Whether they tread the vale of prose, or climb,
And whet their appetites on cliffs of rhyme;
The college sloven, or embroidered spark;
The purple prelate, or the parish clerk;
The quiet quidnunc, or demanding prig;
The plaintiff Tory, or defendant Whig.
Rich, poor, male, female, young, old, gay, or sad;
Whether extremely witty, or quite mad;
Profoundly dull, or shallowly polite;

Men that read well or men that only write;
Whether peers, porters, tailors, tune the reeds,
And measuring words to measuring shapes succeeds;
For bankrupts write when ruin'd shops are shut,
As maggots crawl from out a perish'd nut:
His hammer this, and that his trowel quits,
And, wanting sense for tradesmen, serve for wits.

DLXXXVIII.

Young.

It is a shame for a man to be so ignorant of this little art (spelling) in his own language, as to be perpetually confounding words of like sound, and different significations; the consciousness of which defect makes some men, otherwise of good learning and understanding, averse to writing even a common letter.-Franklin.

LXXXIX.

The most ingenious way of becoming foolish, is by a system. And the surest method to prevent good sense, is to set up something in the room of it. The liker any thing is to wisdom, if it be not plainly the thing itself, the more directly it becomes its opposite.-Shaftesbury.

DXC.

There is no stretching of power; 'tis a good rule, eat within your stomach, act within your commission.— Selden.

DXCI.

Good words cost the great so little, and their quality is such an indisputable dispensation from keeping the most solemn promises, that it is modesty in the nobility

to be so sparing of them as they generally are.-Bruyere.

DXCII.

In oratory, the greatest art is to hide art, Artis est celare artem.-Swift.

DXCIII.

I have seen some people rude by being over civil, and troublesome in their courtesy; though, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight, and in the beginning of an acquaintance, a familiarity; and consequently, that which first opens the door, and introduces us to better ourselves by the examples of others, if there be any thing in the society worth taking notice of.-Montaigne.

DXCIV.

Fashion-a word which knaves and fools may use
Their knavery and folly to excuse.

To copy beauties, forfeit all pretence

To fame-to copy faults, is want of sense.

DXCV.

Churchill.

Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the World. One of these is the cry against the evil of luxury. Now the truth is, that luxury produces much good. Take the luxury of buildings in London; does it not produce real advantage in the conveniency and elegance of accommodation, and this all from the exertion of industry? People will tell you, with a melancholy face, how many builders are in gaol. It is plain they are in gaol, not for building, for rents are not fallen. A man gives half-a-guinea for a dish of green peas: how much gardening does this occasion! how many labourers must the competition to have such things early in the market keep in employment! You will hear it said very gravely, 'Why was not the half guinea, thus spent in luxury, given to the poor? To how many might it have afforded

a good meal!' Alas! has it not gone to the industrious poor, whom it is better to support than the idle poor? ́ You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labour, than when you give money merely in charity. Suppose the ancient luxury of a dish of peacocks' brains were to be revived, how many carcasses would be left to the poor at a cheap rate! and as to the route that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors in gaol: nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.―John

son.

DXCVI.

Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby, that we must take time (as we say) by the forelock, for when it is once passed there is no recalling it.-Swift.

DXCVII.

He who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.—Montaigne.

DXCVIII.

Many have been ruined by their fortunes; many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it, the great have become little, and the little, great.--Zim

merman.

DXCIX.

The corruptions of the country are closely allied to those of the town, with no further difference than what is made by another turn of thought and method of living. -Swift.

DC.

Proteus. "Tis love you cavil at. I am not in love." Valentine. Love is your master, for he masters you. And he that is so yoked by a fool,

Methinks should not be chronicled as wise.

Shakspeare.

DCI.

There is as much greatness of mind in the owning of a good turn, as in the doing of it; and we must no more force a requital out of season, than be wanting in it.— Seneca.

DCII.

It is sweet to feel by what fine spun threads our affections are drawn together.-Sterne.

DCIII.

I am obliged to the person who speaks me fair to my face. I am only more obliged to the man who speaks well of me in my absence also. Should I be asked whether I choose to have a person speak well of me when absent or present, I should answer the latter; for were all men to do so, the former would be insignificant.Shenstone.

DCIV.

Many are discontented with the name of idler, who are nevertheless content to do worse than nothing.— Zimmerman.

DCV.

What's a fine person or a beauteous face,
Unless deportment gives them decent grace?
Bless'd with all other requisites to please,
Some want the striking elegance of ease;
The curious eye their awkward movement tires:
They seem like puppets led about by wires:
Others like statues, in one posture still,
Give great ideas of the workman's skill.
Wond'ring his art, we praise the more we view,
And only grieve he gave not motion too.

DCVI.

Churchill.

False happiness is like false money, it passes for a time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions; but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and alloy, and feel the loss.-Pope.

DCVII.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot VOL. 1.

L

be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own. Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.-Burke.

DCVIII.

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and, therefore, one seldom does it at all; whereas, those who have a great deal of business, must (to use a vulgar expression) buckle to it; and then they always find time enough to do it in.-Chesterfield.

DCIX.

When fumes of wines do once the brain possess,
Then follows straight an indisposedness
Throughout, the legs so fettered in that case
They cannot with their reeling trunk keep pace.

The tongue trips, mind droops, eyes stand full of water,
Noise, hiccough, brawls, and quarrels follow after.

DCX.

Lucretius.

The passion of love makes almost every man a rhymer, though not a poet.-Dryden.

DCXI.

The man who builds, and wants wherewh to pay,
Provides a house from which to run away.

In Britain what is many a lordly seat
But a discharge in full for an estate.

DCXII..

Young.

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to; the other injuries indifferently both friends and foes.-Addison.

DCXIII.

Who'er attempts weak causes to support,
Ought to be very sure he's able for❜t,
And not mistake strong lungs and impudence
For harmony of words and want of sense: