of honour conferred upon fuch as have no perfonal merit, are at best but the royal lamp fet upon base metal. Though an honourable title may be coneyed to pofterity, yet the ennobling quaities which are the foul of greatnefs are a fort of incommunicable perfections, and cannot be transferred. If a man could bequeath his virtues by will, and fettle his fenfe and learning upon his heirs, as certainly as he can his lands, a noble defcent would then indeed be a valuable privilege. Truth is always confiftent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware: whereas a lye is troublesome, and fets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good. The pleafure which affects the human. mind with the moft lively and tranfporting touches, is the fenfe that we act in the eye of infinite wifdom, power, and goodness, that will crown our virtuous endeavours Here with a happiness hereafter, large as our defires, and lafting as our immortal fouls: without this the higheft ftate of life is infipid, and with it the loweft is a paradife. Honourable age is not that which flandeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years; but wifdom is the grey hair unto man, and unfpotted life is old age: Wickednefs, condemned by her own witnefs, is very timorous, and being preffed with confcience, always forecasteth evil things; for fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon of fereth. A wife man will fear in every thing. He that contemneth fmall things, fhall fall by little and little. A rich man beginning to fall, is held up of his friends; but a poor man being down, is thruft away by his friends: when a rich man is fallen, he hath many helpers; he fpeaketh things not to be fpoken, and yet men juftify him: the poor man flipt, and they rebuked him; he spoke wifely, and could have no place. When a rich man fpeaketh, every man holdeth his tongue, and, look, what he faith they extol it to the clouds; but if a poor man speaks, they fay, What fellow is this? Many have fallen by the edge of the fword, but not fo many as have fallen by the fongue. Well is he that is defended from it, and hath not paffed through the venom thereof; who hath not drawn the yoke thereof, nor been bound in her bonds; for the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron, and the bands thereof are bands of brafs; the death thereof is an evil death. My fon, blemish not thy good deeds, neither ufe uncomfortable words, when thou giveft any thing. Shall not the dew affuage the heat? fo is a word better than a gift. Lo, is not a word better than a gift? but both are with a gracious man. Blame not, before thou hast examined the truth; understand firft, and then rebuke. If thou wouldeft get a friend, prove him firft, and be not halty to credit him; for fome men arc friends for their own occafions, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble. Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure. A friend cannot be known in profperity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adverfity. Admonish thy friend: it may be he hath not done it; and if he have, that he do it no more. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not faid it; or if he have that he fpeak it not again. Admonish a friend; for many times it is a flander; and believe not every tale. There is one that flippeth in his fpeech, but not from his heart; and who is he that hath not offended with his tongue? Whofo difcovereth fecrets lofeth his credit, and shall never find a friend to his mind. Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the forrows of thy mother; how canft thou recompenfe them the things that they have done for thee? There is nothing fo much worth as a mind well inftructed. The lips of talkers will be telling fuch things as pertain not unto them; but the words of fuch as have understanding are weighed in the balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the tongue of the wife is in their heart. To labour, and to be content with that a man hath, is a fweet life. Be at peace with many; nevertheless, have but one counfellor of a thousand. Be not confident in a plain way. Let reafon go before every enterprize, and counfel before every action. The Some people will never learn any thing, for this reafon, because they understand every thing too soon. There is nothing wanting, to make all rational and difinterefted people in the world of one religion, but that they fhould talk together every day. Men are grateful, in the fame degree that they are refentful. Young men are fubtle arguers; the cloak of honour covers all their faults, as that of paffion all their follies. Economy is no difgrace; it is better living on a little, than outliving a great deal. Next to the fatisfaction I receive in the profperity of an honeft man, I am best pleafed with the confufion of a rascal. What is often termed fhynefs, is nothing more than refined fenfe, and an indifference to common obfervations. The higher character a perfon fupports, the more he should