She bore a letter seal'd with half a moon, CCCCLIV. Chalkhill. Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn, and guides them their own way; but is never known (according to the scripture) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father which is in heaven.-Pope. CCCCLV. We are past our minority it is true, but not our indiscretions; and, what is worse, we have the authority of seniors, and the weaknesses of children.-Seneca. CCCCLVI. No man shall be received as an esquire, who cannot bring a certificate, that he has conquered some lady's obdurate heart; that he can lead up a country-dance; or carry a message between her and her lover, with address, secrecy, and diligence. A squire is properly born for the service of the sex, and his credentials shall be signed by three toasts and one prude, before his title shall be received in my office.-Steele. CCCCLVII. The person whose clothes are extremely fine, I am too apt to consider as not being possessed of any superiority of fortune, but resembling those Indians, who are found to wear all the gold they have in the world, in a bob at the nose.-Goldsmith. CCCCLVIII. Covetous men are fools, miserable wretches, buzzards, madmen, who live by themselves, in perpetual slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow, discontent, with more of gall than honey in their enjoyments, who are rather possessed by their money than possessors of it; mancipati pecuniis, bound 'prentices to their property; and, servi divitiarum, mean slaves and drudges to their substance. -Burton. CCCCLIX. When our souls shall leave this dwelling, The glory of one fair and virtuous action Is above all the scutcheons on our tomb, Or silken banners over us. CCCCLX. Shirley. Critics must excuse me, if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them. CCCCLXI. Shenstone. There is no small degree of malicious craft in fixing upon a season to give a mark of enmity and ill-will: a word-a look, which at one time would make no impression-at another time wounds the heart; and like a shaft flying with the wind, pierces deep, which with its own natural force, would scarce have reached the object aimed at.-Sterne. CCCCLXII. Punning is a conceit arising from the use of two words that agree in the sound, but differ in the sense. The only way therefore to try a piece of wit, is to translate it into a different language: if it bears the test, you may pronounce it true; but if it vanishes in the experiment, you may conclude it to have been a pun. short, one may say of a pun, as the countryman described his nightingale, that it is vox et præterea nihil, a sound, and nothing but a sound.-Addison. CCCCLXIII. In In reading histories, which is every body's subject, I use to consider what kind of men are the authors; which, if persons that profess nothing but mere learning, I in and from them principally observe and learn the style and language; if physicians, I upon that account the rather incline to credit what they report of the temperature of the air, of the health and complexion of princes, of wounds and diseases; if lawyers, we are from them to take notice of the controversies of right and title, the establishment of laws and civil government, and the like; if divines, the affairs of the church, ecclesiastical censures, marriages, and dispensations; if courtiers, manners and ceremonies; if soldiers, the things that properly belong to their trade, and principally the accounts of such actions and enterprises, wherein they were personally engaged; and if ambassadors, we are to observe their negotiations, intelligences, and practices, and the manner how they are to be carried on.-Montaigne. CCCCLXIV. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd And time that gave, doth now his gift confound, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. CCCCLXV. Good breeding is the result of much good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others, and with a view to obtain the same indulgence from them.-Chesterfield. CCCCLXVI. The modest virgin, the prudent wife, or the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life, than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.-Goldsmith. CCCCLXVII. I have observed that the loudest huzza given to a great man in triumph, proceeds not from his friends, but the rabble, and I fancy it to be the same with the rabble of critics.-Pope. CCCCLXVIII. Love me not for comely grace, No, nor for my constant heart; Keep, therefore, a true woman's eye. Yet know not why, So hast thou the same reason still, To dote upon me ever. From Wilbye's Madrigals, 1598. CCCCLXIX. It would be well, I think, if monies might pass upon the same conditions with other benefits; and the payment remitted to the conscience without formalizing upon bills and securities: but human wisdom has rather advised with convenience than virtue; and chosen rather to force honesty than expect it. For every paltry sum of money, there must be bonds, witnesses, counterparts, powers, &c. which is no other than a shameful confession of fraud and wickedness; when more credit is given to our seals than to our minds, and caution taken lest he that has received the money, should deny it.-Seneca. CCCCLXX. The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humour, and the fourth for mine ene, mies. Sir W. Temple. CCCCLXXI. To confute or to ridicule a husband with an apparent superiority of knowledge or of wit, affords all the parade of triumph to a wife; it is to be strong where weak ness is no reproach, and to conquer when it would not have been dishonourable to fly.-Adventurer. CCCCLXXII. Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin, as to be utterly void of use; or, if sterling, may require good management, to make it serve the purposes of sense or happiness.-Shenstone. CCCCLXXIII. It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man I will oblige a great many that are not so.-Seneca. CCCCLXXIV. Style is the dress of thought; and let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage, and be as ill received, as your person, though ever so well proportioned, would, if dressed in rags, dirt, and tatters.-Chesterfield. CCCCLXXV. The cause of frequent self-murders among us has been generally imputed to the temperature of our climate. Thus a dull day is looked upon as a natural order of execution, and Englishmen must necessarily shoot, hang, and drown themselves in November. That our spirits are in some measure influenced by the air, cannot be denied: but we are not such mere barometers, as to be driven to despair and death by the small degree of gloom that our winter brings with it. If we have not so much sunshine as some countries in the world, we have infinitely more than others; and I do not hear that men despatch themselves by dozens in Russia, or Sweden, or that they are unable to keep up their spirits even in the total darkness of Greenland. Our climate exempts us from many diseases, to which other more southern nations are naturally subject; and I can never be persuaded that being born near the north pole is a physical cause for self-murder.-Connoisseur. |