"He quarrels at the time and up-starts, and sighs at the neglect of men of parts, that is, such as himself. . . He is much displeased to see men merry, and wonders what they can find to laugh at. He never draws his own lips higher than a smile, and frowns wrinkle him before forty. He at last falls into that deadly melancholy to be a bitter hater of men, and is the most apt companion for any mischief."

Of a formal man—

"When you have seen his outsides, you have looked through him, and need employ your discovery no farther. His reason is merely example, and his action is not guided by his understanding, but he sees other men do thus, and he follows them. . . . His religion is a good quiet subject, and he prays as he sweares, in the phrase of the land."

Of a self-conceited man

"He is now become his own book, which he pours on continually, yet like a truant reader, skips over the harsh places, and surveys only that which is pleasant. In the speculation of his own good parts, his eyes, like a drunkard's, see all double, and his fancy, like an old man's spectacles, make a great letter in small print. In sum he is a bladder blown up with wind, which the

least flaw crushes to nothing."

Of a weak man—

"He is a child at man's estate, one whom nature huddled up in haste,

and left his best part unfinished. The rest of him grows to be a man, only his brain stays behind. . . He is two steps above a fool, and a great many be

low a wise man.

He is one that will be patiently abused, and take exception a month after when he understands it; and then be abused again into a re concilement."

A plodding student—

"He is a kind of alchymist or persecutor of nature, that would change the dull lead of his brain into finer metal, with success many times as unprosperous, or at least not quitting the cost, to wit, of his own oil and candles. He has a strange forced appetite to learning, and to achieve it brings nothing but patience and a body. His study is not great but continual, and consists much in sitting up till after midnight in a rag-gown and night-cap, to the vanquishing perhaps of some six lines."

A drunkard

"He is a blind man with eyes, and a cripple with legs on."

A jealous man-

"He sees a great deal more in every thing than is to be seen, and yet he thinks he sees nothing; his eyes stand in his own light."

OWEN FELLTHAM, who died in 1678; the first edition of his

work appeared in 1626, entitled "Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political." This was one of the most popular works, out of the region of poetry and fiction, among our ancestors of the 17th century. Yet Hallam condemns it: but he who could say of Butler, the author of the world's Hudibras, "that we read his satirical poetry with nothing but disgust" would be prepared to say of Felltham "that he was not only a labored and artificial scholar, but a shallow writer: . . . especially wanting depth which his pointed and sententious manner renders more ridiculous." Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, in a note to Felltham, tells him "that he had greedily read his witty, grave, and sententious book, and took delight in his pithy discourses." His essays, like those of Bacon, have a practical character or object, aiming to carry home some useful truth to the heart of their readers. His sentiments are distinguished by good sense, and great purity of religious and moral principle. His mind was of a serious turn, but cheerful withal, so that his moral reflections, while they are just and proper, are also very pleasing. His style is for the most part vigorous, harmonious, and well adapted to the subjects; sometimes it is also imaginative and eloquent. One of his greatest merits is his liberal allowance for the failings of others, and the kindly feeling with which the sternest of his reproofs is tempered.

In the preface to the early editions he states the object of his writing as follows: "That I might out of my own school take a lesson which should serve me for my whole pilgrimage; and if I should wander my own items might set me in heaven's way again. We do not so readily run into crimes that from our own mouths have had sentence of condemnation." He tells us further that they were written to curb his own passions, and if the reader found ought to mend himself he should be satisfied. He never followed any profession, never was affluent, yet had enough to satisfy one of his well ordered mind and habits. "If I be not so rich" he says "as to sow alms by sackfulls, even my mite is beyond the superfluity of wealth; and my pen, my tongue, and my life, shall I hope, help some to better treasure than the earth affords."

Yet contemplations and the quiet pursuits of literature were not his only occupations.

"We have bodies as well as souls. I will neither be always busy and doing, nor ever be shut up in nothing but thought: but that which some call idleness, I call the sweetest part of my life, and that is my thinking."

"Charity is communicated goodness, and without it man is no better than a beast. The world which is chained together by intermingled love would all shatter and fall to pieces if charity should chance to die."

He was deeply sensible of the infirmities of men, and often on this subject expresses himself with Christian humility. Yet not always did he look on the dark side of human nature; but for the failings of others he made every allowance consistent with religion and virtue.

On the advantages of social life, virtuous society, and especially true friendship he has much to say. He believed that the strictest piety and devotion to God was compatible with the utmost cheerfulness of disposition, and with all rational pleasure. And to the over rigid Christian who thinks all innocent enjoyment sinful he has a kind censuring word.

"If there be any privileges they are surely granted to the children of heaven. If mirth and recreation be lawful, sure we may lawfully use them. What parent is it that rejoiceth not to see his child pleasant in the limits of filial duty! change "anger" into mirth, and the precept holds good still. "Be 'merry' and sin not." As there are many that in their lives assume too much liberty, so I believe there are some who abridge themselves of what they might lawfully use."

