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moderate degree of it. It must be confessed a happy attachment, which can reconcile the Laplander to his freezing snows, and the African to his scorching sun.Cumberland.

MXCVI.

Well sounding verses are the charms we use
Heroic thoughts and virtue to infuse:
Things of deep sense we may in prose unfold,
But they move more in lofty numbers told.
By the loud trumpet which our courage aids,
We learn that sound as well as sense, persuades.
Waller.

MXCVIII.

The faithful minister provideth not only wholesome, but plentiful food for his people. Almost incredible was the painfulness of Baronius, the compiler of the voluminous Annals of the Church, who, for thirty years together, preached three or four times a week to the people. As for our minister, he preferreth rather to entertain his people with wholesome cold meat, which was on the table before, than with that which is hot from the spit, raw and half-roasted. Yet, in repetition of the same sermon, every edition hath a new addition, if not of new matter, of new affections. "Of whom (saith St. Paul) we have told you often, and now we tell you weeping." -Fuller.

MXCIX.

It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.-Shenstone.

MC.

The first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and Sloth sustains the trade.
By chase our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food;
Toil strung the nerves, and purify'd the blood;
But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the docter for a nauseous draught.

The wise for cure on exercise depend:
God never made his work for man to mend.

MCI.

Dryden,

Great minds erect their never-failing trophies
On the firm base of mercy; but to triumph
Over a suppliant, by proud fortune captivated,
Argues a bastard conquest.

MCII.

Massinger.

The attachments of mere mirth are but the shadows of that true friendship, of which the sincere affections of the heart are the substance.-Burton.

MCIII.

A joker is near akin to a buffoon; and neither of them is the least related to a wit.-Chesterfield.

MCIV.

"Tis a fault in our very laws, to maintain this error, that a man is not capable of managing his own estate till he be five-and-twenty years old, whereas he will have much ado to manage his life so long.—Montaigne.

MCV.

As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them: they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.-Plutarch.

MCVI.

What has pleased, and continues to please, is likely to please again: hence are derived the rules of art; and on this immoveable foundation they must for ever stand. -Sir J. Reynolds.

MCVII.

There is nothing more certain than that every man would be a wit if he could; and notwithstanding pedants · of a pretended depth and solidity are apt to decry the writings of a polite author as flash and froth, they all of them show, upon occasion, that they would spare no

pains to arrive at the character of those whom they seem to despise.-Addison.

MCVIII.

As no tricks on the rope but those that break,
Or come most near to breaking of a neck,
Are worth the sight, so nothing goes for wit
But nonsense, or the next of all to it;
For nonsense being neither false nor true,
A little wit to any thing may screw;

And, when it has a while been us'd, of course
Will stand as well in virtue, pow'r, and force,
And pass for sense t' all purposes as good
As if it had at first been understood:
For nonsense has the amplest privileges,
And more than all the strongest sense obliges,
That furnishes the schools with terms of art,
The mysteries of science to impart;
Supplies all seminaries with recruits
Of endless controversies and disputes;
For learned nonsense has a deeper sound
Than easy sense, and goes for more profound.

MCIX.

Butler.

Man is a creature very inconsistent with himself: the greatest heroes are sometimes fearful; the sprightliest wits at some hours dull, and the greatest politicians on some occasions whimsical.. But I shall not pretend to palliate or excuse the matter; for I find by a calculation of my own nativity, that I cannot hold out with any tolerable wit longer than two minutes after twelve of the clock at night between the eighteenth and nineteenth of the next month.-Tatler.

MCX.

Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps, are all a clear because to clear a why.-Lavater.

MCXI.

Against our peace we arm our will:
Amidst our plenty something still

For horses, houses, pictures, planting,
To thee, to me, to him is wanting.
That cruel something unpossest
Corrodes and leavens all the rest.
That something if we could obtain,
Would soon create a future pain.

MCXII.

Prior.

A critic is one that has spelled over a great many books, and his observation is the orthography.-He is the surgeon of old authors, and heals the wounds of dust and ignorance. He converses much in fragments and desunt multa's and, if he piece it up with two lines he is more proud of that book than the author. He runs over all sciences to peruse their syntaxis, and thinks all learning comprised in writing Latin. He tastes styles as some discreeter palates do wine; and tells you which is genuine, which sophisticate and bastard. His own phrase is a miscellany of old words, deceased long before the Cæsars, and entombed by Varro, and the modernest man he follows is Plautus. He writes omneis at length, and quid-quid, and his gerund is most inconformable. He is a troublesome vexer of the dead, which after so long sparring must rise up to the judgment of his castigations. He is one that makes all books sell dearer, whilst he swells them into folios with his comments.-Bishop Earle.

MCXIII.

False smiles

Deprive you of your judgments.

The condition of our affairs exact a double care,
And, like bifronted Janus, we must look
Backward, as forward; though a flattering calm
Bids us urge on, a sudden tempest raised,
Not feared, much less expected, in our rear,
May foully fall upon us, and distract us
To our confusion.

Massinger.

MCXIV.

Curiosity is a languid principle where access is easy, and gratification is immediate, remoteness and difficulty are powerful incentives to its vigorous and lasting operations. By many who live within the sound of Bow bells, the internal wonders of St. Paul's or the Tower may not be thought in the least degree interesting. Yet, how justly would such persons be classed with the incurious of Æsop; if, on visiting their country friends, it should appear that they had never been in the whispering gallery, or seen the lions! equally ridiculous is that Englishman who roams in search of curiosities abroad, without having previously inspected the great beauties of nature and art at home. Sir Solomon Simple, before he was informed at Venice that the Pantheon, and St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, in London, where two of the first pieces of architecture in Europe, had never heard that such buildings existed.-Monro.

MCXV.

I spent much time in learning to ride the great horse, that creature being made above all others for the service of man, as giving his rider all the advantages of which he is capable, while sometimes he gives him strength, sometimes agility or motion for the overcoming of his enemy, insomuch, that a good rider on a good horse, is as much above himself and others, as this world can make him.-Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

MCXVI.

It is usual with persons who mount the stage for the cure or information of the crowd about them, to make solemn professions of their being wholly disinterested in the pains they take for the public good. At the same time, those very men who make harangues in plush doublets, and extol their own abilities and generous inclinations, tear their lungs in vending a drug, and show no act of bounty, except it be, that they lower a demand of a crown to six, nay, to one penny.-Steele.

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