which education, rank, and fortune had given her?

Knowledge, replied Euphronius, is intrinfically valuable, as it elevates the mind, and qualifies us for higher degrees of felicity, both in the prefent, and in a future life. But with refpect to others, it affords no claim of diftinction, unless it be applied to their emolument. Power, abstractedly confidered, is of little estimation; and may either dignify or degrade the poffeffor. If you wish to derive honour from it, be careful to render it fubfervient to the happiness of all around you; and enjoy with gratitude, not with affected superiority, the exalted privilege of doing good, Has your mind been cultivated by a liberal education? Be thankful to God, and to your parents; but remember, with humility, how far your ignorance exceeds your knowledge.

It is not confiftent with wifdom either to over-rate our own attainments, or to undervalue thofe of others. The gardener, whom

whom you just now treated with fuch contempt, is a man of fcience, though unacquainted with any branch of the belles lettres. He is verfed in the nature of foils, the variety of feeds, the habitudes of plants, the culture of trees, the multiplication of flowers, and in all that relates to the curious and important fyftem of vegetable life. The acquifition and daily application of this useful knowledge, exercifes and invigorates the powers of his understanding; and he learns to compare, to discriminate, to reason, and to judge with no lefs accuracy than the logician, the statesman, the divine, or the philofopher. Euphronius was proceeding to extend the obfervation to mechanics and artifts; but he was interrupted by a little incident, not worth relating, which put an end to the converfation.

IRASCIBILITY AND FALSE HONOUR.

Tw

wo cocks, who were traverfing their respective dunghills, with all the pride of confcious dignity, happened to crow

very loudly at the fame time. Each heard with indignation the voice of the other, because each deemed it an infult and a challenge; and honour required of both, that an affront fo gross should be revenged. They defcended from their dunghills, and with majestic steps and bristling plumage met together. The engagement foon began, the match was equal, and it was uncertain to which fide victory inclined. A game cock, cooped in a pen, beheld the combatants, with an ardent defire to fhare the glories of the field. By accident, the door of his pen had been left unfastened; he pushed it open, and ran eagerly to mingle in the battle. Being much fuperior to the dunghill cocks, in agility and ftrength, he quickly routed and put them both to flight: And he exulted in the mighty atchievement, by crowing, strutting, and clapping his wings. The strength and courage, however, derived from the infamous arts of feeding, are but of short duration. In a few hours, he was observed to droop; and his antagonists, now returning to the attack, found him feeble, pufillanimous,

lanimous, and so easy a conquest, that he fell on the first onset.

In the dunghill cocks you may view the picture of those, who ftile themselves men of honour; and the game cock will remind you of many a rakish youth, who, inflamed with wine, iffues from the tavern, to engage in the first brawl he meets with. His ftrength and courage are but the tranfient effects of liquor; and being foon exhausted, he is made to feel feverely the folly and rafhness of his conduct.

*

I have heard it fuggefted, that valour depends entirely on the state of the bodily organs; and that a coward may be dieted into a hero, and a hero into a coward. Though this opinion feems to be chimerical, yet it must be acknowledged, that the effects of regimen are very astonish

* Pufillanimity is a characteristic of the inhabitants of the East Indies; and it is faid, that they generally take opium before any arduous and dangerous enterprife, to give them vigour and courage.

ing. Dry ftimulating food, and evacuations, diminish the weight of the body, by wafting the fat, and leffening the liver; and they increase the weight of the heart, by augmenting the quantity and motion of

the blood.

A game cock, in ten days, is brought to his athletic ftate, and prepared for fighting. If the food, evacuations, and exercise be continued longer, the strength, courage, and activity of the cock will be impaired; owing, perhaps, to the lofs of weight falling at last on the heart, blood, and muscles.*

It is known from experience, that a cock does not remain in his athletic ftate above twenty-four hours; and that he changes very much for the worse in twelve hours. When he is in the highest vigour, his head is of a glowing red colour; his neck large; and his thigh thick, and firm. The fucceeding day, his complexion is lefs glowing, his neck thinner, and his thigh

*See Dr. Robinson on the Food and Difcharges of the Body.

fofter;