A ROYAL EPITAPH, SINGULAR either for sentiment or expression, will be sure to attract notice; the following is a real curiosity. Happy would it be both for Prince and Subject did all Kings of the earth study to merit the inscription of it on their tombs. "WHAT I could accomplish by good means I never did by evil. "What I could obtain by peace, I never forced by war. "I never chastised in public him whom I could privately amend or whose amendment I had not previously attempted. "I never allowed my tongue to utter an untruth, nor did I ever permit mine ears to listen. to the flatterer. "I was not prodigal in expending, nor ava ricious in accumulating. "I have grieved for those whom I punished, but when I have pardoned I have been joyful. "I was born a Man among Men, therefore do the worms devour me, but I lived virtuously among the virtuous, and therefore my soul has found repose with God !"Southey. TASTE Is that power of the mind by which we relish the beauties of Nature and of Art; and it is a faculty capable of very great improvement. The advantages and pleasures flowing from its cultivation are innumerable. "THE cultivation of taste is recommended by the happy effects which it naturally tends to produce on human life. The most busy man in the most active sphere cannot be always occupied by business. Neither can the most gay and flourishing situations of fortune afford any man the power of filling all his hours with pleasure. Life must always languish in the hands of the idle. It will frequently languish even in the hands of the busy, if they have not some employment subsidiary to that which forms their main pursuit. How then shall those vacant spaces, those unemployed intervals, which more or less occur in the life of every one be filled up? How can we contrive to dispose of them in any way that shall be more agreeable in itself, or more consonant to the dignity of the human mind, than in the entertainments of taste, and the study of po. lite literature? "He who is so happy as to have acquired a relish for these, has always at hand an innocent and irreproachable amusement for his leisure hours, to save him from the danger of many a pernicious passion. He is in no hazard of being a burden to himself, or obliged to court the riot of loose pleasures, in order to relieve the tediousness of existence. "The pleasures of taste refresh the mind after the toils of the intellect, and the labours of abstract study; and they gradually raise it above the attachments of sense, and prepare it for the enjoyments of virtue. "So consonant is this to experience, in the education of youth, no object has in every age appeared more important to wise men, than to tincture them early with a relish for the entertainments of taste. The transition is commonly made with ease from these to the discharge of the higher and more important duties of life. Good hopes may be entertained of those whose minds have this liberal and elegant turn. It is favourable to many virtues; whereas, to be en. tirely devoid of relish for eloquence, poetry, or any of the fine arts, is justly construed to be an unpromising symptom of youth, and raises suspicions of their being prone to low gratifica. tious, or destined to drudge in the more vulgar and illiberal pursuits of life."---Blair. DEVOTION Is a a passion of the mind arising from the con. templation of the divine perfections; it is at once sublime and elevated, it seizes the ima gination and impresses the heart. "A DEVOTIONAL spirit, united to good sense and a cheerful temper, gives that steadiness to virtue, which it always wants when produced and supported by good natural dispositions only. It corrects and humanizes those constitutional vices, which it is not able entirely to subdue; and though it too often fails to render men perfectly virtuous, it preserves them from becoming utterly abandoned. It has, besides, the most favourable influence on all the passive virtues; it gives a softness and sensibility to the heart, and a mildness and gentleness to the manners; but above all it produces an universal charity and love to mankind, however different in station, country, or religion. There is a sublime yet tender melancholy, almost the common attendant on genius, which is too apt to degenerate into gloom and disgust with the world. Devotion is admirably calculated to soothe this disposition, by insen sibly leading the mind, while it seems to in-dulge it, to those prospects which calm every murmur of discontent, and diffuse a cheefulness over the darkest hours of human life. "Persons in the pride of high health and spirits, who are keen in the pursuits of pleasure, interest, or ambition, have either no ideas on this subject, or treat it as the enthusiasm of a weak mind. But this really shows great narrowness of understanding; a very little reflection and acquaintance with nature might teach them on how precarious a foundation their boasted independence on religion is built; the thousand nameless accidents that may de stroy it; and though for some years they should escape these, yet that time must impair the greatest vigoar of health and spirits, and de. prive them of all those objects, for which only, at present, they think life worth enjoying. It should seem, therefore, very necessary to secure some permanent object, some real support to the mind, to cheer the soul, when all others shall have lost their influence. "The greatest inconvenience, indeed, that attends devotion, is its taking such a vast hold of the affections, as sometimes threatens the extinguishing of every other active principle of the mind. For, when the devotional spirit falls in with a melancholy temper, it is too apt to depress the mind entirely to sink into the weakest superstition, and to produce a total retirement and abstraction from the world, and all the du ties of life."Dr. Gregory. BAD COMPANY HAS ruined its tens of thousands; its pernicious effects are sad beyond expression, no one thing has proved more fatal to the rising ge neration. "AN ancient historian, mentioning the laws which Charondas gave the Thurians, says: He enacted a law with reference to an evil, on which former lawgivers had not animadverted; that of keeping bad company. As he conceiv ed, that the morals of the good were sometimes quite ruined by their dissolute acquaintance; that vice was apt, like an infectious disease, to spread itself and extend its contagion; he expressly enjoined, that none should engage in any intimacy or familiarity with immoral per. sons; appointed that an accusation might be exhibited for keeping had company; and laid a heavy fine on such as were convicted of it.' "The impression made on us by what we hear, is usually much stronger than that received by us from what we read. That which passes in our usual intercourse is listened to without fatiguing us: each then taking his turn in speaking, our attention is kept awake: we mind throughout what is said, while we are at liberty to express our own sentiments of it, to confirm, or object to it; to hear any part of it repeated, or to ask what questions we please concerning it. Discourse is an application to our eyes as well as ears; and the one organ is here so far assistant to the other, that it greatly increases the force of what is transmitted to our minds by it. The air and action of the speaker give no small importanee to his words; and the very tone of his voice adds weight to his reasoning. "That bad companions will make us as bad as themselves, I do not absolutely affirm. When we are not kept from their vices by our prin |