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ON STUDY.

STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. The chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots, and marshalling of affairs, come best from those who are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by duty, and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use, but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be

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read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not.

The greatest of errors is the mistaking or misplacing the last and farthest end of knowledge. For many have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge; some upon an inbred and restless curiosity; others to entertain their minds with variety and delight; others for ornament and reputation; others for contradiction and victory in dispute; others for lucre and living; few to improve the gift of reason given them from God to the benefit and use of men.

As if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a restless and searching spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down in at liberty, unrestrained; or some high and eminent tower of state from which a proud and ambitious mind may have a prospect; or a fort and commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit and sale; and not rather a rich storehouse and armoury for the glory of the Creator of all things, and the relief of man's estate.-Bacon.

BISHOP THOMAS KEN.

BORN, 1637; DIED, 1711.
Principal Works.-Poems and Hymns.

EVENING HYMN.

GLORY to thee, my God, this night,
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath thine own almighty wings.

Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son,
The ill that I this day have done;
That with the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious in the judgment day.

O may my soul on thee repose,

And may sweet sleep mine eyelids close; Sleep that may me more vig'rous make To serve my God when I awake.

If in the night I sleepless lie,

My soul with heavenly thoughts supply; Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,

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PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.

WILLIAM PENN did not look upon the gift of land by Royal Charter as a warrant to dispossess the first proprietors. He accordingly appointed his commissoners to treat with them for the fair purchase of a part of their lands, and for their joint possession of the remainder; and the terms being nearly agreed pon, he proceeded, very soon after his arrival, to conclude the settlement, and confirm the treaty in sight both of the Indians and planters.

For this purpose a grand convocation of the tribes had been appointed near the spot where Philadelphia 10w stands; and it was agreed that he and the presiding Sachems should meet and exchange faith, under the spreading branches of a prodigious elm-tree that grew on the bank of the river. On the day appointed, accordingly, an innumerable multitude of the Indians assembled in that neighbourhood; and were seen, with their dark visages and brandished arms, moving, in vast swarms, in the depth of the woods, which then overshaded that now cultivated region.

He

On the other hand, William Penn, with a moderate attendance of friends, advanced to meet them. came of course unarmed-in his usual plain dresswithout banners, or mace, or guard, or carriages; and only distinguished from his companions by wearing a blue sash of silk net-work, and by having in his hand

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PENNS TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.

a roll of parchment, on which was engrossed the confirmation of the treaty of purchase and amity. As soon as he drew near the spot where the Sachems were assembled, the whole multitude of Indians threw down their weapons, and seated themselves on the ground in groups, each under his own chieftain; and the pre siding chief intimated to Penn, that the nations wer ready to hear him.

Having been thus called upon, he began: "The Great Spirit," he said, "who made him and them, who ruled the heaven and the earth, and who knew the innermost thoughts of man, knew that he and his friends had a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with them, and to serve them to the utmost of their power. It was not their custom to use hostile weapons against their fellow-creatures, for which reason they had come unarmed. Their object was not to do injury and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. They were then met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will, so that all was to be openness, brotherhood, and love."

After these and other words, by means of the interpreter, he conveyed to them, article by article, the conditions of the purchase, and the words of the compact then made. Among other things, they were not to be molested in their lawful pursuits, even in the territory they had alienated, for it was to be common to them and the English. If any disputes should arise, they should be settled by twelve persons, half of whom should be English, and half Indians.

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