CLXXXV. He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.-Lavater. CLXXXVI. Death never happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives. It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.-Bruyere. CLXXXVII. Few men are calculated for that close connexion, which we distinguish by the appellation of friendship; and we well know the difference between a friend and an acquaintance: the acquaintance is in a post of progression; and after having passed through a course of proper experience, and given sufficient evidence of his merit, takes a new title, and ranks himself higher.-Adventurer. CLXXXVIII. All smatt'rers are more brisk and pert, CLXXXIX. Butler. Deceit may serve for a need, but he only confesses himself overcome, who knows he is neither subdued by policy nor misadventure, but by dint of valour, in a fair and manly war.—Montaigne. CXC. The ancients talk so frequently of a fixed, stated portion of provisions assigned to each slave, that we are naturally led to conclude, that slaves lived almost all single, and received that portion as a kind of board-wages.Hume. CXCI. He that calls a man ungrateful, sums up all the evil that a man can be guilty of.-Swift. CXCII. Death opens the gate of fame, and shuts the gate of envy after it,-it unlooses the chain of the captive, and puts the bondsman's task into another man's hands.Sterne. CXCIII. It is taken for granted that, on every publication, there is at least a seeming violation of modesty: a presumption on the writer's side, that he is able to instruct or to entertain the world; which implies a supposition that he can communicate what they cannot draw from their own reflections.-Shenstone. CXCIV. What I blame philosophers most for, (though some may think it a paradox,) is chiefly their pride; nothing less than an ipse dixit, and you must pin your faith on their sleeve. And though Diogenes lived in a tub, there might be, for aught I know, as much pride under his rags, as in the fine-spun garments of the divine Plato.Swift. CXCV. Affectation is a greater enemy to the face than the small-pox.-St. Evremond. CXCVI. As I approve of a youth, that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man, that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule, may be old in body, but can never be so in mind. -Cicero. CXCVII. Virtue seems to be nothing more than a motion consonant to the system of things: were a planet to fly from its orbit, it would represent a vicious man.-Shenstone. CXCVIII. I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others.Bruyere. СХСІХ. Every sect has a recipe. When you know it, you are master of nature: you solve all her phenomena: you see all her designs, and can account for all her operations. If need were, you might, perchance, too, be of her laboratory and work for her. At least, one would imagine the partisans of each modern sect had this conceit. They are all Archimedes' in their way, and can make a world upon easier terms than he offered to move one.— Shaftesbury. CC. Perfect friendship is indivisible: every one gives himself so entirely to his friend, that he has nothing left to distribute to others: but on the contrary, is sorry that he is not double, treble, or quadruple, and that he has not many souls, and many wills, to confer them all upon this one subject. Common friendships will admit of division; one may love the beauty of this, the good humour of that person; the liberty of a third, the paternal affection of a fourth, the fraternal love of a fifth, and so of the rest. But this friendship which possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can possibly admit of no rival.-Montaigne. CCI. A courtier's dependant is a beggar's dog.-Shenstone. CCII. Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet every body is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.-Selden. CCIII. The first and chief rule of panegyric, is the golden rule of transformation; which consists in converting vices into their bordering virtues. A man who is a spendthrift, and will not pay a just debt, may have his injustice transformed into liberality; cowardice may be metamorphosed into prudence; intemperance into goodnature and good-fellowship; corruption into patriotism. The second is the rule of contraries. It is certain the less a man is endued with any virtue, the more need he has to have it plentifully bestowed, especially those good qualities, of which the world believes he has none at all; for who will thank a man for giving him that which he has.-Pope. CCIV. There is no private house, in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern. Let there be ever so great plenty of good things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire that every body should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him; and no man, but a very impudent dog indeed, can as freely command what is in another man's house as if it were his own: whereas, at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome: and the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are. No servant will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are incited by the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they please. No, sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.-Johnson. CCV. Receive no satisfaction for premeditated impertinence; forget it, forgive it, but keep him inexorably at a distance who offered it.-Lavater. CCVI. It is not the increase of vices inseparable from humanity that alarms us, the riots of the licentious, or the outrages of the profligate; but it is the absence of that integrity, the neglect of that virtue, the contempt of that honour, which by connecting individuals formed society, and without which society can no longer subsist.-Ad venturer. CCVII. There is nothing exerts a genius so much as writing plays; the reason is, that the writer puts himself in the place of every person that speaks.-Shenstone. CCVIII. Argira pulls off her glove to show her white hand, and never forgets to let her little shoe be seen, that she may be supposed to have a small foot; she laughs equally at things pleasant or serious, to show her fine set of teeth; if she discovers her ears, it is because they are small and pretty; and if she does not dance, it is because she is not well satisfied with her shape, which indeed is not of the sugar-loaf kind; she knows perfectly well all her several interests, one thing only excepted, she is perpetually talking, and has scarce common sense.-Bruyere. CCIX. A wit is a very unpopular denomination, as it carries terror along with it; and people in general are as much afraid of a live wit, in company, as a woman is of a gun which she thinks may go off of itself, and do her mischief. Their acquaintance is, however, worth seeking, and their company worth frequenting; but not exclusively of others, nor to such a degree as to be considered only as one of that particular set.-Chesterfield. CCX. The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury, and reparation.-Johnson. CCXI. The greatest vices derive their propensity from our most tender infancy, and our principal education depends on the nurse. Mothers are mightily pleased to see a child writhe the neck of a chicken, or please itself with hurting a cat or dog; and such wise fathers there are in the world, who consider it as a notable mark of a martial |