to bestow them, that he carried them back again to Policrates, saying, "They were not worth the pains he had already taken for them.'

Luther was remarkable for his contempt of riches, though few men had a greater opportunity of obtaining them. The elector of Saxony offered him the produce of a mine at Sneberg; but he nobly refused it, lest it should prove an injury to him. His enemies were no strangers to this self-denial. When one of the popes asked a certain cardinal why they did not stop that man's mouth with silver and gold, his Eminence replied, "That German beast regards not money." In one of his epistles Luther says, "I have received one hundred guilders from Taubereim, and Schartts has given me fifty; so that I begin to fear lest God should reward me in this life. But I declare I will not be satisfied with it. What have I to do with so much money? I gave half of it to P. Priorus, and made the man glad."

"The taste of real glory and real greatness,' says Rollin, "declines more and more amongst us every day. New raised families, intoxicated with their sudden increase of fortune, and whose extravagant expences are insufficient to exhaust the immense treasures they have heaped up, lead us to look upon nothing as truly great and valuable but wealth, and that in abundance; so that not only poverty, but a moderate income, is considered as an insupportable shame; and all merit and honour are made to consist in the magnificence of buildings, furniture, equipage, and tables.

"How different from this bad taste are the instances we meet with in ancient history! We there see dictators and consuls brought from the plough! How low in appearance! Yet those hands, grown hard by labouring in the field, supported the tottering state, and saved the commonwealth. Far from taking pains to grow rich, they refused the gold that was offered them, and found it more agreeable to command over those who had it, than to possess it themselves. Many of their greatest men, as Aristides among the Greeks, who had the management of the public treasures of Greece for several years. Valerius Publicolas, Menenius Agrippa, and many others, among the Romans, did not leave wherewithal to bury them when they died in such honour was poverty among them, and so despised were riches. We see a venerable old man, distinguished by several triumphs, feeding in a chimney corner upon the garden-stuff his own hands had planted and gathered. They had no great skill in disposing of entertainments; but, in return, they knew how to conquer their enemies in war, and to govern their citizens in peace. Magnificent in their temples and public buildings, and declared enemies of luxury in private persons, they contented themselves with moderate houses, which they adorned with the spoils of their enemies, and not of their countrymen.

"Augustus, who had raised the Roman empire to an higher pitch of grandeur than ever it had attained before, and who, upon sight of the pompous buildings he made in Rome, could

vain-gloriously but truly boast, that he should leave a city all marble, which he found all brick; this Augustus, during a long reign of more than forty years, departed not one tittle from the antient simplicity of his ancestors. His palaces, whether in town or country, were exceedingly plain; and his constant furniture was such as the luxury of private persons would soon after have been ashamed of. He lay always in the same apartment, without changing it, as others did, according to the seasons; and his clothes were seldom any other than such as the Empress Livia, or his sister Octavia, had spun for

him."

Croesus was very rich, but, being taken captive, was condemned to be burnt to death. When the funeral pile was erected, and Croesus laid on it, preparatory to the execution of the sentence, he was observed to exclaim, empha tically, "O Solon, Solon!" which induced Cyrus to enquire into the cause of the ejaculation. Accordingly he was informed, that Croesus, in his prosperity, having displayed his treasures to Solon, the famous Athenian philosopher demanded of him, whether he did not esteem him happy from the possession of such riches. which the wise man calmly replied, "that no man could be pronounced happy as long as he lived, as the most prosperous could not possibly foresee what would happen to him before his death;" and that Croesus, now feeling the force of this remark, therefore expressed his conviction, by invoking the name of his sagacious monitor. This circumstance wrought so effectu

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ally on Cyrus's feelings, and inspired him with such sympathetic compassion for Croesus that he ordered him to be taken from the pile, and not only spared his life, but made an ample provision for his support, and afterwards consulted him on the most important occasions.-Such are the vicissitudes incident to human life!

Some will do any thing to obtain wealth. Conscience is stifled, laws violated, character injured, for the sake of worldly interest. But how noble is the contrary disposition, when we are enabled to deny ourselves, and to rise superior to an inordinate desire after it! The following instance gives us a true picture of disinterestedness and true greatness. A poor man, who was door-keeper to a boarding-house in Milan, found a purse with two hundred crowns in it. The man who had lost it, informed by a public advertisement, came to the house, and, giving good proof that the purse belonged to him, the door-keeper restored it to him. The owner, full of joy and gratitude, offered his benefactor twenty crowns, which the other absolutely refused. He then came down to ten, and afterwards to five; but finding him still inexorable, he throws his purse upon the ground, and in an angry tone, "I have lost nothing," says he, "nothing at all, if you thus refuse to accept of any thing." The door-keeper then accepted of five crowns, which he immediately distributed among the poor.

There cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose riches can make a man happy. How of ten do they inflate with pride, fill with anxiety,

and expose to danger! "I wonder," said Lucretia Gonzaga to a gentleman, "that you, who are a learned man, and so well acquainted with the affairs of this world, should yet be so strangely vexed at being poor, as though you did not know that a poor man's life is like sailing near the coast; whereas that of a rich man does not differ from the condition of those who are in the main sea. The former can easily throw a cable on the shore, and bring the ship safe into the harbour; whereas the latter cannot do it with. out difficulty."

A gentleman of vast fortune (ten thousand pounds a year) sent for a friend to Pall Mall, being very indisposed, to settle some affairs; and while they were together, he walked to the window, and observed a chimney-sweeper's boy with his sack passing by. His friend was surprised to see the tears burst from his eyes; and, clasping his hands, with an oath he swore, "Now would I give every shilling I am worth in the world to change beings with that little sweep!"

"Though riches," says Dr. Johnson," often prompt extravagant hopes and fallacious appearances, there are purposes to which a wise man may be delighted to apply them. They may, by a rational distribution to those who want them, ease the pains of helpless disease, still the throbs of restless anxiety, relieve innocence from oppression, and raise imbecility to cheerfulness and vigor."

"Our estate," says one," is as much the gift of God as our eyes or our hands, and is no more to be buried, or thrown away at pleasure, than