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MXLIV.

A principal source of erroneous judgment is viewing things partially, and only on one side; as, for instance, fortune-hunters, when they contemplated the fortunes singly and separately, it was a dazzling and tempting object; but when they came to possess the wives and the fortunes together, they began to suspect they had not made quite so good a bargain.-Johnson.

MXLV.

We do so willingly slip the collar of command upon any pretence whatever, and are so ready to usurp upon dominion, and every one does so naturally aspire to liberty and power, that no utility whatever, whether derived from the wit or valour of those he does employ, ought to be so dear to a superior, as a downright and sincere obedience.-Montaigne.

MXLVI.
-Applause

Waits on success; the fickle multitude

Like the light straw that floats along the stream,
Glide with the current still, and follow fortune.

MXLVII.

Franklin.

There is no greater monster in being, than a very ill man of great parts. He lives like a man in a palsy, with one side of him dead. While, perhaps, he enjoys the satisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has lost the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. -Steele.

MXLVIII.

People know very little of the world and talk nonsense, when they talk of plainness and solidity unadorned: they will do nothing; mankind has been long out of a state of nature, and the golden age of native simplicity will never return. Whether for the better or the worse, no matter: but we are refined! and plain manners, plain dress, and plain diction, would as little do in life, as acorns, herbage, and the water of the neighbouring spring, would do at table.—Chesterfield.

MXLIX.

The world's a wood, in which all lose their way,
Though by a different path each goes astray.

ML.

Buckingham.

The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty.-Lavater.

MLI.

There is a sort of harmless liars, frequently to be met with in company, who deal much in the marvellous. Their usual intention is to please and entertain: but as men are most delighted with what they conceive to be truth, these people mistake the means of pleasing, and incur universal blame.-Hume.

MLII.

We measure the excellence of other men, by some excellence we conceive to be in ourselves. Nash, a poet, poor enough, (as poets used to be,) seeing an alderman with his gold chain, upon his horse, by way of scorn, said to one of his companions, "Do you see yon fellow, how goodly, how big he looks? why that fellow cannot make a blank verse.' -Selden.

MLIII.

To be vain, is rather a mark of humility than pride. Vain men delight in telling what honours have been done them, what great company they have kept; and the like, by which they plainly confess that these honours were more than their due, and such as their friends would not believe, if they had not been told: whereas a man truly proud, thinks the greatest honours below his merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a maxim, that whoever desires the character of a proud man, ought to conceal his vanity.Swift.

MLIV.

You must not neglect doing a thing immediately good, from fear of remote evil; from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he

would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved.— Johnson.

MLV.

All ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet a man of the world should know them. They are the out works of manners and decency, which would be too often broken in upon, if it were not for that defence, which keeps the enemy at a proper distance. It is for that reason that I always treat fools and coxcombs with great ceremony; true good-breeding not being a sufficient barrier against them.-Chesterfield.

MLVI.

We cannot be too jealous, we cannot suspect ourselves too much to labour under the disease of pride, which cleaves the closer to us by our belief or confidence that we are quite without it.-Lord Clarendon.

MLVII.

Nothing is so much admired, and so little understood, as wit.-Addison.

MLVIII.

To say more of a man than one thinks, with a prospect of interest, is dishonest; and without it, foolish. And whoever has had success in such an undertaking must of necessity, at once, think himself in his heart a knave for having done it, and his patron a fool for having believed it.-Pope.

MLIX.

Among the sources of those innumerable calamities which from age to age have overwhelmed mankind, may be reckoned as one of the principal, the abuse of words.-Bishop Horne.

MLX.

Fortune made up of toys and impudence,

That common jade that has not common sense,
But fond of business, insolently dares

Pretend to rule, yet spoils the world's affairs;
She's fluttering up and down, her favour throws
On the next met, nor minding what she does,
Nor why, nor whom she helps, nor merit knows;
Sometimes she smiles, then like a fury raves,
And seldom truly loves but fools or knaves.
Let her love whom she will, I scorn to woo her,
While she stays with me, I'll be civil to her;
But if she offers once to move her wings,
I'll fling her back all her vain gewgaw things.
Buckingham.

MLXI.

One great mark, by which you may discover a critic, who has neither taste nor learning, is this, that he seldom ventures to praise any passage in an author which has not been before received and applauded by the public, and that his criticism turns wholly upon little faults and errors. This part of a critic is so very easy to succeed in, that we find every ordinary reader, upon the publishing of a new poem, has wit and ill-nature enough to turn several passages of it into ridicule, and very often in the right place. This Mr. Dryden has very agreeably remarked, in those celebrated lines:

"Errors like straws upon the surface flow;

He who would search for pearls, must dive below."

MLXII.

Addison.

In fancied scenes, as in life's real plan,
He could not, for a moment, sink the man,
In whate'er cast his character was laid,
Self still, like oil, upon the surface play'd.
Nature, in spite of all his skill, crept in:
Horatio, Dorax, Falstaff-still was Quin.

MLXIII.

Churchill.

I have observed one ingredient somewhat necessary in a man's composition towards happiness, which people of feeling would do well to acquire—a certain respect for the follies of mankind: for there are so many

fools whom the world entitles to regard, whom accident has placed in heights of which they are unworthy, that he who cannot restrain his contempt or indignation at the sight, will be too often quarrelling with the disposal of things to relish that share which is allotted to himself.-Mackenzie.

MLXIV.

Just as the hinder of two chariot wheels
Still presses closely on its fellow's heels,
So flies to-morrow, while you fly as fast,
For ever following, and for ever last.

From the Latin of Persius.-Howes.

MLXV.

Let the passion for flattery be ever so inordinate, the supply can keep pace with the demand, and in the world's great market, in which wit and folly drive their bargains with each other, there are traders of all sorts. Cumberland.

MLXVI.

A man's own good-breeding is the best security against other people's ill-manners.--Chesterfield.

MLXVII.

In a troubled state, we must do as in foul weather upon the Thames, not think to cut directly through, so that the boat may be quickly full of water, but rise and fall, as the waves do, and give as much as we conveniently can.-Selden.

MLXVIII.

The optics of some minds are in so unlucky a perspective, as to throw a certain shade on every picture that is presented to them; while those of others, like the mirrors of the ladies, have a wonderful effect in bettering their complexions.-Mackenzie.

MLXIX.

This for that, is rather a trick than a benefit; and he deserves to be cozened, that gives any thing in hope of a return.-Seneca.

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