The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-06-03 00:00:00

T.4ILE T.ILK.

.Inch sprightli remark, anti mina useful hint.. are
Lgiven in T %MAL TALK, au article in `:11a1.1n in aml
~,,flort Alm:aline,- fur the present month. The fol-
in,ving is the commencement a No. I. On the qualify's-
fa. net nere.teary to xer,com :
" It is. stritios tort...sitter be diversity of men's talents,
as t t causes of their (Ann- or success, are not
1.-r numerous and contradictory than t!...• pursuits in
fo. Fortune does not always smile on tecrit :--‘ the
is nut to the swift, nor the battle to the strong:'
ml even where the candidate for wealth or honours ant-
. ends, it is as often, perhaps, from the optaliheations
• Lich he 'sant% as front those which he possesses ;or the
minenee which he is lucky enough to attain, is on•ing
-owe faculty or acquirement, n hich neither he, nor
.ay body rise There is a balance of power in
'hi. ',WWII mind, be which defects frequently assist in
furthering our tient.. as superlinotts excellenries are
...Inverted into the nattier of impediments ; and again,
there is a raitinnal substitution of one talent for ano-
ther, through which we mistake the appearance for the
reality, and Minister
by implication. of the means by the
'gut So a Minister of State wield• the linuse of o.m.

::mss by his osse,:ne r alone ; while hi. friends wit! his
Ines ate equally at is loss to Aeroflot for his iidlitenre,
looking for it in rain in the matter or style of his
speeches. So the air with which a celebrated Barrister
waved a white cambrick kindlier( hief passed for elo-
quence. So the hettoun is taken for a oit :.—to be
thought mist-, it is for the most part only necessary to
/rent so ; anti the noisy demagogue is easily translated
by the popular voice,..into the orator and patriot. Qua-
lities take their coloor from thilae that are next limn, as
the esitieleon borrows its hue from the 'nearest ',hirer,
nod unable otherwise to grasp the phantom of our
rimier or tour ambition, we do well to lay violent hands
on something else within our reach, w !skit hears a ge-
neral resemblance to it I and the impression of which, in
proportion as the thing itself is rheap nod worthless, is
likely to be gem ..obvi a, striking, and effectual. The
way to secure seeress, is to be more :.its.iitus about 01.-
taining than about deserving it ; the sorest hindr lure to
it Is to have too high a standard of refinement in your
own mind, or too high an opinion of the dim...rot:sent of
the public. Ile who is determined not to be satisfied
with soy thing short of perfection, will never do any
thing at all, either to please himself or others. The
question is not what we ought to do, hut what we ran
du for the best. An excess of modesty is, in fart, an
excess of pride, and more hurtful to the individual, and
less ads antageons to society, than the grossest and most
unblushing vanity—
. Aspiring to he tind,, if enp-:- fell,
Aspiring to he angels. men rebel.'
" If a celebrated artist, in our own day, had staid to do
'testier. to his principal tignre in a deservedly admired
painting, before he had exhiltitell it, it would . have
seen the light, lie has passed on to other things more
within his power to aceontplith, and more within the
competence of the spectator to understand. They see
what he has done, which is a great deal—they coubl tint
have judged of, or given him credit for the ineffable
idea in his own mind, and which lie might vainly have
devoted his whole life in trying to embody. 'nip pit.-
tore, as it is, is good enough for the age and the public.
If it had been ten times better, its merits would have
been thrown away : if it had been ten times better in the
more refined and lofty conception of character and sen-
timent, and had failed in the more palpable appeal to the
senses and preinolices of the vulgar, in the ordinary
• appiiances and means to toot,' it would never have
done. 'Else work might bate been praised by a few, a
vary few, and the artist might have pined is penury
and nairiert. Mr. Wordsworth has given es the eseefeee
of poetry in his works, without the machinery, the ap-
paratus of poetical (Helen, the theatrical pomp, the con-
ventional ornaments; and we segehat he has made of
i'. The way to fame, through merit alone, is the nar-
rowest, the steepest, the longest, the hardest of all
other.—(that it is the most certain anti lasting, is even a
tionbt)--the most sterling repetition is, after all, but a
. species of imposture. As for ordinary cases of success
failure, they depend on the slightest shades of ells-
ratter, or turn of accident—' some trick not worth
an egg'—
• There's but the twinkling of n star
Betwixt a man of peter and war:
A thief and justice, fool and Lease.
A haling officer and a Blase:
A craft) lawyer anti pick-pocket,
A great philosopher and a blockhead;
A formal preacher and a piayer.
A learu'd physician and niansla)er:

NATION:Ih SCHOOLR.
Thursday the anniversary meeting of the National
8-hauls Society took place at the Central Establish-
toast, la Baldwin's-gardens, which was uunierously at-
tended by the dignitaries of the Chards, Noblemen.
limitlmpels, and personages of distinction. The Arch-
bishop of Canterbury took the Chair, as President of
th.t Society.
The Ret. Dr. WALIIBLIT, the Secretary, read the
Report of the state of the Society, and of the proceed-
isrgs of the Committee of the past year. In the course
af•the last year there had been established in England
147 schools. A considerable degree of praise was
given to Mr. Johnson, the Master of the Central School,
Jer whose came there were about NI boys and 230
girls ; they bad been twice examined before the Arch-
hioisop, and other distinguished personae's, and had
(Men general satisfaction. Numbers of the children,
after they load left the school, had appeared to return
thanks, when they hat been presented with a Bible
lied a Prayer-book. Dwrisig-site last year the namher
increased 20,000, and the whole number receiving
iustructien in Righted amounted to 27P,U00. Since the
last yeat the number of sch mils bad increased from 1,467
to t,614. The system had been established succetsfully
in Nova Scotia., and in various other quarters A ne-
gro tad been admitted, and sent out as a teacher, who
tad succeeded extremely well. The Report alluded
to the very extraordinary munificence of Mr.ll"atson,
the Treasurer of the Society, who had purchased the
chapel in My-plate, and had made it a present to the
Seteiely tor the children of the National Schools to at-
'tend Divine .Service there, and hail assigned it over to
the•Arehhitttop of Canterbury, as time Trastee fur the
lostitution.
Tilt NOV, Di. Bell, to whom the Society owed he
origin,' takprosented the Society with a Communion
tfesseicis of plate for the chapel in Ely-place.
"file system had been generally introduced in the
tat under the patronage of the Duke of York, and
;atm in the navy, under the patromige of several dis-1
tinindalsed *Acorn and in Portsmouth Dock-yard, un-
stet the patronage of the Commissioners.
?bitty two grants of money had been made, amount- •
irealteetther to 3,2021. to various populous parishes'
in ;cid about fbe ptet rayons, particularly to Newiagton I
Nets iletbual-green. St. Paul's Deptford ; and in the I
telter, Once instactions lad-beets given to children in
the evenings, whose occupations would out alio* them