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DCCCXX.

Costly followers are not to be liked; lest while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter.Lord Bacon.

DCCCXXI.

How blind is pride! what eagles are we still
In matters that belong to other men!
What beetles in our own.

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There are some that profess idleness in its full dignity, who call themselves the Idle, as Busiris in the play calls himself the Proud; who boast that they do nothing, and thank their stars that they have nothing to do; who sleep every night till they can sleep no longer, and rise only that exercise may enable them to sleep again; who prolong the reign of darkness by double curtains; and never see the sun but to tell him how they hate his beams; whose whole labour is to vary the posture of indulgence, and whose day differs from their night but as a couch or chair differs from a bed.-Johnson.

DCCCXXIII.

'Tis not safe for priests or courtiers to drink deep, for fear of throwing their hearts out at their mouths.Erasmus.

DCCCXXIV.

O, how I hate the monstrousness of time,
Where every servile imitating spirit,
Plagued with an itching leprosy of wit,
In a mere halting fury, strives to fling
His ulcerous body in the Thespian spring,
And straight leaps forth a poet! but as lame
As Vulcan, or the founder of Cripplegate.
Ben Jonson.

DCCCXXV.

He that will divide a minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the thousandth part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said of him, that

Cupid hath clapp'd him o' the shoulder, but I warrant him heart-whole.—Shakspeare.

DCCCXXVI.

The understanding has something more to do than simply to judge us by our outward action; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by what springs the motion is guided: but that being a high and hazardous undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it.-Montaigne.

DCCCXXVII.

He does mainly vary from my sense,
Who thinks the empire gain'd by violence
More absolute and durable than that

Which gentleness and friendship do create.

DCCCXXVIII.

Terence.

Passion is the great mover and spring of the soul: when men's passions are strongest, they may have great and noble effects; but they are then also apt to fall into the greatest miscarriages.-Sprat.

DCCCXXIX.

It is a good thing to laugh at any rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness. Beasts can weep when they suffer, but they cannot laugh. -Dryden.

DCCCXXX.

Why will mankind be fools, and be deceiv'd?
And why are friends' and lovers' oaths believ'd;
When each, who searches strictly his own mind,
May so much fraud and power of baseness find?
Congreve.

DCCCXXXI.

"The folly of fools," that is, the most egregious piece of folly that any man can be guilty of, is to play the knave. The vulgar translation renders this clause a little otherwise, the fool turns aside to tricks; to make use of them is a sign that the man wants understanding to see the direct way to his end.-Tillotson.

DCCCXXXII.

A woman may properly be said to choose her husband by her eyes, who minds nothing but his person and bare outside; as she may be said to choose him by her ears, who carefully observes what reputation he has in the world, and what people say of him.-Erasmus.

DCCCXXXIII.
Women are frail,

Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;
Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
Women!-Help heaven! Men their creation mar
In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints.

DCCCXXXIV.

Shakspeare.

A man that loves his own fireside, and can govern his house without falling by the ears with his neighbours, or engaging in suits at law, is as free as a Duke of Venice.-Montaigne.

DCCCXXXV.

Now, gentlemen, I go
To turn an actor, and a humourist,
Where, ere I do resume my present person,
We hope to make the circles of your eyes
Flow with distilled laughter: if we fail,
We must impute it to this only chance,
Art hath an enemy call'd Ignorance!

Prologue to Every Man out of his Humour-Ben Jonson.

DCCCXXXVI.

All false practices and affectations of knowledge are more odious to God, and deserve to be so to men, than any want or defect of knowledge can be.-Sprat.

DCCCXXXVII.

I know not by what fate it comes to pass, that historians, who give immortality to others, are so ill requited by posterity, that their actions and their fortunes are VOL. II.

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usually forgotten; neither themselves encouraged while they live, nor their memory preserved entire to future ages. It is the ingratitude of mankind to their wisest benefactors, that they who teach us wisdom by the surest ways, should generally live poor and unregarded; as if they were born only for the public, and had no interest in their own well-being, but were to be lighted up like tapers; and to waste themselves for the benefit of others.-Dryden.

DCCCXXXVIII.

The life of man is like water poured out of a bucket, which the earth quickly sucketh up, and appeareth not again.-Augustin.

DCCCXXXIX.

Humour, as 'tis ens, we thus define it,

To be a quality of air or water,

And in itself holds these two properties,
Moisture and fluxure: as, for demonstration,
Pour water on this floor, 'twill wet and run:
Likewise the air, forced through a horn or trumpet,
Flows instantly away, and leaves behind

A kind of dew; and hence we do conclude,
That whatsoe'er hath fluxure and humidity,
As wanting power to contain itself,
Is humour. So in every human body,
The choler, melancholy, phlegm, and blood,
By reason that they flow continually

In some one part, and are not continent,
Receive the name of humours. Now thus far

It may, by metaphor, apply itself

Unto the general disposition:

As when some one peculiar quality
Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw
All his effects, his spirits, and his

powers,
In their confluctions, all to run one way,
This may be truly said to be a humour.
But that a rook, by wearing a pyed feather,
The cable hat-band, or the three piled ruff,
A yard of shoe-tye, or the Switzer's knot

On his French garters, should affect a humour!
O! it is more than most ridiculous.

DCCCXL.

Ben Jonson.

Otway has written but two tragedies, out of six, that are pathetic. I believe he did it without much design, as Liflo has done in his " Barnwell." It is a talent of nature rather than an effect of judgment, to write so movingly.-Pope.

DCCCXLI.

It is a shameful thing to be weary of inquiry, when what we search is excellent.-Cicero.

DCCCXLII.

Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie, than the will can choose an apparent evil.Dryden.

DCCCXLIII.

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise and true perfection!

DCCCXLIV.

Shakspeare.

As a looking-glass, if it is a true one, faithfully represents the face of him that looks in it, so a wife ought to fashion herself to the affection of her husband, not to be cheerful when he is sad, nor sad when he is cheerful.Erasmus.

DCCCXLV.

If men will shun swoln fortune's ruinous blasts,
Let them use temperance: nothing violent lasts.
W. Strachey.

DCCCXLVI.

It is of much importance in what times virtue appears. And there is no wit, howsoever excellent it may be,

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