Heed not the fop, who loves himself, Nor let the rake your love obtain; Choose not the miser for his pelf, The drunkard heed with cold disdain; The profligate with caution shun, His race of ruin soon is run: To none of these your heart incline, Nor choose from them a VALENTINE. But should some generous youth appear, Whose honest mind is void of art, Who shall his Maker’s laws revere, And serve him with a willing heart; Who owns fair Virtue for his guide, Nor from her precepts turns aside; To him at once your heart resign, And bless your faithful VALENTINE. Though in this wilderness below You still imperfect bliss shall find, Yet such a friend will share each woe, And bid you be to Heaven resign’d: While Faith unfolds the radiant prize, And Hope still points beyond the skies, At life’s dark storms you’ll not repine, But bless the day of VALENTINE. _Wit_ at a _pinch_. A gentleman who left his snuffbox at a friend’s on St. Valentine’s Eve, 1825, received it soon after his return home in an envelope, sealed, and superscribed-- To J---- E----, Esq. Dear Sir, I’ve just found proof enough, You are _not_ worth a pinch of snuff; _Receive_ the proof, seal’d up with care, And _extract_ from it, that you _are_. _Valentine_, 1825 * CHRONOLOGY. SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE died on the 14th of February, 1780. He was born at the house of his father, a silkman, in Cheapside, London, on the 10th of July, 1723; sent to the Charter-house in 1730; entered Pembroke-college, Cambridge, in 1738; of the Middle Temple, 1741; called to the bar in 1746; elected recorder of Wallingford in 1749; made doctor of civil law in 1750; elected Vinerian professor of common law in 1758; returned a representative to Parliament in 1761; married in 1761; became a justice of the court of Common Pleas in 1770. In the course of his life he filled other offices. He was just and benevolent in all his relations, and, on the judicial seat, able and impartial. In English literature and jurisprudence he holds a distinguished rank for his “Commentaries on the Laws of England.” This work originated in the legal lectures he commenced in 1753: the first volume was published in 1759, and the remaining three in the four succeeding years. Through these his name is popular, and so will remain while law exists. The work is not for the lawyer alone, it is for every body. It is not so praiseworthy to be learned, as it is disgraceful to be ignorant of the laws which regulate liberty and property. The absence of all information in some men when serving upon juries and coroners’ inquests, or as constables, and in parochial offices, is scandalous to themselves and injurious to their fellow men. The “Commentaries” of Blackstone require only common capacity to understand. Wynne’s “Eunomus” is an excellent introduction to Blackstone, if any be wanting.