EGERIA. EGERIA. EGERIA is the Muse of Counsel. She is described as the mysterious nymph who met Numa Pompilius, and taught him how to govern. She met him always in solitude, and Solitude is the nurse of Thought. She met him in the groves, which are places favorable to meditation. She met him at twilight, when a certain calm usually overspreads the soul—the passions being in reposeand when the mind consciously hovers, as it were, between the two worlds of Time and Eternity, in some degree partaking of both. Egeria is a beautiful fancy of the old Tradition. Thought and Study are beguiled to the solitude, where Wisdom puts on the aspect of Love, for the better persuasion of the pupil. Through such influences, we might naturally expect that Counsel should be at once grateful and easy of attainment. We should, each of us seek for an Egeria;-for Numa, though a prince, was thus honored, only because of his attributes as a man! AUTHORITY. The Cumoan Sibyl, who came to Tullus Hostilius, bringing him books for sale-nine at first, and afterwards reduced to three-was probably the same person with the Egeria of Numa Pompilius. She assumed another character and a different deportment, when dealing with a different person. With the gentle and modest Numa, she was a friend and counsellor; but the haughty pride of Tullus needed an authority, rather than an adviser. To the one she spoke as a companion; to the other, she brought a book of written laws. He is undoubtedly the wisest person who submits to and receives counsel, but the greater portion of mankind are not so easily taught. To counsel or advise with them, is really to provoke self-esteem to disputation. You must put on the aspect of an oracle; never, like Isis, permit your features to be unveiled-and, speaking only without suffering an answer, your authority shall pass without a question. APOTHEGMS. The apothegm is the most portable form of Truth. It is fortunate for the teacher that she is so ductile in her forms, in spite of the inflexibility of her essentials. It is thus that the proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expended in the air. MORALS. The moral of the steed is in the spur of his rider; of the slave, in the eye of his master; of the woman, in the sense of her weakness and dependence. CONSERVATISM. With the weak and vulgar mind, Conservatism implies nothing more than to keep things as they are, no matter how wanting in propriety and susceptible of improvement;-a condition agreeable only to the timid, and to those in power. But this sort of conservatism is, in fact, destructiveness,— and has been probably the true but secret cause of the overthrow of societies and commonwealths. The true law of the race is progress and develop ment. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian. The people that cease to advance, in the notion that their mission is ended, and their development complete, from that moment begin to decline, and must go rapidly to decay. The conservatism which hopes to retard a legitimate progress, will inevitably be crushed in its march. All such efforts may be likened to that of the feeble old man who attempts to arrest the speed of the locomotive, by thrusting his gold-headed crutch between its wheels. True Conservatism is rather the bold spirit which leaps into the car of progress, and, seizing upon the reins, directs its movements with a firm hand, and an eye that sees the proper goal for which the race should aim. PATRIOTISM. He who labors for mankind, without a care for himself, has already begun his immortality. VANITY AND SELF-ESTEEM. We are quite too apt to confound Vanity with Self-Esteem. The former is always a weakness, though sometimes an amiable one. The latter is frequently significant of strength, though its exhibition is quite too often at the expense of its neighbors. Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skinned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about for ever in expectation of a crumb; while Self-Esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher's dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as he goes. SECRETS. It is said that he or she who admits the possession of a secret, has already half revealed it. Certainly, it is a great deal gained towards the acquisition of a treasure, to know exactly where it lies. Curiosity needs a clue only to begin the search. The misfortune is, that, the key which cannot open the lock, may yet suffice to spoil it. It is seldom, indeed, that a secret is stolen without impairing its integrity. MARRIAGE SECRETS. The Romans designated false keys, along with drunkenness and adultery, as a sufficient cause of divorce. This surely speaks for a lower degree of delicacy and virtue in the marriage state of Rome, |