ably coloured. Here, then, (observes Count Bournon) we have the traces of a work executed by the hand of man, placed at the depth of fifty feet, and covered with eleven beds of compact limestone; every thing tended to prove that this work had been executed where the traces existed. The presence of man had then preceded the formation of this stone, and that very considerably, since he was already at such a degree of civilization, that the arts were known to him, and that he wrought the stone, and formed columns of it.—Report of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy.

CCIV.

Human Life.

Reason thus with life,

If I do lose thec, I do lose a thing,

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art

(Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That does this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict; merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,

And yet runn'st towards him still, Thou art not noble; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,

Are nursed by baseness. Thou art by no means valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not:
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the roon.
If thou art rich, thou art poor;-
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows;
Thou bears't thy heavy riches but a journey.
And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth, nor age;
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld; and when thou'rt old, and rich,
Thou'st neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

To make thy riches pleasant.

That fears the name of life?

What's yet in this,
Yet in this life

Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all éven.-Shakspeare.

CCV.

Necessity of properly Exercising the Mind.-As the body from disuse may come in time to be deprived of all its powers, so the mental faculties may lose all their energy, through a neglect of their being exerted duly, and the man be no longer able to act, or not act in the manner that best becomes him. Therefore, fathers, although otherwise well assured of the good dispositions of their children, forget not to warn them against the company of ill men; knowing, that as to converse with the good must exercise every virtue; so to associate with the bad must prove no less pernicious and baneful.-Xenophon.

CCVI.

Evils of Life.-Unwillingly does the mind digest the evils prepared for it by others; for those we prepare our

selves, we eat but the fruit which we have planted and watered. A shattered fortune, a shattered frame, so we have but the satisfaction of shattering them ourselves, pass naturally enough into the habit; and by the ease with which they are done, they save the spectator a world of pity: but for those, like Jacob's, brought upon him by the hands from which he looked for all his comforts;-the avarice of a parent, the unkindness of a relation, the ingratitude of a child-they are evils which leave a scar; besides, as they hang over the heads of all, and therefore may fall upon any, every looker-on has an interest in the tragedy. But then we are apt to interest ourselves no otherwise than merely as the incidents themselves strike our passions, without carrying the lesson farther. In a word, we realize nothing. We sigh, we wipe away the tear, and there ends the story of misery, and the moral with it. Sterne's Sermons,

CCVII.

Origin of Civil Government.-To take away all such mutual grievances, injuries, and wrongs, that is, such as attend men in the state of nature, there was no way but only by growing into composition and agreement amongst themselves, by ordaining some kind of government public, and by yielding themselves subject thereunto, that unto whom they granted authority to rule and govern, by them the peace, tranquillity, and happy estate of the rest might be procured. Men always knew that where force and injury was offered, they might be defenders of themselves: they knew that however men may seek their own commodity, yet if this were done with injury unto others, it was not to be suffered, but by all men and all good means to be withstood. Finally, they knew that no man

might in reason take upon him to determine his own right, and according to his own determination proceed in maintenance thereof, in as much as every man is towards himself, and them whom he greatly affects, partial; and therefore that strifes and troubles would be endless, except they gave their common consent, all to be ordered by some, whom they should agree upon, without which consent there would be no reason that one man should take upon him to be lord or judge over another.-Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.

CCVIII.

Importance of Female Education.—Matrimony, among savages, having no object but propagation and slavery, is a very humbling state for the female sex: but delicate organization, great sensibility, lively imagination, with sweetness of temper above all, qualify women for a more dignified society with men; which is, to be their bosom friends and companions. In the common course of European education, young women are trained to make an agreeable figure, and to behave with decency and propriety: very little culture is bestowed on the head, and still less on the heart, if it be not the art of hiding passion. Education, so slight and superficial, is far from seconding the purpose of nature, that of making women fit companions for men of sense. Due cultivation of the female mind would add greatly to the happiness of males, and still more to that of females. Time runs on, and when youth and beauty vanish, a fine lady, who never entertained a thought into which an admirer did not enter, finds in herself a lamentable void, occasioning discontent and peevishness. But a woman who has merit, improved by a virtuous and refined education, retains in her decline

an influence over the men, more flattering even than that of beauty; she is the delight of her friends as formerly of her admirers. Admirable would be the effects of such refined education, contributing no less to public good than to private happiness. A man, who at present must degrade himself into a fop or a coxcomb, in order to please the women, would soon discover, that their favour is not to be gained, but by exerting every manly talent in public and in private life; the two sexes, instead of corrupting each other, would be rivals in the race of virtue; mutual esteem would be to each a school of urbanity; and mutual desire of pleasing would give smoothness to their behaviour, delicacy to their sentiments, and tenderness to their passions.

Married women, in particular, destined by nature to take the lead in educating their children, would no longer be the greatest obstruction to good education by their ignorance, frivolity, and disorderly manner of living. Even upon the breast, infants are susceptible of impressions, and the mother hath opportunities without end of instilling into them good principles before they are fit for a male tutor. By such a refined education, love would take on a new form, that which inspires for making us happy, and for softening the distresses of chance; it would deliciously fill the whole soul with tender amity and mutual confidence. The union of a worthy and a frivolous woman can never, with all the advantages of fortune, be made comfortable.-Lord Kaimes' History of Man.

CCIX.

Mischiefs of Poetry.—Dr. Prideaux, in his Connexions, has forcibly depicted the inexpressible mischiefs done to mankind by those mercenary poets and historians, who,