An Exotic And Irrational Entertainment.

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.

Men Who Stand In The Highest Ranks Of Society Seldom Hear Of Their Faults; If By Any Accident An Opprobrious Clamour Reaches Their Ears, Flattery Is Always At Hand To Pour In Her Opiates, To Quiet Conviction And Obtund Remorse.

Catch, Then, Oh! Catch The Transient Hour, Improve Each Moment As It Flies; Life's A Short Summer-man A Flower; He Dies-alas! How Soon He Dies!

Every Man Who Attacks My Belief, Diminishes In Some Degree My Confidence In It, And Therefore Makes Me Uneasy; And I Am Angry With Him Who Makes Me Uneasy.

Affectation Naturally Counterfeits Those Excellences Which Are Placed At The Greatest Distance From Possibility Of Attainment, Because, Knowing Our Own Defects, We Eagerly Endeavor To Supply Them With Artificial Excellence.