same again; it will always be the same thing.-Montaigne.

CCXLI.

If by the liberty of the press, we understand merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please; but, if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating, and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it whenever our legislators shall please to alter the law; and shall cheerfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others, for the privilege of not being abused myself.—Franklin.

CCXLII.

Superfluity creates necessity; and necessity superfluity. Take care to be an economist in prosperity: there is no fear of your being one in adversity.—Zimmerman.

CCXLIII.

Plutarch, discoursing of the effects of the air on the minds of men, observes, that the inhabitants of the Piræum possessed very different tempers from those of the higher town in Athens, which was distant about four miles from the former: but I believe no one attributes the difference of manners in Wapping and St. James's to a difference of air or climate.-Hume

CCXLIV.

A critic who sits up to read only for an occasion of censure and reproof, is a creature as barbarous as a judge who should take up a resolution to hang all men that come before him upon a trial.-Swift.

CCXLV.

Ceremony keeps up things: 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.-Selden.

CCXLVI.

Every thing may be mimicked by hypocrisy, but humility and love united. The humblest star twinkles most in the darkest night. The more rare humility and love united, the more radiant when they meet.-Lavater.

CCXLVII.

Of all the enemies of idleness, want is the most formidable. Fame is soon found to be a sound, and love a dream. Avarice and ambition may be justly suspected of being privy confederacies with idleness; for when they have, for a while, protected their votaries, they often deliver them up, to end their lives under her dominion. Want always struggles against idleness; but want herself is often overcome, and every hour shows the careful observer those who had rather live in ease than in plenty -Johnson.

CCXLVIII.

Even Joe Miller, in his jests, has an eye to poetical justice; he generally gives the victory, or turns the 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.—Adven

turer.

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.-Shaftesbury.

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,