Negligence of one's person not only implies an unsufferable indolence, but an indifference whether we please or not. It betrays an insolence and affectation, arising from a presumption, that we are sure of pleasing, without having recourse to those means which many are obliged to use.

II. He, who is not thoroughly clean in his person, will be offensive to all he converses with. A particular regard to the cleanliness of your mouth, teeth, hands, and nails, is but common decency. A foul mouth and unclean hands are certain marks of vulgarity; the first is the cause of an offensive breath, which nobody can bear, and the last is declarative of dirty work; one may always know a gentleman by the state of his hands and nails. The flesh at the roots should be kept back, so as to show the semicircle at the bottom of the nails; the edges of the nails should never be cut down below the ends of the fingers, nor should they be suffered to grow longer than the fugers.

CHESTERFIELD.

IT is not one or two qualifications alone that complete the gentleman; it must be a union of many; and graceful speaking is as essential as gracefulness of person.

Every man cannot be a harmonious speaker; a roughness or coarseness of voice may prevent it; but if there are no natural imperfections, if a man does not stammer or lisp, or has not lost his teeth, he may speak gracefully; nor will all these defects, if he has a mind to it, prevent him from speaking correctly.

No body can attend with pleasure to a bad speaker. One who tells his story ill, be it ever so important, will tire even the most patient. If you have been present at the performance of a good tragedy, you have doubtless been sensible of the good effects of a speech well delivered; how much it has interested and affected ye; and on the contrary how much an ill-spoken one has disgusted you.

II. It is the same in common conversation: He who speaks deliberately, distinctly, and correctly; he who makes use of the best words to express himself, and varies his voice according to the nature of the subject, will always please;

while the thick or hasty speaker, he who mumbles out a set of ill-chosen words, utters them ungrammatically, or with a dull monotony, will tire and disgust. Be assured then, the air, the gesture, the looks of a speaker, a proper accent, a just emphasis and tuneful cadence, are full as necessary to please and be attended to, as the subject matter itself. People may talk what they will of solid reasoning and sound sense; without the graces and ornaments of language, they will neither please nor persuade.

In common discourse, even trifles, elegantly expressed, will be better received than the best of arguments, home, spun and unadorned. CHESTERFIELD,

SPEECH and reason are the characteristicks, the glory, and the happiness of man. These are the pillars which support the fair fabrick of eloquence; the foundation, on which is erected the most magnificent edifice, that genius could design, or art construct. To cultivate eloquence, then, is to improve the noblest faculties of our nature, the richest talents with which we are entrusted. A more convincing proof of the dignity and importance of our subject need not, cannot be advanced.

The benevolent design, and the beneficial effects of eloquence, evince its great superiority over every other art, which ever exercised the ingenuity of man. To instruct, to persuade, to please; these are its objects.

II. To scatter the clouds of ignorance and error from the atmosphere of reason; to remove the film of prejudice from the mental eye and thus to irradiate the benighted mind with the cheering beams of truth, is at once the business and the glory of eloquence.

To promote the innocent and refined pleasures of the fancy and intellect: to Strip the monster vice of all his borrowed charms, and expose to view his native deformity: to display the resistiess attractions of virtue; and, in one ward, to rouse to action all the latent energies of man, in the proper and ardent pursuit of the great end of his existence, is the orator's pleasing, benevolent, sublime employ

ment.

III. With pleasure we descry the dawning of that bright day of eloquence, which we have anticipated. The grand council of our nation has already evinced, that, in this respect, as in all others, our republick acknowledges no existing superior. And we trust, that, as our sacred teachers make it their constant endeavour to imitate the great learning, the exemplary virtue, the exalted piety, and the extensive usefulness of the great apostle of the Gentiles, they will not fail to resemble him in that commanding, that heavenly eloquence, which made an avaricious, an unbelieving Felix tremble.

IV. May Columbia always afford more than one Demosthenes, to support the sacred cause of freedom, and to thun der terror in the ears of every trans-atlantick Philip. May more than Ciceronian eloquence be ever ready to plead for injured innocence and suffering virtue.

Warned by the fate of her predecessors, may she escape those quicksands of vice, which have ever proved the bane of empire. May her glory and her felicity increase with each revolving year, till the last trump shall announce the catastrophe of nature, and time shall immerge in the ocean of eternity. PERKINS.

THERE is indeed no greater happiness than an even natural temper, neither liable to be extremely eager and sanguine, nor stoically indifferent and insensible; neither apt to be worked up to a tempest with every trifle, nor yet buried in a continual lethargick stupidity; ne her delighting in being always engaged in scenes of mir and frolick, nor to be wrapped in the impenetrable gloom of a fixed melancholy. And, after all, what is there in life that may justly be reckoned of sufficient importance to move a person to a violent passion? What good grounds can there be for great expectations, for gloomy apprehensions, for immoderate triumph, or for deep dejection, in such a state as the present, in which we are sure of meeting with innumerable

disappointments, even in the greatest success of our affairs, and in which we know that our afflictions and our pleasures must both be soon over? True wisdom will direct us to study moderation with respect to all worldly things; to indulge mirth but seldom, excessive grief never; but to keep up constantly an even cheerfulness of temper. BURGH.

THE wisdom of behaviour is to communicate your knowledge to all who seem willing to receive it; your private affairs only to persons of approved secrecy and judgement, and to them no more than is absolutely necessary; to have many acquaintance, but few intimates; to open your countenance to all, your heart to very few.

Never think of friendship with a covetous man : He loves his money better than his friend. Nor with a man of pleasure: He has not gravity enough to render his conversation improving. Nor with a wicked man: He will corrupt you. Nor with a silly fellow: His emptiness will disgust you. Nor with a drunkard: He will betray your secrets A passionate fellow will affront you. A conceited man will expect you to submit to him in every thing. A mean spirited creature will disgrace you. A bully will draw you into his quarrels. A spendthrift will borrow your money. A very poor fellow will make your life unhappy. A man of overgrown fortune will draw you into his expensive way of living. BURGH.

THERE is nothing that contributes more to the ready and advantageous despatch, as well as to the safety and success of business, than method and regularity. Let a man set down in his memorandum-book, every morning, the several articles of business he has to do through the

day; and beginning with the first person he is to call up on, or the first place he is to go to, finish that affair (if it is to be done at all) before he begins another; and so on to the rest. A man of business, who observes this method, will hardly ever find himself hurried or disconcerted by forgetfulness.

II. And he who sets down all his transanctions in writ ing, and keeps his accounts and the whole state of his affairs in a distinct and accurate order, so that he can at any time, by looking into his books, presently see in what condition his business is, and whether he is in a thriving or declining way, deserves properly the character of a man of business, and has a fair prospect of carrying his schemes to a happy issue. But such exactness as this will by no means suit the man of pleasure, who has other things in his head. BURGH.

AS we ought to be more frugal of our time than our money, the one being infinitely more valuable than the other, so we ought to be particularly watchful of opportu nities. There are times and seasons proper for every purpose of life; and a very material part of prudence is to judge rightly of them, and make the best of them. If you have, for example, a favour to ask of a phlegmatick gloomy man, take him, if you can, over his bottle. If you want to deal with a covetous man, by no means propose your business to him immediately after he has been paying away money, but rather after he has been receiving. If you know a person, for whose interest you have occasion, is unhappy in his family, put yourself in his way abroad rather than wait on him at his house. A statesman will not be likely to give you a favourable audience immediately after meeting with a disappointment in any of his schemes.

II. There are many people who are sour and ill-humoured from their rising till they have dined. And as in persons, so in things, opportunity is of the utmost consequence. The thorough knowledge of the probable rise,