< in a room, opposite each other, reduced to no "other occupation than the necessity of continual "chattering. When every one is employed, they

speak only when they have something to say; but, "if you are doing nothing, you must absolutely "talk incessantly; and this, of all constraints, is "the most troublesome, and the most dangerous. "I dare go even farther, and maintain, that, to "render a circle truly agreeable, every one must be "not only doing something, but something which " requires a little attention.”

JEWS.

LORD CHESTERFIELD once told Lady Fanny Shirley, in a serious discourse they had on the Evidences of Christianity, that there was one, which he thought to be invincible, not to be got over by the wit of man; viz. the present state of the Jews—a fact to be accounted for on no human principle. This anecdote was related to me by a person who had it from Lady Fanny herself,

INTENTION.

INTENTION is the same in the inner man, as is in the outer. While the eye is clear, it

the eye

illuminates the whole body; each member is perfectly enlightened for the performance of its functions as if itself were an eye. If any humours suffuse the eye, the whole body is instantly overwhelmed with darkness. So the system of a man's conduct by a pure or vitiated intention. The intention is the view in which the action is performed, the aim, as we say, taken before the performance of it. If the light be darkness, if that which ought to direct the action be itself perverted and depraved, how great must be that depravity!

KINGS.

I." BEFORE an opera is to be performed at Turin, the king himself takes the pains to read it over, and to erase every line that can admit of an indecent or double meaning. This attention is particularly paid to the theatre, on account of the morals of the Royal family." Mrs. Miller's Letters from Italy, i. 200.

2. Kings honour human nature, when they distinguish and reward those who do most honour to it, and while they give encouragment to those superior geniuses, who employ themselves in perfecting our knowledge, and who devote themselves to the

worship of truth. Happy are the sovereigns who themselves cultivate the sciences; who think with Cicero, that Roman consul, the deliverer of his country and father of eloquence; "Literature is the "accomplishment of youth, and the charm of old 66 age. It gives a lustre to prosperity, and a con"fort to adversity; at home and abroad, in travel "and in retirement, at all times and in all places, it

is the delight of life."-A king, guided by justice, has the universe for his temple, and good men are the priests that sacrifice to him.-Critical Essay on Mac.

3. Though the mask of dissimulation should for some time cover the natural deformity of a prince, he cannot always keep it on. He must take it off sometimes in order to breathe; and one single opportunity is sufficient to satisfy the curious. Artifice, then, shall seat itself in vain on the lips of a prince. We do not form a judgment of men from their words, but by comparing their actions with them, and with each other. Falsehood and dissimulation can never stand this test. A man can act well no part but his own; and, to appear to advantage, must appear in his proper character. Ibid.

4. Be not thou, then, wicked with the wicked, but be thou virtuous and intrepid among them. Thou

wilt make thy people virtuous as thyself; thy neighbours will imitate thee, and the wicked tremble.— Ibid.

5. Inundations which lay countries waste, lightnings which reduce cities to ashes, the poison of the plague which dispeoples provinces, are not so fatal to the world, as the dangerous morals and unruly passions of kings. Calamities from heaven endure but for a time; they destroy but some countries; and those losses, though grievous, are retrievable: but the crimes of kings cause whole nations to suffer, from generation to generation.- Ibid.

LANGUAGE (figurative) OF THE SS. RESPECTING the figurative language of the Scriptures, there is this curious and important question to be determined-Whether God adopted it, because it was the style of the eastern nations; or it became the style of the eastern nations, because God originally constituted and employed it?

LAWS.

THE observation, made by a great casuist on human laws, holds much stronger with regard to di

vine ones-" The obedience of that man is much "too delicate, who insists upon knowing the reason " of all laws, before he will obey them. The law

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giver must be supposed to have given his sanc"tion to the law from the reason of the thing; "but, where we cannot discover the reason of it, "the sanction is to be the only reason of our "obedience."-Bp. Taylor's Duct. Dub. b. iii. c. vi. rule 3.

LEARNING.

1. THERE is no kind of knowledge which, in the hands of the diligent and skilful, will not turn to account. Honey exudes from all flowers, the bitter not excepted; and the bee knows how to extract it.

2. Cicero's apology for the great men of Rome who employed their leisure hours in philosophical disquisitions is worthy notice: some, it seems, thought such employment unworthy of them."Quasi verò clarorum virorum aut tacitos congressus esse oporteat, aut ludicros sermones, aut rerum colloquia leviorum. Nec quidquam

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"aliud videndum est nobis, quos populus Roma