HYPOCRISY.

There is no man who does not act the hypocrite on some occasion. The Count Gaspard de Schlick, who had been Chancellor to three preceding Emperors, said to Frederick III. that he would instantly retire from the world, as he saw that it was filled with hypocrites and knaves. "You must then go to some unknown country," replied Frederick; "and yet there will be one hypocrite wherever you reside, unless you pretend to be a god and not a man."

A FINE SAYING OF MAXIMUS TYRIUS.

It was the observation of this celebrated Platonic Philosopher on the difference between religion and superstition : "The religious man was the friend of the Deity, and the superstitious one the flatterer of his Creator."

A FINE SAYING ON CHARITY.

Herodes, a celebrated Athenian philo sopher, one day relieved a man, by granting him the subsistence of a month. “I

know this man," says he, "who affects the garb and manners of a philosopher, to be a knave and an impostor; but I give him my charity as, though he has lost the character of humanity, it is not for me to dispense with its feelings*.

"

SINGULAR INCONSISTENCY OF CONDUCT.

In the characters of some persons who have forfeited all pretensions to virtue, certain scruples appear to be cherished by them, in order to put virtue out of countenance. Tiberius, the Roman Emperor, was daily committing the most horrid massacres at the very time that he was proclaiming penalties against the violators of the sepulchres of the dead.†

*There is a great elegance and simplicity in the Latin sentence which is recorded by A. Gellius, lib. ix. cap. 2. "Demus, huic aliquid æris, cuicuimodi eft; tanquam homines non tanquam homini."

In the reign of Tiberius the populace had arrived at such a state of licentiousness, that they would stop the funeral of any rich person, and levy contributions on the heirs of the deceased, in order to defray the expences of their barbarous and favourite amusement of the combats of gladiators. See the Life of Tiberius, by Suetonius, wherein is mentioned, among the wise regulations of this emperor, the coercion of

BON MOT.

Methinks it may in general be said of friendship, what was said by a man of wit of love, that it resembles the notion of ghosts, viz. it is a thing which every body talks about, and no one has been eye wit

'ness to.

GENIUS.

So great is the general unhappiness of the human race, that our most successful efforts to attain the sublime or brilliant, are founded on some humiliating circumstance of our nature. Most men endowed with those superior powers of mind, by which they are entitled to the denomination of genius, are seen to possess a disordered imagination. The happiest effusions of eloquence, and the most splendid productions of the pencil, have generally been the offsprings of minds not less famous for their greatness than their irregularity. Heroism itself acts on the borders of insanity; and the most illustrious conquerors have laboured under the mala

dies of imagination, which haunted Orestes and Hercules*.

PLEASANTRY OF A SLUGGARD.

A person who had contracted the bad habit of rising very late, excused himself in the following manner to his friends who upbraided him: "The fact is, every morning before I rise I hear a curious cause pleaded before me, between diligence and sloth. The one advises me to get up and employ myself about some useful business; the other speaks much in praise of a warm bed, and the superiority of rest over toil. In a scrupulous attention to both parties, I find a great deal of my time in the morning is passed in bed."

So true are the observations of our Poet of Reason

Great wits to madness sure are near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

And again,

Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Sweed.

A SHORT SERMON.

On St. Stephen's day the Monks of the convent had gathered together very late in the morning at chapel, and fearing that the preacher might keep them beyond the dinner hour, whispered in the ear of the orator their apprehensions, and their wishes that he would be as brief as possible. The preacher feeling a sympathy with his brothers, addressed his audience: "This day, last year, brethren, I praised all the good acts of St. Stephen with as much fullness and accuracy, as lied in my power; and since that time having not heard that the saint has done any thing new, I have nothing farther to add on the subject at present."

A SINGULAR JOCKEY.

A Venetian, totally unaccustomed to riding, made an excursion with a friend to an inn where there were several horsemen. On their departure, the Venetian seemed desirous of stopping till all the strangers were mounted before him. Being asked the reason of this extraordinary patience,