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KNIGHT AND SQUIRE.

[Don Quixote, the most celebrated romance in the world, was the work of a Spaniard, named CERVANTES, born 1547, died 1616. The hero of the romance, Don Quixote, had his head turned by the adventures he had read about knights-errant; and so he set out in quest of adventures himself, being accompanied as his squire by a peasant, half knave, half fool, known now to all the world under the name of Sancho Panza. In the course of their wanderings they were entertained by a certain duke, who, for his own amusement, fell in with the wild fancies of the crazy knight and squire, and pretended to appoint the latter to the government of an island. The following are the valuable instructions given to Sancho Panza for his guidance, as governor of this island, by his loving master, Don Quixote, who was both a scholar and a gentleman, and, moreover, perfectly sane on all matters except knight-errantry.]

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FIRST SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

ISTEN now to the few counsels which I shall give thee for thy conduct:

"First, my son, fear God: for to fear Him is wisdom; and being wise, thou canst not err.

"Conceal not the meanness of thy family, nor think it disgraceful to be descended from peasants; for, when it is seen that thou art not thyself ashamed, none will endeavour to make thee so; and deem it more meritorious to be a virtuous, humble man than a lofty sinner. Infinite is the number of those who, born of low extraction, have risen to the highest dignities both in church and state; and of this truth I could tire thee with examples

"Be not under the dominion of thine own will: it 13 the vice of the ignorant, who vainly presume on their own understanding.

"Let the tears of the poor find more compassion, but not more justice, from thee than the applications of the wealthy.

"Be equally solicitous to sift out the truth amidst

the presents and promises of the rich, and the sighs and entreaties of the poor.

"Whenever equity may justly temper the rigour of the law, let not the whole force of it bear upon the delinquent for it is better that a judge should lean on the side of compassion than severity.

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If, perchance, the scales of justice be not correctly balanced, let the error be due to pity, not to gold.

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'If, perchance, the cause of thine enemy come before thee, forget thy injuries, and think only on the merits of the case.

"Let not private affection blind thee in another man's cause; for the errors thou shalt thereby commit are often without remedy, and at the expense both of thy reputation and fortune..

"When a beautiful woman comes before thee to demand justice, consider maturely the nature of her claim, without regarding either her tears or her sighs, unless thou wouldst expose thy judgment to the danger of being lost in the one, and thy integrity in the other. "Revile not with words him whom thou hast to correct with deeds. The punishment which the unhappy wretch is doomed to suffer is sufficient, without the addition of abusive language.

"When the criminal stands before thee recollect the frail and depraved nature of man, and, as much as thou canst, without injustice to the suffering party, show pity and clemency; for, though the attributes of God are all equally adorable, yet His mercy is more shining and attractive in our eyes than His justice.

"If, Sancho, thou observest these precepts, thy days will be long, and thy fame eternal; thy recompensefull, and thy felicity unspeakable.

"The advice I have just given thee, Sancho, regards

the good and ornament of thy mind; now listen to the directions I have to give concerning thy person and deportment."

"1

SECOND SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

During the whole of this private conference Sancho listened to his master with great attention, and endeavoured so to register his counsel 2 in his mind that he might thereby be enabled to bear the burden of government, and acquit himself honourably. Don Quixote now proceeded :

"As to the regulation of thy own person and domestic concerns," said he, "in the first place, Sancho, I enjoin thee to be cleanly in all things. Keep the nails of thy fingers neatly pared, nor suffer them to grow as some do, who ignorantly imagine that long nails beautify the hand, whereas it is a foul and unsightly object.

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"Examine prudently the income of thy office, and, if it will afford thee to give liveries to thy servants, give them such as are decent and lasting, rather than gaudy and modish; and what thou shalt thus save in thy servants bestow on the poor: so shalt thou have attendants both in heaven and earth-a provision which our vainglorious great never think of.

"Eat neither garlic nor onions, lest the smell betray thy rusticity. Walk with gravity, and speak deliberately; but not so as to seem to be listening to thyself, for affectation is odious.

"Eat little at dinner, and less at supper; for the health of the whole body is tempered in the laboratory of the stomach.5

6

"Drink with moderation; for inebriety neither keeps a secret nor performs a promise.

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In the next place, Sancho, do not intermix in thy

discourse such a multitude of proverbs as thou wert wont to do; for, though proverbs are concise and pithy sentences, thou dost often so drag them in by the head and shoulders that they seem rather the maxims of folly than of wisdom.

"Let thy sleep be moderate: for he who rises not with the sun enjoys not the day; and remember, Sancho, that diligence is the mother of good fortune, and that sloth, her adversary, never arrived at the attainment of a good wish."

1 Deportment, conduct; bearing.
2 Register his counsel, to take a
faithful copy of his advice.

3 Modish, fashionable. (Fr. mode,
fashion.)

4 Affectation, a silly, vain attempt to speak or act like one's "betters." 5 Laboratory, &c. The stomach is

aptly compared to a "laboratory," or chemist's workshop, because in it the food undergoes many chemical changes.

6 Inebriety, drunkenness; intoxication.

7 Wert wont, hast been accustomed.

ON CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

PART I.

AN is the direct agent of a wide and continual distress to the lower animals, and the question is, Can any method be devised for its alleviation ?1 On this subject that Scripture image is strikingly realised, "The whole inferior creation groaning and travailing together in pain" because of him. It signifies not to the actual amount of the suffering, whether this be prompted by the hardness of his heart, or only permitted through the heedlessness of his mind. In either way it holds true, not only that the arch-devourer, man, stands pre-eminent over the fiercest creatures of the wilderness as an animal of prey, but that for his lordly and luxurious appetite, as well as for his service or

merest curiosity and amusement, nature must be ransacked throughout all her elements.

That beauteous domain whereof man has been constituted the terrestrial sovereign presents so many blissful and benignant aspects that, whether we look to its peaceful lakes, or its flowery landscapes, or its evening skies, or to all that soft attire which overspreads the hills and the valleys, lighted up by smiles of sweetest sunshine, and where animals disport themselves in all the exuberance of gaiety-this surely were a more befitting scene for the rule of clemency than for the iron rod of a murderous and remorseless tyrant.

By the decree of the Almighty, "The fear of man, and the dread of man, is now upon every beast of the field, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that move upon. the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into man's hand are they delivered; every moving thing that liveth is meat for him; into his hands are they delivered." Such is the extent of his jurisdiction. Shall man use his authority as a cruel tyrant or as a beneficent sovereign?

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The sufferings of the inferior animals are as real as our own. They just look, and tremble, and give forth the same indications of suffering that we do. Theirs is the distinct cry of pain. Theirs is the unequivocal physiognomy of pain. They put on the same aspect of terror on the demonstrations of a menaced blow. They exhibit the same distortions of agony after the infliction of it. The bruise, or the burn, or the fracture, or the deep incision, or the fierce encounter with one of equal or superior strength, just affects them similarly to ourselves. Their blood circulates as ours. They sicken, and they grow feeble with age, and finally they die just as we do. They also possess the same

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