Study.

The following sentences, from Mr: Locke's Thoughts concerning Reading, cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the student. Having just before recommended a strict examination of all propositions laid before us, and declaring that without this process a man doth but talk after the books which he hath read, collecting learning instead of knowledge, he goes on," the last step therefore in improving the understanding is to find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms, and to observe the connection of the intermediate ideas by which it is joined to that foundation or that principle from which it is derived. This, in short, is right reasoning, and by this way alone true knowledge is to be got by reading and studying."-Collection of several Pieces of John Locke, not extant in his works. 1724.

Locke on the Human Understanding.

It was objected by a friend to Mr. Locke, that this celebrated treatise was too diffuse in its style, by the admission of frequent repetitions of the same ideas in various modes of expression. Mr. Locke answered, that these repetitions were intentionally inserted, in order that some readers might

have the opportunity of apprehending the subject by its being put into a variety of ways. Had this great writer brought several illustrations, instead of different forms of expressions, the method would have been more satisfactory. To this diffuseness of style, if the controversial nature of the subject be added, considerable difficulties arise among young readers of this profound inquiry into the origin of our ideas. Abridgements of this treatise were published in 1808, London, 1 vol. 8vo. more suitable to the patience of the younger student; and Wynne's, published, 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1696.

Ben Jonson.

This author is a singular instance of a man of talents and learning being without the power, or but in a small degree, of interesting his reader. His tragedies few can read; and his comedies are not only unentertaining, but abound in characters which the "earth owns not." In Every Man in his Humour, there is a character, Master Mathew, which is composed of excessive folly and imbecility. Such a personage Jonson knew himself, on the authority of the ancient critics,* was not admissible on the stage, and common sense confirms the decree. Master Mathew is a dead weight * See Aristotle's Poetics,

on the whole play, though the best of his comedies, and that wherein the character of a jealous man, Kitely, is excellently pourtrayed. My Lord Bacon has shrewdly said, that books do not teach the use of books; and Jonson well exemplified the apophthegm.

Friendship.

What Ovid said of love may with equal truth be repeated on the subject of friendship

Nec eadem sede morantur

Majestas et amor.

For love admits no master to controul
His voluntary gift of heart and soul.

Equality is the latitude in which friendship takes root most readily; and at a certain distance from this equatorial line, the intercourse between friends is seen to cool. In the higher stations of life, as in the upper regions of the air, a certain quantity of cold unrespirable air is soon felt by the balloon adventurers into these currents of a more elevated atmosphere. "Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici," says a writer very conversant with the great and very familiar with them.

Cocknies.

Persons who have lived all their years in a large city have been often ridiculed for their

concerns.

ignorance and contempt of rural objects and The strongest example of the general truth of this censure was shewn in the answer of a Frenchman to his friend, who asked him, after a rural excursion, how he liked the Rhine." It is very well," replied the Parisian, “for a country river." A singular observation was made by a person of a similar description on great rivers, viz. that it was a marvellous instance of the kindness of Providence to place large rivers so near to large towns.

Country Residence.

Every educated man of small fortune has found in a country residence the great difficulty, if not impossibility, of procuring the company of a man of sense and talents. Men of no "mark or likelihood" are more easily obtained than got rid of, who are ready "to bestow all their tediousness upon you, and would be, if they had twice as much." If your neighbour is a man of talents or acquirement, he has pursuits elsewhere; if he be ambitious, he is attending on his patron; if indigent, on his bookseller and editor; and if he is ingenious and idle, he is forming schemes to kill time, and drive away spleen.

Passionate Men.

Persons who are cursed with very irritable dispositions, yet endowed with good talents, in their attacks and conduct of them resemble old generals. They carry on their quarrels with great discretion; advance whenever they think it prudent, as far as they think they are not in imminent peril; and retire quietly, and discreetly, when they see more danger approach than they are willing to encounter. Men, who now and then only skirmish in anger, act like raw recruits; desirous to shew that they are not cowards, they shew too much boldness, or rather rashness, and commit themselves to the enemy, whose fury is under the most regular command and ancient discipline.

Arguments in Conversation.

Though many persons are very fond of supporting their occasional positions and opinions in common talk by arguing the question in point, yet how few are qualified, either by understanding or temper, to conduct this mode of controversy. With men in common, your opposing a single opinion is considered as a general attack upon their understanding, and though little interested in the subject in debate, yet in their mode of con