regard his minuteft actions. Every perfon infenfibly fixes upon fome degree of refinement in his difcourfe, fome measure of thought which he thinks worth exhibiting. It is wife to fix this pretty high, although it occafions one to talk the lels. To endeavour all one's days to fortify our minds with learning and philofophy, is to spend fo much in armour, that one has nothing left to defend. Deference often fhrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy, as the fenfitive plant does upon the touch of one's, finger. Men are fometimes accufed of pride, merely because their accufers would be proud themfelves if they were in their places. People frequently ufe this expreffioheit am inclined to think fo and fo, not confidering that they are then speaking the moft literal of all truths. Modefty makes large amends for the pain it gives the perfons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy perfon in their favour. The difference there is betwixt honour and honefty feems to be chiefly in the mo tive. The honeft man does that from duty, which the man of honour does for the fake of character. A liar begins with making a falfehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood. Virtue fhould be confidered as a part of tafte: and we should as much avoid deceit, or finifter meanings in difcourfe, as we would puns, bad language, or falle grammar. Deference is the most complicate, the moft indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. He that lies in bed all a fummer's morning, lofes the chief pleasure of the day 2 he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a lofs of the fame kind. Shining characters are not always the moft agreeable ones; the mild radiance of an emerald is by no means lefs pleasing than the glare of the ruby. To be at once a rake, and to glory in the character, difcovers at the fame time a bad difpofition and a bad taste. How is it poffible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not fe much as take warning? Although men are accufed for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own ftrength. It is in men as in foils, where fometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. Fine fenfe, and exalted fenfe, are not half fo valuable as common fenfe. There are forty men of wit for one man of fenfe; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a lofs for want of ready change. Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in fkilful hands; in unfkilful, most mifchievous. A man fhould never be afhamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but faying in other words, that he is wifer today than he was yesterday. Wherever Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generofity if he were a rich man. Flowers of rhetoric in fermons or serious difcourfes, are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleafing to thofe who come only for amufement, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit. It often happens that thofe are the best people, whofe characters have been most injured by flanderers: as we ufually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been pecking at. The eye of a critic is often like a microscope, made so very fine and nice, that it difcovers the atoms, grains, and minutest articles, without ever comprehending the whole, comparing the parts, or feeing all at once the harmony. Men's zeal for religion is much of the fame kind as that which they fhew for a foot-ball; whenever it is contested for, every one is ready to venture their lives and limbs in the difpute; but when that is once at an end, it is no more thought on, but fleeps in oblivion, buried in rubbish, which no one thinks it worth his pains to take into, much lefs to remove. Honour is but a fictious kind of honefty; a mean but a neceffary fubstitute for it, in focieties who have none; it is a fort of paper-credit, with which men are obliged to trade who are deficient in the fterling cash of true morality and religion. Perfons of great delicacy fhould know the certainty of the following truthThere are abundance of cafes which occafion fufpence, in which, whatever they determine, they will repent of their determination; and this through a propenfity of human nature to fancy happinefs in thofe fchemes which it does not purfue. The chief advantage that ancient writers can boast over modern ones, seems owing to fimplicity. Every noble truth and fentiment was expreffed by the former in a natural manner, in word and phrase fimple, perfpicuous, and incapable of improvement. What then remained for later writers, but affectation, witticifm, and conceit? What a piece of work is man! how noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a God! If to do were as eafy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes palaces. He is a good divine that follows his own inftructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow my own teaching. Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues. not; The fenfe of death is most in apprehenfion : and the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal fufferance feels a pang as great, As when a giant dies. $151. PROVERBS. As PROVERBS are allowed to contain a great deal of Wifdom forcibly expreffed, it bas been judged proper to and a Colletion of English, Italian, and Spanish Proverbs. They will tend to exercife the powers of Judgment and Reflection. They may also furnish Subjects for Themes, Letters, Ec. at Schools. They are fo eafily retained in the memory that they may often occur in an emergency, and ferve a young man mert effectually than more formal and elegant Jentences. Old English Proverbs. In every work begin and end with God. The grace of God is worth a fair. He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wife man who will not. So much of paffion, fo much of nothing to the purpose. 'Tis wit to pick a lock, and steal a horse; but 'tis wisdom to let it alone. Sorrow is good for nothing but for fin. Love thy neighbour; yet pull not down thy hedge. Half an acre is good land. Chear up, man, God is ftill where he was. Of little meddling comes great ease. He who perishes in a needlefs danger is the devil's martyr. Better fpare at the brim, than at the bot tom. He who ferves God is the true wife man The hafty man never wants woe, There Speak me fair, and think what you will. Serve God in thy calling; 'tis better than always praying. A child may have too much of his mother's blefling. He who gives alms makes the very beft ufe of his money. A wife man will neither fpeak, nor do, Whatever anger would provoke him to. Heaven once named, all other things are trifles. The patient man is always at home. Peace with heaven is the belt friendhip. The worst of croffes is never to have had any. Croffes are ladders that do lead up to heaven. Honour buys no beef in the market. When it rains pottage you must hold up your dish. He that is warm thinks all are so. If every man will mend one, we shall all be mended. Marry your fon when you will, your daughter when you can. None is a fool always, every one fome times. Think of eafe, but work on. He that lies long in bed his estate feels it, The child faith nothing but what it heard by the fire-fide. A gentleman, a greyhound, and a faltbox, look for at the fire-fide. The fon full and tattered, the daughter empty and fine. He who rifeth betimes hath fomething in his head. Fine dreffing is a foul houfe fwept beFore the doors. Difcontent is a man's worst evil. He who lives well fees afar off. Love is not to be found in the market. My houfe, my houfe, though thou art ímall. Thou art to me the Efcurial. He who feeks trouble never misseth it. Never was ftrumpet fair in a wife man's eye. He that hath little is the lefs dirty. tow. Woe be to the houfe where there is no chiding. The greateft ftep is that out of doors. Poverty is the mother of health. Wealth, like rheum, falls on the weakeft parts. If all fools wore white caps, we fhould look like a flock of geefe. Living well is the best revenge we can take on our enemies. Fair words make me look to my purfe. The fhortest answer is doing the thing. He who would have what he hath not, fhould do what he doth not. He who hath horns in his bofom, needs not put them upon his head. Good and quickly feldom meet. God is at the end when we think he is fartheft off. He who contemplates hath a day without night. Time is the rider that breaks youth. one. Talk much, and err much. The perfuafion of the fortunate fways the doubtful. True praise takes root, and fpreads. Happy is the body which is bleft with a mind not needing. Foolish tongues talk by the dozen. Shew a good man his error, and he turns it into a virtue; a bad man doubles his fault. When either fide grows warm in arguing, the wifeft man gives over first. Wife men with pity do behold Fools worship mules that carry gold. In the husband wisdom, in the wife gentleness. A wife man cares not much for what he cannot have. Pardon others but not thyfelf. him war. None is fo wife but the fool overtakes him. That is the best gown that goes most up and down the house. Silks and fattins put out the fire in the kitchen. The first dish pleaseth all. God's mill grinds flow, but fure. Neither praise nor dispraise thyself, thy actions ferve the turn. He who fears death lives not. He who pitieth another thinks on hims felf. Night is the mother of counfels. The faulty ftands always on his guard. Set good against evil. He goes not out of his way who goes to a good inn. It is an ill air where we gain nothing. Too much taking heed is fometimes lofs. 'Tis easier to build two chimnies than to maintain one. He hath no leifure who ufeth it not. The wife is the key of the house. The life of man is a winter way. The least foolish is accounted wife, Life is half spent before we know what it is to live. Wine is a turn-coat; firft a friend, then an enemy. Wine ever pays for his lodging. Conversation makes a man what he is: The dainties of the great are the tears of the poor. The great put the little on the hook. Lawyers |