AUDACITY.

worlds are held together, in their respective operations, by an incessant administration. It is the mighty grasp of a controlling hand which keeps everything in its station. Were this control suspended, there is nothing adequate to the preservation of harmony and affection between my mind and that of my dearest friend for a single hour.-R. CECIL.

AUDACITY-Necessary.

Audacity is necessary in the commerce of men.-DR. JOHNSON.

AUGUST.-The Month of

The old Roman name was sextilis-the sixth month from March, the month in which the primitive Romans, as well as Jews, began the year. The name was changed to August in honour of the emperor -Augustus Cæsar, on account of his victories, and his entering on his first consulate in that month.-DR. WEBSTER.

There is no month in the whole year in which Nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms of this time of year are enhanced by their contrast with the winter season. August has no such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing but clear skies, green fields, and sweet-smelling flowers-when the recollection of snow, and ice, and bleak winds, has faded from our minds as completely as they have disappeared from the earth, and yet what a pleasant time it is! Orchards and corn-fields ring with the hum of labour; trees bend beneath the thick clusters of rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground; and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over the whole earth; the influence of the season seems to extend itself to the very waggon whose slow motion across the well-reaped field is perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no harsh sound upon the ear.-DICKENS.

AUGUSTAN AGE.-The

The Augustan age of any national literature is the supposed period of its highest state of purity and refinement. Thus the reign of Louis XIV. has been called the Augustan age of French literature, and that of Queen Anne the Augustan age of English literature. -DR. WEBSTER.

AURORA-BOREALIS.-The

The luminous arch remains sometimes for hours together flashing and kindling in

AUTHOR.

ever-varying undulations, before rays and streamers emanate from it, and shoot up to the zenith. The more intense the discharges of the northern light, the more bright is the play of colours, through all the varying gradations from violet and bluish white to green and crimson. Even in ordinary electricity excited by friction the sparks are only coloured in cases where the explo sion is very violent after great tension. The magnetic columns of flame rise either singly from the luminous arch, blended with black rays similar to thick smoke, or simultane ously in many opposite points of the hori zon, uniting together, form a flickering sea of flame, whose brilliant beauty admits of no adequate description, as the luminous waves are every moment assuming new and varying forms. The intensity of this light is at times so great, that Lowenörn (on June 29, 1786) recognized the coruscation of the polar light in bright sunshine. Motion renders the phenomenon more visi ble. Round the point in the vault of heaven which corresponds to the direction of the inclination of the needle, the beams unite together to form the so-called corona, the crown of the northern light, which encircles the summit of the heavenly canopy with a milder radiance and unflickering emanations of light. It is only in rare instances that a perfect crown or circle is formed, but on its completion the phenomenon has invari ably reached its maximum, and the radia tions become less frequent, shorter, and more colourless. The crown and luminous arches break up, and the whole vault of heaven becomes covered with irregularly scattered, broad, faint, almost ashy-grey, luminous, immovable patches, which in their turn disappear, leaving nothing but a trace of the dark, smoke-like segment on the horizon. There often remains nothing of the whole spectacle but a white, delicate cloud with feathery edges, or divided at equal distances into small roundish groups like cirro-cumuli.-HERSCHEL.

AUTHOR.-Counsel to an

An author should sell his first work for what the booksellers will give, till it shall appear whether he is an author of merit, or, which is the same thing as to purchasemoney, an author who pleases the public. —DR. JOHNSON.

AUTHOR.-The Empire of the

That man has an empire beyond that of the highest monarch that now lives. It has been said that the Queen of this great empire has a kingdom upon which the sun never sets; yet her empire, great as it is, is neither so wide nor so deep as that of the

AUTHOR.

man who rules in the empire of your affections and in the kingdom of thought.DIXON.

AUTHOR.-The Genius of an

The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well.-LA BRUYÈRE.

AUTHOR.-Judging an

Nothing can be more disagreeable to a person who does not express himself happily, than to be judged by the elegant writers, or even the half-wits. They make no account of his ideas, and only judge of his words. How superior soever he may really be to those who judge him as weak, he will never reform their judgment, and, in their opinion, he will always pass for a fool.-HELVETIUS.

