that the way to get every thing is to be good for nothing.'

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9. If ordinary beggars are whipped, the daily beggars in fine clothes, out of a proportionable respect to their quality, ought to be hanged.'

17. If a prince does not show an aversion from knaves, there will be an inference that will be very natural, let it be never so unmannerly.'

18. A prince, who followeth his own opinion too soon, is in danger of repenting it too late.'

19. The prince is to take care, that the greater part of the people may not be angry at the same time; for, though the first beginning of their ill-humour should be against one another, yet if not stopped, it will naturally end in anger against him.'

22. A wise prince will support good servants against men's anger, and not support ill ones against their complaint.'

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27. Changing hands, without changing measures, is as if a drunkard in a dropsy should change his doctors, and not his diet.'

30. Quality alone should only serve to make a show in the embroidered part of the government; but ignorance, though never so well born, should never be admitted to spoil the public business.'

33. A people may let a king fall, yet still remain a people; but, if a king let his people slip from him, he is no longer king.'

From the Advice to a Daughter.'

The first thing to be considered, is Religion. It must be the chief object of your thoughts; since it would be a vain thing to direct your behaviour in the

world, and forget that which you are to have toward him that made it.

In a strict sense, it is the only thing necessary: you must take it into your mind, and thence throw it into your heart, where you are to embrace it so close, as never to lose the possession of it. But, then, it is necessary to distinguish between the reality and the pretence.

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Religion doth not consist in believing the legends of the nursery, where children with their milk are fed with the tales of witches, hobgoblins, &c. We suck in so greedily these early mistakes, that our riper understanding hath much ado to cleanse our minds from this kind of trash: the stories are so entertaining, that we do not only believe them, but relate them; which makes the discovery of the truth somewhat grievous, when it makes us lose such a field of impertinence, where we might have diverted ourselves, beside the throwing some shame upon us for having ever received them. This is making the world a jest, and imputing to God Almighty, that the province he assigneth to the devil is to play at blindman's buff, and show tricks with mankind; and is so far from being religion, that it is not sense, and hath a right only to be called that kind of devotion, of which ignorance is the undoubted mother without competition or dispute. These mistakes are, therefore, to be left off with your hanging-sleeves; and you ought to be as much out of countenance to be found with them about you, as to be seen playing with babies at an age when other things are expected from you.

'The next thing to be observed to you is, that religion doth as little consist in loud answers and devout convulsions at church, or praying in an extraordinary manner. Some ladies are so extremely stir

ring at church, that one would swear the worm in their conscience made them so unquiet. Others will have such a divided face between a devout goggle and an inviting glance, that the unnatural mixture maketh even the best looks to be at that time ridiculous. These affected appearances are ever suspected, like very strong perfumes, which are generally thought no very good symptoms in those that make use of them. Let your earnestness, therefore, be reserved for your closet, where you may have God Almighty to yourself: in public, be still and calm, nei. ther indecently careless, nor affected in the other

extreme.

It is not true devotion, to put on an angry zeal against those, who may be of a different persuasion. Partiality to ourselves makes us often mistake it for a duty, to fall hard upon others in that case: and being pushed on by self-conceit, we strike without mercy, believing that the wounds we give are meritorious, and that we are fighting God Almighty's quarrel; when the truth is, we are only setting out ourselves. Our devotion too often breaketh out into that shape, which most agreeth with our particular temper. The choleric grow into a hardened severity against all, who dissent from them; snatch at all the texts of Scripture, that suit with their complexion; and because God's wrath was sometime kindled, they conclude that anger is a divine virtue, and are so far from imagining their ill-natured zeal requireth an apology, that they value themselves upon it and triumph in it. Others, whose nature is more credulous than ordinary, admit no bounds or measure to it. They grow as proud of extending their faith, as princes are of enlarging their dominions: not considering that our faith, like our stomach, is capable of being over

charged; and, that as the last is destroyed by taking in more than it can digest, so our reason may be extinguished by oppressing it with the weight of too many strange things; especially, if we are forbidden to chew what we are commanded to swallow. The melancholy and the sullen are apt to place a great part of their religion in dejected or ill-humoured looks, putting on an unsociable face, and declaiming against the innocent entertainments of life with as much sharpness as they could bestow upon the greatest crimes. This, generally, is only a vizard; there is seldom any thing real in it. No other thing is the better for being sour; and it would be hard, that religion should be so, which is the best of things. In the mean time it may be said with truth, that this surly kind of devotion hath perhaps done little less hurt in the world by frighting, than the most scandalous examples have done by infecting it.

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Having told you in these few instances, to which many more might be added, what is not true religion, it is time to describe to you what is so. The ordinary definitions of it are no more like it, than the common sign-posts are like the princes they would represent. The unskilful daubers in all ages have generally laid on such ill colours, and drawn such harsh lines, that the beauty of it is not easily to be discerned they have put in all the forbidding features that can be thought of, and in the first place have made it an irreconcilable enemy to nature; when in reality they are not only friends, but twins born together at the same time, and it is doing violence to them both to go about to have them separated. Nothing is so kind, and so inviting, as true and unsophisticated religion. Instead of imposing unnecessary burthens upon our nature, it easeth us of the greater

weight of our passions and mistakes; instead of subduing us with rigour, it redeemeth us from the slavery we are in to ourselves, who are the most severe masters while we are under the usurpation of our appetites let loose and not restrained.

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Religion is a cheerful thing; so far from being always at cuffs with good-humour, that it is inseparably united to it. Nothing unpleasant belongs to it, though the spiritual cooks have done their unskilful part to give an ill relish to it. A wise epicure would be religious for the sake of pleasure: good sense is the foundation of both, and he is a bungler, who aimeth at true luxury but where they are joined.

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Religion is exalted reason, refined and sifted from the grosser parts of it: it dwelleth in the upper region of the mind, where there are fewest clouds or mists to darken or offend it: it is both the foundation, and the crown, of all virtues: it is morality improved and raised to it's height, by being carried nearer heaven, the only place where perfection resideth: it cleanseth the understanding, and brusheth off the earth that hangeth about our souls: it doth not want the hopes, and the terrors, which are made use of to support it; neither ought it to descend to the borrowing of any argument out of itself, since there we may find every thing that should invite us. If we were to be hired to religion, it is able to outbid the corrupted world, with all it can offer to us; being so much the richer of the two, in every thing where reason is admitted to be a judge of the value.

• Since this is so, it is worth your pains to make religion your choice, and not make use of it only as a refuge. There are ladies, who finding by the too