gence denies him to partake, and who has no other end in his advice than to revenge his own mortification, by hindering those whom their birth and taste have set above him, from the enjoyment of their superiority, and bringing them down to a level with himself. Rambler, vol. 1.

Genius.

Genius is powerful when invested with the glitter of affluence. Men willingly pay to fortune that regard which they owe to merit, and are pleased when they have an opportunity at once of gratifying their vanity, and practising their duty.

Life of Savage.

Men have sometimes appeared of such transcendent abilities, that their slightest and most cursory performances excel all that labour and study can enable meaner intellects to compose: as there are regions of which the spontaneous products cannot be equalled, in other soils, by care and culture. But it is no less dangerous for any man to place himself in this rank of understanding, and fancy that he is born to be illustrious without labour, than to

omit the care of husbandry, and expect from his ground the blossoms of Arabia. Rambler, vol. 4.

Great powers cannot be exerted but when great exigencies make them necessary. Great exigencies can happen but seldom, and therefore those qualities, which have a claim to the veneration of mankind, lie hid, for the most part, like subterranean treasures, over which the foot passes as on common ground, till necessity breaks open the golden cavern. Idler, vol. 1.

Many works of genius and learning have been performed in states of life, that appear very little favourable to thought or to inquiry; so many, that he who considers them is inclined to think that he sees enterprise and perseverance predominating over all external agency, and bidding help and hinderance vanish before them.

Preface to Shakspeare.

Government.

Governments formed by chance, and gradually improved by such expedients as the successive discovery of their defects

happened to suggest, are never to be tried by a regular theory. They are fabrics of dissimilar materials, raised by different architects upon different plans. We must be content with them as they are: should we attempt to mend their disproportions, we might easily demolish, and with difficulty rebuild them.

False Alarm.

The general history of mankind will evince, that lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed. Gross corruption, or evident imbecility, is necessary to the suppression of that reverence, with which the majority of mankind look upon their governors, or those whom they see surrounded by splendour, and fortified by power. Rambler, vol. 1.

Guilt.

Guilt is generally afraid of light; it considers darkness as a natural shelter, and makes night the confidant of those actions, which cannot be trusted to the tell-tale day. Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 6.

It may be observed, perhaps, without exception, that none are so industrious to detect wickedness, or so ready to impute it, as they whose crimes are apparent and

confessed. They envy an unblemished reputation, and what they envy they are busy to destroy: they are unwilling to suppose themselves meaner and more corrupt than others, and therefore willingly pull down from their elevations those with whom they cannot rise to an equality. Rambler, vol. 2.

Self-Government.

No man, whose appetites are his masters, can perform the duties of his nature with strictness and regularity. He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions. Idler, vol. 1.

Greatness.

That awe which great actions or abilities impress, will be inevitably diminished by acquaintance, though nothing either mean or criminal should be found; because we do not easily consider him as great whom our own eyes show us to be little; nor labour to keep present to our thoughts the latent excellences of him who shares with us all our weaknesses and many of our follies; who, like us, is delighted with slight amusements, busied with trifling

employments, and disturbed by little vexIdler, vol. 1.

ations.

Gratitude.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge; and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain. Rambler, vol. 2.

The charge against ingratitude is very general. Almost every man can tell what favours he has conferred upon insensibility, and how much happiness he has bestowed without return; but, perhaps, if these patrons and protectors were confronted with any whom they boast of having befriended, 't would often appear that they consulted only their own pleasure or vanity, and repaid themselves their petty donatives by gratifications of insolence, and indulgence of contempt. Ibid. vol. 3.

Happiness.

Whether perfect happiness can be procured by perfect goodness, this world will never afford an opportunity of deciding. But this, at least, may be maintained, that we do not always find visible happiness in proportion to visible virtue.

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Prince of Abyssinia