid value

a Lord Bacon.

b See the Choice of Hercules-See also Paradise RegainedBarrow's Sermon on the Pleasantness of Religion-and Bacon on the Advantages of Learning.