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nor a cock on our dunghill, that does not surpass you in glory!"

WILLIAM PENN and THOMAS STORY, travelling together in Virginia, being caught in a shower of rain, unceremoniously sheltered themselves from it in a tobacco house, the owner of which, happening to be in, thus accosted them: "You have a great deal of impudence to trespass on my premises; you enter without leave. Do you know who I am?" to which was answered, "No." "Why, then, I would have you to know that I am a justice of the peace." Thomas Story replied, "My friend here makes such things as thou art; he is the governor of Pennsylvania." The would-be great man quickly abated his haughtiness. IMPERIAL MAGAZINE.

What is the pomp of learning? the parade
Of letters and of tongues? e'en as the mists
Of the grey morn before the rising sun,
That pass away and perish. Earthly things
Are but the transient pageants of an hour;
And earthly pride is like the passing flower,
That springs to fall, and blossoms but to die,
Baseless and silly as the schoolboy's dream.

KIRKE WHITE.

REVENGE, VENGEANCE.

REVENGE, return of an injury. To REVENGE, to vindicate by punishment of an enemy. To wreak one's wrongs on him that inflicted them. JOHNSON.

What will not ambition and revenge descend to.

MILTON.

VENGEANCE, punishment; penal retribution; avengeJOHNSON.

ment.

From the French verb Venger, to avenge, to punish, which according to some etymologists has for its root the Latin Vindico, come our words VENGEFUL; VENGEANCE; AVENGE-ER-ED; REVENGE-FUL-ED, &c.

The Almighty forbids malice and revenge in express

terms; he will not allow us to keep any resentment in our hearts against our brethren, see Leviticus xix. 17, 18. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people."

* * *

Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; therefore I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman, and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom, by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger, and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance. Thus saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; therefore, behold I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea-coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them. EZEKIEL XXv. 12-17.

It will be seen by the above, that the Almighty will not suffer men to avenge themselves, and that he will visit with his vengeance, so much more terrible than any that human power can inflict, all such, whether nations or individuals, as disobey his positive and repeated injunctions on this head. Under the gospel dispensation, these commands were repeated yet more earnestly and impressively. Our blessed Saviour himself, both by precept and example, enforced the doctrine of forgiveness of injuries; and the Apostle Paul writes, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." ROMANS XII. 19-21.

Let every one beware how he indulges the idea of re

turning evil for evil. In such deplorable contests, it is always he who comes off, as he imagines, the conqueror, that is the most really to be pitied. ST. GREGORY.

Banish all malignant and revengeful thoughts. A spirit of revenge is the very spirit of Satan, than which nothing makes a man more like him, and nothing can be more opposite to the temper which Christianity was designed to promote. If your revenge be not satisfied, it will give you torment now; if it be, it will give you greater torment hereafter. None is a greater self-tormentor than a revengeful and malicious man, who turns the poison of his own temper in upon himself. The Christian precept in this case is, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath," and this precept, Plutarch tells us, the Pythagoreans obeyed,* in a literal sense; if at any time, in a passion, they broke out into opprobrious language, before sunset they gave one another their hands, and with them a discharge from all injuries, and so with a mutual reconciliation they parted friends. MASON.

Who rides o'er the plain with a warrior's speed,
His dark eye dilated with passion and ire?
'Tis Revenge! 'tis Revenge! on a war-girded steed,
His mane wreathed with foam and his nostrils like fire.

Still onward he hastens on Victory's wing,

Desolation and death mark the conqueror's path;

And the valley once bright with the roses of spring,
Grows red with the traces of vengeance and wrath.

Before him awakens the trumpet's shrill blast,

The battle's rude clamour swells loud on the gale ;
From the desolate scene where his war-hoofs have past,
Comes the cry of the orphan-the widow's lone wail.
Around him despair and destruction are spread,
Pale ruin and woe in his train are combined;

Sweet nature grows barren and waste 'neath his tread,
For his steps leave a charnel or desert behind.

Who rides o'er the plain with a warrior's speed,
His dark eye dilated with passion and ire?

'Tis Revenge! 'tis Revenge! on a war-girded steed,
His mane wreathed with foam and his nostrils like fire.
MRS. C. B. WILSON.

*The Pythagoreans were a sect of heathen philosophers, so named from PYTHAGORAS, their head and founder, who flourished about 580 years B.C.

Ah! why should Revenge for some wrong but suspected,
Manœuvres of state that of honour make show,
Or a court ceremonial infringed or neglected,

Plunge a people in blood and a kingdom in woe?
O, hasten, Great Father, the blest consummation,
When "nation shall ne'er lift up sword against nation,"
When war shall no more be the Christian's vocation,
When the spear shall be shivered, and broken the bow.

THE BEST REVENGE IS LOVE :-disarm
Anger with smiles; heal wounds with balm;
Give water to thy thirsting foe.

The sandal tree, as, if to prove

ANON.

How sweet to conquer hate by love,
Perfumes the axe that lays it low.

S. C. WILKES.

SELFISHNESS, &c.

ATTENTION to one's own interest, without any regard to others; self-love. JOHNSON.

The pronoun SELF is derived from the Saxon Sylf or Sylfa, in the Gothic language it was Silba. Its primary signification, says JOHNSON, seems to be that of an adjective. It is united both to the personal pronouns and to the neuter pronoun it, and is always added when they are used reciprocally, or return upon themselves, as thou lovest thyself, though the world scorns thee. The following examples will show the various ways in which the word is used in composition.

SELF is that conscious, thinking being, which is sensible or conscious of pleasure or pain, capable of happiness and misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends. LOCKE.

In their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. GENESIS.

Hast thou set up nothing in competition with God; no pride, pleasure, profit, self-love, or self-interest of thy own?

DUPPA.

Thyself from flattering self-conceit defend,
Nor what thou dost not know, to know pretend.

DENHAM.

If a man would have a humble, devout, sin-abhorring, self-denying frame of mind, he cannot take a more efficacious course to attain it, than by praying himself into it. SOUTH.

I am as justly accountable for any action done many years since, appropriated to me now by this self-consciousness, as I am of what I did the last moment.

LOCKE. Confidence, as opposed to modesty, and distinguished from decent assurance, proceeds from self-opinion, occasioned by ignorance or flattery.

Self-sufficiency proceeds from inexperience.

COLLIER.

ADDISON.

The religion of Jesus, with all its self-denials, virtues, and devotions, is very practicable.

WATTS.

Our imaginary height is fixed by ourselves. Our real stature is the average between the opinions of our friends and enemies. REV. R. BAYLEY.

We are all too apt to overrate our own merits, and to forget our own defects, while in judging of our fellowcreatures, we exactly reverse this mode of procedure, forgetting the repeated and express injunctions which are contained in the scriptures, such as, If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.

SELFISHNESS AND SELF-LOVE.-There is, be it observed, a wide difference between selfishness and legitimate self-love. This is a principle necessary to all sentient existence. In man, it is the principle which impels him to preserve his own life, and promote his own happiness. Not only is it consistent with piety, it is the stock on which all piety, in lapsed man, is grafted. Piety is only the principle of self-love carried out in the right direction, and seeking its supreme happiness in God. It is the act or habit of a man who so loves himself that he gives himself to God. Selfishness is fallen self-love, it is self-love in excess, blind to the existence and excellence of God, and seeking its happiness in inferior objects, by aiming to subdue them to its own purposes.

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