ever known to do one: He was made up of tenderness,
pity, and compassion; and of so feminine a disposition, that tears would
fall from his eyes upon the smallest occasion.

As his education had been strict, so he was always of a religious
disposition, and would not enter upon the business of the day, till he
had performed his devotion, and read several portions of scripture out
of the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New-Testament.

It appears from his loose papers, which he calls Adversaria, that he
had been such an arduous student, that before he was eight-years in the
university, he had read over and made reflections on twenty-two thousand
books and manuscripts; a few of which, we shall give as specimen, in
order to let the reader into the humour and taste of our author.

'Diogenes Laertius, Book I.----Thales, being asked how a man might most
easily brook misfortunes? answered, if he saw his enemies in a worse
condition. It is not agreed, concerning the wisemen; or whether indeed
they were seven.'

'There is a very good letter of Pisistratus to Solon, and of the same
stile and character with those of Phalaris.'

'Solon ordained, that the guardians of orphans should not cohabit with
their mothers: And that no person should be a guardian to those, whose
estate descended to them at the orphan's decease. That no seal-graver
should keep the seal of a ring that was sold: That, if any man put out
the eye of him who had but one, he should lose both, his own: That,
where a man never planted, it should be death to take away: That, it
should be death for a magistrate to be taken in drink. Solon's letters
at the end of his life, in Laertius, give us a truer Idea of the man,
than all he has written before, and are indeed very fine: Solon's to
Craesus are very genteel; and Pitaccus's on the other side, are rude and
philosophical; However, both shew Craesus to have been a very good man.
These epistles give a further reason to believe, that the others were
written by Phalaris. There is a letter from Cleobulus to Solon, to
invite him to Lindus.'

'Bion used to say, it was more easy to determine differences, between
enemies than friends; for that of two friends, one would become an
enemy; but of two enemies, one would become a friend.'

'Anacharsis has an epistle to Craesus, to thank him for his invitation;
and Periander one to all the wise men, to invite them to Corinth to him,
after their return from Lydia. Epimenides has an epi