“To climb a tree to catch a fish” is to talk much to no purpose; “A superficial scholar is a sheep dressed in a tiger’s skin;” “A cuckoo in a magpie’s nest,” equivalent to saying, “he is enjoying another’s labor without compensation;” “If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the pit;” “A fair wind raises no storm;” “Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man is never satisfied;” “The body may be healed, but the mind is incurable;” “He seeks the ass, and lo! he sits upon him;” “He who looks at the sun is dazzled; he who hears the thunder is deafened.” i.e., do not come too near the powerful; “Prevention is better than cure;” “Wine and good dinners make abundance of friends, but in adversity not one of them is to be found.”  “Let every man sweep the snow from before his own door, and not trouble himself about the frost on his neighbor’s tiles.”  The following one is a gem of moral wisdom:  “Only correct yourself on the same principle that you correct others, and excuse others on the same principles on which you excuse yourself.”  “Better not be, than be nothing.”  “One thread does not make a rope; one swallow does not make a summer.”  “Sensuality is the chief of sins, filial duty the best of acts.”  “The horse’s back is not so safe us the buffalo’s”—­the former is used by the politician, the latter by the farmer.  “Too much lenity multiplies crime.”  “If you love your son give him plenty of the rod; if you hate him cram him with dainties.”  “He is my teacher who tells me my faults, he my enemy who speaks my virtues.”  Having a wholesome dread of litigation, they say of one who goes to law, “He sues a flea to catch a bite.”  Their equivalent for our “coming out at the little end of the horn” is, “The farther the rat creeps up (or into) the cow’s horn, the narrower it grows.”  The truth of their saying that “The fame of good deeds does not leave a man’s door, but his evil acts are known a thousand miles off,” is illustrated in our own daily papers every morning.  Finally, we close this list with a Chinese proverb which should be inscribed on the lintel of every door in Christendom:  “The happy-hearted man carries joy for all the household.”

MASON AND DIXON’S LINE.—­Mason and Dixon’s line is the concurrent State line of Maryland and Pennsylvania.  It is named after two eminent astronomers and [Transcriber’s Note:  The original text reads ‘mathemeticians’] mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were sent out from England to run it.  They completed the survey between 1703 and 1707, excepting thirty-six miles surveyed in 1782 by Colonel Alex.  McLean and Joseph Neville.  It is in the latitude of 39 deg. 43 min. 26.3 sec.

GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY.—­The loss of life and property in the willful destruction by fire and sword of the principal cities of ancient history—­Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Carthage, Palmyra, and many others—­is largely a matter of conjecture.  The following is a memorandum of the chief conflagrations of the current era: