We are born to deceive, or to be deceived. In one of these classes we must be numbered; but our self-respect is dependent upon our selection. The practice of deception generally secures its own punishment; for callous indeed must be that mind which is insensible to its ignominy! But he who has been duped, is conscious, even in the very moment that he detects the imposition, of his proud superiority to one who can stoop to the adoption of so foul and sorry a course. The really good and high-minded, therefore, are seldom provoked by the discovery of deception; though the cunning and artful resent it, as a humiliating triumph obtained over them in their own vocations. CONCEALED GRIEF. Concealed griefs are the most consuming, as secret maladies are the most fatal. WOMEN. Women should not paint love, until they have ceased to inspire it. EMINENT MEN. As high mountains attract clouds and vapours, so do eminent men attract censure. They act like the conductors placed on lofty buildings to draw the lightning from less elevated objects. LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. Love is a flower, with which we adorn our youth; but friendship is a fruit with which we solace our maturity. PEDANTS. Pedants are often mistaken for savants, yet the difference between them is great; one affects, the other possesses science. The pedant is to the savant, what the apothecary is to the physician: one understands the means, the other both the means and the end. WIT. Wit lives in the present, but genius survives in the future. EXPERIENCE. Experience enables us to detect the errors of the past, but it seldom guards us against those of the future. ENVY. The vain and pretending are ever the most prone to envy; for they covet that which they would fain make people believe they possess. THE PAST. The past shows us but the tombs of our buried illusions and hopes. PITY. All that we bestow in pity to the unfortunate, we take away in respect; hence, he that would be respected must never allow himself to become an object of pity. PRIDE AND VANITY. Vanity lives on the commendations of others, but pride is supported by self-respect. Hence the vain pine in solitude, while the proud retain their self-reverence and are satisfied. WEAKNESSES. Our weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our strength is the forced fruit. PRODIGALS. Persons who never learn the difference between a shilling and a sixpence, until they want the latter. EXISTENCE.