but the truth of this apophthegm may be disputed. Fashion directs many of our sports; and she, tyrant like, presses many into her service against their will. I have seen many a sportsman return from the field rejoiced that the toil was surmounted, and that he was returning to a good dinner at the end of it, without his neck or his bones broken. He, no doubt, cursed, in his heart, an amusement, which neither his habits, his strength, his spirits, nor his pocket, qualified him to pursue; but which fashion commanded him to adopt.

Wine and Books.

Mr. Addison, in one of his Spectators, has said, that "Wine is not to be drank by every one that can swallow." The humour of this whole paper is not less manifest than the truth of this assertion. How few men become better in their tempers or minds, or in their health, by the use of wine, as it too often falls into abuse of it! Thus books are not to be read by all who can boast the privilege of a scholar; for how few men are so happy in their dispositions and taste, or so lucky in their teachers, as not to contract a liking to books that corrupt their morals, or bewilder their understandings.

Bayle.

The following observation from this learned and acute biographer may have a very good tendency to put philosophy in a real point of view, and may be very useful in these times, when every whipster thinks himself a philosopher. "Philosophy may be compared to certain corrosive powders, that having consumed the proud and spongy flesh of a wound, they would corrode even the quick and sound flesh, rot the bones, and penetrate to the very marrow. Philosophy is proper at first to confute errors; but if she be not stopped there, she attacks truth itself; and when she has full scope, she generally goes so far, that she loses herself, and does not know where to stop."

At Home and Abroad.

These different states are true prosaic representations of the Allegro and Penseroso. Aristotle says that the love of variety is one instance of the infirmities of human nature. However this may be, it is certain that many a man on a visit and at home are different persons outwardly and inwardly. His dress is more spruce, and his humour more gay.

Scarce past the turnpike half a mile,
How all the country seems to smile.

Lloyd's Cit's Country Box.

Most family men" are leaving a burden behind them, the swarming cares of domestic life, which are not without a sting, and yet I trust not without honey-sweets at times.

Democritus and Heraclitus.

The account of these eminent sages, under the opposite characters of the Laughing and Crying Philosopher, is too ridiculous to be credited by any one who knows that they were both emineut for their learning and wisdom, and not comic or tragic actors. The admission of the truth of such an account of two sages, thus ludicrously pourtrayed, could arise only from the observation of these opposite characters often appearing in common life, as the Poet has described them :

Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper;
And others of such vinegar aspect,

That they'll not shew their teeth in way of smile,
Thongh Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Merchant of Venice, act i. scene 1.

Marriage.

"Other legislators, knowing that marriage is the origin of all relations, and consequently the first element of all duties, have endeavoured by every art to make it sacred. The Christian religion, by confining it to pairs, and by rendering that relation

indissoluble, has by these two things done more 'towards the peace, happiness, settlement, and civilization of the world, than by any other part in this whole scheme of divine wisdom.”—Burke.

To this sublime passage of that eminent statesman, we may add, for the reader's amusement, a poetical eulogy on this "reverend and honourable state."

It is a sign that nothing can assuage
Your love but marriage; for such is

The tying of two in wedlock as is

The tuning of two lutes in one key; for

Striking the strings of the one, straws will stir

Upon the strings of the other; and in

Two minds link'd in love, one cannot be

Delighted but the other rejoiceth.

Lilly's Sappho and Phaon.

Pronunciation.

It is wonderful how different the same discourse appears, pronounced by a good and a bad reader. When Eschines, after his retreat to Rhodes, was one day reading aloud to some friends his rival's famous speech, and the hearers were lost in wonder at the eloquence of Demosthenes, "What," said he, "would you have thought, if you had heard him pronounce it?" Martial, in an epigram, has well illustrated this subject

Those verses that you read, my friend, are mine;
But as you read them, they may pass for thine.

Conversation.

To those who are too willing and eager to exhibit their superior powers of reasoning and quickness, the following lines will give a very wholesome and intelligible caution

Would you be well received, where'er you go,
Remember each man vanquish'd is a foe;
Resist not therefore with your utmost might,
But let the weakest think he's sometimes right:
He, for each triumph you shall thus decline,
Shall give ten opportunities to shine;

He sees, since once you own'd him to excel,

That 'tis his interest that you should excel.

Essay on Conversation, by Benjamin Stillingfleet.

Absurdities in Architecture.

The Greeks and Romans, with all their taste, have committed considerable errors in their favourite art. The capital of the Corinthian order represents a basket, with flowers overflowing the edges, and a tile placed on the top of it. On this slender foundation the principal architrave of the building is often placed. Another error, still more disgusting to the eye and the reason, is a female figure supporting an architrave in the manner of a pillar. Modern architects, with more gallantry than good taste, have put cushions on the heads of their ladies, to enable them to carry their weights more easily. They, however, saw the error of