Non simulatum quidquam potest esse diuturnum.— Cicero.

Nihil fingam, nihil dissimulem, nihil obtegam.-Cicero.

CONCLUSION. . . . .

THEME LXV. Avoid Extremes.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON. All virtue is placed in the mean: For example, temperance is the mean betwixt gluttony and abstinence; Frugality between extravagance and parsimony; Charity between prodigality and niggardliness; Fortitude between fear and rashness; Religion between superstition and infidelity, &c.

2ND REASON. All extremes are evil; thus extreme temperance is injurious to health, extreme study stultifies the mind, extreme frugality degenerates into meanness, extreme liberality into prodigal waste, &c.

3RD REASON.-The moral restraint which is required in order to maintain the golden mean, is most excellent discipline for the mind: Both self-denial and moral courage must be always in full exercise, and thus the manly powers of the mind will be strongly developed.

4TH REASON.-" Avoid extremes" is a very necessary caution, because the mind has a natural tendency “to run greedily after error;" and needs unceasing vigilance to resist the temptation.

5TH REASON. Not only virtue but also happiness is placed in the mean. Thus immoderate pleasures pall upon the senses, whereas the self-mortification of an ascetic is a living death. The prodigal, who wastes his “substance in riotous living," and the miser who "starves amidst abundance," are both wretched, &c.

6TH REASON.-The mean is more safe than either ex

treme. Thus the fool-hardy thrusts himself into perils, and the coward invites them; the Epicure is in danger from a surfeit, and the Essene from immoderate abstinence.

SIMILES.It is far more easy to run a ship upon Scylla or Charybdis, than to steer safely between.

The Frigid zones are too cold, and the Torrid zone is too hot, for the most perfect development of the human race.

If the age of man be estimated at threescore years and ten, the middle period (from twenty-four to forty-eight), may certainly be called "the prime of life."

He that will take away extreme heat, by setting the body in extreme cold, shall undoubtedly remove the disease, but together with it the diseased too.-Hooker.

In a thunder-storm the attic and the cellar should both be avoided as places of danger; the middle of the room in the middle story of the house is the place of greatest security; for whether the electric flash proceed from the clouds or from the earth, it will have expended itself before it reaches the centre of the house.

If any one were to measure from the surface of the earth to the centre, and then from the surface again as far upwards, he would find that every substance diminished in ponderosity, as it approached either of these two extremes.

The air of mountains is too rarefied, and that of deep mines too dense, for the free development of animal or vegetable life.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS. There is a mean in all things, even virtue itself hath its stated limits, which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.-Addison.

Minds should an equal temper know,

Nor swell too high, nor sink too low.-Pope.
Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such
Who still are pleased too little or too much.-Pope.

What would this man? Now upward will he soar,
And, little less than angel, would be more;

Now looking downward, just as grieved, appears
To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. . . .
Why has not man a microscopic eye?

For this plain reason, man is not a fly.-
Say, what the use were finer optics given?
To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven.-
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er?
To smart and agonise at every pore.-
Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain.—

If Nature thundered in his opening ears,

And stunned him with the music of the spheres,

How would he wish that Heaven had left him still
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill.-Pope.
"Tis all in vain to keep a constant pother
About one voice, and fall into another;
Betwixt excess and famine lies a mean;

Plain, but not sordid; though not splendid, clean.

Pope.

To balance fortune by a just expense,
Join with economy magnificence;

With splendour, charity; with plenty, health! Oh! teach us, Bathurst, yet unspoiled by wealth, That secret rare, between the extremes to move Of mad good-nature, and of mean self-love.-Pope. Summa cadunt subito.

Ita fugias ut ne præter casam.

At vehemens in utramque partem nimis.-Terence. Omnis intemperantia est a tota mente ac a recta ratione defectio.-Cicero.

Id arbitror adprime in vita esse utile, "ne quid nimis." -Terence.

CONCLUSION.

THEME LXVI. Enjoyment consists in Action more than in Possession.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON. God has associated pleasurable sensations with every function essential to life and wellbeing: Thus, rest is a pleasure, the mere act of eating is a pleasure, and that of locomotion is a pleasure also, because all these things are needful for life and health.

2ND REASON. The vital activity of performing is more pleasurable than passive enjoyment. Without doubt there is a degree of satisfaction in the feeling of being rested, of having eaten enough, and having won a desired object; but this mere mental complacency is far inferior to the strong animal passions which accompany the acts themselves.

3RD REASON. All men love novelty, and soon grow weary of one and the same thing: But there is much greater variety in pursuit than in possession.

4TH REASON. The very hazard of the chase constitutes its greatest charm, for which the value of the game is a very inadequate compensation.

5TH REASON.-Possession is attended with fear, but pursuit with hope; and as hope is to be preferred to fear so the enjoyment of action is greater than that of seizin.

6TH REASON. The mind always depreciates the worth of things possessed, and exaggerates the value of those in expectancy. The former are looked at through the concave lens of disappointment, the latter through the magnifying mist of anticipation.

SIMILES. The huntsman's pleasure is the chase, and not the value of a hare or fox.

A child feels more pleasure in a game of romps than in a whole cupboard full of toys.

Solomon says, "stolen waters are sweet;" not because

they are actually better than those fetched from our own cistern, but because there is a degree of excitement in the stealth which gives a relish to the draught.

A boy would sooner win one marble than have two given him.

Running water is sweet and sparkling, but a pool is mantled with weeds and infested with insects; so action keeps the mind sweet and cheerful, but possession cloys the appetite, and stagnates the animal and mental energies. Spring is more beautiful than Autumn.

A hound will leave his pottage to chase a hare.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS. There is no one but is more delighted with hope than with enjoyment.

Life, without pursuit, is a vague and languid thing.Lord Bacon.

Perfective good is superior to conservative good.— Lord Bacon.

So it falls out,

That what we have we prize not to its worth.

Shakspeare.

All things that are,

Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

Shakspeare.

Employment is true enjoyment.

The ample proposition that Hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest reared;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain,
Tortive and errant from the course of growth.

Shakspeare.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.-Acts, xx. 35. In actions, enterprises, and desires, there is a remarkable