Be patient, be patient, for patience hath power,
To shield us in danger, like mantle in shower.
SIR W. SCOTT.

What were the arguments of worldly advantage held out through the whole New Testament, to induce the world to embrace the religion it taught? What was the condition of St. Paul's introduction to Christianity? It was not-I will crown him with honour and prosperity, with dignity and pleasure; but "I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." What were the virtues which Christ chiefly taught in his discourses? What were the graces he most recommended by his example? Self-denial, mortification, patience, long-suffering, renouncing ease and pleasure. These are the marks, which have, ever since its first appearance, distinguished Christianity from all the religions in the world, and, on that account, evidently prove its divine original. Ease, splendour, external prosperity, conquest, make no part of its establishment. Other empires have been founded on the blood of the vanquished, the dominion of Christ was founded in his own blood. Most of the beatitudes, which infinite compassion pronounced, have the sorrows of earth for their subject, but the joys of heaven for their completion. As the apostle beautifully obtests his brethren, not by the power and dignity, but " by the meekness and gentleness of Christ," so every Christian should adorn his doctrine by the same endearing qualities, evincing by the brightness of the polish the solidity of the substance.

MRS. H. MORE.

PATIENCE, by preserving composure within, resists the impression which trouble makes from without.

By maintaining a steady and unbroken mind, amidst all the shocks of the world, marks a great and noble spirit. MURRAY'S ENGLISH READER.

The sincere Christian is humble in respect to himself, and indulgent and mild towards others. Having some conceptions of the deceitful wickedness of his own heart, he looks upon the worst of men as brother sinners.

Јасов Аввотт.

Of all animals the ass is the most patient and enduring; and we should, therefore, look upon it and treat it with

the greatest tenderness and consideration. DEAN SWIFT says, ""Tis an animal I cannot bear to strike, there is a patient endurance of sufferings written so unaffectedly in its looks and carriage, which pleads so mightily for it, that it always disarms me, and, to that degree, that I do not like even to speak unkindly to it." An English poet has written the following fine lines :—

To A YOUNG Ass.

Poor little foal of an oppressed race!
I love the languid patience of thy face:
And oft with gentle hand I give thee bread,
And clap thy rugged coat, and pat thy head.
But what thy dulled spirits have dismayed,
That never thou dost sport along the glade?
And (most unlike the nature of things young)
That earthward still thy moveless head is hung?
Do thy prophetic fears anticipate,

Meek child of misery! thy future fate?

The starving meal, and all the thousand aches,
Which patient merit of the unworthy takes?

Poor Ass! thy master should have learnt to shew
Pity-best taught by fellowship of woe!

How much I fear me that he lives, like thee,
Half-famished in a land of Luxury!

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

PREJUDICE.

1. PREPOSSESSION; judgment formed beforehand without examination. It is used for prepossession in favour of, or against anything. JOHNSON.

2. Mischief; detriment; hurt; injury. This sense is only accidental or consequential; a bad thing being called a prejudice, only because a prejudice is commonly a bad thing; it is not derived from the original or etymology of the word; it were therefore better to use it less; perhaps prejudice ought never to be applied to any mischief which does not imply some partiality or prepossession.

JOHNSON.

Factions carried too high and too violently, is a sign of weakness in princes, and much to the prejudice of their authority and business. BACON.

3. TO PREJUDICE, to prepossess; to abstract or injure; to diminish; to impair; to be detrimental to.

Suffer not any beloved study to prejudice your mind, so far as to despise all other learning.

TICE.

WATTS.

US

Prejudico is the Latin for PREJUDGE, meaning I judge beforehand, that is, before examination; see JusPREPOSSESSION applies to the feelings; PREJUDICE refers only to opinions: we may be biassed for or against, we are always prepossessed in favour, and mostly prejudiced against. We are commanded in the scriptures to "judge not," lest we" be judged," even when we have the proofs before us, on which to form a judgment; how much worse then is it to prejudge, that is, to condemn without examination, especially when we are told by a competent authority that" our unreasonable prejudices are generally the strongest."

BOUCHER.

