630. Satire and invectives are the eafieft kinds of wit, almoft any degree of it will ferve to abufe or find fault; for wit is a keen inftrument, and every one can cut and gafh with it; but to carve a beautiful image, and to polih it, requires great art and dexterity; a little wit, and a great deal of ill nature, will furnish a man with fatire, but the greatest inftance of wit is to commend well.

631. To boast of virtue, is a most ridiculous way of difappointing the merit of it, but not by much so pitiful and mean, as that of being asham'd of it.

632. Nothing elder than God, greater than fpace, quicker than fpirit, ftronger than neceffity, or wiser than time, which makes all men fo that observe it.

633. The fludious men, while they continue heaping up in their memories the customs of past ages, fall insenfibly to imitate them, without any manner of care how fuitable they are to time and things. In the ancient authors, which they turn over, they find defcriptions of virtues more perfect than indeed they were: The governments are reprefented better, and the ways of life pleasanter than they deferved. Upon this, these bookish wifemen ftrait compare what they read with what they fee; and here beholding nothing fo heroically transcendant, because they are able to mark all the Spots, as well as beauties of every thing that is fo close to their fight, they prefently begin to defpife their own times, to exalt the paft, to contemn the virtues, and aggravate the vices of their country; not endeavouring to amend them, but by fuch examples as are now unpracticable, by reaion of the alteration of men and manners.

634. A

634. A peace cannot be lafting, except the conditions of it be reasonable and honourable to both parties; for no people can live contented under fuch a law, as forces them to loath the state wherein they are.

635. A king, who never gave his fubjects a cause of diffatisfaction, can never trust them too far; whereas a prince who has once render'd himself suspected, will do well not to trust them at all: Queen Elizabeth justifies the first; and King Charles the Ift, and James the IId, the latter.

636. A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fulness and fwellings of the heart, which are caus'd by paffions of all kinds. We know diseases of stoppings and fuffocations are the most dangerous in the body, and it is not much otherwise in the mind.

637. With three forts of people it is not prudence to contract friendship, viz. the ungrateful man, the blab, and the coward; the firft cannot fet a true value on our favours, the fecond cannot keep our fecrets, and the third dares not vindicate our honour.

638. Hatreds are generally fo obftinate and fullen, that the greatest fign of death in a fick body, is his defire of being reconciled to his enemies.

639. Luxury and delicacy of manners in a ftate are infallible symptoms of its declenfion; for when men are fo over curious and nice in their own concerns and intereft, the good of the publick is generally neglected. 640. Princes and their minifters have their natures

fome

fomething like the celeftial bodies, they have much fplendor, but no rest.

641. To fight with custom is folly; Pindar fays, custom is king of all men, it bearing univerfal fway, and is of that infinuating nature, that it converts into a beautiful fhape, apparel, diet, geftures, opinions, and even fins, that to a stranger seem deformed and ugly.

642. Let those that abound in the conveniences of life, give a new gust to their happiness, by comparing it with the state of the neceffitous; and let the thoughts of others misfortunes, make them more deliciously enjoy the felicity they poffefs.

643. He is truly miferable who difquiets himself with the prospect of future evils. It is an abyss so profound, that it is enough to make one giddy to look down the precipice. To make use of the present good, is an excellent fecret; not but that a man ought to be prepared against all the different accidents of life, for this may in fome measure protect him from the infults of fortune; no calamity can happen to us, when once we have a sufficient fund of patience and reafon to overcome it.

644. In the morning I love to converfe with the dead, at noon with the living, and at night with myself.

645. Have a care of making any man your friend. twice, except the rupture was by your own mistake. 646. Friendship improves happiness, and abates mifery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

647. Truth is only agreeable to the virtuous, and it is no small reflection on princes and great men, that few of them can bear to hear it.

648. The

648. The name of friends is commonly given to fuch as are linked by any tyes of confanguinity, affinity, interest, mutual obligations, acquaintance, and the like: but these are fuch friendships (if they may be called fo) as are always contracted with a tacit referve of intereft on both fides, and feldom laft longer than the profperity of either party, and during that, are frequently renounced upon flight difobligations, or languish and die of themselves.

649. It is not in the power of calumny and envy, to blaft the dignity of a wife and honest man. The principles of good and evil are as firm as the foundations of the earth, and never had any man living the face yet to make an open profeffion of wickedness in its own name ; not but that men of vicious lives and conversations have found out ways of impofing their corruptions and infir- mities upon the world for virtues, and under falfe femblances and colours.

650. There is no fufficient court of judicature against the venom of flander; for though you punish the author, yet you cannot wipe off the calumny.

651. Custom is the plague of wife men, and the idol of fools. 652. Great mens honour ought always to be rated by the methods they employ to carry on and accomplish their defigns.

653. I dare affirm, notwithstanding the many harangues made by a generation of men upon the corruptions of human nature, could all mankind lay a true claim to that eftimate they pafs upon themselves, there would be little or no difference between lapfed and perfect humanity, and

God

God might again review his image, with a paternal complacency, and ftill pronounce them good.

654. Poverty never meets the thinking and industrious. 655. In your worst eftate hope, in the best fear, and in all be circumspect.

656. Praise from an enemy is the most pleasing of all

commendations.

;

657. We are not fillily to give credit to those that flatter us, nor yet rudely to reject the compliments they make, when we think we deserve them this falfe modesty is little less disgustful than a foolish vanity. It requires great art and delicacy to feafon praises well, but there is also a way of receiving them, when they are juft, that does not offend modefty. Praise is a fort of tribute paid to real worth, and it is neither affectedly to be rejected, nor too eagerly courted, if we would not be the property of those that give it, who prepare their way, by this allurement, to obtain whatever they defire, when once you are intoxicated with their incense.

658. God feldom fends a grievance without a remedy, or at least such a mitigation as takes away a great part of the fting and smart of it.

659. As every fin is a degree of danger, fo every well employed opportunity is a degree of return to hope and pardon.

660. The conqueft of paffion gives ten times more happiness than we reap from the gratification of it; for curbing our defires is the greatest glory we can arrive at in this world, and will be most rewarded in the next.

661. Familiarity in inferiors, is faucinefs; in fuperiors, condefcenfion.