Page images
PDF
EPUB

that instance, your inferior: hence the observation,
and the real fact, that people of clear heads, are
what the world calls opinionated.
54. There
are none can baffle men of sense, but fools, on whom
they can make no impression.
55. The re-
gard one shews to œconomy, is like that we shew to
an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.
Our behaviour on this account is as much constrain-
ed as that

if of one well studied in a sad ostent
to please his granam."-Shakes.

56. Fashion is a great restraint on your persons of
taste and fancy; who would otherwise, in the most
trifling instances, be able to distinguish themselves
from the vulgar.
57. A writer who pretends
to polish the human understanding, may beg by the
side of Rutter's chariot, who sells a powder for the
teeth. 58. The difference there is betwixt hon-
our and honesty, seems to be chiefly in the motive.
The merely honest man does that from duty, which
the man of honour does for the sake of character.
59. The proverb ought to run, "A fool and his
words are soon parted; a man of genius and his
money."
60. A man of wit, genius, learning,
is apt to think it something hard, that men of no wit,
no genius, no learning, should have a greater share
of wealth and honours; not considering that their
own accomplishment ought to be reckoned to them
as their equivalent. It is no reason that a person
worth five thousand pounds, should on that account
have a claim to twenty.
61. A wife ought in
reality to love her husband above all the world; but
this preference, Ithink, should, in point of politeness,
be concealed. The reason is, that it is disgusting to

........

see an amiable woman monopolized; and it is easy, by proper management, to wave (all I contend for) the appearance.

62. There are some wounds

63.

given to reputation that are like the wounds of an envenomed arrow; where we irritate and enlarge the orifice while we extract the bearded weapon; yet cannot the cure be completed otherwise. Amongst all the vain-glorious professors of humility, you find none that will not discover how much they envy a shining character: and this either by censuring it themselves, or shewing a satisfaction in such as do. Now there is this advantage, at least, arising from ambition, that it disposes one to disregard a thousand instances of middling grandeur; and reduces one's emulation to the narrow circle of a few that blaze. It is hence a convenient disposition in a country place, where one is encompassed with such as are merely richer, keep fine horses, a table, footmen; make a decent figure as rural esquires; yet, after all, discover no more than an every-day plebeian character. These a person of little ambition might envy; but another of a more extensive one may, in any kind of circumstances, disregard.

64. It is with some men as with some horses: what is esteemed spirit in them, proceeds from fe This was undoubtedly the source of that seeming spirit discovered by Tully in regard to his antagonist M. Antony. He knew he must destroy him, or be destroyed himself. 65. The same qualities,

joined with virtue, often furnish out a great man, which, united with a different principle, furnish out a highwayman; I mean courage and strong passions. And they may both join in the same expression, tho' with a meaning somewhat varied—

"Tentanda via est, qua me quoque possum

tollere humo."

i. e. "Be promoted or be hanged."

66. True honour is to honesty, what the court of Chancery is to common law. 67. Misers, as death approaches, are heaping up a chest of reasons to stand in more awe of him. 68. A man sooner finds out his own foibles in a stranger, than any other foibles. 69. It is favourable enough on the side of learning, that if an historian mention a good author, it does not seem absurd to style him a great man: whereas the same phrase would not be allowed to a mere illiterate nobleman. 70. It is less wonderful to see a wretched man commence a hero, than a happy one. 71. A high-spirit has often very different and even contrary effects. It sometimes operates no otherwise than like the "vis inertiæ;" at others it induces men to bustle and make their part good among their superiors. As Mr. Pope

says,

"Some plunge in business, others shave their crowns."

t is by no means less forcible, when it withdraws a man from the company of those with whom he cannot converse on equal terms; it leads him into solitude, that, if he cannot appear their equal, he may, at least, conceal his inferiority. It is sullen, obstinate, disdainful, haughty, in no less a degree than the other; but is, perhaps, more genteel, and less citizen-like. Sometimes the other succeeds, and then it is esteemed preferable; but in case it fail, it not only exposes a person's meanness, but his impatience under it; both of which the reserved spirit is able to disguise-but then it stands no chance of removing, "Pudor malus ulcera celat."

72. Every single instance of a

friend's insincerity encreases our dependence on the efficacy of money.

It makes one covet what

produces an external respect, when one is disappointed of that which is internal and sincere. This, perhaps, with decaying passions, contributes to render age covetous. 73. When physicians write of diseases, the prognostics and the diagnostics, the symptoms and the paroxysms, they give one fatal apprehensions for every ache about us. When they come to treat of medicines and applications, you seem to have no other difficulty but to decide by which means you would recover. In short, to give the preference between a linctus and an apozem. 74. One should no more trust to the skill of most apothecaries, than one would ask the opinion of their pestle and mortar; yet both are useful in their way. 75. I believe there was never so reserved a solitary, but felt some degree of pleasure at the first glimpse of a human figure. The soul, however, unconscious of it's social bias in a crowd, will, in solitude, feel some attraction towards the first person that we meet. 76. In courts, the motion of the body is easy, and those of the soul constrained: in the country, the gestures of the body are constrained, and those of the soul supine and careless. 77. One may easily enough guard against ambition till five and twenty. -It is not ambition's day. 78. It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest; as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave. 79. Perhaps, rustics, boors, and esquires, make a principal figure in the country, as inanimates are always allowed to be the chief figures in a landscape. 80. Titles make a greater distinction than is almost tolerable to

མརཡར༞ཆོས

81.

a British spirit. They almost vary the species; yet as they are oftentimes conferred, seem not so much the reward, as the substitutes of merit. What numbers live to the age of fifty or sixty years, yet, if estimated by their merit, are not worth the price of a chick the moment it is hatched.

82. A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood. 83. Fools are very often found united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together. 84. Persons of great delicacy should know the certainty of the following truth. There are abundance of cases which occasion suspense, in which, whatever they determine, they will repent of their determination; and this through a propensity of human nature to fancy happiness in those schemes, which it does not pursue. 85. High-spirit in a man, is like a sword; which, tho' worn to annoy his enemies, yet is often troublesome in a less degree to his friend. He can hardly wear it so inoffensively, but it is apt to incommode one or other of the company. It is more properly a loaded pistol, which accident alone may fire, and kill one. 86. A miser, if honest, can be only honest bare weight. Avarice is the most opposite of all characters to that of God Almighty; whose alone it is, to give and not receive. A miser grows rich by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich. A grasshopper is, perhaps, the best device for coat-armour of those who would be thought aborigines; agreeably to the Athenian use of them.

assurance is perfect licentiousness.

Immoderate

When a

person is so far engaged in a dispute as to wish to

« EelmineJätka »