To move her to compassion, or make known
What 'tis I languish for; yet I must gaze still,
Though it increase my flame.

Bashful Lover-Massinger.

MXLIV.

Such a bedlam is most of the world become, where madness goeth for the only wisdom, and he is the bravest man that can sin and be damn'd with reputation and renown, and successfully drive or draw the greatest number with him into hell; to which the world hath no small likeness, forsaking God, and being very much forsaken by him.-Baxter.

MXLV.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing

MXLVI.

Shakspeare.

The understanding of a man naturally sanguine, may be easily vitiated by the luxurious indulgence of hope, however necessary to the production of every thing great or excellent, as some plants are destroyed by too open exposure to that sun which gives life and beauty to the vegetable world.-Johnson.

MXLVII.

Can chance of seeing first thy title prove?
And know'st thou not, no law is made for love?
Law is to things which to free choice relate;
Love is not in our choice, but in our fate:
Laws are but positive; love's power, we see,
Is nature's sanction, and her first degree.—Dryden.

MXLVIII.

I believe that nature herself has constituted truth as the supreme deity, which is to be adored by mankind, and that she has given it greater force than any of the rest; for, being opposed, as she is on all sides, and appearance of truth so often passing for the thing itself, in behalf of plausible falsehoods, yet by her wonderful operation, she insinuates herself into the minds of men; sometimes exerting her strength immediately, and sometimes lying hid in darkness for a length of time; but at last she struggles through it, and appears triumphant over falsehood.-Polybius.

MXLIX.

O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are struck upon thee! Volumes of report
Run with these false and most contrarious quests
Upon thy doings! Thousand 'scapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream,
And rack thee in their fancies!

ML.

Shakspeare.

I com

The knowledge of warfare is thrown away on a ge neral who dare not make use of what he knows. mend it only in a man of courage and resolution; in him it will direct his martial spirit, and teach him the way to the best victories, which are those that are least bloody, and which, though achieved by the hand, are managed by the head.-Fuller.

MLI.

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.-Dryden.

MLII.

Whatever parent gives his children good instruction, and sets them at the same time a bad example, may be considered as bringing them food in one hand, and poison in the other.-Balguy.

MLIII.

A borse is not known by his furniture, but qualities; so men are to be esteemed for virtue, not wealth.-Socrates.

MLIV.

How the innocent,

As in a gentle slumber, pass away!

But to cut off the knotty thread of life
In guilty men, must force stern Atropos
To use her sharp knife often.

MLV.

Massinger.

Every true man's apparal fits your thief: if it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's apparal fits your thief.Shakspeare.

MLVI.

For sports, for pageantry, and plays,
Thou hast thy eves and holidays;

On which the young men and maids meet,
To exercise their dancing feet;

Tripping the comely country round,
With daffodils and daisies crown'd.
Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast;
Thy May-poles too, with garlands grac'd;
Thy morris-dance, thy Witsunale,
Thy shearing feast, which never fail;
Thy harvest-home, thy wassail bowl,
That's tost up after fox i' th' hole;
Thy mummeries, thy twelfth night kings
And queens, thy Christmas revellings;
Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit;
And no man pays too dear for it.

Herrick-On a Country Life.

MLVII.

-

Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best re-. commended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention of mankind to any part of VOL. II.

Z

learning which time has left behind it, may be truly said to advance the literature of his own age.-Johnson.

MLVIII.

Nay, if she loves me not, I care not for her:
Shall I look pale, because the maiden blooms?
Or sigh, because she smiles, and smiles on others?
Not I, by heaven! I hold my peace too dear,
To let it, like the plume upon her cap,

Shake at each nod that her caprice shall dictate.
Old Play.

MLIX.

Man is placed in this world as a spectator; when he is tired of wondering at all the novelties about him, and not till then, does he desire to be made acquainted with the causes that create those wonders.-Goldsmith.

MLX.

Potential merit stands for actual,

Where only opportunity doth want,
Not will, nor power.

MLXII.

Ben Jonson.

There are few subjects which have been more written upon, and less understood, than that of friendship. To follow the dictates of some, this virtue, instead of being the assuager of pain, becomes the source of every inconvenience. Such speculatists, by expecting too much from friendship, dissolve the connexion, and by drawing the bands too closely, at length break them.— Goldsmith.

MLXIII.

Do but despair,

And, if thou want'st cord, the smallest thread,
That ever spider twisted from her womb

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be

A beam to hang thee on; or, wouldst thou drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,

And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.

Shakspeare.

MLXIV.

You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew: he hath now access to your fancy to stir up lustful thoughts and desires, so that when you should think of your calling, or of your God, or of your soul, your thoughts will be worse than swinish, upon the filth that is not to be named. If the devil here get in a foot, he will not easily be got out.Baxter.

MLXV.

Praise never gives us much pleasure unless it concur with our own opinion, and extol us for those qualities in which we chiefly excel.-Hume.

MLXVI.

A king is the fountain of honour, which should not run with a waste pipe, lest the courtiers sell the water, and then (as papists say of their holy wells) it loses the virtue. He is the life of the law, not only as the "lex loquens" himself, but because he animateth the dead letter, making it active towards all his subjects, "præmio et pœnâ."-Lord Bacon.

MLXVII.

Men, like butterflies,

Show not their mealy wings, but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,

Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall.

MLXVIII.

Shakspeare.

Hail! ye small sweet courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it, like grace and beauty which be