Time destroys the groundless conceits of man, but confirms that which is founded on nature and reality. Byron says: "But time strips our illusions of the soul, ALL THE SICK ARE NOT CURED. nature than those things which are finished by art. THE WORLD, WILL BE BURNT UP. From which some philosophers think that that will happen which Panatius doubts, that the whole world will at last be burnt up. So 2 Peter iii. 7: "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." MEN NOT SIMPLY INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH. God has made men, springing from the ground, tall and upright, that, with eyes looking to heaven, they might acquire a knowledge of the Divine Being. For men are not to consider themselves as mere dwellers on earth, but as it were placed there to gaze on the heavens and heavenly bodies, which Because all the sick do not recover, therefore is the privilege of no other animated creature. medicine is no art. ART. It is above all the property of art to create and bring into being. HOW GOD IS TO BE WORSHIPPED. The best, the purest, the most holy worship of the gods, and that which is most consistent with our duty, is to worship them always with purity and sincerity of words and thoughts; for not only philosophers, but even our ancestors have drawn a distinction between superstition and religion. Euripides (Fr. Antig. 38) says: "There are three virtues, my child, which you ought to observe, to honor the gods, reverence your parents, and re spect the common laws of Greece; and doing so, you will always have the fairest crown of glory." So John iv. 24: THE EYES PLACED LIKE SENTINELS. The eyes, like sentinels, occupy the highest place in the body. ELOQUENCE. How noble and divine is eloquence! the mistress of all things, as you are accustomed to say. Which, in the first place, enables us to learn those things of which we are ignorant, and to teach others those things which we know; by this we exhort; by this we persuade; by this we console the afflicted; by this we dissipate the fears of the timid; by this we restrain the eager; by this we has bound mankind by the community of priviput an end to passions and desires; it is this that leges, of laws, and civil society; this it is which "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship has removed us far from the ills of a savage and him in spirit and in truth.” Epictetus (i. 16) thus exhorts man to the praise of God:"Are these the only works of Providence with regard to us? And what speech can fitly celebrate their praise? For, if we had any understanding, ought we not, both in public and in private, incessantly to sing and praise the Deity and rehearse his benefits? Ought we not, whether we dig, or plough, or eat, to sing this hymn to God, 'Great is God, who has supplied us with these instruments to till the ground; great is God who has given us hands and organs of digestion; who has given us to grow insensibly, to breathe in sleep? These things ought we ever to celebrate; but to make it the theme of the greatest and divinest hymn, that he has given us the power to appreciate these gifts and to use them well. But because some of you are blind and insensible, there must be some one to fill this station and lead, in behalf of all men, the hymn to God; for what else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, I would act the part of a swan. But since I am a reasonable creature, it is my duty to praise God. This is my business, I do it. Nor will I ever desert this post so long as it is permitted me, and I call on you to join in the same song." GOD. Nothing is superior to God; he must therefore govern the world. God is subject to no principle of nature, therefore he rules the whole of nature. NATURE BETTER THAN ART. barbarous life. MAN. Everything that the earth produces belongs to man: we enjoy the fields and the mountains; ours are the rivers and the lakes; we sow corn and plant trees; we give fruitfulness to the earth by irrigating the ground; we confine, direct, and turn the course of rivers; in short, by our proceedings we endeavor to form, as it were, a second nature. Euripides (Fr. Aiol. 25) says:-- Man's strength lasts only a short time; yet by his cunning devices he brings under him the various tribes of the sea, earth, and air." INSPIRATION. No man was ever great without divine inspiration. So Daniel ii. 21: "He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding." And Matthew x. 20: "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." REASONING OFTEN DARKENS MATTERS. The clearest subjects are often obscured by Those things are better which are perfected by lengthened reasoning. Democritus maintains that there can be no great ONE IS NOT SURPrised at what HAPPENS OFTEN. poet without a spice of madness. A man is not surprised at what he sees frequently, even though he be ignorant of the reason; whereas if that which he never beheld before happens, then he calls it a prodigy. CHANGEABLENESS OF FORTUNE. No one will separate fortune