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them; and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use: that is a wisdom without them, and won by observation. Read not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. 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, have a present wit; and if he read little, have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, morals grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend."

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Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly, virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue."

However admirable these passages may be, a celebrated writer remarks, that Bacon's greatest performance is the first book of his Novum Organon. All the peculiarities of his great mind are found there in the highest perfection. Every part of the book blazes with wit, but with wit which is employed only to illustrate and decorate truth. No buok ever made

so great a revolution in the mode of thinking, overthrew so many prejudices, introduced so many new opinions; yet no book was ever written in a less contentious spirit.

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CERVANTES.

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA was born at Alcala de Henares, in Castile, on the 9th of October, 1547. His family was originally from Galicia, and both ancient and honorable-no trifling qualities among so punctilious a race as the Spaniards. His father appears to have been in somewhat indigent circumstances; yet he designed his son for one of the learned professions, and at an early age sent him to Madrid for his education, where he studied for some years under the care of Doctor Lopez de Hoyos, a philologer and theologian.

This learned man occasionally published small volumes of poetical miscellanies; among which he included ballads, eclogues, and other pieces from the hand of his "dear and beloved disciple, Miguel de Cervantes." These juvenile efforts probably brought some notice upon the author, for in 1569 we find him in the train of Cardinal Aquaviva, at Rome, where he resided a year in the capacity of chamberlain to that dignitary. This post, according to the manners of that age, would have been coveted by persons far above him in rank and fortune, and might have been serviceable to Cervantes, by affording him an intro

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duction to the company of polite and learned men. But the uniformity of life, and stately repose in a great ecclesiastical establishment, were probably little suited to the temper and inclinations of a young man possessing that love for adventure which was a characteristic of the subject of our sketch, and he seems to have embraced the first opportunity of leaving the service of the cardinal for scenes of a more stirring character.

A league had been formed by the Spanish, Papal and Venetian governments, for the purpose of checking the progress of the Turks in the Mediterranean, and the naval forces of the three powers were combined for this purpose, under the command of Don John of Austria, brother to the king of Spain. The young gentlemen of Spain and Italy flocked in crowds to the standard of a leader already renowned in war. Cervantes quitted Rome amidst the first enthusiasm of the preparation, and enlisted as a volunteer under Mark Antonio Colonna, general of the Papal galleys. The combined fleet of two hundred and thirty galleys put to sea, and encountered the Turkish armament of about equal force in the Gulf of Lepanto, near Corinth, on the 5th of October, 1571. Here was fought the greatest naval battle of modern times. The struggle was most obstinate and bloody; all the instruments of war, both of ancient and modern invention, were employed on both sides,-arrows, javelins, fire-balls, grappling-irons, cannon, muskets, spears and swords. The combatants fought hand to hand in most of the galleys, and grappled together as on a field of battle. Victory at length decided for the Christians; thirty

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