But altho' we ought thus to comport ourselves, it is not necessary that we should preach unto the world as Noah did before the deluge, but rather that, keeping ourselves quiet in the figurative ark of our covenant, with virtue we should bear with those evils which we cannot cure or avert.

Certainly there are times of extraordinary and unaccountable violence in opinion, that make it hard for the wisest of men to sustain reputation without ignoble concessions, or joining in the madness of the many for the benefit of the few. When, after many ages of heathen and barbarous darkness, the mighty superstructure of pagan superstition did fall before that pure and enlightened morality which Socrates taught, and which his disciples and followers sophisticated, no man could be safe, (till the victory was compleat,) to acknowledge his devotion to right reason and to

common sense.

When, even in the very first ages of our blessed religion, the Platonists, and other school-men, on the one hand, and the ignorant votaries on the other hand, did turn that sublime, yet simple, that humane, yet just, doctrine of our Saviour, into mystery and enthusiasm, how hard it must have been for an honest and wise man, in times like those that succeeded under Constantine, when tyranny took shelter with priestcraft, to avow sentiments and opinions that were adverse unto the schemes of temporal dominion..

The foolish and ill educated are ever to be led, by turning all things out of the road of right reason, in the road and guise of tragedy and entousiasmos; and so it is that we see all the homilies of religious agitators, filled with tragic representations of the sufferings of our blessed Lord and of his followers, instead of those bright and infinitely wise lessons of justice and goodness, to establish which, in opposition to priestcraft, he came, and for which he suffered.

How hard must it have been, in the midst of all this delirium, at the time of the first millennium,when the priests declared the reign of the saints, and Peter the Hermit preached the crusades, and the extermination of the Saracens, for a man to have sustained his reputation without yielding to the frensie of the times!

Surely, (saith Plutarch,) I had rather a great deal, that men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say, "there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born," as the poets and superstitious speak of Saturn; as the contumely is greater towards God, and the danger greater towards men, from such dreadful conceits, than from unbelief.

Now in all these difficult postures, or such like, whereof the variety must needs be infinite, it is a main point in the art of life, not to think silence the wisdom of fools, but, if

rightly timed, the honour of wise men, who have not the infirmity, but the virtue of taciturnity; and speak, not out of the abundance, but out of the well-weighed thoughts of their hearts.

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66.

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"As the love of God, and kindness unto "our fellow men, are the two main pillars of religion and virtue; so a divine temper of “mind, and especial humanity towards per"sons of all parties, howsoever contentious together, may preserve a man harmless, and "even happy, in the most troublesome and dangerous times," whereof we have had anciently a notable example in the life of Pomponius Atticus, and in our own days that of Michael Montaigne in France, who passed through all the hot spirits and times of the ligue, not only without evil, but with much solacement of general friendship and contentment. * * *

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Fragments of Lord Bacon, continued. (FROM THE BEE, JUNE 19. 1793.)

Art of Life.

ALTHOUGH opinion rideth upon the neck of reason, and men are accounted to be happy, wise, or learned, according as the fickle lady on the ball shall set them down in the register of reputation;

yet, in the art of life, it will be found that fame founded at home, within the precincts of a man's own domestic circle, will extend itself outward,s and conduce much to public opinion.

A man who getteth off with honour under the strict inquisition of those who are near.. unto all his weaknesses, will have an honourable verdict pronounced upon him by the grand jury of the public, and thus the “faber quisque fortunæ suæ," of the poet, though not to be conceded as true with respect to general felicities, may be conceded in respect of reputation.

Certainly discreet followers, loving relatives, kind companions, and faithful servants of household, do help much to reputation; and like unto the progressive undulations of the water from the first impulse of the pebble, doi gradually extend themselves unto great circles of society.

Now the winning of honour is by the spreading of and revealing of a man's vertue and worth; and it is then most truely delectable when it accordeth with the abiding testimony of a man's own conscience, in the final judgement which is given when the court of his conscience is cleared of intruding passions and prejudices, and fenced about with the ministers of impartial self-examination and justice.

The substratum or plattform for this grand portion of the art of life ought to be dilligently laid in youth, by teaching children to lahour for a goodly reputation, even in the nur

sery, and not to bottom their consequence and importance upon the advantages of their situation.

In early youth men ought to be taught from examples, which are ever at hand, that admiration goeth hand in hand with the display of those qualities in others which are least subject to common attainment; as wisdom, courage, magnanimity in friendship, or in suffering, and abstinence from great de... lights that are inconsistent with virtue.

That Diogenes in his tub was greater than Alexander at Persepolis, and that he who needeth least from other men, approacheth nearest unto celestial natures.

These noble foundations being well established, there will suddenly follow an aspiration after an honest function, fit to afford gain sufficient for the independence of the man, and the obtaining of this godlike station.

But when this station had been compassed, the masterpiece of our art consisteth in keeping it, by shunning the rocks of too great enterprise, or the shallows of vain glory.

Certainly it is no small device towards this purpose, that we should render other men satisfied with themselves, and with their own condition, that they plot not to abate our attainments or pretensions.

Men who use this stratagem, or who thus comport themselves from the kindlyness of their natures, are the demagogues of social intercourse; and all men wish them to be