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Whether God loves a lying angel better than a true man?

Whether the archangel Uriel could knowingly affirm an untruth, and whether, if he could, he would?

Whether the higher order of seraphim illuminati ever sneer?

Whether an immortal and amenable soul may not come to be damned at last, and the man never suspect it beforehand?

GENIUS AND COMMON UNDERSTANDING.

There is a lower kind of discretion and regularity, which seldom fails of raising men to the highest stations, in the court, the church, and the law. It must be so for Providence, which designed the world should be governed by many heads, made it a business within the reach of common understandings; while one great genius is hardly found in ten millions. Did you never observe one of your clerks cutting his paper with a blunt ivory knife? did you ever know the knife to fail going the true way? whereas if he had used a razor or penknife, he had odds against him of spoiling a whole sheet.—Swift to Bolingbroke.

STUPID STORIES.

"A stupid story," says Walpole, “or idea, will sometimes make one laugh more than wit."

LOSING TIME.

One night when Matthews was going to the theatre at Edinburgh, and was almost too late, he took a coach, and ordered the coachman to drive to the theatre. In going up the hill, the horses being tired, the coach made no progress, upon which Matthews remonstrated, saying, that he should be too late, he should lose his time. The coachman coolly said, "Your honour should reflact that I'm losing time as weel's yersel'."

DELICATE PRAISE.

When Sir Matthew Hale was made chief-justice, his commission was brought to him by Lord Clarendon, who told him, that, "if the king could have found out an honester and a fitter man for that employment, he would not have advanced him to it."

A HAPPY CHARACTER.

He is a most lively, good-humoured, and pleasant man, who bears the ills of life as if they were blessings, and seems to take the rough and smooth with an equal countenance. This sort of unbended philosophy is the best gift that nature can bestow on her children; it lightens the burden of care, and turns every fable, and ghastly hue of memory, to bright and splendid colours. There is no one I enjoy so much as I do him; a cap and bells is a crown to him; a tune upon a flageolet is a concert;

if the sun shines, he sports himself in its beams; if the storm comes he skips gayly along, and when he is wet to the skin it only serves to make out a pleasant story, while he is drying himself at the fire. If you are dull after dinner, he will get him up, and rehearse half a dozen scenes out of a play, and do it well, and be as pleased with his performance as you can be. With all these companionable talents, he is neither forward, noisy, or impertinent; but on the contrary very conversable; and possesses as pleasant a kind of good-breeding as any one.-Lord Lyttleton's Letters.

HERALDRY V. AGRICULTURE.

We may talk what we please of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields of d'or or d'argent, but if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms.-Cowley.

MOVING.

What a dislocation of comfort is implied in that word moving! Such a heap of little, nasty things, after you think all is got into the cart; old dredging boxes, worn-out brushes, gallipots, vials, things that it is impossible the most necessitous person can ever want, but which the women, who preside on these occasions, will not leave behind, if it was to save your soul: they'd keep the cart ten minutes, to stow in dirty pipes and broken matches, to show their

economy. Then you can find nothing you want for many days after you get into your new lodgings. You must comb your hair with your fingers, wash your hands without soap, go about in dirty gaiters.Charles Lamb.

MONK LEWIS'S TRAGEDY OF ALFONSO.

This tragedy delights in explosions. Alfonso's empire is destroyed by a blast of gunpowder, and restored by a clap of thunder. After the death of Cæsario, and a short exhortation to that purpose by Orsino, all the conspirators fall down in a thunderclap, ask pardon of the king, and are forgiven. This mixture of physical and moral power is beautiful! How interesting a water-spout would appear among Mr. Lewis's kings and queens. We anxiously look forward, in his next tragedy, to a fall of snow, three or four feet deep, or expect that a plot shall gradually unfold itself by means of a general thaw.Sydney Smith.

ENGLISH CONVERSATION.

Hesitating, Humming, and Drawling, are the three graces of English Conversation. We are at dinner-a gentleman, "a man about town," is informing us of a misfortune that has befallen his friend. "No-I assure you--now now-err err-that-err—it

was the most shocking accident possible--err-poor Chester was riding in the park-err-you know that grey-err, (substantive dropped, hand a little flour

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ished instead,)-of his-splendid creature !-err well, sir, and by Jove-err-the-err-(no substantive, flourish again,) took fright, and-e Here the gentleman throws up his chin and eyes, sinks back exhausted into his chair, and after a pause adds "Well, they took him into the shop-thereyou know-with the mahogany sashes-just by the park-err―and—err-man there-set his what d'ye call it collar-bone; but he was-err-ter-ri-bly —terribly—” (a full stop.) The gentleman shakes his head, and the sentence is suspended to eternity.

Another gentleman takes up the wondrous tale, logically: "Ah! shocking, shocking-but poor Chester was a very agreeable—err—” (full stop.)

"Oh! devilish gentlemanlike fellow!-quite shocking !—quite-did you go into the err-to-day ?" 'No, indeed; the day was so un-may I take some wine with you?"

But, perhaps, the genius of our conversation is most shown in the art of explaining.

"Were you in the house last night ?"

"Yes-err-Sir Robert Peel made a splendid

speech!"

"Ah! how did he justify his vote? I've not seen the papers."

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Oh, I can tell exactly-ehem-he said-you see that he disliked the ministers, and so forth! you understand-but that-err-in these times, and so forth and with this river of blood-oh! he was very fine there!-you must read it-well, sir; and

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