T

And with a Care, exempt themselves from fear :
Things, done without Example, in their issue
Are to be fear'd.

Celestial Objects. Cicero.

PERCEIVE you contemplate the seat and habitation of men; which, if it appears as little to you as it really is, fix your eyes perpetually upon heavenly Objects, and despise earthly.

Censure.

E ought in humanity no more to despise a man for

body, when they are such as he cannot help.

Censure. La Rochefoucauld.

FEW. persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer Censure

which is useful to them, to Praise which deceives

HORACE appears in good humour while he censures and therefore his Censure has the more weight, as supposed to proceed from Judgment, not from Passion. Ceremony. Shakespeare.

CEREMONY

Was but devis'd at first to set a gloss

On faint deeds, hollow welcomes,

But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Ceremony. - Hare.

FORMS and Regularity of Proceeding, if they are not

justice, partake much of the nature of justice, which, in its highest sense, is the spirit of distributive Order.

YEREMONY keeps up things; 'tis like a penny glass

the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.

Ceremony. — Steele.

As at a distance, so Good-breeding is an expedient to

S Ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools

make fools and wise men equals.

ΑΙ

LL Ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet a man of the world should know them. They are the outworks of manners and decency, which would be too often broken in upon, if it were not for that defence, which keeps the enemy at a proper distance. is for that reason that I always treat fools and coxcombs with great Ceremony; true Good-breeding not being a sufficient barrier against them.

HARD condition, and twin-born with greatness,
Subject to breath of ev'ry fool, whose sense

No more can feel but his own wringing.
What infinite heart-ease must Kings neglect,
That private Men enjoy? and what have Kings,
That Privates have not too, save Ceremony?
Save gen'ral Ceremony ?-

And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony?

What kind of God art thou? that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers.
What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?
O Ceremony, show me but thy worth;

What is thy toll, O Adoration?

Art thou ought else but Place, Degree and Form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?

Wherein thou art less happy, being fear'd,

Than they in fearing.

What drink'st thou oft, instead of Homage sweet,
But poison'd Flatt'ry? O be sick, great Greatness,
And bid thy Ceremony give thee cure.

Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out
With Titles blown from Adulation ?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee, Command the health of it? no, thou proud dream, That play'st so subtly with a King's repose.

THE

Chance. La Rochefoucauld.

It

HE generality of men have, like plants, latent properties, which Chance brings to light.

HOW often events, by Chance, and unexpectedly come which you had not dared even to hope for!

to pass,

SUCH

UCH are the Vicissitudes of the World, through all its parts, that day and night, labour and rest, hurry and retirement, endear each other: such are the Changes that keep the mind in action: we desire, we pursue, we obtain, we are satiated; we desire something else, and begin a new pursuit.

Shakespeare.

LET Order die,

And let this World no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And Darkness be the burier of the Dead!

HIS real Habitude gave life and grat,

To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case:
All aids themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions, yet their purpos'd trim
Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.
So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kinds of arguments and question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will;
That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted.

THE

best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value

others that deserve it.

WHE

Character. Chesterfield.

HEN upon a trial a Man calls witnesses to his Character, and those witnesses only say, that they never heard, nor do not know anything ill of him, it intimates at best a neutral and insignificant Character.

ORDINARY people regard a man of a certain force and

inflexibility of Character as they do a lion. They look at him with a sort of wonder-perhaps they admire hiin; but they will on no account house with him. The lap-dog, who wags his tail and licks the hand, and cringes at the nod of every stranger, is a much more acceptable companion to them.

WERE

Character. Melmoth.

ERE I to make trial of any person's qualifications for an union of so much delicacy, there is no part of his conduct I would sooner single out, than to observe him in his resentments. And this not upon the maxim frequently advanced, "that the best friends make the bitterest enemies;" but on the contrary, because I am persuaded that he who is capable of being a bitter enemy, can never possess the necessary virtues that constitute a true friend.

He sits 'mongst men, like a descended God;
He hath a kind of honour sets him off,

More than a mortal seeming.

THOU art full of love and honesty,

And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them breath,Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:

For such things, in a false, disloyal knave,

Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's just,
They are close denotements working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.

Character. Shakespeare.

I WILL no more trust him when he leers, than I will a

serpent, when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound: but when he performs, astronomers foretell it: it is prodigious, there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, when he keeps his word.

THERE

are peculiar ways in men, which discover what they are, through the most subtle feints and closest disguises.

A

ПHERE are a sort of men, whose visages
cream and mantle like a standing pond;

And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit ;
As who should say, "I am Sir Oracle,
And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!"
I do know of these,

That therefore only are reputed wise,

For saying nothing; who, I am very sure,

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools. Character. Lavater.

CTIONS, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell Characters.

Character. Shakespeare.

NATURE hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:

Some, that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper;

And other of such vinegar aspéct,

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Character. Shakespeare.

O, HE's as tedious

As is a tir'd horse, a railing wife;

Worse than a smoky house:-I had rather live
With cheese and garlic, in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me,
In any summer-house in Christendom.

Character. Lavater.

You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose

intimate friends are all good.

Character. Shakespeare.

R immortal

EPUTATION, reputation, reputation! O, I have

of myself; and what remains is bestial.

Character.

Rout deserving.

EPUTATION ;-oft got without merit, and lost with