No man was ever caft down with the injuries of fortune, unless he had before fuffered himself to be deceived by her fa vours. Anger may glance into the breaft of a wife man, but refts only in the bofom of fools. None more impatiently fuffer injuries, than thofe that are moit forward in doing them. By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in pafiing it over he is fuperior. To err is human; to forgive, divine. A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kinduefs fhould begin on curs. The prodigal robs his heir, the mifer robs himself. We fhould take a prudent care for the future, but fo as to enjoy the prefent. It is no part of wisdom, to be miferable today, because we may happen to be fo to morrow. To mourn without meafure, is folly; not to mourn at all, infenfibility. Some would be thought to do great things, who are but tools and inftruments; like the fool who fancied he played upon the organ, when he only blew the bellows, Though a man may become learned by another's learning, he can never be wife but by his own wisdom. He who wants good fenfe is unhappy in having learning; for he has thereby more ways of expofing himfelf. It is ungenerous to give a man occafion to blush at his own ignorance in one thing, who perhaps may excel us in many. No object is more pleafing to the eye, than the fight of a man whom you have obliged; nor any music fo agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefactor. The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is, that by hearing what we are not, we may be inftructed what we ought to be. The character of the perfon who commends you, is to be confitered before you fet a value on his etleem. The wife man applauds him whom he thinks molt virtuous; the reit of the world, him who is mot wealthy. The temperate man's pleafures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is calm and ferene, because it is innocent. A good man will love himself too well to lofe, and all his neighbours too well to win, an eftate by gaming. The love of gaming will corrupt the bet principles in the world. An angry man who fuppreffes his paffions, thinks worse than he speaks; and an angry man that will chide, fpeaks worfe than he thinks. A good word is an eafy obligation; but not to ipeak ill, requires only our filence, which cofts us nothing. It is to affectation the world owes its whole race of coxcombs. Nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a part; fhe has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making. It is the infirmity of little minds, to be taken with every appearance, and dazzled with every thing that fparkles; but great minds have but little admiration, because few things appear new to them. It happens to men of learning, as to ears of corn: they fhoot up, and raife their heads high, while they are em ty: but when full and fwelled with grain, they begin to flag and droop. He that is truly polite, knows how to contradict with refpect, and to please without adulation; and is equally remote from an infipid complaifance, and a low fami liarity. The failings of good men are commonly more published in the world than their good deeds; and one fault of a deferving man fhall meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues praife: fuch is the force of illwill and ill-nature. It is harder to avoid cenfure, than to gain applaufe; for this may be done by one great or wife action in an age; but to escape cenfure, a man muft pafs his whole life without faying or doing one ill or foolish thing. When Darius offered Alexander ten thoufand talents to divide Afia equally with him, he answered, The earth cannot bear two funs, nor Afia two kings.-Parmenio, a friend of Alexander's, hearing the great offers Darius had made, faid, were I Alexander I would accept them. So would I, replied Alexander, were I Parmenio. Nobility is to be confidered only as an imaginary diftinction, unless accompanied with the practice of thofe generous virtues by which it ought to be obtained. Titles of of honour conferred upon fuch as have no perfonal merit, are at beft but the royal flamp fet upon base metal. Though an honourable title may be conveyed to pofterity, yet the ennobling qualities which are the foul of greatnefs are a fort of incommunicable perfections, and cannot be transferred. If a man could bequeath his virtues by will, and fettle his fenfe and learning upon his heirs, as certainly as he can his lands, a noble defcent would then indeed be a valuable privilege. Truth is always confitent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware: whereas a lye is troublefome, and fets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good. The pleafure which affects the human mind with the most lively and tranfporting touches, is the fenfe that we act in the eye of infinite wifdom, power, and goodness, that will crown our virtuous endeavours here with a happiness hereafter, large as our defires, and lafting as our immortal fouls: without this the higheft ftate of life is infipid, and with it the lowest is a paradife. Honourable age is not that which ftandeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years; but wifdom is the grey hair unto man, and unfpotted life is old age. Wickedness, condemned by her own witnefs, is very timorous, and being prefied with confcience, always forecafleth evil things; for fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon of fereth. A wife man will fear in every thing. He that contemneth fmall things, fhall fall by little and little. A rich man beginning to fall, is held up of his friends; but a poor man being down, is thruft away by his friends: when a rich man is fallen, he hath many helpers; he fpeaketh things not to be spoken, and yet men justify him: the poor man flipt, and they rebuked him; he fpoke wifely, and could have no place. When a rich man fpeaketh, every man holdeth his tongue, and, look, what he faith they extol it to the clouds; but if a poor man fpeaks, they fay, What fellow is this? Many have fallen by the edge of the fword, but not fo many as have fallen by the tongue. Well is he that is defended from it, and hath not paffed through the venom thereof; who hath not drawn the yoke thereof, nor been bound in her bonds; for the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron, and the bands thereof are bands of brafs; the death thereof is an evil death. My fon, blemish not thy good deeds, neither ufe uncomfortable words, when thou giveft any thing, Shall not the dew affuage the heat? fo is a word better than a gift. Lo, is not a word better than a gift? but both are with a gracious man. Blame not, before thou haft examined the truth; understand first, and then rebuke. If thou wouldeft get a friend, prove him first, and be not hafty to credit him; for fome men are friends for their own occafions, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble. Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is us new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleafure. A friend cannot be known in profperity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adverfity. Admonish thy friend: it may be he hath not done it; and if he have, that he do it no more. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not faid it; or if he have that he speak it not again. Admonish a friend; for many times it is a flander; and believe not every tale. There is one that flippeth in his fpeech, but not from his heart; and who is he that hath not offended with his tongue? Whofo difcovereth fecrets lofeth his credit, and fhall never find a friend to his mind. Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the forrows of thy mother; how cant thou recompenfe them the things that they have done for thee? There is nothing fo much worth as 2 mind well inftructed. The lips of talkers will be telling fuch things as pertain not unto them; but the words of fuch as have understanding are weighed in the balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the tongue of the wife is in their heart. To labour, and to be content with that a man hath, is a fweet life. Be at peace with many; nevertheless, have but one counfellor of a thousand. Be not confident in a plain way. Let reafon go before every enterpriz and counfel before every action. The The latter part of a wife man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and falie opinions he had contracted in the former. Cenfure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent. Very few men, properly fpeaking, live at prefent; but are providing to live ano ther time. Party is the madrefs of many, for the gain of a few. To endeavour to work upon the vulgar with fine fenfe, is like attempting to hew blocks of marble with a razor. Superftition is the fpleen of the foul. He who tells a lye is not fenfible how great a tafk he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one. Some people will never learn any thing, for this reafon, because they underfland every thing too soon. There is nothing wanting, to make all rational and difinterested people in the world of one religion, but that they thould talk together every day. Men are grateful, in the fame degree that they are resentful. Young men are fubtle arguers; the cloak of honour covers all their faults, as that of paffion all their follies. Economy is no difgrace; it is better living on a little, than outliving a great deal. Every perfon infenfibly fixes upon fome degree of refinement in his difcourfe, fome measure of thought which he thinks worth exhibiting. It is wife to fix this pretty high, although it occafions one to talk the leis. To endeavour all one's days to fortify our minds with learning and philofophy, is to spend fo much in armour, that one has nothing left to defend. Deference often fhrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy, as the fenfitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger. Men are fometimes accufed of pride, merely because their accufers would be proud themfelves if they were in their places. People frequently use this expreffioheir am inclined to think fo and fo, not confidering that they are then fpeaking the moft literal of all truths. Modefty makes large amends for the pain it gives the perfons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy perfon in their favour. The difference there is betwixt honour and honefty feems to be chiefly in the motive. The honeft man does that from duty, which the man of honour does for the fake of character. A liar begins with making a falfehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itfelf appear like falfehood. Virtue fhould be confidered as a part of tafte: and we fhould as much avoid deceit, or finifter meanings in difcourfe, as we would puns, bad language, or falle grammar. Deference is the moft complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. He that lies in bed all a fummer's morning, lofes the chief pleasure of the day: he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a lofs of the fame kind. Shining characters are not always the molt agreeable ones; the mild radiance of an emerald is by no means lefs pleafing than the glare of the ruby. To be at once a rake, and to glory in the character, difcovers at the fame time a bad difpofition and a bad taste. How is it poffible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not fo much as take warning? Although men are accufed for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own ftrength. It is in men as in foils, where fometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. Fine fenfe, and exalted fenfe, are not half fo valuable as common fenfe. There are forty men of wit for one man of fenfe; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a lofs for want of ready change. Learning is like mercury, one of the molt powerful and excellent things in the world in fkilful hands; in unfkilful, most mifchievous. A man fhould never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but. faying in other words, that he is wifer today than he was yesterday. Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generofity if he were a rich man. Flowers of rhetoric in fermons or ferious difcourfes, are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleafing to thofe who come only for amuitment, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit. It often happens that thofe are the best people, whofe characters have been most injured by flanderers: as we ufually find that to be the sweeteft fruit which the birds have been pecking at. The eye of a critic is often like a microfcope, made fo very fine and nice, that it difcovers the atoms, grains, and minutest articles, without ever comprehending the whole, comparing the parts, or feeing all at once the harmony. Men's zeal for religion is much of the fame kind as that which they fhew for a foot-ball; whenever it is contefted for, every one is ready to venture their lives and limbs in the difpute; but when that is once at an end, it is no more thought on, but fleeps in oblivion, buried in rubbish, which no one thinks it worth his pains to take into, much lefs to remove. Honour is but a fictious kind of honefty; a mean but a neceffary fubftitute for it, in focieties who have none; it is a fort of paper-credit, with which men are obliged to trade who are deficient in the fterling cafh of true morality and religion. Perfons of great delicacy fhould know the certainty of the following truthThere are abundance of cafes which occafion fufpence, in which, whatever they determine, they will repent of their determination; and this through a propenfity of human nature to fancy happinefs in thofe fchemes which it does not purfue. The chief advantage that ancient writers can boast over modern ones, feems owing to fimplicity. Every noble truth and fentiment was expreffed by the former in a natural manner, in word and phrase fimple, perfpicuous, and incapable of improvement. What then remained for later writers, but affectation, witticifm, and conceit? What a piece of work is man! how noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehenfion, how like a God! If to do were as eafy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes palaces. He is a good divine that follows his own inftructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow my own teaching. Men's evil manners' live in brafs; their virtues we write in water. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would defpair, if they were not cherished by our virtues. The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion: and the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal fufferance feels a pang as great, As when a giant dies. $151. PROVERB S. As PROVERBS are allowed to contain a great deal of Wifdem forcibly expreffed, it has been judged proper to and a Collection of English, Italian, and Spanish Proverts. They will tend to exercife the powers of Judgment and Reflection. They may aljo furnish Subjects for Themes, Letters, E. at Schools. They are fo eafily retained in the memory that they may often occur in an emergency, and serve a young man mere effectually than more formal and elegant Jentences. Old English Proverbs. In every work begin and end with Ged. The grace of God is worth a fair. He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wife man who will not. So much of paffion, fo much of nothing to the purpose. 'I is wit to pick a lock, and steal a horie; but 'tis wifdom to let it alone. Sorrow is good for nothing but for fin. Love thy neighbour; yet pull not down thy hedge. Half an acre is good land. Chear up, man, God is ftill where he was. Of little meddling comes great cafe. He who perishes in a needlefs danger is the devil's martyr. Better fpare at the brim, than at the bot tom. He who ferves God is the true wife 125 The hafty man never wants woe. There There is God in the almonry. ven. Prayer brings down the first bleffing, and praife the second. He plays best who wins. He is a proper man who hath proper conditions. Better half a loaf than no bread. Froft and fraud have always foul ends. A good word is as foon faid as a bad one. Little faid foen amended. Fair words butter no parsnips. That penny is well spent that faves a groat to its mafter. Penny in pocket is a good companion. For all your kindred make much of your friends. He who hath money in his purfe, cannot want an head for his fhoulders. Great cry and little wool, quoth the devil when he thear'd his hogs. 'Tis ill gaping before an oven. over. When forrow is afleep wake it not. Up ftarts a churl that gathereth good, From whence did fpring his noble blood. Provide for the worit, the beft will fave itfelf. A covetous man, like a dog in a wheel, roafts meat for others to eat. Speak me fair, and think what you will. Serve God in thy calling; 'tis better than always praying. A child may have too much of his mother's bleffing. He who gives alms makes the very best ufe of his money. A wife man will neither fpeak, nor do, Whatever anger would provoke him to. Heaven once named, all other things are trifles. The patient man is always at home. Peace with heaven is the best friendship. The worst of croffes is never to have had any. Croffes are ladders that do lead up to heaven. Honour buys no beef in the market. When it rains pottage you must hold up your dish. He that would thrive muft afk leave of his wife. A wonder lafts but nine days. The fecord meal makes the glutton: and The fecond blow, or fecond ill word, makes the quarrel. A young ferving man an old beggar. A pennyworth of eafe is worth a penny at all times. As proud comes behind as goes before. Bachelors' wives and maids' children are well taught. Beware of the geefe when the fox preaches, go. Rich men feem happy, great, and wife, Love me little, and love me long. Opportunity makes the thief. Out of debt, out of deadly fin. Pride goes before, and fhame follows after. That groat is ill faved that fhames its mafter. Quick believers need broad fhoulders. Three may keep counfel, if two be away. He who weddeth ere he be wise, shall die ere he thrives. He who most ftudies his content, wants it molt. God hath often a great fhare in a little house, and but a little fhare in a great one. When prayers are done my lady is ready. He that is warm thinks all are fo. If every man will mend one, we shall all be mended. Marry your fon when you will, your daughter when you can. None is a fool always, every one fometimes. Think of eafe, but work on. He that lies long in bed his cftate feels it. The child faith nothing but what it heard by the fire-fide. A gentleman, a greyhound, and a faltbox, look for at the fire-fide. The fon full and tattered, the daughter empty and fine. He who rifeth betimes hath fomething in his head. |