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were to stand in the pillory, it would quickly lessen the number of these imaginary men of honour, and put an end to so absurd a practice.-Addison.

MCCCCXXI.

It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as the having overcome them, that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with the weeds of a field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there.-Pope.

MCCCCXXII.

He that useth food, doth it to gratify his hunger, which is natural; but he that inflicts punishment should do it without either hungering or thirsting after it, not needing anger, like sauce, to quicken, or whet him on to punish; but when he is furthest off from desiring it, bringing his reason to do it as a thing most necessary.-Plu tarch.

MCCCCXXIII.

In foreign universities,

When a king's born, or weds, or dies,
Straight other studies are laid by

And all apply to poetry:

Some write in Hebrew, some in Greek,
And some, more wise, in Arabic,
T" avoid the critic, and th' expense
Of difficulter wit and sense;

And seem more learnedish than those
That at a greater charge compose.
The doctors lead, the students follow;
Some call them Mars, and some Apollo,
Some Jupiter, and give him th' odds,
On even terms, of all the gods:
Then Cæsar he's nicknam'd, as duly as
He that in Rome was christen'd Julius,
And was address'd to by a crow,
As pertinently long ago;

And with more heroes' names is styl'd,

Than saints are clubb'd t' an Austrian child:

And as wit goes by colleges,
As well as standing and degrees,

He still writes better than the rest,

That's of the house that's counted best.

MCCCCXXIV.

Butler.

Honours and great employments are great burthens,
And must require an Atlas to support them.
He that would govern others, first should be
The master of himself.

MCCCCXXV.

Massinger.

Whilst the sages are puffing off our distempers in one page of a newspaper, the auctioneers are puffing off our property in another. If this island of ours is to be credited for their description of it, it must pass for a terrestrial paradise; it makes an English ear tingle to hear of the boundless variety of lawns, groves, and parks; lakes, rivers, and rivulets; decorated farms and fruitful gardens; superb and matchless collections of pictures, jewels, plates, furniture, and equipages; town-houses and country houses; hot-houses and ice-houses; observatories and conservatories; offices attached and detached: with all the numerous etceteras that glitter down the columns of our public prints.-What is the harp of an Orpheus compared to the hammer of an auctioneer.-Cumber land.

MCCCCXXVI.

The true nobleman is a gentleman, in a text letter, because bred, and living in a higher and larger way.Fuller.

MCCCCXXVII.

When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.-Pope.

MCCCCXXVIII.

To the acquisition of the rare quality of politeness, so much of the enlightened understanding is necessary that

I cannot but consider every book in every science, which tends to make us wiser, and of course better men, as a treatise on a more enlarged system of politeness, not excluding the experiments of Archimedes, or the elements of Euclid.-Monro.

MCCCCXXIX.

Pedantry is properly the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to. And if that kind of knowledge be a trifle in itself, the pedantry is the greater. For which reason, I look upon fiddlers, dancing-masters, heralds, masters of the ceremony, &c., to be greater pedants than Lipsius, or the elder Scaliger.-Swift.

MCCCCXXX.
Make my breast

Transparent as pure crystal, that the world,

Jealous of me, may

My heart does hold.
Her eyes to find out

see the foulest thought
Where shall a woman turn
constancy?

The Restoration.-Buckingham.

MCCCCXXXI.

Gymnastics open the chest, exercise the limbs, and give a man all the pleasure of boxing, without the blows. I could wish that several learned men would lay out that time which they employ in controversies and disputes about nothing, in this method of fighting with their own shadows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the spleen, which makes them uneasy to the public as well as to themselves.-Addison.

MCCCCXXXII.

In whatever light the surly dogmatist may consider plays in general; it may be asserted, on safe grounds, that they be good in particular; they may impart much knowledge without the languor of study, and warn from error without an approach to the verge of guilt. Indeed, where virtue obtains those rewards which heaven will bestow, and poetic justice should never withhold: and where vice smarts for its crimes, and is not rendered alluring by

the attraction of pleasing qualities; then the stage may be considered as an auxiliary to the pulpit-for morality and religion must ever be united.-Dr. Mavor.

MCCCCXXXIII.

The misery which is supposed to follow poverty, arises not from want, but from peevishness and discontent. A mind once satisfied, if alas! a mind can be satisfied upon this subject, is happy; for he who is thoroughly wet in a bath cannot be more wet if he be flung into the sea. The mind is all; for if a man had all the world, or a solid mass of gold as big as the world, he could not have more than enough.—Burton.

MCCCCXXXIV.

It has been a maxim with me to admit of an easy reconciliation with a person, whose offence proceeded from no depravity of heart; but where I was convinced did so, to forego, for my own sake, all opportunities of revenge; to forget the persons of my enemies as much as I was able, and to call to remembrance, in their place, the more pleasing idea of my friends. I am convinced that have derived no small share of happiness from this principle.-Shenstone.

MCCCCXXXV.

The proverbial wisdom of the populace at gates, on roads, and in markets, instructs the attentive ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously arranged.-Lavater.

MCCCCXXXVI.

I have a poor opinion of those who have got a trick of keeping a steady countenance, that cock their hats, and look glum when a pleasant thing is said, and ask, “Well! and what then?" Men of wit and parts should treat one another with benevolence: and I will lay it down as a maxim, that if you seem to have a good opinion of another man's wit, he will allow you to have judgment. Steele.

MCCCCXXXVII.

In a father's love, like a well-drawn picture, he eyes all his children alike, (if there be a parity of deserts,) not parching one to drown another.-Fuller,

MCCCCXXXVIII.

Comedians on the stage show all their skill,
And often do as love and fortune will.
We are less careful, hid in this disguise;
In our own clothes more serious and more wise.
Modest at home, upon the stage more bold,
We seem warm lovers, though our breasts are cold:
A fault committed here deserves no scorn,
If we act well the parts to which we're born.

Waller.-Prologue for the Lowly Actors.

MCCCCXXXIX.

The cause of some part of mankind being black has been accounted for in three ways: either by supposing that they are the posterity of Ham, who was cursed; or that God at first created two kinds of men, one black and another white: or that by the heat of the sun the skin is scorched, and so acquires a sooty hue. This matter has been much canvassed among naturalists, but has never been brought to any certain issue.-Johnson.

MCCCCXL.

A footman's hat should fly off to every body: and therefore Mercury who was Jupiter's footman, had wings fastened to his cap.-Swift.

MCCCCXLI.

Whenever a story is related, every man forms a picture in his mind of the action and expression of the persons employed. The power of representing this mental picture on canvass is what we call invention in a painter; and, as in the conception of this ideal picture, the mind does not enter into the minute peculiarities of the dress, furniture, or scene of action; so, when the painter comes to represent it, he contrives those little necessary concomitant circumstances in such a manner that they shall

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