An important Mistake in Terms.

In the valuable volume, "The Chemical Catechism," by Samuel Parkes, the writer apologises for his frequent introduction of moral reflections. Quoting Archdeacon Paley, "Every one has a particular train of thought into which his mind falls, when at leisure from the impressions and ideas that occasionally excite it; and if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is surely that which regards the phenomena of nature, with a constant reference to a supreme, intelligent Author." By this quotation the writer evidently substituted, in haste, moral instead of religious reflections.

Hypocrisy.

When the hero of Butler is under the fear of being killed by the witches, which were set upon him by the widow in her house, he answers without equivocation to the questions they put to him. One of them says,

Why didst thou choose that cursed sin,
Hypocrisy, to set up in?

Hudibras answers very plainly,

Because it is the thrivingest calling,
The only saints'-bell that rings all in ;

In which all churches are concern'd,
And is the easiest to be learn'd;
For no degrees, unless th' employ it,
Can ever gain much, or enjoy it.
A gift that is not only able
To domineer among the rabble;
But by the laws empow'r'd to rout
And awe the greatest that stand out ;

Which few hold forth against, for fear

Their hands should slip, and come too near ;
For no sin else, among the saints,

Is taught so tenderly against.

Hudibras, part iii. canto 1, l. 123.

Origin of Language.

The communication of ideas between human beings by words, or certain conventional sounds, though subject to abuse, is yet a most noble and wonderful privilege. The late Dr. Samuel Johnson, not less famous for the warmth of his piety than the sagacity of his intellect, used to say, that he thought that language was one of the great proofs of a Deity presiding over human affairs; "for this extraordinary benefit could not have been devised, and carried forth so far towards perfection, by the powers of mere mortal intellects."

Sublime Answer of an Hermit.

I once, says a Traveller in Italy, was wandering in a most romantic and solitary part of the

country, and arrived at the residence of an hermit, in the very bosom of this deep solitude. In conversation with this pious man, I ventured to ask him how he could like to live on the top of a mountain, and above a mile from any human habitation." Providence," replied the hermit, "is my very next-door neighbour."-Sterne's Koran.

Civilization.

When the erudite Monboddo, and the eloquent and fanciful J. J. Rousseau, attempted to plead in favour of barbarous nations as most virtuous and happy, they exhibited more ignorance of historical facts, than sense or wit in their declamations. The histories of remote and uncivilized periods, in all countries, oppose their absurd theories. See this matter treated with much perspicuity in Warton's History of English Poetry, and in M. D'Alembert's interesting treatise on the "Commerce between Scholars and the Great."

Men of extra Intellects.

The modest and wary enquiries of persons of real genius should be a lesson of caution to men of less intellectual powers. Sir Isaac Newton steered clear in all his writings of the dangerous study of

metapyhsics; and the illustrious John Locke, with a genius naturally sound and precise, pointed out to mankind the errors to which the human intellect was subject, from the use of abstract terms, and from the abuse of words, incident to the imperfections of language.

M. Descartes.

Aristotle is reported to have said, that the beginning of wisdom is to doubt. This assertion may be, doubtful, though Descartes thought other. wise. Cogito, ergo sum;" I think, therefore I

am.

Having doubted his existence in the first place, he wishes to prove it by a logical form of speech. Now that a man should doubt a thing, of which he asserts and admits as a faculty or attribute, seems strange, if we did not know, that in metaphysical studies the most ingenious man can only exhibit its difficulties most fully; and to use a line, somewhat out of its direction, indeed, they are such difficulties, that

He best can paint them, who has felt them most.

Pope's Eloisa to Abelurd.

What Studies to be pursued.

Medical men agree, that whatever meats we have most attachment to, will best agree with the

stomach, and of course with the digestion. This seems, by an obvious analogy, to be applicable to our intellectual love of particular authors. If inclination calls upon us, the writers we peruse agree with our intellectual stomachs and digestion; and the memory, which is the best proof that we have well digested our mental food, will retain that deposit, which it otherwise would have refused. Where a man's professional studies agree with his taste, he must be, with very common talents, certainly useful, and probably eminent, in his vocation.

Addison, as a Critic,

Was an elegant classic scholar. He was (and for that reason, perhaps) too much under the

bondage of classic authority;" and his critical papers, in the Spectator, on Milton's "Paradise Lost," are too general in their praises to be very edifying. *Mr. T. Warton, a more learned critic than Addison, ventures to say, that when the latter writer commended the description of "Laughter,” in L'Allegro, he, no doubt, thought it the finest passage in both poems; and that it did not "coincide with Addison's subordinate ideas of poetry to exhibit passages of a more poetical character."

* Hist. of Poetry.