AUTHOR.-The Labour of an

The greatest part of an author's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.-DR. JOHNSON.

AUTHOR.-Sober Reflections of an

I have presumed to mark the moment of conception of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:" I shall now commemorate the hour of my final deliverance. It was on the day, or rather night, of the twenty-seventh of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page, in a summerhouse in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatever might be the future date of my history, the life of the historiar. might be short and precarious.-GIBBON.

AUTHOR.-Sympathy with an

None but an author knows an author's cares,

Or fancy's fondness for the child she bears. COWPER

AUTHOR.-Treatment of a New

How often do we see a person whose intentions are visibly to do good by the

AUTHORITY.

works which he publishes, treated in as scurrilous a manner as if he were an enemy to mankind! All the little scramblers after fame fall upon him, publish every blot in his life, depend upon hearsay to defame him, and have recourse to their own invention, rather than suffer him to erect himself into an author with impunity. Not only the dull and the malicious, which make a formidable party in our island, but the whole fraternity of writers, rise up in arms against every new intruder into the world of fame and a thousand to one, before they have done, prove him not only to be a fool, but a knave. Successful authors do what they can to exclude a competitor, while the unsuccessful with as much eagerness lay in their claim to him as a brother. -ADDISON.

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AUTHORITIES.-Deference to Old

Men are resolved never to outshoot their forefathers' mark, but write one after another; and so the dance goes round in a circle, and the world is never the wiser for being older. Take an instance of this in the schoolmen, and in the best of them-Aquinas. 'Tis pleasant to see how that great wit is oftentimes put to it to maintain some unlucky authorities; and yet such a slave was he, that he would rather lose truth than go out of the road to find it. This also makes men otherwise senseful and ingenious, quote such things out of an old dull author, and with a peculiar emphasis of commendation too, as would never pass even in ordinary conversation. But now, no sooner does a man give himself leave to think, but he perceives how absurd and unreasonable it is that one man should prescribe to all posterity; - that men, like beasts, should follow the foremost of the herd; and that venerable nonsense should be preferred before new sense. He considers that that which we call antiquity is properly the nonage of the world; -that the sagest of his authorities were once new; and that there is no difference between an ancient author and himself, but only that of time, which, if of any advantage, 'tis rather on his side, as living in a more refined and mature age of the world. And thus, having cast off this intellectual slavery, he freely picks up truth wherever he can find it; puts to sea upon his own bottom; holds the stern himself; and now, if ever, we may expect new discoveries. J. NORRIS.

AUTHORITY-a Disease and Cure.

Authority is a disease and cure,

Which men can neither want nor will endure.-S. BUTLER.

AUTHORS.-The Powers of

Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure style; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labour, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult;

AUTUMN.

with familiarity of things that are novel; and with perspicacity of things that are profound.-COLTON.

AUTHORS.-Three Kinds of

Authors may be divided into falling stars, planets, and fixed stars: the first have a momentary effect. The second have a much longer duration. But the third are unchangeable, possess their own light, and work for all time.-SCHOPEN

HAUFER.

AUTHORS.-Unnatural War of

Authors alone, with more than savage rage, Unnatural war with brother authors wage. CHURCHILL.

AUTHORSHIP.-The Vanity of

A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind : he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them; and the public, to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.-DR. JOHNSON.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.-The Difficulty of Writing an

The difficulty of those who would write their own life or biography is almost insurmountable; for few will be honest enough to say anything disparagingly of themselves, while all will be more or less prompted to say everything in their own favour.-DR. DAVIES.

AUTUMN.-The Advent of

'Tis past! no more the Summer blooms! Ascending in the rear,

Behold, congenial Autumn comes,

The Sabbath of the year!
What time thy holy whispers breathe,
The pensive evening shade beneath,

And twilight consecrates the floods;
While nature strips her garment gay,
And wears the verdure of decay,

Oh, let me wander through the sounding woods -LOGAN.

