If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
If lost, why then a grievous labour won;
However, but a folly bought with wit,
Or else a wit, by folly vanquished.

CCCCLXIV.

Shakspeare.

Wit is its own remedy. Liberty and commerce bring it to its true standard. The only danger is the laying an embargo. The same thing happens here as in the case of trade: impositions and restrictions reduce it to a low ebb; for nothing is so advantageous to it as a free port.Shaftesbury.

CCCCLXV.

Estates are now almost as frequently made over by whist and hazard, as by deeds and settlements; and the chariots of many of our nobility may be said (like Basset's in the play) to roll upon the four aces.-Connois

seur.

CCCCLXVI.

I am living fast to see the time when a book that misses its tide, shall be neglected, as the moon by day, or like mackerel a week after the season.-Swift.

CCCCLXVII.

I have known stories from the mouth of a man of very great quality, otherwise very pleasant in themselves, become very troublesome, by being a hundred times repeated over and over again.-Montaigne.

CCCCLXVIII.

Behold the original and primitive nobility of all those great persons, who are too proud now, not only to till the ground, but almost to tread upon it. We may talk what we please of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent, but if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble in ancient arms.-Cowley.

CCCCLXIX.

He that has no friend and no enemy is one of the vulgar; and without talents, powers, or energy.-Lavater

CCCCLXX.

He that visits the sick, in hopes of a legacy, let him be never so friendly in all other cases, I look upon him in this to be no better than a raven, that watches a weak sheep only to peck out its eyes.-Seneca.

CCCCLXXI.

The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water.-Pope.

CCCCLXXII.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.Selden.

CCCCLXXIII.

Poor wine at the table of a rich host is an insult without an apology. Urbanity ushers in water that needs no apology, and gives a zest to the worst vintage.-Zim

merman.

CCCCLXXIV.

If a fool knows a secret, he tells it because he is a fool; if a knave knows one, he tells it whenever it is his interest to tell it. But women and young men are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been trusted. Trust none of these whenever you can help it.-Chesterfield.

CCCCLXXV.

There is an oblique way of reproof, which takes off the sharpness of it; and an address in flattery, which makes it agreeable, though never so gross: but of all flatterers, the most skilful is he who can do what you like, without saying any thing which argues he does it for your sake.-Pope.

CCCCLXXVI.

A knowledge of the world is, no doubt, necessary to an actor, and he must therefore take his share in society,

but there is no other introduction into the best company but by meriting a place in it; and as for vulgar fellowships and connexions, where a man is to act the pleasant fellow and set the table in a roar, if he has not the spirit and discretion to decline them, he will soon find his professional talents sacrificed to his convivial ones; if he does not reserve all his exertions for his art, nature must sink under double duty, and the most that he can obtain in return will be pity.—Cumberland. CCCCLXXVII.

In malice to proud wits, some proudly lull
Their peevish reason, vain of being dull;
When some home joke has stung their solemn souls,
In vengeance they determine-to be fools;
Thro' spleen, that little nature gave, make less,
Quite zealous in the ways of heaviness;

To lumps inanimate a fondness take,
And disinherit sons that are awake.

These, when their utmost venom they would spit,
Most barbarously tell you-"he's a wit."
Poor negroes, thus to show their burning spite,
To Cacodæmons, say, they're dev'lish white.

CCCCLXXVIII.

Young.

The utmost that can be achieved, or I think pretended, by any rules in the art of poetry, is but to hinder some men from being very ill poets, but not to make any man a very good one.-Sir W. Temple.

CCCCLXXIX.

An extemporaneous poet is to be judged as we judge a race-horse; not by the gracefulness of his motion, but the time he takes to finish his course. The best critic on earth may err in determining his precise degree of merit, if he have neither a stop-watch in his hand, nor a clock within his hearing.-Shenstone.

CCCCLXXX.

Some men relate what they think, as what they know; Some men of confused memories, and habitual inaccu

racy, ascribe to one man what belongs to another; and some talk on without thought or care. A few men are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by successive relaters.-Johnson.

CCCCLXXXI.

Man is the merriest species of the creation, all above and below him are serious. He sees things in a different light from other beings, and finds his mirth arising from objects that perhaps cause something like pity or displeasure in higher natures. Laughter is indeed a very good counterpoise to the spleen; and it seems but reasonable that we should be capable of receiving joy from what is no real good to us, since we can receive grief from what is no real evil.-Addison.

CCCCLXXXII.

How safe is treason, and how sacred ill.
When none can sin against the people's will;
Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own!

CCCCLXXXIII.

Dryden.

Love seizes on us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favours the surprise; one look, one glance from the fair, fixes and determines us. Friendship, on the contrary, is a long time in forming, it is of slow growth, through many trials and months of familiarity. How much wit, good nature, indulgencies, how many good offices and civilities are required among friends to accomplish in some years, what a lovely face, or a fine hand does in a minute?—Bruyere.

CCCCLXXXIV.

All human race would fain be wits,
And millions miss for one that hits:
Young's universal passion, pride,
Was never known to spread so wide.
Say, Britain! could you ever boast
Three poets in an age at most?

Our chilling climate hardly bears
A sprig of bays in fifty years,
While every fool his claim alleges,
As if it grew in common hedges.

CCCCLXXXV.

Swift.

It would not be amiss, if an old bachelor, who lives. in contempt of matrimony, were obliged to give a portion to an old maid who is willing to enter into it.Tatler.

CCCCLXXXVI.

Let wits, like spiders, from the tortur'd brain
Fine-draw the critic web with curious pain;
The gods-a kindness I with thanks must pay,
Have formed me of a coarser kind of clay;
Nor stung with envy, nor with spleen diseas'd,
A poor dull creature still with nature pleas'd:
Hence to thy praises, Garrick, I agree,

And pleas'd with nature must be pleased with thee.
Churchill's Rosciad.

CCCCLXXXVII.

If words be a lie without reservation, they are so with it: for this does not alter the words themselves; nor the meaning of the words; nor the purpose of him who delivers them.-Bishop Taylor.

CCCCLXXXVIII.

How hard soe'er it be to bridle wit,
Yet memory oft no less requires the bit,
How many hurried by its force away,
For ever in the land of gossips stray!
Usurp the province of the nurse to lull,
Without her privilege of being dull!
Tales upon tales they raise ten stories high,
Without regard to use or symmetry.
Stilling fleet.

CCCCLXXXIX.

All the virtues that have been ever in mankind are to be counted upon a few fingers, but his follies and vices VOL. I.

I