drunkard will not be conscious of it. I knew a physician, who for twenty years was not sober; yet, in a pamphlet which he wrote upon fevers, he appealed to Garrick and me for his vindication from a charge of drunkenness. A bookseller (naming him) who got a large fortune by trade, was so habitually and equally drunk, that his most intimate friends never perceived that he was more sober at one time than another.

PHYSICAL AND MORAL TRUTH.

Physical truth is, when you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral truth is, when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as it appears to you. I say such a one walked across the street, if he really did so, I told a physical truth. If I thought so, though I should have been mistaken, I told a moral truth.

RIDICULE.

The man who 'uses his talent of ridicule in creating or grossly exaggerating the instances he gives, who imputes absurdities that did not happen, or when a man was a little ridiculous, describes him as having been very much so,

abuses his talents greatly. The great use of delineating absurdities is, that we may know how far human folly can go; the account, therefore, ought of absolute necessity to be faithful.

HOSPITALITY.

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For hospitality, as formerly practised, there is no longer the same reason; heretofore the poorer people were more numerous, and from want of commerce, their means of getting a livelihood more difficult therefore, the supporting them was an act of great benevolence. Now that the poor can find maintenance for themselves, and their labour is wanted, a general undiscerning hospitality tends to ill, by withdrawing them from their work to idleness and drunkenness. Then, formerly rents were received in kind, so that there was a great abundance of provisions in possession of the owners of the lands, which, since the plenty of money afforded by commerce, is no longer the case. Hospitality to strangers and foreigners in our country is now almost at an end, since, from the increase of them that come to us, there have been a sufficient number of people that

have found an interest in providing inns and proper accommodations, which is in general a more expedient method for the entertainment of travellers. Where the travellers and strangers are few, more of that hospitality subsists, as it has not been worth while to provide places of accommodation.

DESULTORY READING.

Snatches of reading will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a child into a library where no unfit books are, and let him read at his choice. A child should not be discouraged from reading anything that he takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the case, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of course gains the instruction, which is so much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study.

GOLDSMITH.

No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had.

CONDESCENSION.

There is nothing more likely to betray a man into absurdity than conds ceension, when he seems to suppose his understanding too powerful for his company.

INCIVILITY.

Sir, a man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one-no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.

INTELLIGENT TRANSLATORS.

Green and Guthrie, an Irishman and a Scotchman, undertook a translation of Duhalde's History of China. Green said of Guthrie that he knew no English, and Guthrie of Green that he knew no French; and these two undertook to translate Duhalde's History of China. In this translation there was found "the twenty-sixth day of the new moon." Now, as the whole age of the moon is but twenty-eight days, the moon, instead of being new, was nearly as old as it could be. The blunder arose from their mistaking the word neuvième ninth, nouvelle or neuve, new.

MISFORTUNES.

Depend upon it, that if a man talks of his misfortunes, there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery, there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

MADNESS.

Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived. For example, a madness has seized a person of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually; had the madness turned the opposite way, and the person thought it a crime ever to pray, it might not improbably have continued unobserved.

SERMONS.

Sermons make a considerable branch of English literature, so that a library must be very imperfect if it has not a numerous collection of sermons; and in all collections, sir, the desire of augmenting them grows stronger in proportion to the advance in acquisition, as motion is accelerated by the continuance of the impetus.