laugh, on the side of merit. No small compliment to mankind!-Shenstone.

CCXLIX.

The weather is not a safe topic of discourse; your company may be hippish: nor is health; your associate may be a malade imaginaire: nor is money; you may be suspected as a borrower.-Zimmerman.

CCL.

* Drunkenness is a social festive vice. The drinker collects his circle; the circle naturally spreads; of those who are drawn within it, many become the corrupters and centres of sets and circles of their own; every one countenancing, and perhaps emulating the rest, till a whole neighbourhood be infected from the contagion of a single example.-Paley.

CCLI.

There is nothing of which men are so fond of, and withal so careless, as life.-Bruyere.

CCLII.

To relate all the ill that is true of the best man in the world, would probably render him the object of suspicion and distrust; and if this practice were universal, mutual confidence and esteem, the comforts of society, and the endearments of friendship, would be at an end.-Adventurer.

CCLIII.

Egotism is the coquetry of a modern author; whose epistles, dedicatory prefaces, and addresses to the reader, are so many affected graces, designed to draw the attention from the subject, towards himself, and make it be generally observed not so much what he says, as what he appears, or is, and what figure he already makes, or hopes to make, in the fashionable world. Shaftes bury.

CCLIV.

A man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly envious; for to know much of other men's matters cannot

be, because all that ado may concern his own estate; therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of playpleasure in looking upon the fortunes of others; neither can he that mindeth but his own business find much matter for envy; for envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep at home: "Non est curiosus idem sit malevolus."-Lord Bacon.

CCLV.

An assembly of the states, a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave, as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancour agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth, or distinctions. Chance presides over the circle, and supremely decides on all occasions; they all watch its motions by a profound silence, which they can never observe elsewhere: all the passions seem suspended awhile, to give place to one at this tempestuous season; the courtier is neither gay, complaisant, nor even devout.-Bruyere.

CCLVI.

To know by rote, is no knowledge, and signifies no more than to retain what one has intrusted to his memory. That which a man rightly knows and understands, he is the free disposer of at his own full liberty, without any regard to the author from whence he had it, or fumbling over the leaves of his book. Mere bookish learning is both troublesome and ungrateful.-Montaigne,

CCLVII.

We should not esteem a man a coxcomb for his dress, till, by frequent conversation, we discovered a flaw in his title. If he was incapable of uttering a bon mot, the gold upon his coat would seem foreign to his circumstances. A man should not wear a French dress, till he could give an account of the best French authors; and should be versed in all the oriental languages, before he should presume to wear a diamond.-Shenstone.

CCLVIII.

Not to detract from the just praise which belongs to orators, they ought to consider that nature, which gave us two eyes to see, and two ears to hear, has given us but one tongue to speak; wherein, however, some do so abound, that the virtuosi, who have been so long in search for the perpetual motion, may infallibly find it there.-Swift.

CCLIX.

Gaiety is to good-humour as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance. The one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair. Good-humour boasts no faculties, which every one does not believe in his own power, and pleases principally by not offending.-Johnson.

CCLX.

Such is the encouragement given to flattery in the present times, that it is made to sit in the parlour, while honesty is turned out of doors. Flattery is never so agreeable as to our blind side: commend a fool for his wit, or a knave for his honesty, and they will receive you into their bosom.-Fielding.

CCLXI.

All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.-Lavater.

CCLXII.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.-Lord Bacon.

CCLXIII.

The true art of being agreeable, is to appear well

pleased with all the company, and rather to seem well entertained with them, than to bring entertainment to them. A man thus disposed, perhaps, may have not much learning, nor any wit; but if he has common sense and something friendly in his behaviour, it conciliates men's minds more than the brightest parts without this disposition; and when a man of such a turn comes to old age, he is almost sure to be treated with respect. It is true indeed that we should not dissemble and flatter in company; but a man may be very agreeable, strictly consistent with truth and sincerity, by a prudent silence, where he cannot concur, and a pleasing assent where he can. Now and then you meet with a person so exactly formed to please, that he will gain upon every one that hears or beholds him; this disposition is not merely the gift of nature, but frequently the effect of much knowledge of the world, and a command over the passions.Spectator.

CCLXIV.

A tale of scandal is as fatal to the credit of a prudent lady, as a fever is generally to those of the strongest constitutions. But there is a sort of puny sickly reputation, that is always ailing, yet will wither the robuster characters of a hundred prudes.-Sheridan.

CCLXV.

Great turns are not always given by strong hands, but by lucky adaptation, and at proper seasons; and it is of no import where the fire was kindled, if the vapour has once got up into the brain.-Swift.

CCLXVI.

The solving of riddles is an art which I would recommend to the encouragement of both the universities, as it affords the easiest and shortest method of conveying some of the most useful principles of logic, and might therefore be introduced as a very proper substitute in the room of those dry systems which are at present in vogue. in those places of education.-Fitzosborne's Letters.

CCLXVII.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harm's, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so we find profit,

By losing of our prayers.

CCLXVIII.

Shakspeare.

In Westminster Hall, you may outlaw a man for forty shillings, which is their excommunication; and you can do no more for forty thousand pounds.-Selden.

CCLXIX.

It is not poetry, that makes men poor;
For few do write, that were not so before;

And those that have writ best, had they been rich,
Had ne'er been seized with a poetic itch;

Had lov'd their ease too well, to take the pains
To undergo that drudgery of brains;
But being for all other trades unfit,
Only t'avoid being idle, set up wit.

CCLXX.

Butler.

No condition passes for servitude that is accompanied with great riches, with honours, and with the service of many inferiors. This is but a deception of the sight through a false medium; for if a groom serve a gentleman in his chamber, that gentleman a lord, and that lord a prince; the groom, the gentleman, and the lord, are as much servants one as the other; the circumstantial difference of the one's getting only his bread and wages, the second a plentiful, and the third a superfluous estate, is no more intrinsical to this matter, than the difference between a plain, a rich, and gaudy livery. I do not say, that he who sells his whole time and his own will for one hundred thousand, is not a wiser merchant than he who does it for one hundred pounds; but I will swear they are both merchants, and that he is happier than both, who can live contentedly without selling that estate to which he was born.-Cowley.