OUR good or bad fortune depends greatly on the choice we make of our friends.

Never argue with any but men of sense and temper.

In mixed companies, be more ready to hear than to speak, and put people upon talking of what is in their own way : For then you will both oblige them, and be most likely to improve by their conversation.

Men repent ten times for speaking, for once that they repent keeping silence.

II. No revenge is more heroick, than that which torments envy by doing good.

Let your conduct be the result of deliberation, never of impatience.

No preacher is so successful as time. It gives a turn of thought to the aged, which it was impossible to inspire while they were young.

He that lies in bed all a summer's morning loses the chief pleasure of the day: he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a loss of the same kind.

THE modest man is seldom the object of envy.

If you have a friend that will reprove your faults and foibles, consider that you enjoy a blessing, which the king upon the throne cannot have.

If you would teach secresy to others, begin with yourself. How can you expect another will keep your secret, when you yourself cannot?

Man is the only being endowed with the power of laughter, and perhaps he is the only one that deserves to be laughed at.

II. If you must speak upon a difficult point, be the last speaker if you can.

Praise your friends, and let your friends praise you.

Do not endeavour to shine in all companies. Leave room for your hearers to imagine something within you beyond all you have said. And remember the more you are praised, the more you will be envied.

LESSON V.

NEVER contend about small matters with superiors, nor with inferiors. If you get the better of the first, you provoke their formidable resentment; if you engage with the latter, you debase yourself.

You will always be reckoned by the world nearly of the same character with those whose company you keep.

Pitch upon that course of life which is the most excellent, and habit will render it the most delightful.

II. A man's fortune is more frequently made by his tongue, than by his virtues; and more frequently crushed by it, than by his vices.

To labour and to be content with what a man hath, is a sweet life.

There is nothing of so much worth, as a mind well instructed.

MANY men mistake the love for the practice of virtue ; and are not so much good men as the friends of goodness. Endeavour to be first in your profession, and let no one go before you in doing well. Nevertheless, do not envy the merit of another, but improve your own talents.

11. To deal with a man, you must know his temper, by which you can lead him; or his ends, by which you can persuade him; or his friends, by whom you can govern

him.

Time is requisite to bring great objects to maturity.. Precipitancy ruins the best contrived plan; patience ripens the most difficult.

He who begins soon to be good will be likely to be very good at last.

Of all virtues, patience is oftenest wanted. How unhap py must he be, who is wholly unfurnished with what is wanted every moment !

If you act only with a view to praise, you deserve none. Listen to conscience, and it will tell you, whether you really do as you would be done by.

II. In the conduct of life, let it be one great aim to show that every thing you do proceeds from yourself, not from your passions. Chrysippus rewards in joy, chastises in wrath, does every thing in passion. No person stands in awe of Chrysippus, no person is grateful to him. Why? Because it is not Chrysippus who acts, but his passions. We shun him in wrath as we shun a wild beast; and this is all the authority he has over us.

CENSURE is the tax a man pays to the publick for being eminent.

If you have health, a competency, and a good conscience, what would you have besides? something to disturb your happiness.

To abuse the poor for his poverty, is to insult God's providence.

He whose ruling passion is love of praise, is a slave to every one who has a tongue for detraction.

II. Blame not before thou hast examined the truth; understand first and then rebuke.

He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more in order to maintain that one.

If ever you were dangerously ill, what fault or folly lay heaviest upon your mind? take care to root it out without delay, and without mercy.

HONESTY sometimes fails; but it is because diligence or abilities are wanting. Otherwise it is by far an overmatch for cunning.

When, even in the heat of dispute, I yield to my antago nist, my victory over myself is more illustrious than over him, had he yielded to me.

He that is slow to anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

11. Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time; nor that which is measured by number of years; but wisdom is the grey hair to man; and an unspotted life is old age.

The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions, he had contracted in the former.

TRUTH is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware: whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

Modesty, were it to be recommended for nothing else, leaves a man at ease, by pretending to little: whereas vainglory requires perpetual labour to appear what one is not. If we have sense, modesty best sets it off; if not, best hides. the want.

II. Always to indulge our appetites, is to extinguish them. Abstain, therefore that you may enjoy.

The refined luxuries of the table, besides enervating the body, poison that very pleasure they are intended to promote: for, by soliciting the appetite, they exclude the greatest pleasure of taste, that which arises from the gratification of hunger.

IF a favour be asked of you, grant it if you can. If not, refuse it in such a manner as that one denial may be suffi cient.

Make your company a rarity, and people will value it. People generally despise what they can easily have.

Innocence confers ease and freedom on the mind, and leaves it open to every pleasing sensation.

II. Moderate and simple pleasures relish high with the temperate in the midst of his studied refinements, the voluptuary languishes.

Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but most are providing to live another time.

No object is more pleasing to the eye, than the sight of a person whom you have obliged; nor any musick so agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefactor.

TO mourn without measure, is folly; not to mourn at all, insensibility.

There is but one way of fortifying the soul against all gloomy presages and terrours of mind; and that is, by securing to ourselves the friendship and protection of that Being, who disposes of events and governs futurity.

II. Be careful of your word, even in keeping the most trifling appointment. But do not blame another for a failure of that kind, till you have heard his excuse.

When we sum up the miseries of life, the grief bestowed on trifles makes a great part of the account; trifles which neglected are nothing. How shameful such a weakness !

The true conveniences of life are common to the king with his meanest subjects. The king's sleep is not sweeter, nor his appetite better.

WICKED dispositions should be checked betimes; for when they once come to habits, they grow incurable. More people go to the gallows for want of timely instruction, discipline and correction, than from any incurable de pravity of nature.

Hath any wounded you with injuries, meet them with patience; hasty words rankle the wound, soft language dresses it, forgiveness cures it, and oblivion takes away the scar.