Say not that the event proveth the wifdom of the action: remember man is not above the reach of accidents.

Condemn not the judgment of another, because it differeth from thine own; may not even both be in an error?

When thou fteemeft a man for his titles, and contempeta the ftranger becaufe he w nteth them, judgeft thou not of the camel by its bride?

Think not thou art revenged of thine enemy when thou flayeft him: thou putteft him beyond thy reach, thou giveft him quiet, and thou takeft from nyfelf all means of hurting him.

Was thy mother incontinent, and griev eth it the to be told of it? Is trainty in thy wife, and art thou pained at the reproach of it? He who defpifeth thee for it, condemneth himself. Art thou anfwerable for the vices of another?

Difregard not a jewel, becaufe thou poffeneft it; reither enhance thou the value of a thing, because it is another's: poffeffion to the wife addeth to the price of it.

Honour not thy wife the lefs, because the is in thy power; and defpite him that hath faid, Would thou love her lefs? marry her! What hath put her into thy power, but her confidence in thy virtue ? fhould it thou love her leis for being more obliged to her!

If thou wert juft in thy courtship of her, though thou neglecteft her while thou haft her, yet thall he lofs be bitter to thy fou!.

He who thinketh another bleft, only becaufe he poffcfieth her; if he be not wifer than thee, at least he is mo e happy.

Weigh not the lofs thy friend hath fuffered by the tears he theddeth for it; the greatest griefs are above thete expreflions

of them.

Efteem not an action because it is done with note and pomp; the nobleft foul is that which doth great things, and is not moved in the doing them.

Fame aftonitheth the ear of him who heareth it; but tranquility rejoiceth the heart that is pofleffed of it.

Attribute not the good actions of another to bad caufes: thou canst not know his heart; but the world will know by this, that thine is full of envy.

There is not in hypocrify more vice than folly; to be honest is as eafy as to feem fo.

Be more ready to acknowledge a benefit than to revenge an injury; fo fhalt thou

have more benefits than injuries done unte thee.

Be more ready to love than to hate; fo fhalt thou be loved by more than hate thee. Be willing to commend, and be flow to cenfure; fo fhall praise be upon thy virtues, and the eye of enmity fhall be blind to thy imperfections.

When thou doft good, do it because it is good; not because men efteem it: when thou avoideft evil, fly it because it is evil: not because men speak against it: be honeft for love of honefty, and thou fhalt be uniformly fo; he that doth it without principle, is wavering.

With rather to be reproved by the wife, than to be applauded by him who hath to understanding; when they tell thee of a fault, they fuppofe thou canft improve; the other, when he praifeth thee, thinkeft thou like unto hinfelf.

Accept not an office for which thou art not qualified, left he who knoweth more of it defpife thee.

Inftruct not another in that wherein thyfelf art ignorant; when he seeth it, he will upbraid thee.

Expect not a friendship with him who hath injured thee; he who fuffereth the wrong, may forgive it; but he who doth it, never will be well with him.

Lay not too great obligations on him thou wifheft thy friend; behold! the fente of them will drive him from thee: a little benefit gaineth friendship; a great one maketh an enemy.

Nevertheless, ingratitude is not in the nature of man; neither is his anger inconcileable: he hateth to be put in mind of a debt he cannot pay; he is afhamed in the prefence of him whom he hath injured.

Repine not at the good of a stranger, neither rejoice thou in the evil that befal leth thine enemy: wifheft thou that others should do thus to thee?

Wouldst thou enjoy the good-will of all men, let thine own benevolence be univer fal. If thou obtaineft it not by this, no other means could give it thee: and know, though thou haft it not, thou haft the greater pleasure of having merited it.

§ 278. PRESUMPTION.

Pride and meannefs feem incompatible; but man reconcileth contrarieties: he is at once the most miferable and the most arrogant of all creatures.

Prefumption is the bane of reafon; it is

the

the nurse of error; yet it is congenial with

reaf in us.

Who is there that judgeth not either too higale of simfelt, or thinketh too meanly of others.

Our Creator himself efcapeth not our prefumption: how then thall we be fafe from one another?

What is the origin of fuperftition? and whence ari eth falle worship? from our prefuming to reafon about what is above our rea h, to comprehend what is incomprehensible.

Limited and weak as our understandings are, we employ not even their little forces as we ought. We foar not high enough in our approaches to God's greatness; we give not wing enough to our ideas, when we enter into the adoration of divinity.

Man who fears to breathe a whisper against his earthly fovereign, trembles not to arraign the difpenfations of his God: he forgetteth his majefly, and rejudgeth his judgments.

He who dareth not repeat the name of his prince without honour, yet b ufheth not to call that of his Creator to be witness to aie.

