MARRIAGE, WHY OFTEN UNHAPPY.—The reason why so few marriages are happy, is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.-Swift.

MARRIED LIFE.—A great proportion of the wretchedness which has so often imbittered married life, I am persuaded, has originated in a negligence of trifles. Connubial happiness is a thing of too fine a texture to be handled roughly. It is a sensitive plant, which will not bear even the touch of unkindness; a delicate flower, which indifference will chill and suspicion blast. It must be watered by the showers of tender affection, expanded by the cheering glow of kindness, and guarded by the impregnable barrier of unshaken confidence. Thus matured, it will bloom with fragrance in every season of life, and sweeten even the loneliness of declining years-Sproat.

MASS, A CARDINAL'S OPINION OF THE.-The Abbe Malot expressing a doubt to Richelieu how many masses would save a soul, the cardinal replied, "Pho! you are a blockhead—as many as it would take snowballs to heat an oven !”

MASTER OF A FAMILY.-It is not only paying wages, and giving commands, that constitutes a master of a family; but prudence, equal behavior, with a readiness to protect and cherish them, is what entitles a man to that character in their very hearts and sentiments.—Steele.

MASTER, THE EYE OF.-The eye of the master will do more work than both of his hands: not to oversee workmen, is to leave your purse open.-Franklin.

MATHEMATICS.—If a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away ever so little, he must begin again.-Lord Bacon.

MATHEMATICS.—The study of the mathematics, is like

climbing up a steep and craggy mountain; when once you reach the top, it fully recompenses your trouble, by opening a fine, clear, and extensive prospect.

MATHEMATICS AND THE LANGUAGES.-The study of the mathematics cultivates the reason; that of the languages, at the same time the reason and the taste. The former gives power to the mind; the latter, both power and flexibility. The former, by itself, would prepare us for a state of certainties, which nowhere exists; the latter, for a state of probabilities, which is that of common life. Each, by itself, does but an imperfect work: in the union of both, is the best discipline for the mind, and the best training for the world as it is.

MATTER, ITS PROPERTIES.-What is said by the chemists of their darling mercury, is perhaps true of everybody through the whole creation, that, if a thousand lives should be spent upon it, all its properties would not be found out.-—Johnson.

MAXIMS. It is hard to form a maxim against which an exception is not ready to start up: so where the minister grows rich, the public is proportionably poor; as in a private family the steward always thrives the fastest when the lord is running out.-Swift.

MAXIMS AT COURT.-The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.-Swift.

MAXIMS, BAD.-As a malicious censure craftily worded and pronounced with assurance, is apt to pass with mankind for shrewd wit; so a virulent maxim in bold expressions, though without any justness of thought, is readily received for true philosophy.-Shaftesbury.

MAXIMS, THEIR VALUE.-The value of a maxim, depends on four things: its intrinsic excellence or the comparative

correctness of the principle it embodies; the subject to which it relates; the extent of its application; and the comparative ease with which it may be applied in practice.-Hodge.

MEDICINE.-Medicine has been defined to be the art or science of amusing a sick man with frivolous speculations about his disorder, and of tampering ingeniously, till nature either kills or cures him.

MEDIOCRITY-There is a mean in all things; even virtue itself has stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.-Horace.

MEDIOCRITY.—They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean. Superfluity comes soonest by white hairs, but competency lives longest.

MEDITATION ON TRUTH.-It is easier to go six miles to hear a sermon, than to spend one quarter of an hour in meditating on it when I come home.-Philip Henry.

MEDITATION ON TRUTH.-It is not hasty reading, but seriously meditating upon holy and heavenly truths that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee's touching on the flowers that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon them, and drawing out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.-Bishop Hall.

MELANCHOLY.-Melancholy is a kind of demon that haunts our island, and often conveys herself to us in an easterly wind.-Addison.

MELANCHOLY.-Melancholy, or low spirits, is that hysterical passion which forces unbidden sighs and tears. It falls upon a contented life, like a drop of ink on white paper

which is not the less a stain that it carries no meaning with it.-W. Scott's Life.

MEMORY.-The memory is a treasurer to whom we must give funds, if we would draw the assistance we need.Rowe.

MEMORY.-We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others. to remember.-Johnson.

MEMORY. It is a terrible thought, that nothing is ever forgotten; that not an oath is ever uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all time, in the wide-spreading current of sound; that not a prayer is lisped, that its record is not to be found stamped on the laws of nature, by the indelible seal of the Almighty's will.—Cooper.

MEMORY.-Memory depends very much on the perspicuity, regularity, and order of our thoughts. Many complain of the want of memory, when the defect is in their judgment; and others, by grasping at all, retain nothing.-Fuller.

MEN AND STATUES.-Men and statues that are admired in an elevated station, have a very different effect on us when we approach them: the first appear less than we imagined them; the last, larger.-Rochefoucault.

MEN AND THEIR MERIT.-Cotemporaries appreciate the man, rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit, rather than the man.- Colton.

MEN, DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GREAT and LITTLE.—The real difference between men, is energy. A strong will, a settled purpose, an invincible determination, can accomplish almost anything; and in this lies the distinction between great men and little men.-Fuller.

MEN, GREAT.-Times of general calamity and confusion,

have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.—Colton.

MEN, HOW KNOWN.-There are peculiar ways in men, which discover what they are, through the most subtle feints and closest disguise. A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense.—Bruyere.

MEN, HOW TO JUDGE.-We may judge of men by their conversation toward God, but never by God's dispensations toward them.-Palmer.

MERCIES.—Were there but a single mercy apportioned to each moment of our lives, the sum would rise very high; but how is our arithmetic confounded when every minute has more than we can distinctly number.-Rowe on Con

tentment.

MERIT.-Real merit of any kind, cannot long be concealed; it will be discovered, and nothing can depreciate it, but a man's exhibiting it himself. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known.- Chesterfield.

MERIT. True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes-Halifax.

MERIT, MODEST.-Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.-Hughes.

MERIT, SUFFICIENCY OF.-The sufficiency of my merit, is to know that my merit is not sufficient.—St. Augustine.

MERRIMENT.-Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed. -Johnson