471. Women cannot endure a jealous bufband, yet are well enough pleased with a jealous lover.

472. A covetous man lays up for old age, when young; and for death, when old. A prodigal heir makes him a fine funeral, and devours the rest of his wealth.

473. It is faid of a virtuous and wife man, that having nothing, he has all; when a miser having all things, yet has nothing.

474. We should not measure men by Sundays, without regarding what they do all the week after; for devotion does not neceffarily make men good, though the want of it may endanger their principles.

475. He will find himself in a great mistake, that either feeks for a friend in a court, or tries him at a feast.

476. A falfe friend is like the fhadow on a dial; it арpears in clear weather, but vanishes as foon as that is cloudy.

477. All objects have different faces, and the mind, which is in continual motion, looks upon them as it turns; infomuch that we have nothing, if I may fo fpeak, but new afpects, thinking to enjoy new difcoveries.

478. The wit of converfation confifts more in finding it in others, than fhewing a great deal yourfelf. He who goes out of your company pleafed with his own facetioufnefs and ingenuity, will the fooner come into it again. Most men had rather please than admire you, and seek lefs to be inftructed and diverted, than approved and applauded; and it is certainly the moft delicate fort of pleafure to please another.

479. A pleafant man is rarely to be met with, and a

perfon,

perfon, though he was born fo, must have a great deal of delicacy to maintain the character a long time; but commonly he that makes one laugh, is not sure to be esteemed. 480. The heart has no avenue fo open, as that of flattery, which, like fome enchantment, lays all its guards afleep.

481. Where there is no remedy but patience, cuftom makes it easy, and neceffity gives no courage.

482. Reciprocal love is juftice; conftant love, fortitude; fecret love, prudence. It is the hardest thing in love to feign it where it is not, or hide it where it is; but it is much easier counterfeited than concealed.

483. The pleasure of fubduing an inordinate defire, of denying an impetuous appetite, is not only nobler, but greater by far, than any that is to be had in the most transporting moments of their gratification.

484. No man lives long enough to profit himself by his faults; he is committing them during the whole courfe of his life, and as much as he can do at laft, is to die corrected.

485. In things neceffary, go along with the ancient church; in things indifferent, with the prefent. Though you have opinions and notions of your own, yet yield, as the orbs do, for the order of the univerfe, to the great wheel of the church: if fome points in fcripture are less clear and pofitive, it is, that chriftians may exercise humility in themselves, and charity to others.

486. Custom and experience are more useful in making one's fortune, than wit; we think of it too late, and when at last we refolve on it, we begin by thofe faults

which

which we have not always time to repair; whence perhaps it proceeds that fortunes are fo rarely acquired.

487. He who folicits for another, has the confidence of one who demands juftice; he who fpeaks for himself, the confufion of him who implores mercy.

488. None but little fouls are difturbed at having their ignorance reproved; and the reafon is, that being generally very blind and foolish, they never trouble themselves with doubts, and are fully fatisfied they fee thofe things clearly, which they faw only through the thick mist of a clouded understanding.

489. The common fubjects of a kingdom are not so apt to trouble themselves about the rights and poffeflions of a crown, as about their own; and feldom engage in the quarrels of the first, but upon fome general and strong apprehension that the last are in danger.

490. Princes may be faid, in fome fenfe, to command every thing that they do, and to forbid every thing that they do not; their example has an attractive power to draw others after them: both their virtues and their vices fpread themselves over all their dominions, and are, in fome measure, eternized by imitation. The leaft crime that they commit, renders them guilty of a thousand others; and all the virtues with which they are adorned, are inceffantly reproduced in the hearts of an infinite number of perfons, that are ambitious of refembling them.

491. There is not any thing more dangerous for a prince, than to confult only with perfons that he thinks are of his own mind, or will be fo when they know it;

nor

nor more pernicious in a counfellor, than to give only fuch advices as he thinks most agreeable to him that afks or receives them.

492. A good countenance is a filent commendation, and is generally, though not always, the index of the mind; for the rays of the foul paffing through it difcover what degree of brightness is within, fo that the afpect feems defigned not only for ornament, but information. For what can be more fignificant than the fudden flushing and confusion of a blush, than the fparklings of rage, or the lightnings of a fmile, which may be reckoned the funshine of the mind, that breaks out with the brightest diftinction; it plays with a furprizing agreeableness in the eye, fits like a glory upon the countenance, and feems to make the very foul visible.

493. Affectation in gefture, fpeech, or manners, is frequently the confequence of idleness or indifference; much business, and an application to ferious affairs, oblige a man to keep to nature.

494. No man ever was a lofer by good works; for though he be not prefently rewarded, yet, in tract of time, fome happy emergency or other arifes to convince him that virtuous men are the darlings of providence.

495. It is difficult for a man to have fenfe, and be a knave. A true and fharp genius conducts to order, truth, and virtue; it is want of fenfe and penetration, which makes a man obftinate in evil as in error. We strive in vain to correct a blockhead by fatire, which defcribes him to others, while he himself will not know his own picture; it is like railing to a deaf man.

496. The

496. The fame vices which are deformed and infupportable in others, we do not fee in ourselves; they are not burthenfome to us, but feem to reft without weight as in their proper centers. Such a one, fpeaking of another, draws a dismal picture, not in the least imagining that at the fame time he is painting himself.

497. Generally the mirth of a debauch, as it is ftrained and artificial, fo it cannot laft long; it is at best but like the effects of a strong cordial, which may ferve to rally the fpirits from fome encounter; but then they are fpent in the conflict, and fall and flag again quickly. Whenever the fpirits are extraordinarily exhilarated and dilated, they thereby become fo thin and volatile, that they eafily exhale and vanish, and so a man becomes far more melancholy and lumpish than before.

498. To fuffer the people to ftupify themselves with pleasures and feasts, with shows and luxury, with vanity and delicacy; to difpoffefs them of all things folid and valuable, and leave them fond of ridiculous trifles, is to make the greateft advances to a defpotick power.

499. It is great wifdom in a prince to understand the critical feafons and circumftances for rigour or remiffness; when it is proper to take up, and when to flacken the reins of government.

500. It is the highest pitch of greatness in a prince, to know how to fupport his authority without the ceremony of guards; to fhrink himself almost into the figure of a private gentleman, and yet act nevertheless with all the force and majesty of his character, when the government requires it. How creditable is it to the fex we ac

count