The Spartan, smiting and spurning the wretched Helot, moves our disgust. But the same Spartan, calmly dressing his hair, and uttering his concise jests, on what the well knows to be his last day, in the pass of Thermopylae, is not to be contemplated without admiration.

Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.

A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.

In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.

The sweeter sound of woman's praise.

A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves.

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!