more than the most active station in life. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a party; of doing justice to the character of a deserving man; of softening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments suited to a reasonable nature, and bring great satisfaction to the person who can busy himself in them with discretion.

There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for those retired hours in which we are altogether left to ourselves, and destitute of company and conversation; I mean that intercourse and communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his being. The man who lives under an habitual sense of the divine presence keeps up a perpetual cheerfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment the satisfaction of thinking himself in company with his dearest and best of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impossible for him to be alone. . .

I have here only considered the necessity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have something to do; but if we consider further, that the exercise of virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lasts, but that its influence extends to those parts of our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole eternity is to take its colour from those hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of passing away our time.

When a man has but a little stock to improve, and has opportunities of turning it all to good account, what shall we think of him if he suffers nineteen parts of it to lie

dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruin or disadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervours, nor strained up to a pitch of virtue, it is necessary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations.

The next method therefore that I would propose to fill up our time, should be useful and innocent diversions. I must confess I think it is below reasonable creatures to be altogether conversant in such diversions as are merely innocent, and have nothing else to recommend them, but that there is no hurt in them. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to say for itself, I shall not determine; but I think it very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with no other conversation but what is made up of a few game phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of this species complaining that life is short?

The stage might be made a perpetual source of the most noble and useful entertainments, were it under proper regulations.

But the mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the conversation of a well-chosen friend. There is indeed no blessing of life that is in any way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue and good resolutions, soothes and allays the passions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life.

Next to such an intimacy with a particular person, one would endeavour after a more general conversation with such as are able to entertain and improve those with

whom they converse, which are qualifications that seldom go asunder.

There are many other useful amusements of life which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might on all occasions have recourse to something, rather than suffer the mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any passions that chance to rise in it.

A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts. The florist, the planter, the gardener, the husbandman, when they are only as accomplishments to the man of fortune, are great reliefs to a country life, and many ways useful to those who are possessed of them.

But of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions. The time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; so is that of the other, because he distinguishes every moment of it with useful or amusing thoughts; or, in other words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it.

How different is the view of past life, in the man who is grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him. who is grown old in ignorance and folly! The latter is like the owner of a barren country, that fills his eye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and spacious landscape divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful fields, and can scarce cast his eye on a single spot of his possessions, that is not covered with some beautiful plant or flower.

KING STANISLAUS OF POLAND

(A. D. 1677-1766.)

STANISLAUS LESZCZYNSKI, or Leszinski, son of a Grand Treasurer of Poland, was elected to the throne of that coun try, in 1705, through the influence of Charles XII. of Sweden, and lost his kingship four years later, after Charles's defeat at Pultowa. He was called again to the throne in 1733, and stepped down from it again in 1735, retaining the title, and being invested, in 1737, with the duchies of Lorraine and Bar. His daughter was married to Louis XV. of France, and he enjoyed the favor of the French court. He gained some distinction, too, as a man of letters in France, being, indeed, better fitted for a studious and literary life than for public affairs. A collection of his writings was published in 1765 — the year before his death of "Works of the Benevolent Philosopher." have realized quite consistently in his own character the ideal philosopher whose qualities are described in one of his works. "The true philosopher," he wrote, "is exempt from prejudices; he must know how to estimate the great conditions of life at no more than their worth, and its lower conditions at no less than they are. He must enjoy pleasures without being their slave, riches without being dependent on them, honors without pride and without display. He must be always the same, in every state of fortune; he must be always tranquil; he must love order, and put it into all that he does."

under the title

He is said to

TRAITS OF MORAL COURAGE IN EVERY-DAY LIFE.

(By Stanislaus, King of Poland.)

Have the courage to discharge a debt, while you have the money in your pocket.

Have the courage to do without that which you do not need, however much you may admire it.

Have the courage to speak your mind when it is necessary that you should do So, and to hold your tongue when it is better that you should be silent.

Have the courage to speak to a friend in a "seedy coat, even in the street, and when a rich one is nigh; the effort is less than many people take it to be, and the act is worthy a king.

Have the courage to set down every penny you spend, and add it up weekly.

Have the courage to pass your host's lackey at the door, without giving him a shilling, when you know you cannot afford it, and, what is more, that the man has not earned it.

Have the courage to own that you are poor, and you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.

Have the courage to laugh at your personal defects, and the world will be deprived of that pleasure, by being reminded of their own.

Have the courage to admit that you have been in the wrong, and you will remove the fact from the mind of others, putting a desirable impression in the place of an unfavorable one.

Have the courage to adhere to a first resolution, when you cannot change it for a better, and to abandon it at the eleventh hour, upon conviction.

Have the courage to acknowledge your age to a day, and to compare it with the average life of man. Have the courage to make a will, and what is more, a just one.

Have the courage to face a difficulty, lest it kick you harder than you bargain for: difficulties, like thieves, often disappear at a glance.

Have the courage to avoid accommodation bills, how