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» dence. I employed artificers to form it » into chambers and stored it with all that » I was likely to want.

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joiced like a tempest-beaten sailor at his >> entrance into the harbour, being delight»ed with the sudden change of the noise » and hurry of war to stillness and repose. » When the pleasure of novelty went » away, I employed my hours in examin»>ing the plants which grow in the valley, » and the minerals which I collected from » the rocks. But that inquiry is now grown » tasteless and irksome. I have been for » some time unsettled and distracted: my » mind is disturbed with a thousand per» plexities of doubt and vanities of imagination, which hourly prevail upon me, > because I have no opportunities of relaxa» tion or diversion. I am sometimes >> ashamed to think that I could not secure > myself from vice, but by retiring from >> the exercice of virtue, and begin to sus>pect that I was rather impelled by resent» ment than led by devotion, into so»litude. My fancy riots in scenes of folly, > and I lament that I have lost so much, » and have gained so little. In solitude, if

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> I escape the example of bad men, I want » likewise the counsel and conversation of >> the good. I have been long comparing the >> evils with the advantages of society, and >> resolve to return into the world to-mor» row. The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly de

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They heard his resolution with surprise, but after a short pause, offered to conduct him to Cairo. He dug up a considerable treasure which he had hid among the rocks, and accompanied them to the city on which, as he approached it, he gazed with rapture.

JOHNSON.

,

THE PARTY-COLOURED SHIELD.

IN the days of knight-errantry and paganism, one of our old British princes set up a statue to the Goddess of victory, in a point where four roads met together. In her right-hand she held a spear and rested her left upon a shield the outside of this shield was of gold and the inside of silver. On the former was inscribed in the old

British language, To the Goddess ever favorable; and on the other, For four victories obtained successively over the Picts and other inhabitants of the Northern Islands.

It happened one day that two knights completely armed, the one in black armour, and the other in white arrived from opposite parts of the country at this statue, just about the same time; and as neither of them had seen it before, they stopped to read the inscriptions, and observe the excellence of its workmanship. After contemplating on it for some time, this golden shield, cried the black knight, golden shield, cried the white knight, (who was as strictly observing the opposite side) why, if I have my eyes, it is silver. I know nothing of your eyes, replied the black knight, but if ever I saw a golden shield in my life, this is one; yes, returned the white knight, smiling, it is very probable, indeed, that they should expose a shield of gold in so public a place as this for my part, 1 wonder even a silver one is not too strong a temptation for the devotion of some people that pass this way; and it appears by the date, that this has been here above three years. The black knight could not bear the smile with which

this was delivered, and grew so warm in the dispute, that it soon ended in a challenge; they both therefore turned their horses, and rode back so far as to have sufficient space for their career, then fixed their spears in their rests, and flew at each other with the greatest fury and impetuosity. Their shock was so rude, and the blow in each side so effectual, that they both fell to the ground, much wounded and bruised, and lay there for some time, as in a trance. A good Druid who was travelling that way found them in this condition. The Druids were the physicians of those times as well as the priests. He had a sovereign balsam about him, which he had composed himself, for he was very skilful in all the plants that grew in the fields, or in the forests; he stanched their blood, applied his balsam to their wounds, and brought them as it were from death to life again. As soon as he found them sufficiently recovered, he began to enquire into the occasion of their quarrel. « Why, this » man, cried the black knight, will have it » that the shield yonder is silver. And he » will have it, replied the white knight, that >> it is gold, >> and then told him all the particulars of the affair. « Ah! said the

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» Druid, with a sigh, you are both of you in >> the right and both of you in the wrong; » had either of you given himself time to » look upon the opposite side of the shield as » well as that which first presented itself to » his view, all this passion and bloodshed » might have been avoided; however there » is a very good lesson to be learned from » the evils that have befallen you on this » occasion. Permit me therefore to intreat » you by all our Gods, and by this Goddess » of Victory in particular; Never to enter » into any dispute for the future till you have fairly considered both sides of the » question. »>

BEAUMONT'S MORALITIES.

ON AERIAL CASTLE-BUILDING.

ALNASCHAR was a very idle fellow, that never would set his hand to any business during his father's life. When his father died, he left him to the value of an hundred drachmas in Persian money. Alnaschar, in order to make the best of it, laid it out in glasses, bottles, and the finest earthen ware.

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