' death, because he has not fortitude enough to bear the ' wound, or even to stitch it up.' Those who waste by littles are ever sliding on inclined planes. Their minds, too, assume the hue of their fortunes, as moths assume the colour of the clothes they eat. To die by little and little,-every day lengthening the shadow of existence,-is indeed miserable; more especially to those who have rapid and restless imaginations, ever longing For beds of pleasant green, Where never yet was creeping creature seen *. XX. SEALS. THE difficulty is to get fairly into society; no great power being required, provided we have the will, to get out of it. And this reminds me of seals: for seals are able to penetrate the ice from below, be it ever so thick; yet are utterly unable to make their way into it from above t. XXI. WHO PREFER ONE BIRD IN THE HAND TO TWO IN THE BUSH. 'Is not the possession of one thing,' says the author Gesta Romanorum,' better than the mere of the * Castle of Indolence, st. iii. 4. expectation of two?' That is, is not one bird in the hand worth two in the bush? It depends, altogether, upon what the bird is. Men, in fact, are always fluttering between their interests and their passions; sometimes like squirrels in a cage, and at others like flies, gnats, and bees, in the web of a spider. XXII. WHO NEVER REWARD THOSE THEY APPROVE. A gentleman died in Carolina in 1784, and, having no relation, left all his property to a Mr. Ashley of that province, because his ancestor had introduced the cultivation of rice. Many persons in the higher walks of life, when they get servants, peculiarly useful, never reward them till after a service of many years, for fear they should quit them. Some never reward them at all; but when they will go, insult them, call them ungrateful, and throw out insinuations. I do not think my father's* maxim ' quite right,' said Lord Algernon Percy to Mr. Dutenst; he said to me, this morning, If you give or procure places, let it be to those of whom you are 'tired; but never do any thing for those who are use'ful or agreeable to you; for then you lose them and 'their services.' Those are best paid who amuse us, who cheat us, who destroy us; while those who live to serve us are, but too often, rewarded with ridicule, with indigence, with neglect,-nay, even with ruin! * Smithson, Duke of Northumberland. + Dutensiana, No. 192. XXIII. WHO ARE CARELESS OF FUTURITY. MET Julius this morning, in Kensington Gardens. He made an observation I choose to record:-' Fear for 'the future is lost in the contemplation that it is for the ' future. That future may never come; and if the evil 'should come, we still indulge the expectation that we 'shall find some means to avoid it, or to lessen its consequences. I, therefore, am, and ever have been, 'careless of future contingencies.' To which we may observe, that Fortune is sometimes more kind to the careless than she is to the careful. There is a strange mystery in many obvious things! XXIV. WHO IN SUCCESS WEAR NEW FACES. ، FLAMINIUS was both quick to resent an injury and to do a service; and for the persons whom he had obliged he ever retained a kind regard; as if,' says Plutarch, ' instead of receiving a favour, they had conferred one.' What a noble cast of sentiment! Antigonus does not appear to have partaken of it. I pray the gods,' exclaimed he, one day, 'to preserve me from my friends !' Upon which one of his officers inquired, why he did not, pray to be preserved from his enemies? No!' returned Antigonus, I can always defend myself from my enemies; but friends can ruin us whenever they will.' Massinissa, King of Numidia, had such an evil opinion of mankind, that, though he had fifty sons living, he declared he had less confidence in men than in dogs; at least, so we are assured by Valerius Maxi mus. Who not needs, shall never lack a friend; And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him an enemy.' Such is the meanness and the baseness of deceitful persons! Honours and riches have the faculty of changing men; but when, in prosperity, we meet an old friend with an averted face, can we expect otherwise than that we have converted an old friend into a new enemy, whose hatred we have unworthily challenged? The heartlessness of the English and Scotch in this particular has given rise to the opprobrious reflection, that, in France and Italy, to be poor is a misfortune, while in Great Britain it is no less than a crime. If it is so, I can only say that we are the meanest of the ignorant, and the most ignorant of the mean. There are few national crimes equal to this. An accusation has been brought not only against Prior and Swift, but Addison, that they changed their manners and their language as persons, with whom they were respectively acquainted, became elevated or depressed. Johnson, in like manner, lost all gratitude to Mrs. Thrale after she had married a person whose chief demerit was only that of being a music-master. For the most part, however, literary men are remarkable, not only for the warmth and durability of their gratitude, but for the celebrity with which they endeavour to dignify their friends and benefactors. C Let go thy hold when a wheel runs down a hill, 'lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up hill, lest it draw thee after.' Such is the advice of one of Shakspeare's fools, who qualifies the advice by exclaiming, I would have none but 'knaves follow it; since it is a fool that gives it.' This is policy: an art which some one has defined to consist in serving God in a manner not to offend Satan. Opposed to this is Virtue. She is attractive always; but, when opposed to Policy, she is, indeed, a fine creature! and I do not know in what manner a person of good sense, fine taste, and exquisite ability, could exhibit all those qualities to the best of his interest, and therefore more to the admiration of all the more valuable portion of the community, than by making her his companion. She is Grace personified! XXV. ON COMPARING CONDITIONS. NATURE has so fortunately formed us, that we can, if we please, derive a thousand pleasures:- -some from sense, some from the proper exercise of our imagination, some from the enlargement of our understanding, and a thousand from the constant cultivation of our hearts, to the more enlargement of which all the others ought to contribute. In evil times it may not be unwise, or ungrateful, to look below and derive comfort-if we can!-from the condition of those less favoured than ourselves. Indeed, the state of existence, I must confess, from all that I have seen and known, is, at times, so wretched, that all things and circumstances may be resorted to for comforts that are not in VOL. II. D |