he could have been persuaded into any scheme of revenging himself upon an enemy, I am sure (unless he had been narrowly watched) it would have ended in proclaiming the good qualities, and promoting the interests of his adversary.

Till subdued by age and illness, his conversation was more brilliant and instructive than that of any human being I ever had the good fortune to be acquainted with. His memory (vast and prodigious as it was) he so managed as to make it a source of pleasure and instruction, rather than that dreadful engine of colloquial oppression into which it is sometimes erected. He remembered things, words, thoughts, dates, and every thing that was wanted. His language was beautiful, and might have gone from the fireside to the press; but though his ideas were always clothed in beautiful language, the clothes were sometimes too big for the body, and common thoughts were dressed in better and larger apparel than they deserved. He certainly had this fault, but it was not one of frequent commission.

Sir James had a good deal of humour; and I remember, amongst many other examples of it, that he kept us for two or three hours in a roar of laughter, at a dinner-party at his own house, playing upon the simplicity of a Scotch cousin, who had mistaken me for my gallant synonym, the hero of Acre. I never saw a more perfect comedy, nor heard ridicule so long and so well sustained. Sir James had not only humour, but he had wit also; at least, new and sud

den relations of ideas flashed across his mind in reasoning, and produced the same effect as wit, and would have been called wit, if a sense of their utility and importance had not often overpowered the admiration of novelty, and entitled them to the higher name of wisdom. Then the great thoughts and fine sayings of the great men of all ages were intimately present to his recollection, and came out dazzling and delighting in his conversation. Justness of thinking was a strong feature in his understanding; he had a head in which nonsense and error could hardly vegetate: it was a soil utterly unfit for them.

Curran, the master of the rolls, said to Mr. Grattan, "You would be the greatest man of your age, if you would buy a few yards of red tape, and tie up your bills and papers." This was the fault or misfortune of Sir James Mackintosh; he never knew the use of red tape, and was utterly unfit for the common business of life. That a guinea represented a quantity of shillings, and that it would barter for a quantity of cloth, he was well aware; but the accurate number of the baser coin, or the just measurement of the manufactured article to which he was entitled for his gold, he could never learn, and it was impossible to teach him. Hence his life was often an example of the ancient and melancholy struggle of genius, with the difficulties of existence.--Sydney Smith.

HAPPINESS.

If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in

another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health and good-humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent man hunting for his hat, while it is on his head, or in his hand. Sharp. These persons want nothing to make them the happiest people in the world but the knowledge that they are so.

A SHE FOOL.

Lord Burleigh, in a capital letter of advice to his son Robert Cecil, advises him never to "choose a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others, and loathing in thee. Neither make choice of a dwarf or a fool; for by the one thou shalt beget a race of pigmies; the other will be thy continual disgrace; and it will yirk thee to hear her talk. For thou shalt find it, to thy great grief, that there is nothing more fulsome than a she fool."

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT.

When Holt was Lord Chief Justice, he committed some enthusiasts to prison. The next day, one Lacy, who was of the same persuasion, went to his house, and asked to speak to him. The porter answered, his lordship was not well, and could not be seen. Lacy insisted that he must see him, for he was sent to him by the Lord. When this message was delivered, he obtained admittance. "I come," said he, "from the Lord, commanding thee to grant a noli prosequi to his

faithful servants, whom thou hast unjustly committed to prison." "Thou canst not, certainly, have come from the Lord," replied Holt; "for he would have sent thee to the Attorney-General, knowing very well that it is not in my power to grant thy demand. Therefore, thou art a false prophet; and thou shalt go and keep thy friends company in prison."

PEDANTRY.

As I take it, the word is not properly used: because pedantry is the too frequent or unseasonable obtruding our own knowledge in common discourse, and placing too great a value upon it; by which definition, men of the court, or of the army, may be as guilty of pedantry as a philosopher or a divine; and it is the same vice in women, when they are over copious upon the subject of their petticoats, or their fans, or their china.--Swift.

SLEEPING IN CHURCH.

Many stories have been related of Swift, tending to show his utter disregard of all decorum in matters of religion, and among the rest one that has obtained universal belief, and which deserves to be killed off. This is an absurd story of his having one day found no one present at morning service but himself and the clerk, Roger Coxe, and commencing, "Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places, to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness;" and so proceeding through the

service. The whole of this story is untrue, no such scene ever occurred. It seems to have been an invention of Lord Orrery to discredit the dean's respect for religion. Swift's nephew said he had seen it in an old jest-book printed about the year 1560; probably all the other stories of the same nature may be disposed of in a like manner.

The following extract, however, is from a sermon actually preached by Swift in the cathedral at Dublin, with the text from Acts xx. 9: "And there sat in the window a certain young man, named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep; and while Paul was long preaching, he sunk down from sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead." Swift then proceeds to say, "I have chosen these words with a design, if possible, to disturb some part of this audience of half an hour's sleep, for the convenience and exercise whereof this place, at this season of the day, is very much celebrated.

"There is, indeed, one mortal disadvantage to which all preaching is subject; that those who by the wickedness of their lives stand in the greatest need have usually the smallest share; for either they are absent upon account of idleness, or spleen, or hatred to religion, or in order to doze away the intemperance of the week; or, if they do come, they are sure to employ their minds any other way than regarding or attending to the business of the place.

"The accident which happened to the young man in the text, hath not been sufficient to discourage his