JOSH BILLINGS' PHILOSOPHY

- Extremes are always unsafe. When I was a boy, tbe man who had the most sour or murose religion in him was coasiderad the best Ctirlstain ; but now-a-days the minister who can balance the Bible on his nose the be3t and handle the Apostles tbe most flippantly, is called the best fellow. I wonder if there ever lived a woman, except Eve, who really loved another woman? Modesty 13 a very good thing to mix with merit; but if a man hasn't got but little merit, it is like mixing milk and water together. Virtue is the same the world over ; vice is often according to longitude and latitude. My son, don't pattern after anybody. Emulate virtue wherever you can find it, and let your own conscience be the compass by which you steer your canoe, Good natnre is the only excuse/ 1 know ef for impudence. All men are born equal ; and no man can become great after he ia born, unless he is good. Don't never fly into a passion, my young friend. It is trne you miy be able to hit a bigger rock when you are thoroughly mad, but you will loso in jndgmerit more than you will gain in strength. " The world owes me a living'" There never was a more craven speech than this. The world owes no man a living unless he earns It. Except in the case of idiots and lunatics, reason is always sufficient to control the passions. Conscience is the purest thing in any man, and is always safer to follow than his judgment or the best of his passions. A pedant seema to be a character who has found a mare's-nest somewhere, add can't keep from talking about it all tbe time. I think the best way to go through life is to go backward , you can't go ahead if you try ever so hard. He who leads a Hie of pleasure sows wheat and reaps tares. About one-half of the folks gotbiough life as drift-wood floats on the surface of the stream, without knowing or caring much where they are going to land. Politeness, even when it is not tho result of any goodnoss of beart, is an agreeable fraud. Them seems to bp this difference between the fooliah aud the wise — thp fool can deceive himself, but he can't deceive others ; the wise man can deceivo others, but ho can't deceive himself. There is no one more often wrona; than the ono who thinks ho is always right. It is very easy to mistake ceremony for politeness, and the vulgar are always making the mistake.

In 184<3 on'y candles ware used to illuminate the Haytnarket Theatre, London A clause in the lease pr • hibited the use of gas.