DATE AND DABITUR.

THERE is in Austria (said Luther) a Monastery, which was, in former times, very rich, and continued rich so long as it gave freely to the poor; but when it gave over that, then it became poor itself, and so remains to this day. Not long since, a poor man knocked at the gate and begged alms for God's sake: the porter said they were themselves too poor to give. "And do you know why?" said the other: "I will tell you. You had formerly in this monastery two Brethren, one name DATE, and the other DABITUR. DATE

out; and DABITUR went away of himself soon after.

you thrust

Γνωθι Σεαυτον.

THIS famous "Know thyself," it does but say,

"Know thine own business," in another way.

Menander.

"Hence too," says a testy modern, "the folly of that impossible precept, 'Know thyself,' till it get translated into this more possible one, 'Know what thou canst work at.'

"It is true," says Harrington, "that men are no fit judges of themselves, because commonly they are partial in their own cause; yet it is as true, that he that will dispose himself to judge indifferently of himself, can do it better than anybody else, because a man can see further into his own mind and heart than any one else can."

"He," says Fuller, "who will not freely and sadly confess that he is much a fool, is all a fool.”

Argenson's friend read a book many times over, and complained of the author's repeating himself a great deal.

Kettle called Pot

You know what.

EAGLES NO FLY-CATCHERS.

THE slightness we see in Gainsborough's works cannot always be imputed to negligence. However they may appear to superficial observers, painters know very well that a steady attention to the general effect takes up more time, and is much more laborious to the mind, than any mode of high-finishing or smoothness, without such attention. Sir J. Reynolds.

Sir Joshua said, though Johnson did not write his Discourses, the general principles he laid down in morals and literature served as the ground-work of much propounded

in them.

By way of requital, Opie used to relate how a clerical friend of his preached Sir Joshua's Discourses from the pulpit, only changing the terms of art to those of morals.

This might easily be done with the sentence quoted above. The "superficial observers" remain as they are, admiring the laborious finish of the model-man, whose every word is weighed and smile measured-but scandalized at him, who, having laid down a large and noble design of life, is careless of the petty detail of behaviour-whose heart may run wild though it never goes astray.

SUPERSTITION.

SUPERSTITION is the religion of feeble minds; and they must be tolerated in an intermixture of it, in some trifling or some enthusiastic shape or other, else you will deprive weak minds of a resource found necessary to the strongest.

Burke.

They that are against superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I will wear all colours but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black.

Selden.

“The guillotine was as much a superstition as the aristocracy and priestcraft it was set up to exterminate."

MODESTY,

BEING the case of chastity, it is to be feared that when the case is broken, the jewel is lost.

Fuller.

On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie mais il est rare de trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu q' une. Rochefoucauld,

NATURE AND HABIT.

La vertu d'un homme ne doit pas se mesurer par ses efforts, mais par ce qu'il fait d'ordinaire.

Pascal.

All men are better than their ebullitions of evil, but also worse than their ebullitions of good.

Richter.

Nature is often hidden-sometimes overcome-seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature.

Bacon,

"Let him who would know how far he has changed the old Adam, consider his Dreams."

66 HE THAT COMES OF A HEN MUST SCRAPE."