He who would hear the fentence of the magiftrate with filence, yet dareth to plead with the Eternal; he attempteth to footh him with intreaties, to flatter him with promifes, to agree with him upon conditions; nay, to brave and murmur at him it his requeft is not granted.

Why art thou unpunithed, O man! in thy impiety, but that this is not thy day of retribution.

Be not like unto thofe who fight with the thunder; neither dare thou to deny thy Creator thy prayers, be aufe he chaftheth thee. Thy maduels in this is on thine own head; thy implety hurteth no

one but thvfelf.

Why boafteth man that he is the favourite of his Maker, yet negle&teth to pay his thanks and his adorations for it? How fuiteth fuch a life with a belief fo haughty?

Man, who is truly but a mote in the wide expante, believeth the whole earth and heaven to be created for him: he thinketh the whole frame of nature hath interest in his well-being.

As the fool, while the images tremble on the botom of the water, thinketh that trees, towns, and the wide horizon, are dancing to do him pleasure; fo man, while

nature performs her deftined course, believes that all her motions are but to entertain his eye.

While he courts the rays of the fun to warm him, he fuppofeth it made only to be of ule to him; while he traceth the moon in her nightly path, he believeth that fhe was created to do him pleasure.

Fool to thine own pride! be humble! know thou art not the cause why the world holdeth its courfe; for thee are not made the viciffitudes of fummer and winter.

No change would follow if thy whole race exifled not; thou art but one among millions that are bleffed in it.

Exalt not thyfelf to the heavens; for, lo, the angels are above thee; nor difdain thy fellow-inhabitants of the earth, though they are inferior to thee. Are they not the work of the fame hand?

Thou who art happy by the mercy of thy Creator, how darest thou in wantonness put others of his creatures to torture? Beware that cruelty return not upon thee.

Serve they not all the fame univerfal Mafter with thee? Hath he not appointed unto each its laws? Hath he not care of their prefervation? and dareft thou to infringe it?

Set not thy judgment above that of all the earth; neither condemn as falfehood what agreeth not with thine own apprehenfion. Who gave thee the power of determining for others? or who took from the world the right of choice?

How many things have been rejected, which are now received as truths? How many now received as truths, shall in their turn be defpifed? Of what then can man be certain?

Do the good that thou knoweft, and happinefs fhall be unto thee. Virtue is more thy bufine's here than wifdom.

Truth and falfehood, have they not the fame appearance in what we understand not? what then but our prefumption can determine between them?

We eafily believe what is above our comprehenfion: or we are proud to pretend it, that it may appear we understand it. Is not this tolly and arrogance?

Who is it that affirms moft boldly; who is it that holds his opinion moit oblinately? Even he who hath moft ignorance: for he also hath most pride.

Every man, when he layeth hold of an opinion, defireth to remain in it; but molt of all he who hath most prefumption. He contenteth not himself to betray his own

foul;

foul; but he will impofe on others to believe in it also.

Say not that truth is established by years, or that in a multitude of believers there is certainty.

One human propofition hath as much authority as another, if reafon maketh not the difference.

Of the AFFECTIONS of MAN, which are hurtful to himself and others.

$279. COVETOUSNESS.

Riches are not worthy a frong attention; therefore an earneft care of obtaining them is unjustifiable.

The defire of what man calleth good, the joy he taketh in poffeffing it, is grounded only in opinion. Form not thy epinion from the vulgar; examine the worth of things thyfelf, and thou shalt not be covetous.

An immoderate de fire of riches is a poifon lodged in the foul. It contaminates and deftroys every thing that was good in it. It is no fconer rooted there, than all virtue, all honesty, all natural affection, By before the face of it.

The covetous would fell his children for gold; his parent might die ere he would open his coffer; nay, he confidereth not himfelf in respect of it. In the fearch of happiness he maketh himself unhappy.

As the man who felleth his houfe to purchafe ornaments for the embellishment of it, even fo is he who giveth up peace in the fearch of riches, in hope that he may be happy in enjoying them.

Where covetoufnefs reigneth, know that the foul is poor. Whofo accounteth riches the principal good of man, will throw away all other goods in the pursuit of

them.

Whoo feareth poverty as the greatest evil of his nature, will purchase to himself all other evils in the avoiding of it.

Thou fool, is not virtue more worth than riches is not guilt more bafe than poverty? Enough for his neceflities is in the power of every man; be content with it, and thy happinefs fhall fmile at the forrows of him who heapeth up more.

Nature hath lid gold beneath the earth, as if unworthy to be feen; filver bath the pliced where thou trampleft it under thy feet. Meaneth fhe not by this to inform thee, that gold is not worthy thy regard, that filver is beneath thy notice?

