VIRTUE. It is more difficult to convince the vicious that virtue exists, than to persuade the good that it is rare. WORKS. The works of Vapidus might be said not to be the overflowing of a full mind, but the dregs of an exhausted one. PUBLIC. We have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. _When_ shall we have a _thinking_? CIVILIZATION. Civilization begets vices, but the want of it occasions crimes. AFFLICTION. The first heavy affliction rends the veil of illusion, and lets us behold the dark side of life. PASSIONS. The passions which have stimulated us to crime, ultimately die of satiety, leaving us when too late with a sense of our transgressions, unmitigated by the artful palliations and delusions which originally conduced to them. GENIUS. Genius is like the eagle which doth make abode in solitude, and, perched on high, looks down forgetful of all meaner birds. MEDIOCRITY. Mediocrity is only offensive when accompanied by pretension; because it then wounds our vanity by implying that it thought itself capable of deceiving us. PHILOSOPHY. The philosophy which has not been acquired in society will rarely enable us to resist its injustice; as a person theoretically taught to swim, will find his knowledge of little avail if he fall into a river. GOOD TALKERS. To be listened to with attention, and to acquire the reputation of a good talker, never speak of yourself, but always in implied praise of those you address, or in pungent satire of their contemporaries. PREMATURE WISDOM. The premature wisdom of youth resembles the forced fruit of our hot-houses: it looks like the natural production, but has not its flavour or raciness. MEN OF GENIUS. How must a neglected man of genius, conscious of his own powers, pity those who cannot appreciate him, and who bestow what is _his_ due on mere pretenders. POPULARITY. Those who have been the idols of the populace, generally end by becoming its victims; for the multitude resemble children who build castles of cards, only for the pleasure of destroying them with a breath. POOR. A term of reproach in England, and of pity in most other countries. METAPHYSICS. Metaphysics, a science, the study of which _proves_ that to be incomprehensible which was before only suspected of being so. PROSPERITY.