your diet, use much exercise, and little physic." Sully, the great statesman of France, kept up, always, at the table of Villebon, the frugality to which he had been accustomed in early life in the army. His table consisted of a few dishes, dressed in the plainest and most simple manner. The courtiers reproached him often with the simplicity of his table. He used to reply, in the words of an ancient, "If the guests are men of sense, there is sufficient for them; if they are not, I can very well dispense with their company."

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TIME.

It is of the utmost consequence that we improve our time. Never," says one, delay till to-morrow, what reason and conscience tell you ought to be performed to-day. To morrow is not your's, and, though you should live to enjoy it, you must not overload it with a burden not its own.' "God (says another,) who is liberal and generous in all other gifts, teaches us, by the wise œconomy of his Providence, how circumspect we ought to be in the right management of our time; for he never gives us two moments together; he gives us only the second as he takes away the first, and keeps the third in his hands, leaving us in an absolute uncertainty whether he will give it us or not.”

Grotius used to take for his motto: "Hora ruit," to put himself in continual remembrance, that he should usefully employ that time which was flying away with extreme rapidity; and yet, so great a sense had he of the non-improvement

of it, that, with all his learning, when he came to die, he exclaimed, "I have wasted my life in incessant toil, and have done nothing."

Dr. Cotton Mather was so careful to redeem his time, that, to prevent the tediousness of visits, he wrote over his study door in capital letters-" BE SHORT."

Mr. Henry Jessey, a non-conformist minister, had the following motto put over his study door : Amice quisquis huc ades Aut agito paucis, aut abi Aut me laborantem adjuva. "Whatever friend comes hither, Dispatch in brief, or go,

Or help me busied too."

H. I.

Titus, the Roman Emperor, throughout the course of his whole life, called himself to an account every night for the actions of the past day; and, as often as he found he had slipped any one day without doing good, he entered upon his diary this memorial, "Perdidi diem;" I have lost a day. Thus may every man say, who suffers a day to pass without doing something for God, for his soul, or for his fellow creatures.

"Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves," was a very just and sensible reflection of old Mr. Loundes, the famous Secretary of the Treasury under William III. Anne, and George I. "I therefore recommend to you," says an author, "to take care of minutes, for hours will take care of themselves. Be doing something or other all day long, and not neglect half hours and quarters of hours, which, at the year's end, amount to a great sum.'

"An Italian philosopher," says Dr. Johnson, expressed in his motto, that time was his estate ; VOL. III.

D

an estate, indeed, which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to be wasted by negligence, to be overrun with noxious plants, or laid out for shew, rather than for use."

VANITY OF THE WORLD.

"THERE are few people in the world," says Saurin, who do not form in their minds agreeable plans of happiness, made up of future flattering prospects, which have no foundation except in their own fancies. The disposition of mind, which is so general among mankind, is also one of the principal causes of their immoderate desire to live. Some have questioned whether any mortal were ever so happy as to choose to live his life over again, on condition of passing through all the events through which he had gone from his birth to his last hour. Without investigating this problem, I venture to affirm, that mankind would be much less attached to the world, if they did not flatter themselves with the hope of enjoying more pleasure than they had hitherto experienced. A child fancies, that as soon as he arrives at a certain stature, he shall enjoy more pleasure than he hath enjoyed in his childhood; and this is pardonable in a child. The youth persuades himself that men, who are what they call settled in the world, are incomparably more happy than young people can be at his age. While we think ourselves condemned to live single, solitude seems intolerable; and when we have associated our

selves with others, we regret the happy days we spent in the tranquillity of solitude. Thus we go on from fancy to fancy, and from one chimera to another, till death arrives, subverts all our imaginary projects of happiness, and makes us know, by our own experience, what the experience of others might have fully taught us long before, that is, that the whole world is vanity; that every state, all ages, and all conditions, have inconveniences peculiar to themselves, and one which is common to them all; I mean, a character of disproportion to our hearts; so that, by changing our situation, we often do no more than change our kind of infelicity."

Nicholas Breakspear, who, on his advancement to the popedom, assumed the name of Adrian IV, was, in the early part of his life, reduced to the necessity of submitting to servile offices for bread. He studied in France, where, though he laboured under the pressures of poverty, he made a wonderful progress in learning. One day, on an interview with an intimate friend, he told him, "That all the hardships of his life were nothing in comparison to the Papal Crown; and, speaking of the difficulties, and sorrows he had experienced, he observed, "That he had been, as it were, strained through the alembic of affliction."

It was a pertinent discourse of Cineas, dissuading Pyrrhus from undertaking a war against the Romans: "Sir," saith he, "when you have conquered them, what will you do next?"" Then Sicily is near at hand, and easy to master. "And what when you have conquered Sicily?" we will pass over to Africk, and take Carthage, which cannot long withstand us.” “ "When these

“Then

are conquered, what will be your next attempt ?" Then," saith Pyrrhus, "we will fall in upon Greece and Macedon, and recover what we have lost there." "Well, when all are subdued, what fruit do you expect from all your victories?" "Then," said he, "we will sit down and enjoy ourselves." "Sir," replied Cineas, "may we not do it now? Have you not already a kingdom of your own? And he that cannot enjoy himself with a kingdom, cannot with the whole world." Such are the designs of men, and so we may answer them. Most are projecting how they may get such an estate; then how they may raise themselves to honour and think that their advancement in both will bring them satisfaction. Alas! this will not do. Their desires will still run before them and they may as well sit down content where they are, as where they hope to be.

:

Vetellius, an Emperor of Rome, was so luxurious, that at one supper he had upon his table two thousand fishes of different kinds, and seven thousand flying fowls. He was drawn through the streets of Rome with an halter about his neck, and was put to death.

Dioclesian found a crown so disagreeable, that he cast it off, and retired to a private life. And another said, from his own bitter experience, that if any man knew what cares and dangers were wrapt in a crown, he would not take it up if he saw it lie in the way before him. "The troubles of a whole nation," observes one, "concentre in the throne, and lodge themselves in the royal diadem; so that it may be but too truly said of every prince, that he wears a crown of thorns."

Charles V, Emperor of Germany, King of