AUTUMN.-An Evening in

The western sun withdraws the shorten'd day,

And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky In her chill progress, to the ground condensed

The vapours throws. Where creeping waters

ooze,

Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind,

Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along The dusky-mantled lawn. Meanwhile the

moon,

AVALANCHE.-The Grandeur of an

It is impossible to conceive the grandeur of an avalanche, as it breaks away from the highest ridge of snow on the tops of the mighty Alps, and falls some thousands of feet below. Scarcely has it reached its first destination, than it is broken into innumerable fragments of various forms and colours. Yet it re-gathers, and speeds on from one castellated reef to another, until, at length, with the roar of thunder, it reaches the depths of the gulf below, and is lost in silence and darkness for ever.-E. DAVIES.

AVARICE.-The Absurdness of

Can anything be more senselessly absurd than that, the nearer we are to our journey's end, we should still lay in more provision for it? CICERO

AVARICE.

AVARICE.-The Approaches of

How sordid and foolish an employment it is to stand gazing at one's money, to take pleasure in handling, weighing, and counting it over and over! It is in this way that avarice makes its first approaches.-MON

TAIGNE.

AVARICE-Defined.

To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice.—BEATTIE. AVARICE.-The Disease of

In December, 1790, died at Paris, literally of want, Mr. Ostervald, a well-known banker. This man felt the violence of the disease of avarice (for surely it is rather a disease than a passion of the mind) so strongly, that, within a few days of his death, no importunities could induce him to buy a few pounds of meat, for the purpose of making a little soup for him. "Tis true," said he, "I should not dislike the soup, but I have no appetite for the meat; what then is to become of that?" At the time that he refused this nourishment, for fear of being obliged to give away two or three pounds of meat, there was tied round his neck a silken bag which contained eight hundred assignats of one thousand livres each! He died possessed of one hundred and twentyfive thousand pounds sterling.-Buck.

AVARICE.-The Evil of

Avarice isolates man from the great universe and the holy God, deadens the sensibilities to the highest joys and shuts the soul up in its own dark self, the victim of a thousand miserable suspicions, and the subject of attributes that every generous heart must loathe.-DR. THOMAS.

AVARICE.-The Misery of

"What an unfortunate wretch am I!" complained a miser to his neighbour. "Some one last night has taken away the treasure which I buried in the garden and laid a cursed stone in its place." "And yet you have never used your treasure," aptly answered his neighbour. bring yourself to believe that the stone is still your treasure, and you are none the poorer." "If I am none the poorer," returned the miser, "is not some one else the richer? The thought is enough to drive me mad."-PROF. LESSING.

AVARICE.-The Ruinousness of

"Only

Avarice has ruined more men than prodigality, and the blindest thoughtlessness of expenditure has not destroyed so many fortunes as the calculating but insatiable lust of accumulation.-COLTON.

AVARICIOUS.

AVARICIOUS.-The Acts and Fate of the His treasures fly to clog each fawning slave, Yet grudge a stone to dignify his grave: For this low-thoughted craft his life employed;

For this, though wealthy, he no wealth enjoyed;

For this he griped the poor, and alms denied,

Unfriended lived, and unlamented died. SAVAGE.

AVENGE.-The Way to

The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrongdoer.—ANTO

NINUS.

AVENUE.-The Beauty of an

An avenue is one of the most beautiful sights the eye can gaze upon. True, the trees on either side of the broad walk indicate the art of man rather than the productions of nature; nevertheless the effect is instantaneous and enchanting. How light, and airy, and graceful is the arch stretching out as far as the eye can see! It seems like a consecrated roof, which might well echo the grateful anthems of a thousand hearts. The golden sunshine blends with the sombre shade, and the sportive winds now play among the branches, and then sweep along before you, as if they were inviting you onward to behold and admire.-DR. DAVIES.

AVERSION-Manifest.

It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an aversion for him. ADDISON.

AVERSION.-The Power of

You might as well think of vultures consorting with doves, as of one associating with another who has an intense aversion to him.-E. DAVIES.

AVERSIONS.-A Bundle of.

Some people's sensibility is a mere bundle of aversions, and you hear them display and parade it, not in recounting the things they are attached to, but in telling you how many things and persons they "cannot bear."FOSTER.

AVOCATIONS.-Numerous

Visits, business cards, and I know not how many other avocations, do succeed one another so thick, that in the day there is no time left for the distracted person to converse with his own thoughts.-BOYLE.

AWE.-Sacred

A sacred awe seizes the spirit as one nters the consecrated house of prayer, and