THE SENTENTIOUS WORLD.

WE call that a contrary wind which is not favourable to ourselves; forgetting that it is blowing a favourable gale for somebody else.

The sight of a distressed beggar has its use. It awakens our humanity, and makes us contented with our condition.

Use yourself to thinking, and you will find that you have more in your head than you thought of,

A man, who does not examine his own conduct, will be sure to find some good natured friends ready enough to do it for him.

In some countries, if your purse be as long as your neck, you will never be hanged.

It is observed that those men succeed well, who, leaving their original employment, take to another more agreeable to their genius. Quintin Matsys, from a blacksmith, at Antwerp, became an eminent painter.

A secret is no where so safe, as in your own bosom.

An Alderman, after a turtle feast, does not sleep half so sound as a day labourer, after a mess of oat meal porridge.

Very young people generally dream in courtship, and wake in wedlock.

The harder you fare, when you are young, the better you will fare when you are old.

If an injury were not to be resented, you would have a demand made upon your coat, and perhaps on your waistcoat, a short time after.

If an idle man knew the value of time he would not be so desirous of killing it.

A pack of hounds is more easily managed than a pack of idle ser

vants.

The farther a story travels, the worse it grows, till at last it becomes a downright lie.

Were the Book of Fate laid open to view, no man would enjoy a moment's peace from the day he looked into it.

We err, when we say that rambling in the woods is the state of nature. Man is a social animal, and his natural state is civilization. Animals only regard their young during their defenceless state. Man continues his affection down to his great grand children. Cleanliness promotes health of body and delicacy of mind. A firm belief in a future state is a great consolation to a good man.

It is the balsam, that cures all his miseries in this life.

There is a laudable virtue in wishing to leave behind us some memorial of our having lived.

A family that is disunited, seldom thrives.

Men, when sitting, have great difficulty in managing their hands. Women's difficulty lies in the management of their feet.

When you have any thing to do, let your head and hands always go together.

Intense thinking is nearly as bad for the constitution as intense labour.

It is a great accomplishment to be able to tell a story well. When blessed with health and prosperity, cultivate a compassionate disposition.

Think of the distreses of human life; of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan.

If, when engaged in a literary pursuit, you find your genius begins to flag, lay your work aside till your genius returns; and do not persist in writing what you must certainly blot hereafter.

Nothing is so easy for a gentleman as to enter a lady's drawing room, and nothing is so difficult as to do it gracefully.

A suspicious man resembles a traveller in the wilderness, who sees no objects around him but such as are dreary and uncomfortable.

Whoever considers the nature of human society, must know that, from necessity, there must be a subordination.

Equality is theoretical nonsense.

A mistress of arts is generally an overmatch for a master of

arts.

Those, who extravantly extel the superiority of the ancients, should consider that among them they had not a linen shirt or knew the benefit of a pair of spectacles.

If you are a studious man, be regular in the times of your studious employments.

A regular division of time prevents one hour from encroaching upon another.

A handsome man is often vainer than a handsome woman. When asked to dinner, either promptly accept the invitation, or give a reason for declining it; but do not make any hesitation, as if you made your acceptance a matter of favour.

In a mixed company let your conversation be very guarded, for, without intending it, you may say something, which a person present may consider as personal, and for which you may be obliged to make an apology.

Send your son into the world with good principles, and a good education, and he will find his way in the dark.

A guinea found in the street will not do a man so much good as one earned by industry.

Those bear disappointments best, who have been the most used to them.

If you were born a gentleman, take care to live and die like one. Give a man work, and he will find money.

Unless you are perfectly well informed, do not venture to give your opinion upon a work of art. It may injure the artist, and probably will occasion your judgment to be brought into question.

To attend to a long story ill told, requires more than mortal patience.

To suffer your judgment to be always regulated by other people is worse than selling it for a mess of pottage.

A fine woman ought to add annually to her accomplishments, as much as her beauty loses in the time.

A man of bright parts has generally more indiscretions to answer for than a blockhead.

A rich man often dares to do a mean thing that would be reprobated in a man of small fortune.

It is a stern rule of life to care for nobody that does not care for you.

When your husband desires you to do a thing, that is not of material moment, do it cheerfully and do not refuse from an ill bred and impolitic spirit of opposition. Nothing can be lost by this condescension, but something may be gained.

If you wish to have a clean crop of corn, weed the field with great care. Do the same by your mind.

As the constitution of man, both in body and mind, is constantly changing, self examination becomes a frequent and a necessary duty.

If you and your husband take a journey of pleasure, never disagree about which road you are to take, or which place to look at. Remember you are partners and must not have separate views.

No man can be a good school-master, who does not love his profession.

When we are young, we enjoy the pleasures of youth, and never think that those pleasures may bring on the mortifications of age.

Blame no man for what he cannot help. We must not expect of the dial to tell us the hour after the sun is set.

If you wish to be well with a peevish relation, eat what he eats, drink what he drinks, and let his pleasures and amusements be yours.

Be not continually chiding your servants. It can answer no purpose beyond giving exercise to your lungs at the expense of your servants' patience.

Never make a verbal agreement, when it can be reduced to writing.

A good politican keeps his own secrets and steals yours.

Without corresponding acts of goodness faith is of no avail.

An author deserves pity whose poverty obliges him to write, when his genius has fled.

Learn to fence with both hands; as when the sword is used you will have a great superiority, whether you fight with a right, or a left handed man.

AN AUTHOR'S EVENINGS-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

I HAVE often wished, for the sake of the reputation of the learned, that, after a lapse of years, when local, crude, or hasty productions had lost all the gloss of novelty, and all the favour that popularity could bestow, some rigid critic, with plenary powers, should arise, and boldly expunge from the most favourite author such passages in his works as not only dishonour his memory, but are disgraceful or injurious to the commonwealth of learning. Whereas the ordinary practice of publishing the whole works, even of a man of genius, is become such an established custom, that the most slovenly and the most stupid of an author's pages are preserved with a sort of religious care, merely because they are his. For example; and, as a strong case, we will take a standard writer. I have before me a magnificent and a complete edition of Thomson. I am delighted with his "Seasons." His "Castle of Indolence" I survey with rapture. The loves of "Tancred

and Sigismunda" are not forgotten, and even "Agamemnon” is not without his applause. But, to the disgrace of the genius and the principles of the poet, he must needs go wildly out of his way, to play the patriot forsooth, and produce, to the confusion of his readers, a dull and most despicable declamation in honour of "Liberty." Between this woful stuff and the imperishable "Castle of Indolence" a greater contrast can scarcely be imagined.

In the desultory book of an eccentric writer we find a familiar phrase well illustrated by a classical quotation.

Naked truth: a story told without ornament, and unattended with remarks or reflections. Horace describes the goddess in the same manner: nudaque veritas.

Mr. Thicknesse remarks that physicians are but lightly esteemed in France, which, probably, may be owing, in part, to the satirical strokes of their comic poet, Moliere. It is likewise a memorable fact, that all the writings of Le Sage teem with sarcasms against the medical tribe, and that sneering author, whenever he describes any of his heroes as ill, always makes Death and the doctor inseparable companions. Hence the profession of physic has been exceedingly low in Spain, and the name of Sangrado is a sort of hereditary bugbear. From these two examples, operating with such force in countries, by no means unilluminated, we may learn not to undervalue the votaries of Esculapius, whom we love and honour, but to perceive the terrible energy of a man of genius, when roused to exercise all his lampooning power.