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

He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day will often bring to his task attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an imagination overwhelmed, a mind distracted with anxieties, a body languishing with disease: he will labour on a barren topic till it is too late to change it; or, in the ardour of invention, diffuse his thoughts into wild exuberance, which the pressing hour of publication cannot suffer judgment to examine or reduce.

He that has too much to do will do something wrong.

A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal.

Frequent discontent must proceed from frequent hardships.

He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life.

Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is, therefore, superfluous to urge any other motive. On this great duty eternity is suspended, and to him that refuses to practise it, the throne of mercy is inaccessible, and the Saviour of the world has been born in vain.