Covetournels burieth under the ground

millions of wretches; thefe dig for their hard mafters what returneth the injury; what maketh them more miferable than their flaves.

The earth is barren of good things where the hoardeth up treafure: where gold is in her bowels, there no herb groweth.

As the horse findeth not there his grafs, nor the mule his provender; as the fields of corn laugh not on the fides of the hills; as the olive holdeth not forth there her fruits, nor the vine her cluflers; even fo no good dwelleth in the breaft of him whofe heart broodeth over his treasure.

Riches are fervants to the wife; but they are tyrants over the foul of the fool.

The covetous ferveth his gold; it ferv eth not him. He poffeffeth his wealth as the fick doth a fever; it burneth and tortureth him, and will not quit him until death.

Hath not gold deftroyed the virtue of millions? Did it ever add to the goodness of any?

Is it not moft abundant with the work of men? wherefore then shouldst thou deire to be diflinguifhed by poffeffing it?

Have not the wifeft been those who have had leaft of it? and is not wisdom happiness!

Have not the worst of thy fpecies pof feffed the greatest portions of it? and hath not their end been miferable?

Poverty wanteth many things; but covetoufnefs denicth itself all.

The covetous can be good to no man; but he is to none fo cruel as to himself.

If thou art industrious to procure gold, be generous in the difpofal of it. Man never is fo happy as when he giveth happinefs to another.

$280. PROFUSION.

If there be a vice greater than the hoarding up of riches, it is the employing them to ufeless purposes.

He that prodigally lavisheth that which he hath to ipare, robbeth the poor of what nature giveth them a right unto.

He who fquandereth away his treafure, refufeth the means to do good: he denieth himself the practice of virtues whofe reward is in their hand, whofe end is no other than his own happiness.

It is more difficult to be well with riches, than to be at eale under the want of them. Man governeth himself much easier in poverty than in abundance.

Poverty requireth but one virtue, p3tience, to fupport it; the rich, if he have

not charity, temperance, prudence, and many more, is guilty.

The poor hath only the good of his own flate committed unto him; the rich is intrusted with the welfare of thousands.

He that giveth away his treasure wifely, giveth away his plagues: he that retaineth their increafe, heapeth up forrows.

Refufe not unto the tranger that which he wanteth; deny not unto thy brother even that which thou wantell thyfelf.

Know there is more delight in being without what thou hall given, than in poffeing millions which thou knoweft not the

ule of.

$281. REVENGE,

The root of revenge is in the weaknefs of the foul: the most abject and timorous are the most addicted to it.

Wao torture thofe they hate, but cow. ards? who murder those they rob but wo

men?

The feeling an injury, must be previous to the reve nging it; but the noble mind dfdaineth to day, It hurts me.

If the injury is not below thy notice, he that doth it unto thee, in that, maketh binfelf fo: would it thou enter the lifts with Laine inferior?

Dildain the man who attempteth to wrong thee; contemn him who would give thee disquiet.

In this thou not only preferveft thine own peace, but thon inflictest all the puBithment of revenge, without flopping to employ it against him.

As the tempeft and the thunder affect not the fun or the ftars, but spend their fury on ftones and trees below; fo injuries afcend not to the fouls of the great, but wafte themselves on fuch as are those who offer them.

Poornefs of fpirit will actuate revenge; greatnefs of foul defpifeth the offence: nay, it doth good unto him who intended to have disturbed it.

Why feekeft thou vengeance, O man! with what purpofe is it that thou purlueft it? Thinkelt thou to pain thine adverfary by it? Know that thy felf feelett its greatest

ought he to add force to the affliction which another has calt upon him?

The man who meditat th revenge is not content with the mitchief he hath received; he addeth to his anguish the punishment due unto another: while he whom he feeketh to hurt, goeth his way laughing; he maketh himself merry at this addition to his mifery.

Revenge is painful in the intent, and it is dangerous in the execution: feldom doth the axe fall where he who lifted it up intended; and lo, he remembereth not that it muft recoil against him.

While the revengeful feeketh his enemy's hurt, he oftentimes procureth his own deftruction: while he aimeth at one of the eyes of his adverfary, lo, he putteth out both his own.

if he attain not his end, he lamenteth it; if he fucceed, he repenteth of it: the fear of justice taketh away the peace of his own foul; the care to hide him from it, deftroyeth that of his friend.

Can the death of thine adverfary fatiate thy hatred? can the fetting him at reft reftore thy peace?

Wouldst thou make him forry for his offence, conquer him and fpare him: in death he owneth not thy fuperiority; nor feeleth he more the power of thy wrath.

