benefactor for, and every reflection it makes upon them affords new matter for fatisfaction.

749. Examine, as long as you please, the goods of the world, and you will always find them much more defirable than really they are, till you have enjoyed them. Examine likewise all the evils, and you will ftill find them to be feared, beyond what they ought to be, till you have made the experiment.

750. No man is obliged to think beyond his capacity, and we never tranfgrefs the bounds of good fense, but when we aim to go beyond it.

751. No man despises honour, but he that despairs of it. 752. They that will observe nothing in a wife man, but his overfights and follies; nothing in a good man, but his failings and infirmities, may make a shift to render a very wife and good man very defpicable. If one should heap together all the paffionate fpeeches, all the froward and imprudent actions of the best man, all that he had faid or done amifs in his whole life, and prefent it all at one view, concealing his wifdom and virtues, the man in this disguise would look like a madman or fury; and yet if his life were fairly reprefented, and juft in the fame manner it was led, and his many and great virtues set overagainst his infirmities and failings, he would appear, to all the world, an admirable and excellent perfon: but how many and great foever a man's ill qualities are, it is but just that, with all this heavy load of faults, he should have his due praise of the few and real virtues that are in him.

753. Wisdom requires three things; knowledge to

difcern, judgment to weigh, and refolution to determine.

754. A paffionate expreffion is often forgiven, but raillery in cool blood never, it being a fure fign of want of esteem.

755- The wit of man does more naturally vent itself in fatire and cenfure, than in praise and panegyric.

756. Grant a courtesy, if you intend it at all, willingly, and speedily, for that doubles it; to keep long in fufpence, is churlish; for, by long expectation, the paffion to the favour dies.

757. As it is most pleasant to the eye to have an endlefs profpect, fo it is an inconceivable pleasure to a finite understanding, to view unlimited excellencies, which have neither fhores nor bounds: though it cannot poffibly comprehend them, yet there is an ineffable pleasure in admi

ration.

758. The majesty of princes is cenfured as pride; their facility, bafenefs; if grave, the people love them not; if familiar, they fcorn them; if melancholy, nothing will oblige them; if prudent, fubtle and crafty; if free and ingenuous, improvident: all their words and actions receive an ill interpretation; if conquerors, they are ambitious; if peaceable, cowards; if liberal, prodigal; if provident, covetous; if valiant, rafh, &c.

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759. Great and ingenuous fpirits are much fooner brought to repentance by a fenfe of mercy, than of terror; for terror begets a ftupifying fear, which dams and ftops. up all the paffages to and from the foul, and made the

wretch

wretch in the gospel stand speechless and amazed at Christ's demand, whereas mercy opens the heart, and melts it.

760. He that crédits an ill report, is almost as criminal as the firft inventor of it.

761. They who ofteneft meet with infamous deaths, are those who foolishly fquander away their eftate, and as fhamefully repair them.

762. Humour, temper, education, and a thoufand other circumstances, create fo great a difference betwixt the feveral palates of men, and their judgments upon ingenious compofures, that nothing can be more chimerical and foolish in an author, than the ambition of a general reputation.

763. If men of quality were as able to judge as they are to reward, it would be an advantage to their purses, as well as their reputations.

764. A fine face is the fineft of fights; and the voice of her one loves, the sweetest harmony in the world.

765. A woman will think herself flighted if she is not courted, yet pretends to know herself too well to believe your Hattery.

766. There is a time when maids, even those that have the most confiderable fortunes, ought feriously to think of bestowing themselves, left their refufal of the first of fers be attended with a long and bitter repentance. The reputation of their riches does generally decrease with that of their beauty; but, on the contrary, every thing is favourable to a young lady, and men are content to heighten all the advantages that can moft ftir up their paffion, and make her worthy of their applications and defires.

767. Love, in its infancy, leffens every fault; in its declenfion, it not only aggravates them, but multiplies them.

768. There is fomething which can never be learned, but in the company of the polite: the virtues of men are catching, as well as their vices; and your own obfervations, added to thefe, will foon discover what it is that commands attention in one man, and makes you tired and displeased with the difcourfe of another.

769. Some of the fathers say, that St Thomas's infidelity has done the church more fervice than the faith of all the other apostles, it being an incontestable proof of the refurrection.

770. Mercy, in particulars, is fometimes cruelty in the general.

771. The likelieft way to thrive is method in business, and never to do that by another that you can conveniently do yourself, and to defer not till to-morrow, what ought to be done to-day, and despise not small things.

772. Had I been a heathen, I believe I should have facrificed to no other God or Goddess but truth and friendfhip; those would have been to me the king and queen

of heaven.

773. Every one makes Fortune his friend or foe, according to his good or bad conduct.

774. As reconciling enemies is the work of God, so separating friends is the work of the devil.

775. A prudent man will avoid talking much of any particular science for which he is remarkably famous; befides the decency of the rule, it is certainly founded on good policy. A man who talks of any thing he is already

famous

for, has little to get, but a great deal to lofe; he who is fometimes filent on a fubject where every one is satisfied he could speak well, will often be thought no lefs knowing in other matters, where perhaps he is wholly ignorant.

776. Let all young people forbear the use of much wines and ftrong drinks, as well as fpiced and hot meats; for they introduce a preternatural heat into the body, and at last hinder and obftruct, if not at length extinguish the natural.

777. Nothing is more filly than the pleasure some people take, in what they call fpeaking their minds. A man of this make will fay a rude thing for the meer pleasure of faying it, when an oppofite behaviour, full as innocent, might have preserved his friend, or made his fortune.

778. It is virtue that makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, though not out of the malice of it. When Zeno was told that all his goods were drowned, Why then, faid he, Fortune has a mind to make me a philofopher; nothing can be above him that is above fortune; no infelicity can make a wife man quit his ground.

779. Custom, without reason, is no better than antient

error.

780. Railleries are not good, unless they be lively and full of falt; the length enervates and spoils them.

781. We may truly fay of happiness; philofophers feek it, divines find it, but the religious, only, enjoy it.

782. He cannot rightly judge of pleasure, that never tafted pain.

783. He