Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and therefore it is the poets that preserve the languages.-Life. April 11, 1776. Travel All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own; and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.-Journey to the Western Islands, p. 121. Travel There are two objects of curiosity-the Christian world and the Mahomedan world. All the rest may be considered as barbarous.—Life. April 10, 1783. The use of travelling is to regulate imaginaUse of Travel tion to reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.-Letter to Mrs. Thrale, No. 79. Travellers The greater part of travellers tell nothing, because their method of travelling supplies them with nothing to be told.-Idler, No. 97. Modern Travellers The information which we have from modern travellers is much more authentic than what we had from ancient travellers; ancient travellers guessed, modern travellers measure. May 17, 1778. Life. Publications of Most modern travellers in Europe who Modern Travellers have published their travels have been laughed at.-Life. April 17, 1778. Travelling How little does travelling supply to the conversation of any man who has travelled.Life. May 12, 1778. The grand object of travelling is to see the Travelling shores of the Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great Empires of the world-the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come to us from the shores of the Mediterranean.-Life. April 11, 1776. Travelling No man should travel unprovided with instruments for taking heights and distances.~ Journey to the Western Islands, p. 128. Treatment Reciprocity of He who retires from the world, will find himself, in reality, deserted as fast, if not faster, by the world.-Lives of the Poets. Young. He that calculates the growth of trees has Trees the unwelcome remembrance of the shortness of life driven hard upon him. He knows that he is doing what will never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to see the stem rise, is disposed to repine that another shall cut it down.-Journey to the Western Islands, p. 122. Value of Trial That fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptations, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.-Rambler, No. 150. Truth Knowing with how much difficulty truth is sometimes found, I do not wonder that. many miss it.-Anecdotes of Johnson by Dr. Parr. Truth A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish should be told.-Life. Accustom your children constantly to this; Truth if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end. . . It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.— Life. March 31, 1778. Truth Truth finds an easy entrance into the mind when she is introduced by desire, and attended by pleasure.-Rambler, No. 165. Truth Authority of To the position of Tully, that if Virtue could be seen she must be loved, may be added, that if Truth could be heard, she must be obeyed. -Rambler, No. 87. Truth can bear 1 21 It is painful to be forced to defend it. Consider, how should you like, though conscious of your innocence, to be tried before a jury for a capital crime once a week?-Life. Truth Estab lished by The only method by which religious truth 1 Martyrdom can be established is by martyrdom. The magistrate has a right to enforce what he thinks; and he who is conscious of the truth has a right to suffer. There is no other way of obtaining the truth but by persecution on the one hand, and enduring it on the other.-Life. Physical and Physical truth is, when you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral truth is when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as it appears to you.Life, p. 426. Truth a The Teacher of He that communicates truth with success, Benefactor must be numbered among the first benefactors to mankind. Adventurer, No. 95. There are many truths which every human being acknowledges and forgets. Idler, No.2,1 Exp Jɛ dorsi SMI The general remedy of those who are un Uneasiness easy without knowing the cause, is change of place. .-Rambler, No. 6, ne poq nutr > ז'ך That man is never happy for the present Unhappiness is so true that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while.-Life. April 29, 1776. Want of Union I The more numerous men are the more difficult it is for them to agree in anything, and so they are governed.-Life. October 26, 1769. 1.. Unrest Busy men seldom live long in a state of quiet.-Lives of the Poets. Prior. The Joy of Unsuspiciousness It is happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.-Rambler. Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain. Social Urbanity Good humour pleases principally by not offending.-Rambler, No. 72. The law against usury is for the protection Usury of creditors as well as debtors; for if there were no such check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great interest, to lend to desperate persons by whom they would lose their money.-Life. April 7, 1776. The great differences that disturb the peace Utilitarianism of mankind, are not about ends, but means. -Idler, No. 36. Mental It is certain that any wild wish or vain Vacancy imagination never takes such firm possession of the mind as when it is found empty and unoccupied.Rambler, No. 85. of Pleasures He that has once prevailed on himself to Vagabondism break his connections of acquaintance, and begin a wandering life, very easily continues it.-Lives of the Poets. Browne. Value Value is more frequently raised by scarcity than by use. Idler, No. 103. |