It is like washing bricks, which the more you scour them, the more muddy they become; meaning bricks made of clay, and not burnt, but dried in the sun; such as were used in the East, and probably are so now, or «Laver la tête d'un âne», by which the French designate such unavailing attempts. The proverb may also be applied to persons, endeavouring by fictitions ornaments to make any thing appear more beautiful and valuable than it is, or by rhetorical flourishes to give a false colour to any action.

Though he is abundantly commended, still he is suffered to live in indigence. It is an old, and too well founded complaint, that the good man frequently fails in meeting with that encouragement and assistance, to which, by his worth, he seems entitled; nay, that he has often the mortification of seeing persons, of no very nice honour, or who are even manifestly deficient in moral qualities, intercepting those emoluments, which should be the reward of uprightness and justice. But the man who is thus rewarded, was active and industrious, and had merited the preference that was given him, by performing some service that was grateful, useful, or even necessary to the person through whose means he obtained his advancement; while the good man, who was overlooked, might probably want that assiduity, or ingenuity, which are necessary to enable us to be useful to ourselves, or others. The preference that is said to be given to men of bad characters, is not given them on account of their evil qualities, but for having cultivated their talents, and rendered themselves serviceable; neither are the good passed over on account of their virtues, but for not having acquired those qualities which are necessary to make their virtues conspicuous, and which, if possessed, would enable them to demand the assistance they complain is withheld from them. The earth yields its productions, not in proportion to the good or bad characters of the possessors, but to the greater or less degree of knowledge and industry, that have been displayed in its cultivation.

The lucky have their days, and those they choose,
The unlucky have but hours, and those they lose.

Is it not likely, that activity and ingenuity often supply the place of kick, or fortune, and that those who complain they are unfortunate, or unlucky, are in reality only stupid, or indolent? And perhaps, this is oftener the case, than we are willing to confess.

I am always armed with a sprig of laurel, was said by persons who had unexpectedly escaped from any threatened danger. The laurel was thought by the ancients to be an antidote against poison, and to afford security against lightning. On account of these supposed properties, Tiberius Caesar is said to have constantly worn a branch of laurel around his neck. Laurel water was prescribed by the ancient physicians, in the cure of those fits to which children are subjected. It was, therefore until within a very few years, always found in the shops of the apothecaries. Later experience has shown, that the distilled water of the laurel leaf, when strongly impregnated, is a powerful and deadly poison. It was with this preparation that Captain Donellan killed Sir Theodosius Baughton. The opinion of the power of the laurel in preserving against lightning, rests on no better foundation than, that of its efficacy in preventing the effects of poison, or in curing epilepsy. A horse-shoe nailed on the threshold of the door, was supposed by the common people in this country, to preserve the house from the effects of witchcraft, and it is still in repute among our sailors, who nail a horse-shoe to the mast, with a view of preserving the vessel from such evil influence.