The Tub of Diogenes-Conquerors not great-Byron's DogCulture of Self-Frudence: its Value-Life beautiful and free -Men are not Machines-Self-respect-The Hermit of Hampole-Indulgences should be destroyed.

N what kind of tub did Diogenes live? Was it an old washing-tub, shallow and broad, or long and deep, like a wine cask? It is

more than two thousand two hundred and

eighty years since the ragged old philosopher lived. He was not worth one penny; he never applied his notions of self-help to making money; he despised, flouted, and hated the merely rich men, the fig-merchants and oilmerchants of Athens; but his name lives, and it is pleasant to read, think, and talk of him, while not a name among those of his 'bloated' and purse-swollen contem

poraries is familiar to any of us.

How is this? That

question we may be able to answer by and by.

In the meantime, what sort of tub did he live in? for we may be assured that the legend is a true one. At one time the philosopher dwelt in a deserted dog-kennel at the entrance of one of the temples; at another time it appears that he had found without an owner, and occupied, one of those huge earthen jars in which the rich Greek merchants stored their oil, and which, in that land of sunshine and blue skies, must have formed a warm and comfortable residence. Its mouth was some four feet in diameter, and its depth quite sufficient for a man to stand up in, like that of the jars of Hadgi Baba, in which the Forty Thieves took refuge. As this 'tub' lay on its side, the warm morning sun streaming down upon the opposite one, and into its mouth, must have afforded a pleasant warmth to the basking philosopher, and will explain that immortal sentence of his in reply to Alexander the Great, that essence of self-respect which will fitly open our Essay.

As we may be sure Diogenes. would not go to see Alexander, that great conqueror (and conquerors were then much greater men than now, our philosophy placing them at a very low figure) went to see him, surrounded by a glittering corps of courtiers, generals with short flat clanking swords that struck against their mailed buskins with a pleasant rattle, while figures of Pallas and her owl

adorned their helmets, from which streamed the blood-red plumes, dreadful to the eyes of maidens, and to babes, as we know from Homer's well-known verses. We can fancy the noise and swagger of this Grecian hero, and the little philosopher with bare shoulders peeping from his ragged cloak as he looked out of his oil-cask and watched the glittering train approach; and we can almost see the monarch stand before the tub, as well as hear the sounding Greek of the question, 'What can Alexander of Macedon do for Diogenes ?' The reply was, 'Get out of my sunshine!'

How thoroughly answered must the conqueror have been! How dumb-foundered must his courtiers have felt! There was really nothing else for the poor man to do but to mouth that silly attempt at a quid pro quo-'If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.' Diogenes had shown that he was greater than Alexander, and remained in his tub master of the situation. We have in Winckelmann's engraved gems one from the antique of Diogenes leaning out of this vast pipkin as we have described it; and what gives the gem a great feature of truth is the fact that the jar is useless as a jar, having a large crack in its side, which has been fruitlessly mended by dovetails of lead; but finding that the oil or wine still exuded, the merchants have thrown it away, and Diogenes, obliged to no one, puts it to its worldrenowned use.

Diogenes is an extreme instance of the weight of selfrespect. He had reduced himself to first principles; he was nothing but skin, flesh, muscles and bone, for he would have gone without clothes had the Athenians permitted him; but he was Diogenes. He had no money wherewith to bribe any judge; no great train of attendants; no rich clothing; not a shred of gold as an ornament; no furniture. He had one cracked wooden bowl, from which he drank; but seeing a boy drink out of his hollowed hand, he threw his bowl away. many of the rich citizens of Athens would have given half their fortunes for permission to feast Alexander ! But that conqueror did not come to see them; they did not respect themselves, for they had degraded their lives with useless labour and selfish care; they were to be loved for their possessions, their feasts; but Diogenes was respected for himself.

How

We would not hold the cynic up as an example to be followed. The time for such extreme and feverish hatred of mankind as is exemplified in Shakspere's 'Timon of Athens,' is gone by. Although almost all great men have found the world 'but as the world,' a place of trial, in which Summer friends follow Summer fortunes, and the chilling Winter of disrespect accompanies poverty and fallen greatness; although History attests that kings have died solitary, and that great ministers, when they have fallen, have had hardly one of all those whom they

have loaded with favours to attend them, yet the wise man will endeavour to love those whom he finds so fragile, fickle, and false.

People who rail against the world do neither it nor themselves good. The satirist is hated, though he speaks the truth; the solitary is disliked

I was a stricken deer, which left the herd,

says the poet; but when he left the herd, the herd deserted him, and left him to lonely madness; and if Lord Byron has attested on the tombstone of a dog, that the faithful animal was in his opinion a nobler animal than Man, and worthier of friendship, Man has had his revenge on the noble poet, who died self-banished from the society he scorned.

The wisest way in the conduct of life is to know what Man is, and to endeavour to improve ourselves by the lesson. That is the shortest way to attain self-culture; for culture does not consist in learning several languages, nor in knowing how to order a dinner, or clearly to express our hopes, fears, and prayers in various tongues —there are many tongues on earth, but only one in heaven, as the epigraph upon Messrs. Bagster's admirable editions of the Scriptures tells us-nor in being able to solve an equation, or calculate an eclipse; but it does consist in having so instructed the soul that it shall be gentle in demeanour, affectionate but bold, ready to