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when life is in doubt; if there be the leaft breath, it will catch the damp, and fhew it.

437. Penitent finners are under no condemnation; the law cannot condemn them, because they have appealed; nor the gospel, because they have believed.

438. We must not suffer ourselves to be obliged by all manner of perfons, for that would be to become a common flave. Some are born to be more happy than others; the first for doing good, and the other for receiving it. Liberty is more precious than all gifts, and to receive is to lose it.

439. It is hard to find one that a man of fpirit would be obliged to; for generally men are as fordid in their favours, as in their interefts, and remember the obligation they have beftow'd, when they forget the return they have received.

440. It is no small wonder to see how women that are fo mightily fond of their beauty, can use so much art to anticipate its ruine.

441. A man had rather meet with those who depend upon him, that that are thankful to him. To keep people in hopes, is prudence; to truft to their gratitude, fimplicity. For it is as common for gratitude to be forgetful, as for hopes to be mindful: you get always more by this, than by the other. So foon as the orange is fqueezed, it is thrown upon the ground; and likewise when dependence ceafes, there is an end of correfpondence and efteem also.

442. Take care you never difpute against your judgment to fhew your wit, left you become indifferent to

what

what is right; never difpute against a man meerly to vex him, or for tryal of fkill, fince to inform, or be informed, is the end of all conferences. Poverty of imagination makes men run into the fault of giving contradictions; they want in their minds entertainment for themselves and company, and therefore build all they speak upon what is started by others; and fince they cannot improve that foundation, endeavour to destroy it.

443. We fhould take all the care imaginable how we create enemies, it being one of the hardest things in the christian religion to behave ourselves as we ought to do towards them.

444. It is not our intereft to be always over vigorous in the demanding of our rights, nothing looks better than for a man fometimes to drop his pretenfions.

445. No one is obliged to think beyond his capacity; and we never tranfgrefs the bounds of good fenfe, but when we aim to go beyond it.

446. The only study in the courts of princes is how to please, because a man makes his fortune there by being agreeable; this is the reafon why courtiers are fo polite. On the contrary, in towns and republicks, where men are forced to take pains to get their living, the last of their cares is to please, and it is that makes them fo clownish.

447. Thofe that wifh for what they have not, forfeit the enjoyment of what they have. Set a just term to your wishes, and when you have touched it, make a ftand; happiness only begins when wifhes end, and he that hankers after more, enjoys nothing.

448. There is nothing more dangerous in a state, than

when

when the king and people are trying the utmost extent of the prerogative of the one, and the liberty of the other, tho' the bounds of either were never yet found out; for it is an undeniable maxim, that they who will always do as much as they may, will fometimes do more than they ought.

449. Set bounds to your zeal, by difcretion; to error, by truth; to paffion, by reafon; and to divifion, by charity.

450. Doubt is the worft torment of the mind; and fo great is the pain, that we defire to lose it, though in exchange of a certainty, that must afflict us more.

451. Too many laws are a fnare, too few a weakness in government, too gentle are never obeyed, and too strict and fevere are feldom executed.

452. Women are feldom cheated, but they are acceffary to it; for did they not flatter themselves, men could not fo eafily impose upon them.

453. A woman is oftener unhappy in the perfon fhe chufes, than in the favour the grants.

454. The unequal difpenfation of rewards and punishments, will foon or late prove fatal to a prince.

455. The fureft way of governing, both in a private family and a kingdom, is for a husband and a prince fometimes to yield fomething of their prerogative.

456. There is no fubject fo inconfiderable, but his prince, at one time or other, may have occafion for him; and it holds through the whole fcale of the creation, that the great and the little have need of one another. 457. A courtier never defires to retire til he is al

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moft fure of being fent home, if not further out of the way.

458. Valour was affigned to men, and chastity to women, as their principal virtues, because they are the hardeft to practife. When these virtues are not fuftained and kept up, either by conftitution or divine grace, they soon grow faint, and fall presently a facrifice to the love of life and pleasure.

459. Women are neither those angels, nor those devils, we make them; for, bating propagation, they differ but little from men in any thing.

460. We fhould never difpute on things that God has not been pleased to fubmit to our reafon. If a man's understanding could comprehend all the counfels of God, it muft of neceffity be equal to it.

461. As reconciling enemies is the work of God, fo feparating friends is the bufinefs of the devil.

462. Friendship supplies the place of every thing, to those who know how to make a right ufe of it; it makes your profperity more happy, and your adversity more easy.

463. To endeavour not to please, is ill nature; altogether to neglect it, folly; and to overstrain for it, vanity and defign.

464. A facetious fool may have entertaining follies to divert you for a time, but nothing fo troublesome as a fe

rious one.

465. He that is moderate in his wishes from reason and choice, and not refigned from fournefs, diftaste and difappointment, doubles all the pleasures of his life.

466. Religion and policy, as they do

very

well toge

ther,

ther, fo they do but ill afunder; the one is too cunning to be good, the other too fimple to be fafe. A little of the wisdom of the ferpent, mixt with the innocency of the dove, will be a good ingredient in all your actions.

467. The goodness and mercy of God towards perfons not capable of becoming good, is a goodness that does not agree with the infinite purity and holiness of God. It is fuch a goodness, that, if it were propofed to the world, it would encourage men to live in fin, and to think that a few acts of homage, offered to God in our last extremities, could fo far please him, as to bribe and corrupt him. The forming a falfe notion of the goodness of God, as of a tenderness that is to be overcome with importunities, howlings, and other fubmiffions, and not to be gained only by becoming like him, is a capital and fundamental error in religion.

468. Though you may be never fo clear in your judgment, yet it shews a yielding sweetness of temper, and a most agreeable condefcenfion, to speak with doubt, but never to shew confidence in arguing, unless to fupport the fenfe of another. Sometimes, in converfation, you may chufe to be lefs knowing, to be more obliging, and to be on a level with others, rather than opprefs them with a fuperiority of genius.

469. It is a hard matter to prevail with a woman to own the loves you; but when he has once done it, fhe has no further fecret to keep from you.

470. Women generally take greater care of their reputation, than men of theirs. Why then do we account them the weaker fex?

L 2

471. Wo

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