Of prejudice it has been truly said, that it has the singular ability of accommodating itself to all the possible varieties of the human mind. Some passions and vices are but thinly scattered among mankind, and find only here and there a fitness of reception. But_prejudice, like the spider, makes everywhere its home. It has neither taste nor choice of place, and all that it requires is room. There is scarcely a situation, except fire and water, in which a spider will not live, so let the mind be as naked as the walls of an empty and forsaken tenement, gloomy as a dungeon, or ornamented with the richest ability of thinking; let it be hot or cold, dark or light, lonely or inhabited, still prejudice, if undisturbed, will fill it with cobwebs, and live, like the spider, where there seems nothing to live on. If the one prepares her food by poisoning it to her palate and her use, the other does the same; and as several of our passions are strongly characterized by the animal world, prejudice may be denominated the Spider of the Mind. BASIL MONTAGUE.

If a man will look at most of his prejudices, he will find that they arise from his field of vision being necessarily narrow, like the eye of a fly. He can have but little better notions of the whole scheme of things, it has been well said, than a fly on the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral can have of the whole structure. He is offended, therefore, by inequalities, which are lost in the great de

sign. This persuasion will fortify him against many injuries and troublesome prejudices. CECIL.

EFFECTS OF PREJUDICE.-We are indebted to SIR F. PALGRAVE for the following anecdote which is strongly illustrative of the effect produced by prejudice upon the minds and actions of those, who are subjected to its influence-A pleasure-boat belonging to a party of noted Brunswickers-as the Protestant faction in Ireland was termed-having been moored in the river Liffey, near Carlisle bridge, some of the bystanders on the adjoining quay, were extremely incensed at the standard of defiance which the vessel bore. The vane at the mast-head, like those of the ships of the Conqueror, displayed an effigy— an orangeman, on a green shamrock-orange and green were the colours of the rival factions. This affront aimed at the feelings of the multitude was not to be borne. The Milesians attacked the hostile Saxon bark, by hurling a furious volley of paving stones, and the unlucky crew, urged by danger or apprehension, discharged their firearms, and wounded some of the surrounding assemblage. A great commotion was excited; the leaders of the belligerent parties were conducted to the College-street office. Amongst the witnesses who were called was the tinman who had made the vane, and this worthy tradesman gave the most candid and unequivocal testimony, in full proof of the pacific intention of the pleasure-boat, though certainly somewhat to his discredit as an artist. The unlucky cause of so much dissension and bloodshed, the supposed orange man upon a green shamrock, was in truth a flesh-coloured Mercury, springing from a blue cloud.

Great wars have frequently sprung from as slight causes as did the above-mentioned affray; prejudice is ever ready to take offence, and to proceed at once to blows, without waiting to inquire whether offence was really intended. Had these men in the pleasure-boat been unprovided with fire-arms, it is probable that but little mischief would have ensued, they would have explained and not retaliated, by doing which they provoked further aggression. It is with nations as with individuals, let them be prepared for war, and their prejudices will quickly hurry them into it, whereas if unprepared, they will look more closely into the cause of

quarrel, and most likely find other than violent means of obtaining satisfaction.

Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

EDITOR.

Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick, with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled;
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man; the natural bond
Of brotherhood, is severed as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin

Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause,
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith,
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Sure there is need of social intercourse,
Benevolence, and peace, and mutual aid,
Between the nations in a world that seems
To toll the death-bell of its own decease,
And 'tis but seemly, that where all deserve
And stand exposed by common peccancy
To what no few have felt, there should be peace,
And brethren in calamity should love.

CowPER-The Task.

PRIDE.

PRIDE, SCORN, &c.

Inordinate and unreasonable self-esteem; insolent exaltation; splendour; ostentation. JOHNSON.

PRIDE hath no other glass

To shew itself, but pride; for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.

SHAKSPEARE.

JOHNSON gives several other significations of the word PRIDE, but the above are those to which the attention is particularly called in this work, on account of their opposition to the meek and humble spirit of Christianity. The various manifestations of PRIDE, as given in the scriptures and their attendant punishments are well described by BISHOP MANT (see p. 119.)