ZZt) THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MINA. I have read in some of Mr. Milton's. waiting a very beau. tiful simile, whereby he represents the books of the fathers, as they are called in the christian church. Whatsoever, saith he, old Time with his huge drag-net has conveyed down to us along the stream of ages, whether it be shells or shellfish, jewels or pebbles, sticks or straws, sea weeds or mud, theseare the ancients, these are thefathers. The case is much the same with the me- morial possessions of the greatest paint of mankind. A few use- ful things perhaps, mixed and confounded with many trilles and all manner of rubbish, fill up their memories and compose their intellectual possessions. It is a great happiness therefore to dis- tinguish things aright, and to lay up nothing in the memory but what has some just value in it, and is worthy to be numbered as a part of our treasure. Whatsoever improvements are to the mind of man from the wise exercise of his own reasoning powers, these may be called his proper manufactures ; and whatsoever he borrows from abroad these may be termed his foreign treasures : both together make a wealthy and happy mind. How many excellent judg- ments and reasonings are framed in the mind of a man of wis- dom and study in a length of years ? Howmany worthy and ad- mirable notions has lie been possessed of in life, both by his own reasonings and by his prudent and laborious collections in the course of his reading ? But alas ! how many thousands of them vanish away again and are lost in empty air, for want of a stronger and more retentive memory ? When a young practiti- 00er of the law was once said to contest a point of debate with that great lawyer in the last age, Serjeant Maynard, lie is re- ported to have answered him, Alas, young man, I haveforgotten muck more law than ever thou hast learnt or read. What an unknown and unspeakable happiness would it be to a man of judgment, and who is engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, if he had but a power of stamping all his own best sentiments upon his memory in some indelible characters ; and if he could but imprint every valuable paragraph and sentiment of ,the most excellent authors he has read, upon his mind, with the same speed and facility vyith which be read them ? If a man of good genius and sagacity could but retain and survey all those numerous, those wise and beautiful ideas at once, which have ever passed through his thoughts upon any one subject, how ad- mirably would he be furnished to pass a just judgment about all present objects and occurrences? What a glorious entertainment and pleasure would fill and felicitate his spirit, if he could grasp all these in a single survey : as the skilful eye of a painter runs over a fine and complicated pieee of history wrought by a Titian or a Raphael, views the whole scene at once, and feeds himself with the extensive delight ? But these are ,joys that do not be- long to mortality.
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