to be desired, yet suicide is unlawful.-§45. Death the gate SECOND PART. §1. Charity.-§ 2. Charity must spring from a proper motive. The nature of created beings signified in their outward forms. Of chiromancy. Variety of outward forms in nature. §3. The souls of our fellow creatures as much the object of charity as their bodies. The duty of imparting knowledge. Difference of opinion need not divide affection.-84. National want of Charity. Man most ignorant in the knowledge of himself. § 5. Of sympathy.-§ 6. The mystery of true affec- tion.-87. To forgive is the sweetest revenge.-§ 8. Of pride and conceit.-§ 9. Of marriage and harmony. Our Physician hath the general cause of humanity at heart.-§ 10. Our Phy- sician thinketh no man so bad but that there is good in him, and feareth his own corruption more than contagion from others. § 11. Man's life a constant miracle. Of dreams.- § 12. Of sleep.-§13. Justice. Avarice a ridiculous vice. Poor men may be liberal, and even munificent.-§ 14. GOD to be loved for His own sake, and our neighbour for GOD's.- $15. Our Physician concludeth that there is no happiness but §1. Pursue virtue virtuously.-§ 2. A triumph (not ovation) over SECOND PART. §1. Glut not thyself with pleasure; the strength of delight is in judged. § 3. Avoid dogmatism; let well-weighed considera- tions guide. -§4. Natural parts and good judgements rule the world.--§ 5. Swell not the leaves of learning by fruitless repe- titions.-§6. Despair not of better things whereof there is yet no prospect.-87. Speckled face of honesty in the world.- §8. Weigh not thyself in the scales of thy own opinion. Self-conceit a fallacy of high content.-§9. Physiognomy. § I. No one age exemplary: the world early bad.-§ 2. He honours GOD who imitates Him.-§ 3. Embrace not the blind side of opinions.--§ 4. To be virtuous by epitome, be firm to the principles of goodness.-§ 5. Guide not the hand of GOD. Repine not at the good of others.-§ 6. Grain not vicious stains, which virtuous washes might expunge.-§ 7. Burden not the stars with thy faults. Fatalism.-§ 8. Let every divi- sion of life be happy in its proper virtues.-§ 9. Be able to be alone.-§ 10. The whole world a phylactery: wisdom of GOD in everything we see.-§ 11. Think not to find heaven on earth; true beatitude groweth not here.-§ 12. Revenge, feminine manhood. If no mercy for others, be not cruel to thyself. § 13. Study prophecies when they are become his- tories.—§ 14. Live unto the dignity of thy nature.—§ 15. The vices we scoff at in others laugh at us within ourselves.- § 16. Forget not the wheel of things, but beat not thy brains to foreknow them.-§ 17. Ingratitude, degenerous vice!- § 18. Virtue of taciturnity.-§ 19. Oaths. Honest men's words Stygian oaths.-§ 20. Personate only thyself. Let veracity be thy virtue in words, manners, and actions.- § 21. Labour in the ethicks of faith; not in old high-strained paradoxes.--§ 22. In seventy or eighty years one may have a curt epitome of the whole course of time.-§ 23. Elysium of a living. § 24. Inequalities of this world will be righted in the PREFACE. It seems advisable first to give some account of each of the works contained in this volume, and next to explain what has been attempted in this edition. A.-1. The history of the Religio Medici is not a little curious. It was written about 1635,' while the Author was living at Shipden Hall, near Halifax, after his return from his travels on the Continent, and before he finally settled at Norwich. He tells us that it was not intended for publication, but was "composed at leisurable hours for his private exercise and satisfaction;" and that after the MS. had been lent to his friends, and "by transcription successively corrupted," it was printed without his knowledge or consent, and without his name attached to it, in 1642 (p. 4). There seems to be no reason to doubt the truth of this statement, though Johnson is evidently inclined I See Notes on p. 66, l. 4: 115, 22. |