whilst your conduct is not opposed to the general interest of the people, and the measures they are pursuing.

Our actions, depending upon ourselves, may be controlled, while the powers of thinking, originating in higher causes, cannot always be moulded to our wishes.

1778.

II. BENEVOLENCE.

Amid all the tumult of the camp, and all the excesses inseparable from civil war, humanity took refuge under his tent, and never was repelled from it. In triumphs and in adversity, he was ever tranquil as wisdom, and simple as virtue. The gentle affections abode in the depths of his heart, even in those moments when the claims of his own cause seemed to sanction in a manner the laws of vengeance.

M. FONTANES.

There was a gravity and reserve, indeed, in his countenance and deportment, partly natural, and partly the effect of habitual cares for the public weal; but theso were wholly unmixed with the least austerity or moroseness.

True native dignity was happily blended with the most placid mildness and condescension. J. M. SEWALL, Portsmouth, N. II. Dec. 31, 1799.

SOCIAL COURTESY.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried, before you give them your confidence.

Every action in company, ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.

COMPANY.

The company in which you will improve most, will be least expensive to you.

SHAKING OFF ACQUAINTANCES.

It is easy to make acquaintances, but difficult to shake them off, however irksome and unprofitable they are found, after we have once committed ourselves to them.

CHOICE OF COMPANY.

Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone, than in bad company.

DIFFIDENCE.

Submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust.

THE GOLDEN RULE.

It is a maxim with me, not to ask what, under similar circumstances, I would not grant.

DEVOTION TO THE PEOPLE.

There is nothing I have more at heart, than to discharge the great duties incumbent on me, with the strictest attention to the ease and convenience of the people.

NATIONAL, DISTINGUISHED FROM PERSONAL, HOSTILITY.

I was opposed to the policy of Great Britain, and became an enemy of her measures; but I always distinguished between a cause and individuals. And while the latter supported their opinions, upon liberal and generous grounds, personally I never could be an enemy to them.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION, NO CRIME.

Men's minds are as variant as their faces.

Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.

A difference of opinion on political points, is not to be imputed to freemen, as a fault. It is to be presumed, that they are all actuated by an equally laudable and sacred regard for the liberties of their country.

If the mind is so formed, in different persons, as to consider the same object to be somewhat different in its nature and consequences, as it happens to be placed in different points of view; and if the oldest, the ablest, and the most virtuous statesmen, have often differed in judgment, as to the best forms of government, we ought, indeed, rather to rejoice, that so much has been effected, than to regret, that more could not all at once be accomplished.

AMITY AND CONCESSION.

It is a fact declared by the General Convention, and universally understood, that the Constitution of the United States was the result of a spirit of amity and mutual concession.

And it is well known, that, under this influence, the smaller States were admitted to an equal representation in the Senate, with the larger States, and that this branch of the Government was invested with great powers; for, on the equal participation of those powers the sovereignty and political safety of the smaller States were deemed essentially to depend.

1796.

DUTIES OF THE MINORITY.

To be disgusted at the decision of questions, because not consonant to our own ideas, and to withdraw