DCXCII. Give me, next good, an understanding wife They are most good who best know why. DCXCIII. The love we bear our country is a root Which bad men, though they pay not, can't forget, And ev'ry man can practise ev'ry day. DCXCIV. Churchill. Men of least wit are reported to be men of most judg ment, but it is no more than report, and a vile and malicious report into the bargain. Will you give me leave to illustrate this affair of wit and judgment, by the two knobs on the back of my chair. Here stands wit-and there stands judgment. You see they are the highest and most ornamental parts of its frame-as wit and judgment are of ours, and like them too, indubitably both made and fitted to go together,-in order, as we say in all such cases of duplicated embellishments-to answer one another. Now, for the sake of an experiment, and for the clearer illustrating this matter, let us, for a moment, take off one of these two curious ornaments from the point or pinnacle of the chair it now stands on. But did you ever, in the whole course of your lives, see such a ridiculous business as this now is? Nay, let me ask you, whether this single knob, which stands here like a blockhead by itself, can serve any purpose, but to put one in mind of the want of the other? And rather than be as it is, would not the chair be ten times better without any knob at all? Now these two knobs, or top ornaments of the mind of man, which crown the whole entablaturebeing, as I said, wit and judgment, which of all others, as I have proved it, are the most needful-the most prized-the most calamitous to be without, and consequently, the hardest to come at;-for all these reasons put together, there is not a mortal among us so destitute of a love of fame or feeling-or so ignorant of what will do him good therein-who does not wish and steadfastly resolve in his own mind to be, or be thought at least, master of the one or the other, or indeed, both of them, if the thing seems any way feasible, or likely to be brought to pass. Now, your graver gentry, having little or no kind of chance in aiming at the one, unless they laid hold of the other-pray what do you think would become of them? Why, sirs, in spite of all their gravities, they must e'en have been contented to have gone with their insides naked. This was not to be horne, but by an effort of philosophy not to be supposed in the case we are upon; so that no one could well have been angry with them, had they been satisfied with what little they could have snatched up and secreted under their cloaks and periwigs, had they not raised a hue and cry at the same time against the lawful owners.-Sterne. DCXCV. 'Tis a wrong way to proportion other men's pleasures to ourselves; 'tis like a child's using a little bird, (0 poor bird, thou shalt sleep with me,) so lays it in his bosom, and stifles it with his hot breath; the bird had rather be in the cold air; and yet too, 'tis the most pleasing flattery, to like what other men like.-Selden. DCXCVI. The weak may be joked out of any thing but their weakness.-Zimmerman. DCXCVII. Nothing exceeds in ridicule, no doubt, Though wrong the mode, comply: more sense is shown In wearing others' follies than your own. DCXCVIII. Young. As a man inebriated only by vapours, soon recovers in the open air, a nation discontented to madness, without any adequate cause, will return to its wits and allegiance, when a little pause has cooled it to reflection.-Johnson. DCXCIX. The judicious collectors of bright parts and flowers and observandas, are by some called the sieves and boulters of learning; though it is left undetermined whether they dwelt in pearls or meal; and consequently, whether we are more to value that which passed through, or what staid behind.-Swift. DCC. A vine bears three grapes, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance.Anacharsis. DCCI. Miserable men commiserate not themselves; bowelless unto others, and merciless unto their own bowels. Browne. DCCII. Spirit is now a very fashionable word; to act with spirit, to speak with spirit, means only to act rashly, and to talk indiscreetly. An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions; he is neither hot nor timid.Chesterfield. DCCIII. People have a custom of excusing the enormities of their conduct by talking of their passions, and as if they were under the control of a blind necessity, and sinned because they could not help it.—Cumberland. DCCIV. Wants of all kinds are made to fame a plea, Miss D tottering catches at your hand, Whilst these that nature gave disown through pride, As apes are ever walking upon two. DCCV. Young. A man must either imitate the vicious, or hate them: both are dangerous, either to resemble them, because they are many, or to hate many, because they are unresembling.-Montaigne. ness. DCCVI. Dull fellows frequently prove very good men of busiBusiness relieves them from their own natural heaviness, by furnishing them with what to do; whereas, business to mercurial men, is an interruption from their real existence and happiness. Though the dull part of mankind are harmless in their amusements, it were to be wished they had no vacant time, because they usually undertake something that makes their wants conspicuous, by their manner of supplying them.Steele. DCCVII. Good sense is the same in all ages; and course of time rather improves nature, than impairs her. What has been, may be again: another Homer and another Virgil may possibly arise from those very causes which produced the first: though it would be impudence to affirm that any such have yet appeared.-Dryden. DCCVIII. True critics are known by their talent of swarming about the noblest writers, to which they are carried merely by instinct, as a rat to the best cheese, or a wasp to the fairest fruit. So when the king is on horseback, he is sure to be the dirtiest person of the company, and they that make their court best, are such as bespatter him the most.-Swift. DCCIX. Christmas succeeds the Saturnalia, the same time, the same number of holidays: then the master waited upon the servant, like the lord of misrule.-Selden. DCCX. Of those who time so ill support, By action 'tis we life enjoy; In idleness we 're dead; The soul's a fire will self destroy, If not with fuel fed. DCCXI. Voltaire. Many a wretch has rid on a hurdle who has done much less mischief than utterers of forged tales, coiners of scandal, and clippers of reputation.-Sheridan. DCCXII. Constancy in friendships, attachments, and familiarities, is commendable, and is requisite to support trust and good correspondence in society. But in places of general, though casual concourse, where the pursuit of health and pleasure brings people promiscuously together, public conveniency has dispensed with this maxim; and custom there promotes an unreserved conversation for the time, by indulging the privilege of dropping af terwards every indifferent acquaintance without breach of civility or good manners.-Hume. DCCXIII. If there is an evil in this world, 'tis sorrow and heaviness of heart. The loss of goods,-of health,—of coronets, and mitres, are only evil, as they occasion sorrow: take that out, the rest is fancy, and dwelleth only in the head of man.-Sterne. DCCXIV. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.-Burke. |