Some person observed to him, that the number of men of letters was very small in comparison with the bulk of mankind. 'If harmony,' said he, ' reigned among them, small as their number is, they would lead the public opinion, and be the masters of the world.' 189. When a friend laughs,' said he, it is for him to disclose the subject of his joy; when he weeps, it is for me to discover the cause of his sorrow.' 190. He expressed himself fully gratified with elegant and refined society, and no feeling of envy or ambition embittered his enjoyments. Content,' said he, to pass my time in the circle of friendship, form ed by the most illustrious men of the age, I have no anxiety to be placed near them in the temple of fame.' DIOGENES. DIOGENES, as a disciple of Antisthenes the founder of the Cynic sect of philosophers, assumed the privilege of saying and doing whatever he pleased. In allusion to the name of cynic, it may be said of him, that he did not fawn like a spaniel, but barked like a mastiff. What was the elevation of his mind or his indifference to wealth, pomp, and power, may be inferred from his reply to Alexander the Great ; and what was the high estimation in which that monarch held him, is equally clear from the same conversation, 191. Alexander the Great saw Diogenes sitting at the entrance of his tub, and basking in the sun. 'What benefit can I confer upon you?' said the potent sove reign. Stand,' said Diognes, out of the way, and prevent me not from enjoying the sun-shine.' Admiring the independent spirit that suggested this reply, Alexander said, 'If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.' 192. Diogenes being asked, of what beast the bite is most dangerous, answered, 'Of wild beasts, the bite of a slanderer; of tame, that of a flatterer.' 193. When Aristippus returned from the court of Dionysius, he said to Diogenes, It you knew how to flatter kings, you need not live upon herbs.' To which Diogenes replied, If you knew how to live on herbs, you need not flatter kings.' 194. A sophist, wishing to give a specimen of his acute reasoning to Diogenes, argued with him thus: What I am thou art not.'Granted,' said Diogenes. The sophist proceeded, I am a man, therefore thou art not a man.' The cynic replied, Begin from me, and I will not dispute the soundness of your conclusion.' DIONYSIUS II. THE Cruelty of his disposition was not allayed by the presence of the great philosopher Plato, whom he invited to his court. He showed, however, in his reverse of fortune, the benefit he had derived from his instructions. 195. Soon after he was expelled from Syracuse, a Greek asked him with a sneer, Of what service is the philosophy of Plato to you now?' It assists me,' he replied, to behold the vicissitudes of fortune without astonishment, and to suffer her severities without complaint.' 196. Philip king of Macedon asked him, with a sneer, how his father the elder Dionysius had found leisure to compose odes and tragedies. You seem,' said Dionysius, to make a difficulty of what is easy to be explained. He composed them in those hours which you and I consume in drinking and gaming.' ་ 197. After his expulsion from Syracuse, a Corin thian came into his presence designing to ridicule him for the loss of his crown; and so shook his robe, to show that he had no arms concealed under it, a ceremony observed when a person came into the royal presence but Dionysius, perceiving the drift of this mockery, retorted the joke upon the jester. 'My friend, said he, thy ceremony is premature; rather shake thy cloak when thou art going out :' Dionysius thus giving him to understand, that he thought him a likely person to carry something away that was not his own. JEROM DONATO. 198. WHEN this noble Venetian was sent ambassador from Venice to pope Julius II., who asked for the title of his republic to the sovereignty of the Adriatic sea, Your holiness,' said he, will find the grant of the Adriatic written at the back of the original record of Constantine's donation to pope Sylvester of the city of Rome, and other territories to the church.' This reply was particulary spirited at a period when it was so dangerous to dispute the authenticity of this writ of donation, that, in 1478, several persons had been condemned to the flames at Strasburg for expressing doubts of it. JOHN DRYDEN. He was the great refiner of English versification, and showed Pope the road to poetical excellence. He was the Proteus of authors; he bent the rules of criticism to all kinds of poems, wrote panegyrics upon the most unworthy patrons,-a Danby and a Rochester; and fashioned his religious creed to the varying times --to Charles II., he was a protestant, and to his successor a papist. His conduct ought perhaps to be attributed to his indigence, or his fear of indigence, rather than to any natural servility of disposition. Had he been at liberty to indulge his inclination, he probably would have given more specimens of the sublimity of his genius. Moderate praise would rather disparage, than do justice to his Alexander's Feast. It is the noblest poem of the kind the world ever saw. 199. Lady Elizabeth Dryden, one morning, having come into his study at an unseasonable time, when be was intently employed in some composition, and finding her husband did not attend to her, exclaimed, 'Mr Dryden, you are always poring upon these musty books; I wish I was a book, and then I should have more of your company.' Well, my dear,' replied the poet, 'when you do become a book, pray let it be an almanack; for then at the end of the year I shall lay you quietly on the shelf, and shall be able to pursue my studies without interruption.' 200. He said, 'I naturally withdraw my sight from a precipice; and, admit the prospect be never so large and goodly, can take no pleasure even in looking on the downfall, though I am secure from the danger. Methinks there is something of a malignant joy in that excellent description of Lucretius, Suave mari magno, &c. I am sure his master Epicurus, and my better master Cowley, preferred the solitude of a garden and the conversation of a friend to any consideration, and even to the regard, of those unbappy people whom, in our own wrong, we call the great. I can be contented with an humbler station in the temple of virtue, than to be set on the pinnacle of it." In his easy but forcible manner, he thus character. ised Shakspeare :— 66 201. Shakspeare among all the writers of our nation may stand himself as a phoenix, the first and last of his order in whom bounteous nature wonderfully supplied all the parts of a great poet and excellent orator; and of whom alone one may venture boldly to say, that had he had more learning, perhaps he might have been less of a poet." 202. When the prince of Orange came to England, at the time of the Revolution, five of the seven bishops who had been sent to the Tower declared in his favour, and the two others would not conform to his measures. When Dryden heard of this, he said, “ that seven golden candlesticks had been sent to the Tower to be assayed, and five of them proved to be prince's inetal 203. A young nobleman just come from seeing his play of Cleomenes, told him, in raillery against the continuence of his principal character," If I had been left alone with a fair lady, I should not have passed my time like your Spartan hero." "That may be," answered the poet with a very grave face; "for give me leave to tell you, sir, you are no hero." 204. He was one of the few poets who had the judgment to form a due comparative estimate of his own works. He said, "I am glad to hear that my Ode for Cecilia's day is esteemed the best of all my poetry by all the town. I thought so myself when I wrote it; but, being old, I mistrusted my own judg ment." He was then sixty-seven years of age. 205. Dryden's description of wit is excellent. "A thousand different shapes wit wears, Admir'd with laughter at a feast; Nor florid talk, which can this title gain,- QUEEN ELIZABETH. SHE was the most accomplished woman of her age, and often spoke with as much spirit and dignity as she acted. 206. She evaded giving a direct answer to a theolo |