any finite being. We are furnished with faculties (dull and weak as they are) to discover enough in the creatures to lead us to the knowledge of the Creator, and the knowledge of our duty; and we are fitted well enough with abilities to provide for the conveniences of living. These are our business in this world. But were our senses altered and made much quicker and acuter, the appearance and scheme of things would have quite another face to us; and I am apt to think would be inconsistent with our being, or at least well-being, in this part of the universe which we inhabit. LOCKE. On the Understanding. · OUR noblest senses act by pairs; THE SEA. Hudibras, Part III., Canto 1. THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods, What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal. His steps are not upon thy paths,-thy fields And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, The armaments which thunderstrike the walls Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee- Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, Dark-heaving ;-boundless, endless, and sublime— Of the Invisible, even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. It is a beauteous evening, calm and free; WORDSWORTH. THE Sea! the Sea! the open Sea! That is the place where we all wish to be, So all sing and say By night and by day, In the boudoir, the street, at the concert, and play, You may roam through the city transversely or straight, And every young lady who strums a guitar, Of being a Rover and Child of the Ocean, The wessel they woyage in has made half her way Ingoldsby Legends. FRIENDSHIP. HARD is the doubt, and difficult to deem, Or raging fire of love to woman-kind, Or zeal of friends combined with virtues meet, Me seems the gentle heart should most assured bind. For natural affection soon doth cesse, And quenched is with Cupid's greater flame; For as the soule doth rule the earthly masse So love of soule doth love of bodie passe No less than perfect gold surmounts the meanest brass. FRIENDSHIP is Love without its flowers or veil. HARE. Guesses at Truth. THE next position defines Friendship by an equality of good offices, and benevolent affections. But thus to balance the kindnesses on both sides, is to make too mean, too particular an estimate of it. True Friendship appears to me more noble and generous, and is not over scrupulous, lest more favours be returned than have been received.* For there is no occasion to fear, that any part of our good offices should be lost or fall to the ground, or that more than what is reasonable be expended on friendship. CICERO. FRIENDSHIP between men, when it deserves the name, is the slow growth of mutual respect, † is of a nature calm and simple,‡ professes nothing and exacts nothing, is, above all careful to be considerate in its expectations, and to keep at a distinct distance from the romantic, the visionary, and the impossible. The torrid zone, with its heats and its tempests, is left to the inexperience of youth, or to the love that exists between the sexes; the temperate, with its sunshine, its zephyrs, cheerful noon, and calm evening, is the proper and the only region of manly friendship. A LONG life may be passed without finding a friend in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose * He that doth the kindness hath the noblest pleasure of the two. + Shepherd. After all, what blessing is in this world like a rational, wellfounded, stedfast friendship between twa people who hae seen some little o' human life-felt some little o' its troubles-kept fast hold o' a gude character, and are doing a' they can for the benefit o' their fellow-creatures. Noctes Ambrosianæ. Friendships-which, like the shadows of evening, increase even till the setting of the sun. In love we grow acquainted because we are already attached, in friendship we must know each other before we love. TALLEYRAND. A opinion we can value at once for its justice and sincerity. weak man, however honest, is not qualified to judge. A man of the world, however penetrating, is not fit to counsel. Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings, because they are his own. Friends are tender, and unwilling to give pain, or they are interested and fearful to offend. NE certes can that friendship long endure, That doth ill cause or evil end enure, JOHNSON. For virtue is the band that bindeth hearts most sure. Faery Queen, Book IV., Canto 2. He was much in my heart, and I believe I was in his to the |