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WISDOM AND FOLLY.

WISDOM Consists in knowledge and in obedience to its dictates; as in knowing the injurious effects of opium or of alcohol, and in abstaining from their use; in knowing and in acting. Folly in knowledge and non-obedience, or in knowing and not acting. As a dog returns to his vomit, so does a fool to his folly."

A very small part of the disorders of the world proceed, says Dr. Johnson, from ignorance of the laws by which life ought to be regulated; nor do many even of those whose hands are polluted with the foulest crimes deny the reasonableness of virtue, or attempt to justify their own actions. Men are not blindly betrayed into corruption but abandon themselves to their passions with their eyes open, and lose the direction of truth because they do not attend to her voice, not because they do not hear or do not understand it.

All that can be said upon this subject, is said by Robert Burns in his Bard's epitaph

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Reader, attend-whether thy soul
Soars fancy's flights beyond the pole,
Or darkly grubs this earthly hole,
In low pursuit ;

Know, prudent, cautious, self-control

Is wisdom's root.

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"We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye."

HOBBES'S THEORY OF LAUGHTER.

Soon after I was called to the bar I happened to be in the criminal court at Cambridge, when a prisoner was put upon his trial, on a charge of having stolen from the dwelling-house in which his master, an old officer, lodged, a box containing twelve hundred guineas. He was a nervous and interesting looking man, and, during a service of twenty years, until this accusation, had borne an irreproachable character. The old General was on his road from the north to London. The box was entrusted to his care by a country banker, to be delivered at the Bank in London. The servant, as he was accustomed, accompanied his master in the carriage; they slept at Caxton, in Cambridgeshire. The box was never seen from the time they entered the inn. The prisoner when he was called, said, "I hope your Lordship will have pity on me and protect me; I have not any money to fee counsel; my master knows how faithfully I have served him for many years." I instantly offered such services as I could render. After a long and very affecting trial, he was found guilty. When the verdict was pronounced, his master, much agitated, came forward. "I have," he said, "discharged what I thought to be my

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