LXVII.

It would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men would consider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe, but he that is honest all I have designed is peace to my country, and may England enjoy that blessing when I shall have no more proportion in it than what my ashes make.Sir W. Raleigh.

LXVIII.

Hope with a goodly prospect feeds the eye,
Shews from a rising ground possession nigh;
Shortens the distance, or o'erlooks it quite :
So easy 'tis to travel with the sight.

LXIX.

Dryden.

If we do not weigh and consider to what end this afe is given us, and thereupon order and dispose it right, pretend what we will to the arithmetic, we do not, we cannot so much as number our days in the narrowest and most limited signification.-Clarendon. LXX.

Come, little infant, love me now,
While thine unsuspected years

Clear thine aged father's brow
From cold jealousy and fears.
Pretty, surely, 'twere to see

By young Love old Time beguil'd;
While our sportings are as free
As the muse's with the child.

*

Now then, love me: Time may take
Thee before my time away;

Of this need we'll virtue make

And learn love before we may.

So we win of doubtful fate;
And if good to us she meant,
We that good shall antedate;

Or, if ill, that ill prevent.

LXXI.

Marvell.

If our wit and eloquence, our knowledge or inventions, would deserve to live longer than the ancient have done, yet our languages would not: there is no hope of their lasting long, nor of any thing in them; they change every hundred years, so as to be hardly known for the same or any thing of the former styles to be endured by the latter; so as they can no more last like the ancient, than excellent carvings in wood like those of marble or brass.- Sir W. Temple.

LXXII.

O kiss! which dost those ruddy gems impart, Or gems, or fruits, of new-found Paradise:

Breathing all bliss and sweet'ning to the heart; Teaching dumb lips a nobler exercise.

O kiss! which souls, ev'n souls, together ties By links of Love, and only nature's art:

How fain would I paint thee to all men's eyes. Or of thy gifts, at least, shade out some part. But she forbids, with blushing words, she says, She builds her fame on higher-seated praise : But my heart burns, I cannot silent be.

Then since (dear life,) you fain would have me peace,
And I mad with delight want wit to cease,

Stop you my mouth, with still, still kissing me.
Sir P. Sidney.

LXXIII.

My brain, methinks, is like an hour-glass,
Wherein m' imaginations run like sands,

Filling up time; but then are turn'd and turn'd :
So that I know not what to stay upon,

And less to put in act.

LXXIV.

Ben. Jonson.

Who can tell whether learning may not even weaken invention, in a man that has great advantages from nature, and birth; whether the weight and number of so many men's thoughts and notions may not suppress his own, or hinder the motion and agitation of them, from which all invention arises; as heaping on wood, or too many sticks, or too close together, suppresses, and sometimes quite extinguishes a little spark, that would otherwise have grown up to a noble flame. — Sir W. Temple.

LXXV.

Inconstancy's the plague that first or last

Paints the whole sex, the catching court disease.
Man therefore was a lord-like creature made;
Rough as the winds and as inconstant too :
A lofty aspect given him for command;
Easily soften'd, when we would betray :
Like conqu❜ring tyrants, you our breasts invade,
Where you are pleas'd to ravage for a while :
But soon you find new conquests out, and leave
The ravag'd province ruinate and bare.

LXXVI.

Otway's Orphan.

Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain method of bringing either into contempt. The weak must have their inducements to admiration as well as the wise; and it is the business of a sensible government to impress all ranks with a sense of subordination, whether this be

effected by a diamond buckle, or a virtuous edict, a sumptuary law, or a glass necklace. Goldsmith.

LXXVII.

Ridicule is the itch of our age and climate; and has over-run both the court and the stage; enters a House of Lords and Commons as boldly as a coffee-house ; debates of council as well as private conversation : `and I have known, in my life-time, more than one or two ministers of state, that would rather have said a witty thing than have done a wise one, and made the company laugh, rather than the kingdom rejoice.-Sir W. Temple. LXXVIII.

Whilst we do speak, our fire

Doth into ice expire;

Flames turn to frost; and ere we can

Know how our cheek turns pale and wan,

Or how a silver snow

Springs there where jet did grow,

Our fading spring is in dull winter lost.

LXXIX.

Mayne.

It is a very poor, though common, pretence to merit, to make it appear by the faults of other men: a mean wit or beauty may pass in a room, where the rest of the company are allowed to haye none: it is something to sparkle among diamonds; but to shine among pebbles is neither credit nor value worth the pretending. Sir W. Temple.

LXXX.

Those who live magnificently, for the most part, are the real poor: they endeavour to get money on all hands, with disquiet and trouble, to maintain the pleasures of others; and whilst they lavish their plenty,

which strangers enjoy more than themselves, they are at home, sensible of their wants, with their wives and children, both by the importunity of unmerciful duns, and by the miserable state of their affairs, which they see going to rack.-St. Evremond,

LXXXI.

Ambition, like love, can abide no lingering; and even urgeth on his own successes, hating nothing but what may stop them.- Sir P. Sidney.

LXXXII.

I had a friend that lov'd me:

I was his soul: he liv'd not but in me :
We were so close within each other's breast,
The rivets were not found that join'd us first.
That does not reach us yet: we were so mix'd,
As meeting streams: both to ourselves were lost.
We were one mass, we could not give or take,
But from the same: for He was I; I, He:
Return my better half, and give me all myself,
For thou art all!

If I have any joy when thou art absent,

I grudge it to myself: methinks I rob
Thee of thy part.

LXXXIII.

Dryden.

Of all things, wisdom is the most terrified with epidemical fanaticism, because, of all enemies, it is that against which she is the least able to furnish any kind of resource.- Burke.

LXXXIV.

Reason! how many eyes hast thou to see evils, and how dim, nay, blind, thou art in preventing them.Sir P. Sidney.