from inconstancy and rashness. HOW SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR IS TO BE DRIVEN AWAY. Drive away by the principles of nature that terror which may have been caused by the strangeness of the event. THERE ARE NO PRODIGIES. Nothing can be done without a cause, nor has anything been done which cannot again be done. Nor, if that has been done which could be done, ought it to be regarded as a prodigy. There are, therefore, no prodigies. GOD IS OMNIPOTENT. There is nothing which God cannot accomplish. GOD KNOWS THE CHARACTER OF MAN. God cannot be ignorant of the character of man. So Psalm xciv. 11: "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity." GOD KNOWN BY HIS WORKS. The beauty of the world and the orderly arrangement of everything celestial makes us confess that there is an excellent and eternal nature, which ought to be worshipped and admired by all mankind. So Psalm cii. 25-27: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the The best guesser I shall always call the most heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but sagacious prophet. Euripides (Fr. Incert. 85) says: "He is the best prophet who is the best guesser." thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. Religion is not removed by removing superstition. faculties as something sacred and holy; he will MAN PRESCIENT AND SAGACIOUS. This provident, sagacious, versatile, subtile, thoughtful, rational, wise animal, which we call man, has been created by the supreme God with a certain noble privilege; for he alone of so many different kinds and sorts of animals is partaker of reason and reflection, when all others are destitute of them. But what is there, I will not say in man, but in all heaven and earth, more divine than reason? which, when it has arrived at maturity, is properly termed wisdom. Therefore, of all kinds of animals there is none except man that has knowledge of a God; among men there is not a nation so savage and brutish which, though it may not know what kind of a being God ought to be, does not know that there must be one. From this we may infer that, whoever, as it were, recollects and knows whence he is sprung, acknowledges the existence of a God. NATURE TEACHES MAN TO LOOK UPWARD. Nature has bestowed on man alone an erect stature and raised his thoughts to the contemplation of heaven, as if it were connected with him by relationship and his ancient home. EVIL HABITS. There is in fact such corruption engendered in man by bad habits, that the sparks, as it were, of virtue, furnished by nature, are extinguished, and vices of an opposite kind arise around and become strengthened. So Romans xvi. 18:— "They by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. principle within him, and will regard his rational always both think and act in a way worthy of so great a gift of the gods; and when he shall have proved and thoroughly examined himself, he will perceive how well furnished by nature he has come into life, and what noble instruments he possesses to obtain and secure wisdom. THE SPOTS WHERE OUR FRIENDS HAVE BEEN. We are moved, I know not how, by the spots in which we find traces of those who possess our esteem and admiration. BEGIN WITH A PRAYER TO GOD. We must begin our acts with a prayer to the immortal gods. LAW. I see, therefore, that this has been the idea of the wisest, that law has not been devised by the ingenuity of man, nor yet is it a mere decree of the people, but an eternal principle which must direct the whole universe, ordering and forbidding everything with entire wisdom. Thus they used to say that the mind of the divinity was the real and ultimate law which orders or forbids everything justly; hence that law which the gods have assigned to mankind is justly deserving praise, for it is the reason and mind of a wise being well fitted to order or forbid. This idea is beautifully expressed by Hooker ("Ecclesiastical Polity," book i.): "Of law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in Leaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power." LAW. For it was reason, derived from the nature of things, impelling man to what is right, and deterring him from what is wrong, which does not then begin to be law, when it is found written Let man love himself not more than his down in books, but was so from the first moment neighbor. So Matthew v. 43: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor." And John xiii. 34:— "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE. The furies pursue men, not with burning torches, as the poets feign, but with remorse of conscience and the tortures arising from guilt. So Job xv. 24, 25: of its existence. It was co-eternal with the divine mind, wherefore true and ultimate law fitted to order and to forbid is the mind of the Supreme Being. Coke ("Institute," b. i. fol. 976) says: "Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.... The law, which is the perfection of reason." "" LAW. Law, therefore, is what distinguishes