In revenge there fhould be a triumph of the avenger; and he who hath injured him, fhould feel his difpleafure; he should fuffer pain from it, and should repent him of the caule.

This is the revenge infpired from anger; but that which makes thee great is contempt.

Murder for an injury arifeth only from cowardice: he who inflicteth it, feareth that the enemy may live and avenge himself.

Death endeth the quarrel; but it reftoreth not the reputation: killing is an act of caution, not of courage; it may be fafe, but it is not honourable.

There is nothing fo eafy as to revenge an offence; but nothing is fo honourable as to pardon it.

The greatest victory man can obtain, is over himielf; he that difdaineth to feel an injury, retortethit upon him who offereth it.

When thou meditateft revenge, thou confeffeft that thou feeleft the wrong: when thou complaineft, thou acknowledg eft thyself hurt by it; meanest thou to add this triumph to the pride of thine enemy?

That cannot be an injury which is not

felt;

felt; how then can he who defpifeth it revenge it?

If thou think it dishonourable to bear an offence, more is in thy power; thou mayett conquer it.

Good offices will make a man afhamed to be thine enemy: greatnefs of foul will terrify him from the thought of hurting thee.

The greater the wrong, the more glory there is in pardoning it; and by how much more justifiable would be revenge, by to much the more honour is in cle

mency.

Haft thou a right to be a judge in thine own caufe; to be a party in the act, and yet to pronounce fentence on it? Before thou condemneft, let another fay it is just.

The revengeful is feared, and therefore he is hated; but he that is endued with clemency, is adored: the praise of his actions remaineth for ever; and the love of the world attendeth him.

§ 282. CRUELTY, HATRED, and ENVY. Revenge is deteftable: what then is cruelty? Lo, it poleffeth the mifchiefs of the other; but it wauteth even the pretence of its provocations.

Men difown it as not of their nature; they are ashamed of it as a stranger to their hearts: do they not call it inhumanity?

Whence then is her origin? unto what that is human oweth the her exiftence? Her father is Fear; and behold Dismay, is it not her mother?

The hero lifteth his fword against the enemy that refifteth; but no fooner doth he fubmit, than he is fatisfied.

It is not in honour to trample on the object that feareth; it is not in virtue to inult what is beneath it: fubdue the infolent, and fpare the humble; and thou art at the height of victory.

He who wanteth virtue to arrive at this end, he who hath not courage to afcend thus into it; lo, he fupplieth the place of conqueft by murder, of fovereignty by flaughter.

He who feareth all striketh at all: why are tyrants cruel, but becaufe they live in terror?

Civil wars are the most bloody, because those who fight in them are cowards: confpirators are murderers, because in death there is filence. Is it not fear that telleth them they may be betrayed?

The car will tear the carcals, though he

dared not look it in the face while living: the hound that hunteth it to the death, mangleth it not afterwards.

That thou mayeft not be cruel, fet thyfelt too high for hatred; that thou mayeft not be inhuman, place thyself above the reach of envy.

Every man may be viewed in two lights; in one he will be troublefome, in the other lefs offenfive: chufe to fee him in that in which he leaft hurteth thee; then fhalt thou not do hurt unto him.

What is there that a man may not turn unto his good? In that which offendeth us moft, there is more ground for complaint than hatred. Man would be reconciled to him of whom he complaineth: whom merdereth he, but him whom he hateth?

If thou art prevented of a benefit, fy not into rage: the loss of thy reafon is the want of a greater.

Becaufe thou art robbed of thy cloak, wouldft thou ftrip thyself of thy coat alo?

When thou enviest the man who polfefleth honours; when his titles and his greatnefs raife thy indignation; feek to know whence they came unto him; quire by what means he was poffeffed of them, and thine envy will be turned into pity.

If the fame fortune were offered unto thee at the fame price, be affured, if thou wert wife, thou wouldst refuse it.

What is the pay for titles, but flattery? how doth man purchafe power, but by being a flave to him who giveth it?

Wouldst thou lofe thine own liberty, to be able to take away that of another? or canft thou envy him who doth fo?

Man purchaseth nothing of his fuperio but for a price; and that price is it not more than the value? Would it thou per vert the cuftoms of the world? would thou have the purchase and the price allo!

As thou can't not envy what thou woul not accept, difdain this caufe of hatred; and drive from thy foul this occafion of t parent of cruelty.

If thou poffefieft honour, canft thou envy that which is obtained at the expence of it: If thou knoweft the value of virtue, piti i thou not those who have bartered it lo meanly?

When thou haft taught thyfelf to bear the feeming good of men without repining, thou wilt hear of their real happiness with pleasure.

If thou feeft good things fall to one who deferveth them, thou wilt rejoice in it: tar