66 WISH AND WISH ON."

SUCH as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes; one links on to another; and the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing for ever.

Seneca.

Who has many wishes has generally but little will. Who has energy of will has few diverging wishes. Whose will is bent on one, must renounce the wishes for many things. Who cannot do this is not stamped with the majesty of human nature. The energy of choice, the unison of the various powers for one, is only will-born under the agonies of selfdenial and renounced desires.

Calmness of will is a sign of grandeur. The vulgar, far from hiding their will, blab their wishes. A single spark of occasion discharges the child of passion into a thousand crackers of desire.

Always let oneness of purpose rule over a boy.

perhaps to have, or to do, some certain thing: then to take, or do it.

Lavater.

He wanted

oblige him

66 HUNT MANY HARES AND CATCH NONE."

Richter.

66 THE EYE SEES ONLY WHAT IT HAS IN ITSELF THE

POWER OF SEEING."- Goethe.

To many this will seem a truism, who would think it a paradox should you tell them they saw another tree than the painter did, looking at the same. No wonder then if they see. something very different from Goethe in this sentence of his.

1. We do not see nature by looking at it. We fancy we see the whole of any object that is before us, because we know no more than what we see. The rest escapes us as a matter of course; and we easily conclude that the idea in our minds and the image in nature are one and the same. But in fact we only see a very small part of nature, and make an imperfect abstraction of the infinite number of particulars which are always to be found in it, as well as we can. Some do this with more or less accuracy than others, according to habit, or natural genius. A painter, for instance, who has been working on a face for several days, still finds out something new in it which he did not notice before, and which he endeavours to give in order to make his copy more perfect. A young artist, when he first begins to study from nature, soon makes an end of his sketch, because he sees only a general outline and certain gross distinctions and masses. As he proceeds, a new field opens to him: differences crowd on differ

ences; and as his perceptions grow more refined, he could employ whole days in working upon a single part, without satisfying himself at last.

Hazlitt.

2. So says Bacon, "That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot express; no, nor the first sight of life neither."

"Directly in the face of most intellectual tea-circles, it may be asserted, that no good book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first: nay, that the commonest quality in a true work of art, if its excellence have any depth and compass, is that at first sight it occasions a certain disappointment-perhaps even, mingled with its undeniable beauty, a certain feeling of aversion."

Carlyle.

“Most men are disappointed at first sight of the sea; as also of mountains, which a novice thinks he could soon run up, till his eyes learn to distinguish those aerial gradations which soon made themselves understood by the feet.”

"The shepherd knows every sheep in his flock: and Pascal tells us, that the more genius a man has, the more he will see of it in other men. Indeed the clear eye will see in every man something of that which common observers are apt to consider the property of a few. If no two sheep-nay, it is said, no two leaves-are alike, how much less any two men!"

QUANTUM SUMUS SCIMUS.

THE SOLECISM OF POWER.

THE difficulties in Princes' business are many and great ; but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories; "sunt plerumque Regum voluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariæ." For it is the solecism of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.

Princes many times make themselves desires, and set their hearts on toys; sometimes upon a building; sometimes upon erecting of an order, &c. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things than by standing at a stay in great.

Bacon.

FORGIVE AND FORGET.

"WHEN," said Descartes, a man injures me, I strive to lift up my soul so high that his offence cannot reach me.”

It is certain, that a man who studieth revenge, keeps his which would otherwise heal and do well. own wounds green,

And finally,

Bacon.

Without knowing particulars, I take upon me to assure all persons who think that they have received indignities or injurious treatment, that they may depend upon it as in a manner certain, that the offence is not so great as they imagine. Bishop Butler.

INCONSTANCY.

LE sentiment de la fausseté des plaisirs presents, et l'ignorance de la vanité des plaisirs absents, causent l'inconRochefoucauld.

stance.

66 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD ALWAYS LOOKS CLEANEST."

C