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then," said Diogenes, "that your triumph and felicity depended on a single step."- "No wonder: we were all the fleetest runnes imaginable By how great an interval do you think a lark would have gone over the Stadium before you all ?” “But they have wings, and fly." "Well!” replied Diogenes: “if swiftness then be a proof of excellence, it were better to be a lark than a man: so that our commiseration for larks and lapwings, because they were metamorphosed* from men into birds, as mythologists inform us, is unseasonable and unnecessary." 7. "But I," said the victorious racer, "who am a man myself, am the swiftest of mankind." "Yes!" replied Diogenes: "and is it not probable, that among ants, also, one is swifter than another? Yet are the ants objects of admiration to their fellows on that account? Or would you not think it a laughable absurdity in any man to admire an ant for his speed? Suppose again, that all your competitors had been lame, would you have prided yourself, as on some masterly achievement, for outstripping the lame, when you were not lame like the rest?"

:

8. By such conversation as this, he produced in many of his hearers a supreme contempt for the boasted accomplishment in question and the man too departed, under no little mortification and humiliation, from this interview with Diogenes. No was the philosopher of little service to society in this respect, by reducing to a smaller compass and assuaging the tumors of a senseless infatuation, as swellings on the body subside from scarification and puncture, whenever he saw any man inflated with a frivolous conceit of unsubstantial excellence, and carried beyond the limits of sober sentiment by qualities utterly desti tute of intrinsic worth.

LESSON CXXI.

Diversity in the Human Character.-POPE.
1. VIRTUOUS and vicious every man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool, by fits are fair and wise,
And e'en the best, by fits what they despise.
"Tis but by part we follow good or ill,
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it still;
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;*

But Heaven's great view is one,- -and that the whole.

Pronounced Met-a-mor-fus'd, changed.

Goal, the end which a person aims to reach or accomplish.

2. That counterworks each folly and caprice
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd-
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief.
That Virtue's end from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;
And builds on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

3. Heaven, forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend,

Bids each on other for assistance call,

Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common int'rest, or endear the tie.
To those we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each homefelt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the same, we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign.
Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

4. What'er the passion, knowledge, fame or pelf,
Not one would change his neighbor with himself.
The learn'd is happy, nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,

The poor contents him with the care of heaven:
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chimist in his golden views
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse.

5. See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride, bestow'd on all, a common friend;
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply,
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

6. Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And cards and counters are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.

7. Meanwhile opinion gilds, with varying rays,
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by pride.

These build as fast as knowledge can destroy:
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy:
One prospect lost, another still we gain,
And not a vanity is given in vain :

E'en mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this: Though man's a fool, yet God is wise.

LESSON CXXII.

On the Pursuits of Mankind.-POPE.

1. HONOR and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part-there all the honor lies.
Fortuné in men has some small difference made;
One flaunts in rags-one flutters in brocade ;*
The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd;
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl ?†'
I'll tell you friend-a wise man and a fool.

You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler like, the parson will be drunk,

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow:
The rest is all but leather or prunella.

2. Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,.

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :

But by your father's worth if your's you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great.
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood,

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood:
Go! and pretend your family is young,

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards;
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

3. Look next on greatness-say where greatness lies? "Where, but among the heroes and the wise?"

* Brocade, a silk stuff variegated with gold and silver. † Cowl, a hood worn by a monk.

Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman* to the Swede :†
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make an enemy of all mankind!

Not one looks backward; onward still he goes;
Yet ne'er looks forward, farther than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise;

All sly slow things with circumspective eyes.
Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.

4. But grant that those can conquer; these can cheat;
'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great.
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains;
Like good Aurelius‡ let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates-that man is great indeed.

5. What's fame? a fanci'd life in other's breath.
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.
All fame is foreign, but of true desert,
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart;
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas :

And more true joy, Marcellus|| exil'd, feels,
Than Cesar, with a Senate at his heels.

6. In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell, (for you can,) what is it to be wise?
"Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own;
Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge,
Without a second or without a judge.
Truths would you teach, to save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view

Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.

7. Bring then these blessings to a strict account; Make fair deductions, see to what they 'mount;

Alexander the Great.

+ Charles XII. king of Sweden, born A. D. 1682. His whole reign was one continued scene of warfare. He was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, in Norway, December, 1718.

A Roman emperor in A. D. 161.

Marcellus, an eminent Roman, banished by Julius Cesar to Asia, and recalled by Augustus Cesar.

How much, of other, each is sure to cost;
How each, for other, oft is wholly lost;
How inconsistent greater goods with these;
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease:
Think. And if still such things thy envy call,
Say, would'st thou be the man to whom they fall?
8. To sigh for ribands if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon* shin'd;
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
Or, ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwellt damn'd to everlasting fame.
If all, united, thy ambition call,

From ancient story, learn to scorn them all.

LESSON CXXIII.

The Road to Happiness open to all Men.-POPE.
1. Oн Happiness! our being's end and aim !
Good, pleasure, ease, content! Whate'er thy name;
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die:
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wise;
Plant of celestial seed, if dropt below,

Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?

2. Fair op'ning to some courts propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurel yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows? where grows it not? if vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

* Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and statesman, was born 1561, and died 1626. He was one of the greatest geniuses that any age or country has produced. He laid down those principles upon which Newton demonstrated the whole law of nature. He was chosen lord high chancellor o England, but was legally convicted of bribery and corruption, and accused of the most gross and profligate flattery. He spent the last years of his life in study and retirement.

+ Oliver Cromwell, a celebrated English general, was born 1599. He assumed the title of "Protector of the commonwealth of England," 1653. He administered the affairs of the kingdom, for five years, with great vigor and ability, and died 1658.