NOTHING.

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous. palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a rack behind!

SHAKSPEARE.

Of all subjects this is certainly the best for a great talker; and he who cannot say a great deal upon it, had better remain silent. He may be very clever, but he cannot be a clever talker. This subject is so copious that it appears to include everything, and if I were called upon to make a thousand observations, I would not desire a better theme. Nothing! The very word is

like a fountain bubbling up with inexhaustible supplies. When the flakes of snow, and the drops of rain, can be numbered, then may you seek to enumerate the innumerable reflections that spring from nothing, like the blades of grass from the earth.

When I see the miser with his bundles of bills, and his bags of money, I look forward to that time when it may perhaps be said,

"With greedy hands and avaricious eyes,

He grasps in fear his golden gods, and dies,"

and ask, what will his riches avail him, and what of all his possessions will he take away with him? Alas! nothing! The famished beggar, whose hunger he refused to assuage, is no poorer than he.

Look at the giants of the earth, the emperors, the pontiffs, the kings, and those who by the

strength of their bodies or the superiority of their minds have raised themselves above their

fellow men. Look at their glittering crowns, and mitres, and golden sceptres, with the temples and the statues erected to their memory. Look at the wreath of the poet, the truncheon of the warrior, and then say, when a thousand fleeting years have winged their way over this revolving world, what, of all the crowns, the mitres, the sceptres, the temples, the statues, the wreaths, and the truncheons, will be left to excite the wonder of the world? Nothing! not a vestige! They, and the beings they adorned or commemorated, will be nothing.

What avails it to walk where the sunbeam has power,
If the path will be shadow'd with gloom in an hour!
To be skreen'd for a while from the wind and the blast,

To be scatter'd and torn by the tempest at last!

What avails it to be something to-day, if tomorrow we are to be nothing?

I could talk for a month about nothing, there is so much to be learned from it. It is positively full of instruction. He that says

nothing, will hardly be reproved for slandering the reputation of his neighbour; and he who does nothing wrong, is not likely to be shunned as a thief and a robber. If I had not laid it down as an especial rule to say nothing, except what was worth listening to, why all that I could say, even on this excellent subject, would amount to nothing.

One half of the wondrous tales which are current in the world have nothing in them; and a thousand slanders, which are propagated by a thousand tongues, if thoroughly investigated, would be found to spring from nothing.

What is done by the warrior for the good of

mankind?

Hasty, impetuous, uncontroll'd,

As avalanche from Andes rolled,

he rushes, ruthlessly, on his opponents; scatters them in the dust; deluges the soil with blood; and the gilded obelisk proclaims him to the world as the defender and friend of his country. But take away from his deeds such as were achieved through ambition, interest, and vain-glory, and what will be left behind?—Nothing.

A greater part of the wars which take place in the world are about nothing; and though we cannot say that a victory costs nothing, we may affirm that the advantages gained by it are frequently worth nothing.

Most of the long speeches which are made contain nothing, and the object they have in view