Peevishness may be considered the canker of life, that destroys its vigor and checks its improvement; that creeps on with hourly depredations, and taints and vitiates what it cannot consume.

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

It may be laid down as a position which seldom deceives, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.

It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.

Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.

Religion informs us that misery and sin were produced together. The depravation of human will was followed by a disorder of the harmony of nature; and by that Providence which often places antidotes in the neighborhood of poisons, vice was checked by misery, lest it should swell to universal and unlimited dominion.

Man's chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature.