CCCLXXXII.

There is as much greatness of mind in the owing of a good turn, as in the doing of it; and we must no more force a requital out of season, than be wanting in it. He that precipitates a return, does as good as say I am weary of being in this man's debt; not but that the hastening of a requital, as a good office, is a commendable disposition; but it is another thing to do it as a discharge; for it looks like casting off a heavy and troublesome burden.-Seneca.

CCCLXXXIII.

It is recorded of Sir Matthew Hale, that he, for a long time, concealed the consecration of himself to the stricter duties of religion, lest, by some flagitious and shameful action, he should bring piety into disgrace. For the same reason it may be prudent for a writer, who apprehends that he shall not enforce his own maxims by his domestic character, to conceal his name, that he may not injure them.-Johnson.

CCCLXXXIV.

As love without esteem is volatile and capricious: esteem without love is languid and cold.—Adventurer.

CCCLXXXV.

The magnificence of our theatres is far superior to any others in Europe, where plays only are acted. The great care our performers take in painting for a part, their exactness in all the minutiae of dress, and other little scenical proprieties, have been taken notice of by Ricoboni, a gentleman of Italy, who travelled Europe with no other design but to remark upon the stage; but there are several improprieties still continued, or lately come into fashion. As, for instance, spreading a carpet, (for tragedies,) in order to prevent our actors from spoiling their clothes; this immediately apprizes us of what is to follow; for laying the cloth is not a more sure indication of dinner than laying the carpet of bloody work at Drury-lane.Goldsmith.

K

CCCLXXXVI.

The effects of human industry and skill are easily subjected to calculation: whatever can be completed in a year, is divisible into parts, of which each may be performed in the compass of a day; he, therefore, that has passed the day without attention to the task assigned him, may be certain that the lapse of life has brought him no nearer to his object; for whatever idleness may expect from time, its produce will be only in proportion to the diligence with which it has been used. He that floats 'azily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed move forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following.Adventurer.

CCCLXXXVII.

Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces,
And yet so humble too, as not to scorn
The meanest country cottages:

"His poppy grows among the corn."
The halcyon sleep will never build his nest
In any stormy breast.

'Tis not enough that he does find
Clouds and darkness in the mind;
Darkness but half his work will do:

'Tis not enough; he must find quiet too.

Cowley-imit. Horace.

CCCLXXXVIII.

In transactions of trade it is not to be supposed that, like gaming, what one party gains, the other must necessarily lose. The gain to each may be equal. If A. bas more corn than he can consume, but wants cattle; and B. has more cattle, but wants corn; exchange is gain to each thereby the common stock of comforts in life is increased.-Franklin.

:

CCCLXXXIX.

Wine heightens indifference into love, love into jea

lousy, and jealousy into madness. It often turns the good-natured man into an idiot, and the choleric into an assassin. It gives bitterness to resentment, it makes vanity insupportable, and displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.-Addison.

CCCXC.

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason, that passion alone in the trouble of it exceeding all other accidents.-Montaigne.

CCCXCI.

Give o'er thy plaint, the danger's o'er ;
She might have poison'd all thy life;
Such wayward mind had bred thee more
Of sorrow, had she prov'd thy wife;
Leave her to meet all hopeless meed,
And bless thyself that art so freed.

On a stony-hearted Maiden-Harrington.

CCCXCII.

To endeavour to forget any one, is the certain way to think of nothing else. Love has this in common with scruples, that it is exasperated by the reflections used to free us from them. If it were practicable, the only way to extinguish our passion, is never to think on it.Bruyere.

CCCXCIII.

All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us; and therefore whatever depresses immoderate wishes, will, at the same time, set the heart free from the corrosion of envy, and exempt us from that vice which is, above most others, tormenting to ourselves, hateful to the world, and productive of mean artifices and sordid projects.-Johnson.

K 2

829275

CCCXCIV.

"Tis the first virtue, vices to abhor,
And the first wisdom to be fool no more:
But to the world no bugbear is so great
As want of figure, and a small estate.
Scar'd at the spectre of pale poverty!
To either India see the merchant fly-
See him with pains of body, pangs of soul,
Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the pole !
Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end,
Nothing to make philosophy thy friend?
To stop thy foolish views, thy long desires,
And ease thy heart of all that it admires?
Here wisdom calls, "Seek virtue first, be bold!
"As gold to silver, virtue is to gold."

There, London's voice," Get money, money still!
"And then let virtue follow if she will!"
This, this, the saving doctrine preach'd to all,
From low St. James's up to high St. Paul;
From him whose quills stand quiver'd at his ear,
To him who notches sticks at Westminster.

CCCXCV.

Pope-imit. Horace.

Reason cannot show itself more reasonable, than to leave reasoning on things above reason.-Sir P. Sidney.

CCCXCVI.

They course the glass, and let it take no rest;
They pass and spy who gazeth on their face;
They darkly ask whose beauty seemeth best ;
They hark and mark who marketh most their grace;
They stay their steps, and stalk a stately pace;
They jealous are of every sight they see;

They strive to seem, but never care to be.

*

*

*

What grudge and grief our joys may then suppress,
To see our hairs, which yellow were as gold,
Now grey as glass; to feel and find them less;

To scrape the bald scull which was wont to hold
Our lovely locks with curling sticks controull'd;
To look in glass, and spy Sir Wrinkle's chair
Set fast on fronts which erst were sleek and fair.
On Beauty-Gascoigne.

CCCXCVII.

Virtue, like fire, turns all things into itself: our actions and our friendships are tinctured with it, and whatever it touches becomes amiable.--Seneca.

CCCXCVIII.

Truth is so important and of so delicate a nature, that every possible precaution should be employed to extenuate its violation, although the sacrifice be made to duties which supersede its obligation.-Percival.

CCCXCIX.

If we consider lavish men carefully, we shall find it always proceeds from a certain incapacity of possessing themselves, and finding enjoyment in their own minds. Mr. Dryden has expressed this very excellency in the character of Zimri:

A man so various that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome.
Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong,
Was every thing by starts, and nothing long!
But in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks, that died in thinking;
Bless'd madman, who could every hour employ
In something new to wish, or to enjoy!
In squand'ring wealth was his peculiar art,
Nothing went unrewarded but desert.

CCCC.

Spectator.

Experience keeps a dear school; but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true. we may give