people keep their stations; and so, were the highest attainments to become general, the effect would be the same." That is indeed a twofold knowledge which profits alike by the folly of the foolish and the wisdom of the wise. The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial knowledge in others so much as the profoundly ignorant; on the contrary, they would rather assist it with their advice than overwhelm it with their contempt; for they know that there was a period when even a Bacon or a Newton was superficial, and that he who has a little knowledge is far more likely to get more than he that has none. Knowledge is power. Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Our knowledge, like our blood, must circulate. There is no kind of knowledge which, in the hands of the diligent and skilful, will not turn to account. Honey exudes from all flowers, the bitter not excepted; and the bee knows how to extract it. The master-piece of knowledge is to know But what is good, from what is good in show. Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment. The first step to knowledge is to know that we are ignorant. Knowledge when wisdom is too weak to guide her, Head-knowledge is our own, and can polish only the outside; heart-knowledge is the Spirit's work, and makes all glorious within. Sanctified knowledge of God in Christ is the first step in the life of faith, and is the foundation of every Christian grace. Great spiritual knowledge is not essential to salvation. Salvation is not promised to the learned, but to the believing. Law. 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 heaven and earth do her homage; the very beast, as feeling her care, and the greatest, as not exempt from her power: both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in a different sort and manner, yet all with one consent admiring her as the mother of peace and joy. Law-the perfection of reason. Where law ends, tyranny begins. If we had a complete digest of Hindu and Mahometan laws, after the model of Justinian's celebrated Pandecta, we should rarely be at a loss for principles and rules of law applicable to the cases before us. The great work of which Justinian has the credit, although it comprehends the whole system of jurisprudence, was finished, we are told, in three years. Tacitus says: "When the state is most corrupt, then are the laws most multiplied." Who then is good? Who carefully observes The Senate's wise decrees, nor ever swerves From the known rules of justice and the laws.-Horace. Custom is held to be as a law-where customs have prevailed from time immemorial they have obtained the force of laws. Agree, for the law is costly. Lord Mansfield declared that if any man claimed a field from him he would give it up, provided the concession were kept secret, rather than engage in proceedings at law. Hesiod, in admonishing his brother always to prefer a friendly accommodation, gave to the world the paradoxical proverb, "The half is more than the whole." The Italian proverb is, "Lawyers' garments are lined with suitors' obstinacy;" and the French, "Their houses are built of fools' heads." Doctors and lawyers are notoriously shy of taking what they prescribe for others. "No good lawyer ever goes to law," say the Italians. Lord Chancellor Thurlow did so once. A house had been built for him by contract, but he had made himself liable for more than the stipulated price by ordering some departures from the specification whilst the work was in progress. He refused to pay the additional charge; the builder brought an action, and got a verdict against him, and Thurlow never afterward set foot within the house which was the monument of his wrong-headedness and its chastisement. Law-suits I'd shun with as much studious care As I would dens where hungry lions are; A plague to him who'd be a plague to me. Lord Bacon wrote: "I wish every man knew as much law as would enable him to keep himself out of it." One of the Seven was wont to say: "That laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great break through." The only thing certain about litigation is its uncertainty. With good opinion of the law. Once (says an author; where I need not say) you: 'Twas a fat oyster-live in peace—adieu !" Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can read them. Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with. “Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's." "Render to all their dues." "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake for so is the will of God." Life. CHRIST'S life was a life of light, of energy, of righteousness, of love such should be the life of every professing Christian. Lives of great men all remind us As length of life is denied us, we should at least do something to show that we have lived. He lives long that lives well; and time mis-spent is not lived, but lost. Plato says: "We should not set the highest value on mere existence, but on living well-to some useful purpose." The happy man lives well and does well-happiness is a kind of well-living and well-doing. Nor has he spent his life badly, who has passed it from his birth to his burial in obscurity. That man may last but never lives, Who all receives and nothing gives. Whom none can love, whom none can thank Creation's blot, creation's blank. "He that cannot live well to-day," says Martial, “will be less qualified to live well to-morrow." Catch, then, O catch the transient hour; Life's a short summer-man a flower- Goethe said: "Life itself is the end of life." The Stoics said: "The end for man is to live according to nature." Life has been defined by the Greek philosophers as multeity in unity. It is the law of the perds in the apeiron. O Life! to misery how dear! To bliss how short dost thou appear! The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them. If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city. Lord Byron said to Dr. Millengen, who attended him in his last illness: "Do you suppose that I wish for life? I have grown heartily sick of it, and shall welcome the hour I depart. Why should I regret it? Can it afford me any pleasure? Have I not enjoyed it to a surfeit? Few men can live faster than I did; I am, literally speaking, a young old man. Pleasure I have known under every form. I have travelled, satisfied my curiosity, lost every illusion; I have exhausted all the nectar contained in the cup of life; it is time to throw the dregs away." Goethe, whose long life was one long success, said: "They have called me a child of fortune, nor have I any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet it has been nothing but labour and sorrow, and I may truly say that in seventy-five years I have not had more than four weeks of true comfort. It was the constant rolling of a stone, that was always to be lifted anew." A holy life is a voice; it speaks when the tongue is silent, and is either a constant attraction or a perpetual reproof. In the evening of a laborious life she said: "I married for ambition. My husband (C--e) has exceeded all that my wildest hopes ever imagined of him, and I am miserable." I have liv'd long enough; my way of life The shortest life is long enough if it lead to a better, and the longest life is too short if it do not. A good life hath but few days; but a good name endureth for ever. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. "Depart from evil, and do good; seek -Ps. xxxiv. 12-14. peace, and pursue it." |