willingly make others unhappy, or themselves hateful. When praise is due, it should be given; but it should be communicated delicately. If the person be unpolished, it may be given in plain language; if the person be well informed, a single hint will do; indeed a man of worth and modesty would be uneasy at formal praise. If a person cannot bear a little commendation, if it fill him with conceit, and make him careless of his duty, give him no more, he was unworthy of that. Antisthenes taught his children to despise those who would praise them. A little encouragement in the way of commendation may be beneficial; but it is better to give no praise, than to give praise which is injudicious. Flattery must be studiously avoided; for in this case a person pretends to believe what he does not think: he magnifies an excellency, and affects to discover merit which has no existence. He that receives flattery with complacency is a fool, and he that gives it is a rogue. No one should award more blame than the conduct of a person would justly merit. He should not darken the character of an absent man with odium, -except it be perfectly true, and necessary as a warning to others, that they may avoid the deceptive and injurious arts of the person alluded to. No one should be anxious or uneasy as to what the world says of him; but he should be very careful to act with propriety. He should not, by searching, increase his grievances. Dr. Jeremy Taylor advises, that no one should be "inquisitive into the affairs of other men, nor the faults of servants, nor the mistakes of friends." If a man have been

slandered, and he knows it not, he is not the more unhappy. Aristotle having been informed that some one had spoken ill of him, replied, " Well, the man may do more; he may beat me if I be not present.' No one should encourage talebearers, mischief-makers, and such vermin, who will inform a person what was said, with additions and misconstructions; for some people are like chimneys, which blacken every thing that passes through them, or, perhaps, they will communicate what was never spoken, a mere invention from the beginning to the end. If evil have been unjustly connected with the character of any man, let him outlive it; let him, by a good life, confute the calumny. All persons are bound to speak and act in such a manner, towards each other, as prudence or necessity would demand; but it should always be in accordance with honour and good-will, and always in opposition to meanness and mischief-making, so that mutual confidence may be produced and maintained, and that, as much as possible, all men may live peaceably.

CHAP. XVIII.

ON HOPE AND DESPAIR.

HOPE, among the ancients, was deified as the goddess Elpis: statues were erected to her honour, temples were dedicated to her, and sacrifices of various kinds were offered to her. Hope may be termed a pleasing expectation. The definition of Locke is conveyed in a greater number of words, but it expresses no more. He calls it "that pleasure in the mind which every one finds in himself, upon the thought of a profitable future enjoyment of a thing which is apt to delight him. Hope arises from a favourable construction of probable events; while despondency is produced by an unfavourable prospect. Hope stimulates exertion. "Possunt quia posse videntur." Self-love induces us to acquire, if possible, what is contributive to happiness; but if there be no chance of obtaining it, we sink into despondency and inactivity. Hope and despair are most powerful when the imagination is most active; for this carries us into the future, among probable and possible events; and in proportion to the brilliancy or dulness of the colouring so shall we be elated or depressed. Hope is lively in youth, but it is sobered in manhood. Experience shows us the uncertainty of trusting to expectation; and thus there are fewer disappoint

ments among the aged than among the young. Youth illumines every thing, age darkens it; but when the cheering influence of hope ceases to operate with regard to this life, then may the soul contemplate with more interest the happiness reserved for the pious, in that "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Hoary heads are frequently accompanied by sickness and despondency. The tender nestling springs about on the highest branches of the tree on which its nest is fixed, and chirps and delights itself with novelties,— with the leaves, with the blossom, with the sunbeams glittering among the branches; while the aged bird seeks some solitary spot, in the shade of the thicket, by the side of the rivulet, whose mournful waters chant the dying dirge, and there it breathes out its being.

Hope cheers us in our daily engagements. It tranquillises the mind with respect to future events. We judge of the future by the past. The sun rose to-day, we hope it will rise to-morrow; we enjoy good health, and we hope we shall enjoy it in future; we have embarked in various engagements with success, and we hope to be equally fortunate on other occasions. The agriculturist is completely dependent on hope: he perceives no present reward for his labours; but being stimulated by the expectation of future good, he converts the stagnant marsh into a fruitful meadow; the barren plain into fields of bending corn; the sterile hill is covered with groves of trees; hollows are filled up, rocks are removed, hillocks are levelled, and

that stimulated Columbus to embark in his novel

and dangerous expedition, that buoyed him up amidst opposition. When assistance was denied him by one sovereign, he applied to another. We can imagine him, with his three vessels, about to leave his native shores, accompanied by the good wishes, but the gloomy anticipations, of his countrymen. It was imagined, in that age of ignorance, that the world was a plane; that the ocean extended for a certain space, and beyond this there were only clouds and darkness. Without doubt there were some timid souls, who fancied that, in the gloom of the night, they might reach the verge of the waters, and glide down the precipice, to the shades of oblivion. The seamen themselves, after long sailing, were terrified with forebodings, and, rising simultaneously, they objected to a further progress; but the star of hope, in the gleamings of which across the ocean Columbus had hitherto directed his course, still shone, and the intrepid voyager begged only for three days, and within this period he reached the shores of the American continent. It was the same principle that animated Bruce to that degree of mental vigour which was necessary for conquering the difficulties which he had to encounter in his progress to the source of the Nile. When he endured hunger, thirst, and weariness; when he passed through hostile and barbarous countries; when oppositions of almost every kind interposed, in order to prevent him from realising his wishes, the star of hope shone upon him, and induced him to proceed, until, at last, he pitched his tent on the very spot which many an expedition