It is strange that when youth gives us the prospect of a long life, we seldom think of rationally providing for its enjoyment; but when the term of it has been abridged by the flight of its best years, we become anxious to secure the comforts of the brief portion that remains to us. POETS. Poets, it has been said, form the aristocracy of intelligence; they are also the chemists of sentiment, who analyse and purify it. PASSION. Some minds are formed to mount, with eagle wing, Above the common herd—content to dwell Without a wish beyond the joys of sense, Till love, resistless love, assails their hearts, And now no longer soaring o’er the crowd, Lark-like, they build their nests upon the earth. ’Tis thus that passion ever brings us down, Making our minds’ wings—thoughts—of no avail. REVOLUTIONS. Sober-minded people prefer enduring the evils of a despotism which they know, to risking those of a subversion on whose consequences they cannot calculate. Despotism pursues her course orderly and systematically, while Sedition hurries along, sweeping away with much that is bad still more that is estimable. MODESTY. Modesty, the attendant of virtue, is frequently mistaken for shame, which is one of the attributes of vice. CUNNING. Cunning is the poor substitute for wisdom which weak minds adopt; but it is like the counterfeit which the forger strives to pass for the pure coin. POLITENESS. Nothing is more dissimilar than natural and acquired politeness. The first consists in a willing abnegation of self; the second, in a compelled recollection of others. GREAT MEN. Mountains appear more lofty, the nearer they are approached; but great men, to retain their altitude, must only be viewed from a distance. MOURNERS. It is surprising that a regulation has not been made to exclude persons in the garb of mourning from scenes of gaiety, lest the sombre hue of their dress give rise to sadness; but probably the omission has proceeded from a consciousness, that the spectators are as little moved by the trappings of grief as the wearers by the sentiment. FORTUNE. The wheel of fortune being guided by a blind goddess, often runs into deep ruts, and thus casts up what is impure. MEN OF GENIUS. Men of genius, who hold out lights to mankind, are used by them as are the Moccoli bearers at the Roman carnival by the populace; each of whom strives first to illume his torch in theirs, and then to extinguish it. GENEROUS AND SELFISH MINDS.