order to shield themselves from the coldness they have reason to anticipate from us; and in the latter, they desert us because we have ceased to have it in our power to be useful to them. 3. Politeness has been defined to be artificial good nature; but we may affirm, with much greater propriety, that good nature is natural politeness. 4. Success affords us the means of securing additional success; as the possession of capital enables us to increase our pecuniary gains. 5. It is after the hey-day of passion has subsided, that our most deservedly celebrated writers have produced their chef d'œuvres; as it is after the eruption of a volcano that the land in its vicinity is usually the most fertile. 6. Before you purchase any superfluity upon credit, ask yourself this very simple question: Should I be disposed to pay the cost of this article, at the present moment, supposing I could obtain it on no other terms? If you decide in the negative, by all means forego its possession; for this test ought to have satisfied you that you are about to buy that of which, in reality, you have no need. 7. Avoid, if possible, receiving an obligation which you have reason to believe you will never have it in your power to repay. 8. You must not expect that conviction will follow, immediately, the detection of error, any more than that the waves of the sea will cease to heave the instant the storm has subsided. 9. There are few defects in our nature so glaring as not to be veiled from observation by politeness and good breeding. 10. It is a fallacy to suppose that an author must appear frequently before the public in order to retain the station to which his writings may have elevated him. The silence of the man of genius is far more respected by the public than the feverish loquacity of the most industrious dealer in commonplaces. 11. What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little. 12. A man may be possessed of a tolerable number of ideas without being a wit; as an officer may have a large body of soldiers under his command without being a good general. In either case it is equally difficult to know how to discipline and employ one's forces. 13. Women of lofty imagination are placed in a very awkward predicament as regards the adaptation of their literary powers. Considering their opportunities, the marvel is less that women have not oftener surpassed the coarser sex in their productions, but that they have ever excelled them at all. 14. Forgive the premeditated insult of a plebeian who pleads his ignorance in extenuation of his brutality; but do not so forget it as to allow the offender to come into personal contact with you again. Keep him, for ever afterwards, at an inexorable distance. 15. A well-read fool is the most pestilent of blockheads: his learning is a flail which he knows not how to handle, and with which he breaks his neighbor's shins as well as his own. Keep a fellow of this description at arm's length, as you value the integrity of your bones. 16. I think it is Pope who has somewhere remarked, that to purchase books indiscriminately, because they may happen to have the name of an eminent publisher attached to them, is just as absurd as it would be to buy clothes which do not fit you, because they happen to have been made by a fashionable tailor. 17. To lie under obligations to our friends for benefits really conferred is not always pleasant; but to have our thanks extorted, by anticipation, by promises of civility which are |