THE EXPRESSION OF OPINION.

There is a great difference between what is said without our being urged to it, and what is said from a kind of compulsion. If I praise a man's book without being asked my opinion of it, that is honest praise, to which one may trust. But if an author asks me if I like his book, and I give him something like praise, it must not be taken as my real opinion.

SECOND MARRIAGES.

Were a man not to marry again, it might be concluded that his first wife had given him a disgust to marriage; but by taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

DEATH.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time. A man knows it must be so, and submits. It will do him no good to whine.

THE LOSS OF FRIENDS.

To lose an old friend, is to be cut off from a great part of the little pleasure that this life allows. But such is the condition of our nature, that, as we live on, we must see those whom we love drop successively, and find our circle of relation grow less and less, till we are almost unconnected with the world; and then it must soon be our turn to drop into the grave. There is always this consolation, that we have one Protector who can never be lost but by our own fault, and every new experience of the uncertainty of all other comforts should determine us to fix our hearts where true joys are to be found. All union with the inhabitants of earth must in time be broken; and all the hopes that terminate here must on [one] part or other end in disappointment.

DOGS DEFICIENT IN COMPARISON.

Did you never observe that dogs have not the power of comparing? A dog will take a small bit of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.

THE ADVANTAGES OF LONDON.

The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say, there is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit than in all the rest of the kingdom. Boswell, The only disadvantage is, the great distance at which people live from one another. Johnson, Yes, sir; but that is occasioned by the largeness of it, which is the cause of all the other advantages.

FACTS AND MOTIVES.

We may know historical facts to be true, as we may know facts in common life to be true. Motives are generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the persons; as those, for instance, by Sallust and by Lord Clarendon.

GOOD BREEDING.

Perfect good breeding consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners.

FEAR.

Fear is one of the passions of human nature of which it is impossible to divest it. You remember that the Emperor Charles V. when he read upon the tombstone of a Spanish nobleman, "Here lies one who never knew fear," wittily said, "Then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers."

MRS MONTAGUE'S ESSAY ON SHAKESPEARE.

Yes, sir, it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour. I have, indeed, not read it all. But when I take up the end of a web, and find it pack-thread, I do not expect, by looking farther, to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book.

SCHOLASTIC DISCIPLINE.

Till you can fix the degree of obstinacy and negligence of the scholars, you cannot fix the degree of severity of the master. Severity must be continued until obstinacy be subdued, and negligence be cured.

SYMPATHY FOR OTHERS.

Why, sir, there is much noise made about it, but it is greatly exaggerated. No, sir; we have a certain degree of feeling to prompt us to do good; more than that, Providence does not intend. It would be misery to no purpose. Boswell, But suppose now, sir, that one of your intimate friends were apprehended for an offence for which he might be hanged. Johnson, I should do what I could to bail him, and give him any other assistance; but if he were once fairly hanged I should not suffer. Boswell, Would you eat your dinner that day, sir? Johnson, Yes, sir; and eat it as if he were eating with me. Why, there's Baretti, who is to be tried for his life to-morrow, friends have risen up for him on every side; yet if he should be hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum-pudding the less. Sir, that sympathetic feeling goes a very little way in depressing the mind.

MARTYRDOM.

The only method by which religious truth can be established is by martyrdom.