tage of competition above monopoly is not more obvious in the principles of political economy and their application to the commercial system, than it is likely to be in the market of philosophy and letters, when it shall be open to the purchasers of every country, occupation, and degree. But I have pursued these subjects beyond the modern limits of a dedicatory address. I cannot conclude without expressing much pleasure in the conviction, that after all, I have ushered a much larger proportion of good than of evil into the world, bad as it is represented to be. I can wish nothing better for the generality of you, than that you may act by society at large with as much good faith and correct feeling as you have manifested in your transactions with me. I will close this long epistle with a few words of advice, transcribed from those letters of Lord Chatham, to some passages in which I have already called your attention:-"You have the true clue to guide you, in the maxim that the use of learning is, to render a man more wise and virtuous, not merely to make him more learned., Macte tua virtute; go on by this golden rule, and you cannot fail to become every thing your generous heart prompts you to wish to be, and that mine most affectionately wishes for you. There is but one danger in your way, and that is, perhaps, natural enough to your age, the love of pleasure, or the fear of close application and laborious diligence. With the last there is nothing that you may not conquer; and the first is sure to conquer and enslave whoever does not strenuously and generously resist the first allurements of it, lest, by small indulgences, he fall under the yoke of irresistible habit. Vitanda est improba Siren, Desidia, I desire may be affixed to the curtains of your bed, and to the walls of your chambers. If you do not rise early, you never can make any progress worth talking of: if you do not set apart your hours of reading, and never suffer yourself or any one else to break in upon them, your days will slip through your hands unprofitably and frivolously; unpraised by all you wish to please, and really unenjoyable to yourself. Be assured, whatever you take from pleasure, amusements, or indolence, for these first few years of your life, will repay you a hundred fold in the pleasures, honours, and advantages of all the remainder of your days." I will not overlay the simplicity, or weaken the force of this wise advice from a wise man, by adding any thing from myself, beyond the assurance of my being Your faithful and affectionate friend, BENJ. H. MALKIN. Bury, May 25. 1825. CONTENTS. Comparative Estimate of Terence and Plautus........ On the Epicurean Philosophy..... On the Aristotelian Philosophy....................... Page On the Titles and Mythological Character of Mercury 324 On the Mythological Character of Rhadamanthus.... 331 On the Mythological Character of Pluto....... 333 On a Sentiment in Catullus........ Miscellaneous Passages from Persius....... Miscellaneous Passages from Modern Authors........ 446 Miscellaneous Passages from Homer..... |