right and "Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid,... for he wrong, derived from nature herself the most stretcheth out his hand against God." JUSTICE. Justice is obedience to the written laws. INSPIRATION OF MAN. For whoever is acquainted with his own mind, will, in the first place, feel that he has a divine ancient principle of all things, to which the laws of men direct themselves, when they impose penalties on the wicked, and protect and defend the good. Sir W. Jones (“Ode in Imitation of Alcæus "):"Sovereign law-that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. SAFETY OF THE PEOPLE IS THE SUPREME LAW. songs of musicians is able to change the feelings and conditions of a state. This is very much the idea of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun:"I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation." MEN ARE IMITATORS OF THOSE ABOVE THEM. Thou mayst plainly see that such as the chief men of the state have been, such also has been the character of the state; and whatever change of manners took place in the former, the same always followed in the latter. CICERO OPPOSED TO BALLOT. For I am of the same opinion as you have always been, that open "viva voce" voting is the best method at elections. BALLOT A COVER FOR CORRUPT VOTES. Wherefore the powerful ought rather to have been deprived of their power of influencing votes for bad purposes, than that the ballot should have been conferred on the people, whereby corrupt votes are concealed, virtuous citizens being left in the dark as to the sentiments of each. Wherefore no good man has ever been found to bring forward or propose such a law. BREVITY THE SOUL OF A SPEECH. For brevity is the best recommendation of a speech, not only in the case of a senator, but in that, too, of an orator. So Shakespeare (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2):— 66 'Brevity is the soul of wit." MEMORY. Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things. POWER OF ELOQUENCE. Nothing appears to me to be nobler than to keep assemblies of men entranced by the charms of eloquence, wielding their minds at will, impelling them at one time, and at another dissuading them from their previous intentions. NOTHING MORE NOBLE THAN TO ASSIST THE WRETCHED. What is there so kinglike, so noble, so generous, as to bring aid to the suppliant, to raise up the broken in heart, to save and deliver from dangers? So Psalm 1xxii, 12: "For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." RHETORICIANS WITH VOLUBLE TONGUES. Mnesarchus used to say that those whom we called orators, were nothing else but artisans with Let the safety of the people be the supreme law. voluble and well-trained tongues, but that no one was an orator unless he was wise. SONGS ABLE TO CHANGE THE FEELINGS OF A NATION. This observation is much more certain than that of Plato, who pretends that a change in the THE LAWYERS. The house of the lawyer is, no doubt, the oracle of the whole state. Who does not know that the primary law of UNLEARNED GOOD SENSE RATHER THAN LOQUAhistory is that it should not dare to say anything false, next that it should dare to state the truth, that there should be no suspicion of favor nor yet of hatred in its words? PRECOCITY. There cannot be long continued sap in that which has too quickly acquired maturity. THE RESULT OF DULNESS OF MIND. It is the part of the slow of perception to follow up the rivulets of learning and never to see the fountain-head. DILIGENCE. Diligence has greatest power in everything, particularly in defending causes; it is above all to be cultivated, it is always to be attended to; there is nothing which it does not accomplish. AVARICE AND LUXURY. If you wish to destroy avarice, you must destroy luxury, which is its mother. THE ABLE PHYSICIAN. The able physician, before he attempts to give medicine to his patient, makes himself acquainted not only with the disease, which he wishes to cure, but with the habits and constitution of the sick man. A POET MUST BE DIVINELY INSPIRED. I have often heard that no real poet can exist without the spirit being on fire, and without, as it were, a spice of madness. CIOUS FOLLY. I prefer the wisdom of the unlearned to the folly of the loquacious. This is something like what Cratinus (Etymolog. M., p. 196, T.) says in a fragment: "The fool goes on saying baa, baa, like the sheep." Nicostratus (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 638, M.) says: "If it were the sign of wisdom to speak unceasingly, much and quickly, the swallows would be accounted much more wise than we are." Posidippus (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 1148, M.) says: "It is no hard task to speak fluently, but to act well is not so easy; for many, who talk fluently, have no sense." Pope ("Moral Essays," Ep. iv. 1. 43) thus expresses the same idea: "Good sense, which only is the gift of heaven, And though no science, fairly worth the seven." And Spenser, in his "Shepherd's Calendar" (May, 140) says: |