had undesignedly injured him, picked up the fragments, and coolly said, "Alas! Diamond, thou hast destroyed in a quarter of an hour, that which cost me many years to compose."

The generality of mankind cannot attain to distinction: they have neither the opportunity nor the qualifications to become legislators, heroes, or public benefactors; but every one may imitate the instances of good-nature, condescension, moderation, regularity, exactness, and persevering attention, which add to the merit of characters rendered illustrious by more dazzling qualities.

History records the fate of nations; their form of government; their wars of ambition, by which one is augmented in power and territory at the expence of its rival, which, probably, is reduced to a tributary province or so weakened and impoverished, that a course of years must elapse to restore its prosperity.

The characters that appear in the historic page, are mostly those who engaged in politics or war, two departments that exclude the gentler virtues. Though its faithful pencil holds up the virtuous patriot to the admiration of distant ages, and exposes to deserved contempt the venal and the vicious; yet its general deportment seldom includes those virtues and vices which are connected with individuals, and upon which their merit and happiness depend.

It is biography that possesses this excellency, and for that reason is, when well selected, the most amusing, and the most beneficial instructor that can be choser.

And of all the writers that excel in this line, Plutarch is the most original, and has contrived to blend with the greatest ease, the public transactions in which his heroes took a part, with such anecdotes as exhibit the man in the familiarity of private life. We become acquainted with the characters he describes, and feel a lively interest in all their concerns. He carries us back to the remote ages of Greece and Rome, and delineates with such a masterly hand, that the distance of time and place is forgotten, and we seem as if we were spectators of the events he relates. Few books appear to have had a greater influence on their readers than Plutarch's Lives. Many persons of celebrity have acknowledged, that they owed great obligations to the early impression made on their minds, by the pictures of public and pri vate virtue he exhibited in his lives of great men.

It would be a fortunate circumstance, if some modern Plutarch would adopt his spirit, and transmit the great characters of the last century, in his manner, for the benefit of the rising generation, who have seldom sufficient application to wade through the fashionable quarto, in which it is now customary to detail the lives of extraordinary persons.

109

ON A DILIGENT PURSUIT OF ONE OBJECT.

WHATEVER a man determines to be, that he may be, if he has sufficient perseverance.

If we look through the historical records of every part of the world, we shall find that few persons have attained to great celebrity in any profession, without devoting all the powers of their understandings to that one object. A man who is determined to become eminent in a particular line, must resolutely bend every action to that end, or he can have but little chance of success. Divided attention prevents that energy of endeavour that often leaves idle genius far behind. Great talents, united with diligence, certainly form the most perfect requisites for excellence ; but as they are the lot of very few, it is happy for the rest of mankind, that a common degree of intellect, seconded by unwearied perseverance, is sufficient for most purposes in life.

The same undeviating pursuit of a certain track, operates with equal success, whether the path lead to virtue and honour, or vice and infamy; therefore, a young person entering on the theatre of the worid, should examine with a cautious eye the object that he chooses for his idol.

The mistress that sir Isaac Newton wooed with unerring constancy was philosophy; that of Mr. Locke, metaphysics; the love of conquest, Alexander's; the enslaving of his country, Julius Cæsar's; and an inordinate

lust of rule, Bonaparte's. These men have not only reached the goal they proposed to themselves at the outset of their career, but probably have gone beyond their own expectations, by casting aside every obstacle ; overcoming every opponent; and disregarding labour, fatigue, and difficulty.

It is recorded of the philanthropic Howard, that, being passionately fond of music, he was once tempted, whilst in Italy, to spare a few hours to attend a concert of the first vocal and instrumental performers that musical country afforded; but he perceived that this indulgence served to disturb his attention from the main object of his journey, and he never afterwards suffered himself to be drawn aside from his noble design of alleviating the miseries of prisons, by any of the specimens of art, though a connoisseur, that presented themselves in the course of his travels through the principal parts of Europe.

These great men, and a thousand others that might be named, have outstript all their competitors, and reached the summit of their wishes, by the means of this undivided attention. Apply the maxim to private life ; and you will see that he who gives his days and nights to be rich, wise, learned, accomplished, or virtuous, scarcely ever fails to become so.

A young lady,* whom I shall introduce under the feigned name of Chlorinda, was a striking instance, not only of the efficacy of this quality in gaining its end, but⚫

*These anecdotes are facts.

also of the strong bias habit gives to the mind, and of the necessity of weighing the consequences of any one mode of conduct ardently pursued.

Chlorinda was the only child of a gentleman, who possessed an estate of twelve hundred pounds a year, and resided in the family mansion in a country village. Chlorinda was the darling of her parents, and received the best education their retired situation afforded; but she displayed no remarkable talents in the early part of her life, except an adroitness in arithmetic, and fondness for reading plays. When she was about fourteen, it happened that a company of strolling players came to the village where this family resided; a circumstance, on which all the future events of her life hinged, and which drew out the predominant turn of her mind. The scene was new to her; she became a frequent and enraptured spectator of their performances; and when the time of their departure arrived, took the mad resolution of abandoning father and mother, and enlisting herself under their banners. Happily, this ruinous project was discovered in time to prevent it, though such was her obstinacy, that she yielded to neither arguments nor entreaties. She was obliged to be confined, and persisted in declaring, that whenever she should be. come the mistress of her fate, she would go on the stage.

In a few years she had the misfortune to lose both parents, and being sole heiress of their property, had an opportunity of realising her wild speculations. The first act of her independence was removing to a residence in London, and appointing an agent to manage