never happier, than when hid from the world.  Few people pleased him in conversation, and it was a proof of his liking them, if his behaviour was tolerably agreeable.  He was a great dissembler of his natural temper, which was fallen, morose, and peevish, where he durst shew it; but he was of a timorous disposition and the least slight or neglect offered to him, would throw him into a melancholy despondency.  He was apt to say a great many ill-natur’d things, but was never 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 epistle to Solon, to invite him to Crete, under the tyranny of Pisistratus.’