There is more virtue in obscurity than is commonly supposed; and perhaps
there have been nobler specimens of magnanimity in low life, than even the
page of history can boast.

Knowledge of the world must be combined with study, for this, as well as
better reasons: the possession of learning is always invidious, and it
requires considerable tact to inform without a display of superiority, and
to ensure esteem, as well as call forth admiration.

Deceit has the effect of impoverishing, as well as enriching, men: the
prodigal becomes poor by pretending to be richer than he really is, while
seeming poverty is the very making of a miser.

F.

* * * * *


STANZAS TO THE SPIRIT OF MORNING.

(_For the Mirror_.)



Angel of morn! whose beauteous home
In light's unfading fountain lies;
Whose smiles dispel night's sable gloom,
And fill with splendour earth and skies,
While o'er the horizon pure and pale,