1525. In discourse it is good to hear others first; for filence hath the fame effect as authority.

1526. Rhetorick in serious discourse is like the flower in corn; pleafing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap profit from it. I527. If you think twice before you speak once, you will speak twice the better for it.

1528. We sometimes fhall meet with a frothy wit, who will rather lose his best friend, than his worst jest. 1529. A man without fecrecy is an open letter for every one to read.

1530. Some men are filent for want of matter, or affurance; and fome again are talkative for want of sense.

1531. It is a fign of great prudence to be willing to receive instruction; the most intelligent perfon sometimes stands in need of it.

1532. Studied figures, and ornaments in speech, are not always conformable to good sense; they serve more to amuse than to inftruct, and are oftentimes a burden to the speaker, as well as to the hearer.

1533. A reproof has more effect when it comes by a side wind, than if it were levelled directly at the perfon.

1534. Too much affeveration gives ground of fufpicion. Truth and honefty have no need of loud proteftations. 1535. The tongue is as a wild beaft, very difficult to be chained again, when once let loose.

1536. We must speak well, and act well; brave actions are the fubftance of life, and good fayings the ornament of it. 1537. He can never fpeak well, that can never hold his tongue.

It is one thing to speak much, and another to

fpeak pertinently. Much tongue and much judgment feldom go together; for talking and thinking are two quite different faculties; and there is commonly more depth where there is lefs noife.

1538. Conversation is generally confined to indifferent, low, or, perhaps, vicious fubjects; and all that is ferious or good, is almoft banished the world. Some are fo black in the mouth, as to utter nothing that is decent, fupplying want of wit with want of modefty, and want of reputation with want of fhame.

1539. There is nothing more difagreeable, than continual jefting. By endeavouring to purchase the reputation of being pleasant, a man lofes the advantage of being thought wife.

1540. He that can reply calmly to an angry man, is too hard for him.

1541. A man fecluded from company can have but the devil and himself to tempt him; but he that converfes much in the world, has almost as many fnares as he has companions.

1542. Some, under a fool's cap, exercise a knave's wit; making a feeming fimplicity the excufe of their impudence.

1543. A too great credulity is great fimplicity; and to believe nothing, because our narrow capacities cannot comprehend it, is a great ftupidity.

1544. The life of life, is fociety; of fociety, freedom; of freedom, the difcreet and moderate ufe of it.

1545. It is a fair ftep towards happiness and virtue, to delight in the converfation of good and wife men; and

where

where that cannot be had, the next point is, to keep no company at all.

1546. He who treats men ingenuoufly, and converfes kindly with them, gains a good esteem with a very easy expence.

1547. Good nature (fays a polite author) is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance, which is more amiable than beauty.

1548. Inftructions are entertained with better effect, when they are not too perfonally addreffed. We may with civility glance at, but cannot, without rudeness and ill manners, ftare upon, the faults and imperfections of any

man.

1549. The greatest wisdom of fpeech, is to know when, and what, and where to fpeak; the time, matter, manner; the next to it, is filence.

1550. To ufe too many circumftances before one come to the matter, is wearifome; to use none, is blunt.

1551. Some are fo flow of fpeech, and fo very dull, that their heads may be compared to a limbeck, which gives you drop by drop an extract of the fimples in it.

1552. Common fwearing argues in a man a perpetual diftruft of his own reputation; and is an acknowledgment, that he thinks his bare word not to be worthy of credit.

1553. You will never be thought to talk too much, when you talk well; and always to speak too much, when you speak ill.

1554. As a man fhould not conftrue that in earnest, which is fpoken in jeft; fo he fhould not fpeak that in jeft, which may be conftrued in earnest.

1555. In reasoning, the best way to carry the caufe, and which will bring the controversy to a speedy determination, is by asking questions, and proceeding ftill upon the adverfary's conceffions.

1556. Wherever the speech is corrupted, so is the mind.

1557. Words are the pledges and pictures of our thoughts, and therefore ought not to be obfcure and obfolete. Truth (as Euripides fays) loves plain language.

1558. A man may contemplate on virtue in folitude and retirement; but the practical part confifts in its participation, and the fociety it hath with others; for whatsoever is good, is the better for being communicable.

1559. Contradiction fhould awaken our attention and care, but not our paffion; we must be of no fide or intereft but that of truth.

1560. A great talker will always fpeak, though no body minds him; nor does he mind any body, when they fpeak to him.

1561. Zeno, of all virtues, made his choice of filence: For by it, said he, I hear other men's imperfections, and conceal my own.

1562. The too frequent fashion of oaths and imprecations has no temptatiou to excuse it, no man being born of a fwearing conftitution.

1563. He that reveals a fecret, injures them to whom he tells it, as well as himself. The best maxim, concerning fecrets, is, neither to hear, nor to divulge them.

1564. Gentle reply to fcurrilous language is the most se

vere revenge.

1565. No injury makes fo deep an impreffion in one's

memory,

memory, as that which is done by a cutting malicious jest; for let it be never fo good, yet it is always extremely bad when it occafions enmity.

1566. They who have the true taste of converfation, enjoy themselves in a communication of each other's excellencies, and not in a triumph over their imperfections.

1567. In conversation, a man of good fenfe will seem to be lefs knowing, to be more obliging; and choose to be on a level with others, rather than opprefs with the fuperiority of his genius.

1568. Excefs of ceremony fhews want of breeding. That civility is best, which excludes all fuperfluous formality. 1569. As amongst wife men, he is the wifeft that thinks he knows leaft; fo, amongst fools, he is the greatest that thinks he knows most.

1570. A good understanding, with a bad will, makes a very unhappy conjunction. That is an unlucky wit which is employed to do evil. The Spanish proverb fays, Knowledge will become folly, if good sense do not take care of it.

1571. There is a time when nothing, a time when fomething, but no time when all things are to be spoken.

1572.The speech of the antient Grecians was ufually short, and very fignificant: as, when Philip, King of Macedonia, fent a threatning letter, that if he entered into Laconia he would overthrow them; they wrote back to him only this word, IF.

1573. Let your fubject (fays Epictetus) be fomething of neceffity and use; fomething that may advance the love and practice of virtue, reform the paffions, or instruct the understanding; fuch as may administer advice

to