8.

In extremity, vice is forward to seek the sanctuary of virtue.

9.

In shame, there is no comfort but to be beyond all bounds of shame.

10.

To those persons who have vomitted out of their souls all remnants of goodness, there rests a certain pride in evil; and having else no shadow of glory left them, they glory to be constant in iniquity.

Remark.

The cruelties of the Roman emperors, in ancient history, and the enormities of the French revolutionists, in modern annals, yield abundant examples to authorise this remark.

FALSEHOOD, TREACHERY, AND

SLANDER.

1.

Ir often falleth out but a foolish wittiness, to speak more than one thinks.

Remark.

"Dare to be what you are! is a good maxim; but it will only be put in practice by those who are what they ought to be." Candour is the best teacher of Sincerity; and when she is under its guidance, a man cannot have a safer companion to walk through life with. By adhering to her dictates, he will avoid the embarrassments in which a liberal promiser entangles himself: and his authority can never be quoted, to sanction dishonest surmises; nor any other dangerous levities of the tongue.

2.

Gold can gild a rotten stick, and dirt sully an ingot.

3.

No sword bites so fiercely as an evil tongue.

4.

How violently do rumours blow the sails of popular judgments! How few there be that can discern between truth and truth-likeness between shews and substance!

5.

They who use falsehood to superiors teach falsehood to inferiors.

6.

We must not rashly condemn them whom we have oftentimes considerately approved, lest the change be in our judgments, and not in their merit.

Remark.

A golden precept directs us, that A friend should not be hated for little faults. And to be always thus candid, we are further taught

(both by consciousness and reason), that our judgments and actions, may be suggested by feeling; but they must derive force and stability from reflection. Unhappy are they who have not an established opinion concerning their friends; who have not ascertained by observation, any measure of their virtues and infirmities! There is no affectionate inmate in their bosoms (the vicegerent of indulgent tenderness), to repel malicious aspersions, or to plead in our behalf, if from inadvertency, or the influence of a wayward mood on either side, we vary from our wonted conduct, or act differently from their expectations. These hearts, which suck up friendship like water, and yield it again with the first touch, might as well expect to squeeze a sponge and find it hold its moisture, as to retain affections which they are for ever dashing from them. Love of every kind avoids the selfish man.

7.

Those who have true worth in themselves, can never envy it in others.

Remark.

Self-love leads men of narrow minds to measure all mankind by their own capacity. Either indolence or vice will induce their vo-taries to found an opinion of impossibility upon what appears improbable, and to doubt the existence of extraordinary instances of mental grandeur, because they have no sympathetic reverberations in their own breasts. This mistake may be corrected, by accustoming ourselves to a steady contemplation of the most sublime objects. When we see "what a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!" when we have fully considered the design and end of this beauty of the world, this paragon of animals—our ambition will be awakened; our perceptions rendered more exquisite; and real Greatness no longer appearing chimerical, will call us from common pursuits, to engage in a career,