DCCCXVIII.

When men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dignity to ambition, without a distinct object, and work with low instruments for low ends, the whole composition becomes low and base.-Burke.

DCCCXIX.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.-Seneca.

DCCCXX.

-I hate the camp,

I hate its noise and stiff parade, its blank
And empty forms, and stately courtesy,

Where between bows and blows, a smile and stab,
There's scarce a moment. Soldiers always live
In idleness or peril: both are bad.

DCCCXXI.

Proctor.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude. I can very justly say with the ancient sage, "I am never less alone than when alone."-Steele.

DCCCXXII.

Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience: which they call coldness; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit, is languid and defective.-Chesterfield.

DCCCXXIII.

Shakspeare paints so very close to nature, and with such marking touches, that he gives the very look an actor ought to wear when he is on his scene.-Cumberland.

DCCCXXIV.

It is a court-humour to keep people on the tenters; their injuries are quick and sudden, but their benefits are slow.-Seneca.

DCCCXXV.

The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humour, and the fourth wit. This last was formerly left to fools and buffoons kept in all great families.

Henry IV. of France, and king James I. of England, first gave repute to that sort of wit, increased by king

Charles II.

In king Charles I's. time, all wit, love, and honour, heightened by the wits of that time, into romance.

Lord Goreign took the contrepied, and turned all into ridicule.

He was followed by the duke of Buckingham; and that vein favoured by king Charles II. brought it into vogue.-Sir W. Temple.

DCCCXXVI.

We are taught to clothe our minds as we do our bodies, after the fashion in vogue; and it is accounted fantasticalness, or something worse, not to do so.-Locke.

DCCCXXVII.

Ask a man for protection or assistance, that instant you make out his indictment, unless 'twas impossible for him to have discovered that you stood in need of either. -Zimmerman.

DCCCXXVIII.

Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices, so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.-Swift.

DCCCXXIX.

Wit, much talk'd of, not to be defined:
He that pretends to most, too, has least share in't.

DCCCXXX.

Otway.

The most reserved of men, that will not exchange two syllables together in an English coffee-house, should they meet at Ispahan, would drink sherbet, and eat a mess of rice together.-Shenstone.

DCCCXXXI.

We are come too late, by several thousand years, to say any thing new in morality. The finest and most beautiful thoughts concerning manners, have been carried away before our times, and nothing is left for us, but to glean after the ancients, and the most ingenious of the moderns.—Bruyere.

DCCCXXXII.

A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury; for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it.—Pope.

DCCCXXXIII.

To each his suff'rings; all are men

Condemn'd alike to groan,

The tender for another's pain,

Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies?

Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
"Tis folly to be wise.

DCCCXXXIV.

Gray.

The abilities of man must fall short on one side or other, like too scanty a blanket when you are a-bed; if you pull it upon your shoulders, you leave your feet bare; if you thrust it down upon your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.-Sir W. Temple.

DCCCXXXV.

Good sense and good nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good nature, by which I mean beneficence and candour, is the product of right reason, which of necessity will give allowance to the failings of others, by considering that there is nothing perfect in mankind: and by distinguishing that which comes nearest to excellency, though not absolutely free from faults, will certainly produce a candour in the judge.-Dryden.

DCCCXXXVI.

Mankind in the gross is a gaping monster, that loves to be deceived, and has seldom been disappointed; nor is their vanity less fallacious to our philosophers, who adopt modes of truth to follow them through the paths of error, and defend parodoxes merely to be singular in defending them.-Mackenzie.

DCCCXXXVII.

Armies, though always the supporters and tools of absolute power, for the time being, are always the destroyers of it, too; by frequently changing the hands in which they think proper to lodge it.-Chesterfield.

DCCCXXXVIII.

There is no question but our great grandchildren will be very curious to know the reason why their forefathers used to sit together like an audience of foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before them in a tongue which they did not understand.-Addison.

DCCCXXXIX.

An actor is in the capacity of a steward to every living muse, and of an executor to every departed one; the poet digs up the ore; he sifts it from the dross, refines and purifies it for the mint: the actor sets the stamp upon it, and makes it current in the world.-Cumberland,

DCCCXL.

The rays of wit gild wheresoe'er they strike,
But are not therefore fit for all alike;

They charm the lively, but the grave offend,
And raise a foe as often as a friend;

Like the resistless beams of blazing light,
That cheer the strong and pain the weakly sight.
Stilling fleet.

DCCCXLI.

That tumour of a man, the vain-glorious Alexander, was used to make his boast, that never any man went beyond him in benefits; and yet he lived to see a poor fellow in a tub, to whom there was nothing that he could

give, and from whom there was nothing that he could take away.-Seneca.

DCCCXLII.

He who would shun criticism, must not be a scribbler; and he who would court it must have great abilities or great folly.-Monro.

DCCCXLIII.

Every one must see daily instances of people who complain from a mere habit of complaining; and make their friends uneasy, and strangers merry, by murmuring at evils that do not exist, and repining at grievances which they do not really feel.-Graves.

DCCCXLIV.

Guard wealth by entails and settlements as we will, the most affluent plenty may be stripp'd, and find all its worldly comforts like so many withered leaves dropping from us;-the crowns of princes may be shaken; and the greatest that ever awed the world, have looked back and moralized upon the turn of the wheel.-Sterne.

DCCCXLV.

One said to a covetous fellow, who was a great talker, sir, you certainly would be the most worthy man in the whole city, if the lock which you have upon your door, was but fixed upon your mouth.-(From the Italian.)

DCCCXLVI.

Affectation is certain deformity; by forming themselves on fantastic models, the young begin with being ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.-Blair.

DCCCXLVII.

Books, like friends, should be few and well-chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again-for, like true friends, they will never fail usnever cease to instruct-never cloy.-Joineriana, 1772.

DCCCXLVIII.

Wit may be divided into two sorts, serious and comical. First, with respect to that which is serious or grave,