and kept up close by fhame, is unlocked and let loose by example.

24. Conceitedness and ignorance are a most unhappy compofition; for none are fo invincible as the half-witted, who know just enough to excite their pride, but not fo much as to cure their ignorance.

25. We scarce find in any history a Deserter of a trust or party he once adher'd to, to be long profperous, or in any eminent estimation with thofe to whom he revolts, tho'

in the change there may appear evident arguments of reafon and justice; neither has it been in the power or prerogative of any human authority, to preferve fuch men from the reproach, jealousy and scandal, that naturally attend on any defection.

26. Let no price or promifes bribe thee to take part with the enemies of thy Prince; whoever wins, thou art loft; if thy prince profper, thou art proclaim'd a rebel, and must expect the confequence: If the enemy prevail, thou art reckon'd but a meritorious traytor: though he may like and love thy treason, yet he will hate and despise thee.

27. Demean thyself in the presence of thy prince with reverence and chearfulness: let thy wisdom gain his opinion; thy loyalty, his confidence; be not falfe or unjuft in thy words or actions; unreasonable or careless in thy fuits or services; crofs not his paffion, question not his pleasure, prefs not into his fecrets, neither pry into his prerogative.

28. Upon the well being of the Prince depends the fafety of the People. A gracious Prince is fure of being the darling of his Subjects.

29. Where

29. Where punishment is neceffary, let it be moderate. 30. Custom is a great matter, either in good or ill. 31. We should check our paffions betimes, as involuntary

motions are invincible.

32. We are divided in ourfelves, and confound good and evil. We are moved at the novelty of things, for want of understanding the reason of them.

33. Every man is the artificer of his own fortune.

34. Flattery is dangerous, though in fome cafes a man may be allowed to commend himself.

35. Hope and Fear are the bane of human life.

36. It is according to the true or false estimate of things, that we are happy or miserable.

37. Temperance and moderation are great bleffings. 38. Conftancy of mind gives a man reputation, and makes him happy in despite of all misfortunes.

39. Our happiness depends, in a great measure, upon the choice of our company.

40. He that would be happy, must take an account of his time.

41. Happy is the man that may chufe his own business. 42. Anger is against nature, and only to be found in men. 43. Anger is a fhort madness, and a deformed vice, and is neither warrantable nor useful.

44. Pardon all where there is either fign of repentance, or hopes of amendment.

45. The fame conceit makes us merry in private, and angry in publick.

46. Some jefts will never be forgiven.

47. Patience foftens wrath.

48. Thofe

48. Thofe injuries go nearest us, that we neither deferved nor expected.

49. Whoever does an injury is liable to fuffer one.

50.

Take nothing ill from another man, till you have made it your own case.

51. Some things cannot hurt us, and others will not. 52. He that threatens all, fears all.

53. A tyrannical government is a perpetual state of war. 54. Clemency is profitable for all; does well in private perfons, but it is more beneficial in princes.

55. Mercy is the intereft both of prince and people, and gives pleafing reflections to a merciful prince.

56. Mischiefs contemn'd lose their force. As the wind kindles a torch instead of extinguishing it, fo false reports redouble the luftre of virtue.

57. Good intentions will never justify evil actions; nor will a good action ever justify an ill intention; both must be good, or neither will be acceptable.

58. Never fuffer your courage to exert itself in fiercenefs, your refolution in obftinacy, your wifdom in cunning, nor your patience in fullennefs and defpair.

59. If you refolve to please, never speak to gratify any particular vanity or paffion of your own, but always witn a design either to divert or inform the company: a man who only aims at one of thefe, is always eafy in his difcourfe; he is never out of humour at being interrupted, because he confiders, that those who hear him, are the beft judges, whether what he was faying, could either divert or inform them.

60. It is an unpardonable incivility to interrupt a perfon

that

that tells a story; it is much better to let him fail in some circumstance of the history, than to rectify him if he afks not our advice, or to fignify we the news he would acquaint us with.

know long before

To what purpose is it to refuse a man the pleasure of believing he informed us of fomething we were ignorant of before?

61. Admiration is the moft pleafing paffion that can rife in the mind of man.

62. We may judge of men by their converfation towards God, but never by God's dispensation towards them. 63. The law and gofpel, like bond and acquittance, both mention the debt, but to different purposes; the one to oblige payment, the other to free from it.

64. All that one can reasonably demand of fickle perfons, is ingenuously to acknowledge their levity, and not to add treachery to inconftancy.

65. Study is the most folid nourishment of the mind, and the fource of its most noble acquifitions. Study increases our natural talent, but it is converfation that sets it on work, and refines it.

66. If men could but know the happiness of adhering to the true religion, the voluptuous might there seek and find everlasting pleasures, the covetous man durable and everlasting wealth, the ambitious man glory enough to entertain his large and most extended defires.

67. Cloath yourself below your estate, that you may thrive the better; your wife above it, that you may live peaceably; and your children equal with it, that you may them the fooner.

marry

68. To miscarry in great and glorious attempts, is no reproach.

69. A noble Simplicity, when properly used, makes more impression than tropes and figures: a fierce and warlike eloquence fucceeds better with a violent and hafty man, than an eloquence full of infinuation, and wholly pathetick.

70. A man who always acts in the feverity of wisdom, or haughtiness of quality, feems to move in a perfonated part; it looks too constrained and theatrical, for a man to be always in the character which distinguishes him from others befides, the flackness and unbending the mind, on fome occafions, makes it exert itself with greater alacrity, when it returns to its proper and natural state.

71. It is observed, fometimes, that men upon the hour of their departure speak and reason above themselves; for then the foul, beginning to be free from the ligaments of the body, begins to reafon like herself, and to difcourse in a strain above mortality; for fouls juft quitting life, doubtless, have a glimpse of eternity.

72. It is a fign of a fublime genius, not to be over eager to display your wit, but to talk of trifles with mean people, and fo to proportion yourself to the humours and characters of those you converfe with, as to let them think themselves upon a level with you; nothing can be more pleafing, they are charm'd with you, and themfelves, when they fee this equality, which infinitely gratifies their felf-love. It requires a great deal of sense to be able to make these condefcending felf-denials, and a

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