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intoxication of reason.-Leibnitz defines it to be an affection which makes us find pleasure in the perfections of those whom we love.

15. MAXIM OF MARCUS Aurelius.

In the midst of those events which vex thee, said Marcus Aurelius, remember that, so far from the accident which has happened to thee being an evil, thy constancy in supporting it will make thee derive a certain advantage from it.

16. SPINOSISM.

Spinosa acknowledges only one substance in the world; of which, he says, the souls of individuals are merely transient modifications. The Stoics supposed an universal soul; which, according to them, is the ocean of all individual souls.

17. ACCUSATION OF OBSTINACY FREQUENTLY

UNJUST.

Most men never distinguish their own decisions from what is right; not considering that, if others are not of the same opi

nion as themselves, neither are they of the same opinion as others *. This arises from that pride which makes every one assume as a fixed principle that he is right. This pride is particularly the lot of the ignorant; and hence, undoubtedly, it was said by Madame Deshoulières of some such person, "he is quite proud of being ignorant.' Socrates was just the reverse of such men: after he had learnt all that the wisest of his day could teach, he declared that he knew nothing. This Pascal calls a learned ignorance, which knows itself.

18. BEAUTIFUL STANZA OF LE FRANC DE
POMPIGNAN.

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The following is one of the finest stanzas in French poetry. Voltaire was forced to

* Lord P. said that I was obstinate, because I maintained, against him, the existence of a God-In my edition of the works of Leibnitz, I have published several of his letters to Muratori: but, notwithstanding that, some person asserted to me that they had not been contemporaries, and I was obstinate for maintaining that they had.

admire it, even after he was told that it was written by M. le Franc de Pompignan. The author is speaking of the atheists, who deny the existence of God at the time when they are enjoying his blessings.

Le Nil a vu sur ses rivages
De noirs habitans des déserts
Insulter par leurs cris sauvages
L'Astre éclatant de l'univers :
Cris impuissans, fureurs bizarres!
Tandis que ces monstres barbares
Poussoient d'insolentes clameurs,
Le Dieu, poursuivant sa carrière,
Versoit des torrens de lumière
Sur ces obscurs blasphémateurs.

19. MORE GOOD THAN EVIL.

There is more moral good than evil in the world. There may be more wicked than virtuous men, because a single bad action is sufficient to rank a man among the bad: but, on the other hand, those who are called. bad, commit, during their lives, ten good actions for one bad one. Besides, much more is said concerning a great crime, such as murder, than of a hundred good actions which are silently performed; and that dis

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tinction alone is enough to prove that the former are much more rare than the latter.

20. ORIGIN OF EVIL.

All created beings are necessarily finite and imperfect: God could not create a being like himself; the evil which results is, therefore, essential. This proves that evil in physics, as well as good in morals, is not positive: it is a mere privation, 'a defect attached to the nature of created beings.

21. WHY WE CANNOT COMPREHEND THE MIND.

The mind being the seat of the ideas, and containing them, it necessarily follows, that the idea which we wish to form of the mind 'can never be an idea formed by the mind; which cannot, at the same time, be that which contains and that which is contained. The mind and the soul are synonimous in this respect.

22. ITALIAN LANGUAGE.

The Italian is, of all living languages, that which has existed longest in its purity. In Dante, who wrote five hundred years

years ago, are to be found passages which, for sweetness and elegance, equal any of the best writers of the present age. The following is an instance: he is speaking of his mistress.

Elle è quanto di ben può far natura,
Per esempio di lei Belta si pruova.

di costei si può dire

Gentile in Donna ciò che in lei si truovà.
E bello è tanto quanto lei somiglia.
E puossi dire che il suo aspetto giova
A consentir ciò che par maraviglia;
Onde la nostra fede è ajutata.

Dante died in 1321. Petrarch was born in 1304. Supposing him to have celebrated Laura at the age of twenty-three, it is now nearly 480 years since he wrote the following verses:

Luci beate et liete,

Se non che il veder voi stesse v'è tolto,
Ma quante volte à me vi rivolgete,

Conoscete in altrui quel che voi siete,
Ne mai stato gioioso

Amor, o la volubil fortuna

Dieder' à chi più fur nel mondo amici,

Ch'i nol cangiassi ad una

Rivolta d'occhi.

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