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Alike the busy and the gay
But flutter thro' life's little day,
In fortune's varying colours drest;
Brush'd by the hand of rough mischance,
Or chill'd by age, their airy dance
They leave, in dust to rest.

DCCXCVI.

Gray.

If you look upon the language spoken in the Saxon time, and the language spoken now, you will find the difference to be just as if a man had a cloak that he wore in queen Elizabeth's days, and since, here has put in a piece of red, and here a piece of green, and here a piece of orange tawny. We borrow words from the French, Italian, Latin, as every pedantic man pleases.— Selden.

DCCXCVII.

Writers of every age have endeavoured to show that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amusement: if the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review like the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill-dressed, but none but a fool is for this enraged with the master of the ceremonies.-Goldsmith.

DCCXCVIII.

Hunger is the mother of impatience and anger: and the quarter of an hour before dinner is the worst suitors can choose. The Latins have said, Venter non habet aures.-Zimmerman.

DCCXCIX.

I never heard a finer piece of satire against lawyers, than that of astrologers, when they pretend, by rules of art, to tell when a suit will end, and whether to the advantage of the plaintiff, or defendant; thus making the matter depend entirely upon the influence of the stars, without the least regard to the merits of the case.-Swift.

DCCC.

Men have no right to what is not reasonable, and to

what is not their benefit; for though a pleasant writer said, liceat perire poetis, when one of them, in cold blood, is said to have leaped into the flames of a volcanic revolution, ardentem frigidis Etnam insiluit. I consider such frolic rather as an unjustifiable poetic license than as one of the franchises of Parnassus; and whether he were a poet, or divine, or politician, that chose to exercise this kind of right, I think that more wise, because more charitable thoughts would urge me rather to save the man, than to preserve his brazen slippers as the monuments of his folly.-Burke.

DCCCI.

A man of wit is not incapable of business, but above it. A sprightly generous horse is able to carry a packsaddle as well as an ass; but he is too good to be put to the drudgery.-Pope.

DCCCII.

Physicians are some of them so pleasing and confor mable to the humour of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease; and some others are so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper; or, if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either sort; and forget not to call as well as the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty.-Lord Bacon.

DCCCIII.

Wine is such a whetstone for wit, that if it be often set thereon, it will quickly grind all the steel out, and scarcely leave a back where it found an edge.-Colton.

DCCCIV.

Although men are accused for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold, which the owner knows not of.-Swift.

A play writer of our times is like a fanatic, that has

no wit in ordinary easy things, and yet attempts the hardest task of brains in the whole world, only because, whether his play or work please or displease, he is certain to come off better than he deserves, and find some of his own latitude to applaud him, which he could never expect any other way; and is as sure to lose no reputation, because he has none to venture:

Like gaming rooks that never stick
To play for hundreds upon tick;
'Cause, if they chance to lose at play,
Th'ave not one half-penny to pay;
And, if they win a hundred pound,
Gain, if for sixpence they compound.

Nothing encourages him more in his undertaking than his ignorance, for he has not wit enough to understand so much as the difficulty of what he attempts; therefore he runs on boldly like a fool-hardy wit; and fortune, that favours fools and the bold, sometimes takes notice of him for his double capacity, and receives him into her good graces. He has one motive more, and that is the concurrent ignorant judgment of the present age, in which his sottish fopperies pass with applause, like Oliver Cromwell's oratory among fanatics of his own canting inclination. He finds it easier to write in rhyme than prose; for the world being overcharged with romances, he finds his plots, passions, and repartees, ready made to his hand; and if he can but turn them into rhyme, the thievery is disguised, and they pass for his own wit and invention without question: like a stolen cloak, made into a coat, or dyed into another colour.Butler.

DCCCVI.

We take other men's knowledge and opinions upon truth, which is an idle and superficial learning: we must make it our own. We are in this case like him, who having need of fire, went to a neighbour's house to fetch it; and finding a very good one there, sat down to warm himself, without remembering to carry any with him home.-Montaigne.

DCCCVII.

Delusive ideas are the motives of the greatest part of mankind, and a heated imagination, the power by which their actions are incited: the world, in the eye of a philosopher, may be said to be a large madhouse.-Mackenzie.

DCCCVIII.

He that gives for gain, profit, or any by-end, destroys the very intent of bounty; for it falls only upon those that do not want.-Seneca.

DCCCIX.

I have often been afraid, when I have seen our Italian performers chattering in the vehemence of action, that they have been calling us names, and abusing us among themselves; but I hope, since we do put such an entire confidence in them, they will not talk against us before our faces, though they may do it with the same safety as if it were behind our backs.-Addison.

DCCCX.

Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself.-Johnson.

DCCCXI.

Would you both please, and be instructed too,
Watch well the rage of shining to subdue;
Hear every man upon his favourite theme,
And ever be more knowing than you seem,
The lowest genius will afford some light,
Or give a hint that had escaped your sight.
Stilling fleet.

DCCCXII.

All philosophy is only forcing the trade of happiness, when nature seems to deny the means.-Goldsmith.

DCCCXIII.

A man of easy profession never counterfeits, till he lays hold upon a debtor, and says he rests him; for then he brings him to all manner of unrest.-Ben Jonson.-Every man in his Humour.

DCCCXIV.

Absence of mind may be defined to be a slowness of mind in speaking or action: the absent man is one who, when he is casting up accounts, and hath collected the items, will ask a bystander what the amount is: when he is engaged in a law-suit, and the day of trial is come, he forgets it and goes into the country: he visits the theatre to see the play, and is left behind asleep on the benches. He takes any article and puts it away himself, then be gins to look for it, and is never able to find it. If any one tell him of the death of a dear friend, and ask him to the funeral, with a sorrowful countenance and tears in his eyes, he exclaims, Good luck, good luck! It is his custom, when he receives, not when he pays, a debt, to call for witnesses. In winter, he quarrels with his servant for not purchasing cucumbers: he compels his children to wrestle and run till they faint with fatigue. In the country, when he is dressing his dinner of herbs, he throws in salt to season them till they are unfit to eat. If any one inquire of him, how many dead have been carried out through the sacred gate to burial? Would to God, he replies, you and I had so many!-Theophrastus.

DCCCXV.

In all discontents, divisions, and party disputes, we acknowledge no other tribunal, but the public. And pray what is the public to do for you?—Joineriana,

1772.

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As the Spanish proverb says, "He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him,"-so it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.-Johnson.

DCCCXVII.

Rather than bear the pain of thought, fools stray;
The proud will rather lose than ask their way.

Churchill.

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