And oftener still, of trifling, second-hand With nature, with itself, and truth, at war; NOVELS-Evils of. Girls learn from such books to think coarsely and boldly about lovers and marrying; their early modesty is effaced by the craving for admiration; their warm affections are silenced i by the desire for selfish triumph; they lose the fresh and honest feelings of youth while they are yet scarcely developed; they pass with sad rapidity from their early visions of Tancred and Orlando to notions of good connections, establishments, excellent matches, &c.; and yet they think, and their mammas think, that they are only advancing in "prudence" and knowledge of the world,-that bad, contaminating knowledge of the world, which I sometimes imagine must have been the very apple that Eve plucked from the forbidden Alas! when once tasted, the garden of life is an innocent and happy Paradise no Sala. tree. more. It cannot but be injurious to the human mind never to be called into effort. The habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of thought, by the mere excitement of curiosity and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading. Like idle morning visitors, the brisk and breathless periods hurry in and hurry off in quick and profitless succession; each, indeed, for the moment of its stay, prevents the pain of vacancy, while it indulges the love of sloth; but altogether they leave the mistress of the house-the soul, I mean-flat and exhausted, incapable of attending to her own concerns, and unfitted for the conversation of more rational guests. Coleridge. Novels do not force their fair readers to sin, they only instruct them how to sin; the consequences of which are fully detailed, and not in a way calculated to seduce any but weak minds; few of their heroines are happily disposed of. Zimmerman. Writers of novels and romances in general bring a double loss on their readers, they rob them both of their time and money; representing men, manners, and things, that never have been, nor are likely to be; either confounding or perverting history and truth, NOVELTY-Love of. Before I translated the New Testament out of the Greek, all longed after it; when it was done, their longing lasted scarce four weeks. Then they desired the books of Moses; when I had translated these, they had enough thereof in a short time. After that, they would have the Psalms; of these they were soon weary, and desired other books. So it will be with the book of Ecclesiastes, which they now long for, and about which I have taken great pains. All is acceptable until our giddy brains be satisfied; afterwards we let things lie, and seek after new. NOW-Opinions about. Luther. One of our poets (Cowley,) speaks of an If such a condition of "everlasting now." existence were offered to us in this world, and it were put to the vote whether we should accept the offer and fix all things immutably as they are, who are they whose voices would be given in the affirmative? Not those who are in pursuit of fortune, or of fame, or of knowledge, or of enjoyment, or of happiness; though with regard to all of these, as far as any of them are attainable, there is more pleasure in the pursuit than in the attainment. Not those who are at sea, or travelling in a stage coach. Not the man who is shaving himself. Not those who have the tooth-ache, or who are having a tooth drawn. The fashionable beauty might; and the fashionable singer, and the fashionable opera dancer, and the actor who is in the height of his power and reputation. So might the alderman at a city feast. So would the heir who is squandering a large fortune faster than it was accumulated for him. And the thief who is not taken. And the convict who is not hanged, and tho NOW. scoffer at religion, whose heart belies his tongue. Not the wise and the good. Not those who are in sickness or in sorrow. Not I. But were I endowed with the power of suspending the effect of time upon things around me, methinks there are some of my flowers which should neither fall nor fade; decidedly my kitten should never attain to cathood; and I am afraid my little boy would continue to mis-speak half-uttered words; and never while I live, outgrow that epicene dress of French grey, half European, half Asiatic in its fashion. Southey. NOW-Eternity of. Now! it is gone. -Our brief hours travel post, To dwell within thee-an eternal Now! OATH. The large reversion of thine unborn love Yet by thy hands upon thy bosom prest cross Is not the Jesus to redeem thy loss;- Even now there is a something at thy heart start. Yes, yes,-thy face, thine eyes, thy closed lips prove Thou wert created to be loved, and love. Poor maiden, victim of the vilest craft But know, each parting hour gives up a ghost May all thy sighs be registered in Heaven, NUN-likened to a Flower. Coleridge. The daughter was young and pretty; and a young and pretty nun, what is she but a flower worked in black crape-a silver crest on a funeral-pile? Hannay. NUN-No Praise for becoming a. thou art! NUN-Unhappy State of a. For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, moon. Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. Thrice blessed they that master so their blood, I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered To undergo such maiden pilgrimage: virtue unexercised and unbreathed, that never But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks Than that which, with'ring on the virgin out of the race, where that immortal garland | thorn, is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world,- -we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue, therefore, which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure. Milton. NUN-Unnatural Sacrifice of a. So young too young-consigned to clois- Untimely wedded-wedded, yet a maid! Who would be proud to waft a sigh from thee, In the blank childhood of thy simpleness; And didst unweeting sign away thine all NYMPHS-Immortal. And now his limbs imbathed OATH-Sanctity of an. To force a spotless virgin's chastity, Yes, he was sworn! be witness heaven and To 'reave the orphan of his patrimony, earth! To wring the widow from her custom'd right; OBEDIENCE-Aim of. Heaven doth divide OBEDIENCE-not always a Duty. Ibid. I hear much of "obedience,"-how that the kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified by Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it from me to deny. Obedience, a virtue universally forgotten in these days, will have to become universally known again. Obedience is good and indispensable; but if it be obedience to what is wrong and false, there is no name for such a depth of buman cowardice and calamity, spurned everlastingly by the gods. Loyalty! Will you be loyal to Beelzebub? Will you make "a covenant with death and hell"? I will not be loyal to Beelzebub; I will become a nomadic Chactau rather, a barricading Sans culotte, a Conciliation-hall repealer; anything and everything is venial to that. OBEDIENCE-Happiness of. Carlyle. OBSTINACY-Wrong-neadedness of Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong. Dryden. OCCUPATION-A Base. Every base occupation makes one sharp in its practice, and dull in every other. Sir Philip Sidne 1. OCCUPATION-Happiness of. Occupation was one of the pleasures of Paradise, and we cannot be happy without it. Mrs. James. OFFENCE-Denunciation against. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh' St. Matther. OFFENCE-where not Intended. Nothing is more unpleasing than to find that offence has been received where none was intended, and that pain has been giver. to those who were not guilty of any provoca tion. As the great end of society is mutual beneficence, a good man is always uneasy when he finds himself acting in opposition to the purposes of life; because, though his conscience may easily acquit him of malic: prepense, of settled hatred, or contrivances of mischief, yet he seldom can be certain that he has not failed by negligence or indolence, that he has not been hindered from consulting the common interest by too much regard to his own ease, or too much indifference to the Johesun. happiness of others. OFFENCES-to be pardoned. Offences ought to be pardoned, for few offend willingly, but as they are compelled by some affection. Hegesippus OMENS-of Evil. Coming from Sardis, on our foremost ensign. Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd, Gorging and feeding from our soldiers hands. This morning are they fled away, and gone; Held up his left hand, which did flame and May the scared conscience start at blazing burn, But just three drops! and why not just three drops. As well as four or five, or five-and twenty? Away, ye dreams: what if it thunder'd now? Dryden and Lee. The sacred oil which, for a hundred years Supplied the sun, behind the golden veil Went out, and all the mystic lights were quench'd. Strange doleful voices shrilly echo'd through The darken'd fane; the monuments did open, And all the marble tombs, like sponges squeezed, Spouted big sweat; the curtain was consumed With wondrous flame, and every shining altar meteors, The history of a cause seems much less interesting than that of one great man, or of a people; but could the historian really tell it, it would be the story of all stories, and would enchant a listening world. It seems to abide in dates, and public documents, and resolutions of public assemblies; in short, in the material husk of events, and forms a narrative which even serious and dutiful readers are |