A devoted resignation to the Divine will is beautifully displayed throughout his writings.

"Not trusting in God we disquiet ourselves with fears and solicitudes; and to cure these we run into prohibited paths; unworthy earthen worm! that can think so unworthily of God as that he will suffer those to want who with a dutiful en deavor depend upon him. Can a Deity be inhuman? Or can He who grasps the unexhausted provisions of the world in his hand, be a niggard to his sons, unless he sees it for their good and profit ?"

He says:

"Learning falls far short of wisdom, nay, so far, that you can scarcely find a greater fool than is sometimes a mere scholar."

Against nothing does he caution his readers more than cen

"You may ever observe that they who know the least are most given to censure; and this I believe to be the reason why men of secluded lives are often rash in this particular. Their retirement keeps them ignorant of the world. If they weighed the imperfections of humanity, they would be less prone to condemn others. Self examination will make our judgments charitable. It is from where there is no judgment that the heaviest judgment comes."

We leave with reluctance this pleasing author, unable to give longer extracts from his agreeable pages. Cumming's edition of 1820 contains a valuable life of Felltham, but in other respects the edition of 1677 is better and more complete; it contains his Lusoria, two sermons, characters of the low countries, and letters, which Cumming omits.

DR. THOMAS FULLER, 1604–1661, was a remarkable man. A thorough scholar, a genuine Christian, and always cheerful and witty. He was one of the most popular writers of the day; "and no stationer," so he says in the first chapter of his "Worthies," "ever lost by him." It is impossible to find anything dull or wearisome in his writings. It is said that no man, in writing at least, ever made so many jokes as he. He could not let slip an occasion of saying a good thing any more than a man who is tripped can keep himself from falling; the habit is as irresistible with him as the habit of breathing; and yet there is probably neither an ill-natured nor a profane witticism to be found in all that he has written. Even so dry a subject as church history, his rare humor enlivens and makes the dullest periods entertaining. One of the pleasantest weeks we ever spent was in reading his church history, in six octavo volumes, and we were sorry it ended so soon. His "Worthies of England" is, if possible, still more entertaining than his history. His whole works are worthy the careful reading of any scholar, and especially of the minister. And we wonder, by the way, why some publisher does not collect his sermons and minor works, which it is now impossible to obtain, and give them to the public in a permanent form. We are sure it would be a profitable investment. His "Holy and Profane States" belongs to the class of character writings. It lies open before us, and is one of the few books we intend constantly to read. We have room for only a few extracts from this last work:

"Heat gotten by degrees with motion and exercise, is more natural, and stays longer by one than what is gotten all at once by coming to the fire: so goods acquired by industry prove commonly more lasting than lands by descent."

Sermons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best light.”

"Tis a shame when the church itself is a cœmeterium, when the living sleep above ground as the dead do beneath."

Scoff not at the natural defects of any, which are not in their power to amendOh! 'tis cruelty to beat a cripple with his own crutches."

"Good company is not only profitable whilst a man lives, but sometimes when he is dead; for he that was buried with the bones of Elisha, by a posthumous miracle of that prophet, recovered his life by lodging with such a grave-fellow." "They that marry ancient people, merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter."

"He that impoverishes his children to enrich his widow, destroys a quick hedge to make a dead one."

Every teacher and student should learn by heart what Fuller says of education:

"Our common education is not intended to render us good and wise, but learned: it hath not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and prudence, but hath imprinted in us their derivation and etymology: it hath chosen out for us not such books as contain the soundest and truest opinions, but those that speak the best Greek and Latin; and by these rules has instilled into our minds the vaines humors of antiquity. But a good education alters the judgment and manners..... 'Tis a silly conceit that men without languages are also without understanding. It is apparent, in all ages, that some such have been even prodigies for ability; for it's not to be believed that wisdom speaks to her disciples only in Latin, Greek and Hebrew."

SAMUEL BUTLER. 1612-1680. The same genius which is manifest in Hudibras pervades to an equal degree every page of his characters. The same brilliant and inexhaustible wit, the same liveliness of fancy, and the same manly and independent spirit. "His controversial weapons may not be always polished to the same brilliancy, or displayed in the same imposing order, but they belong to the same formidable armory and partake of the same ætherial temper."

A Small Poet-is one that would fain himself that which nature never meant him; like a fanatic that inspires himself with his own whimsies. He sets up haberdasher of small poetry, with a small stock, and no credit. He believes it is inven. tion enough to find out other men's wits; and whatsoever he lights upon, either in books or in company, he makes bold with as his own. This he puts together so untowardly, that you may perceive his own wit has the rickets by the swelling disproportion of the joints. You may know his wit not to be natural, it is so un