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may escape our notice, which cannot happen to us in translating them; and thus we increase our knowledge, and improve our judgment." *

Abuse of the Great.

Those who too minutely examine, and too severely condemn, the foibles and vices of persons of rank and opulence, do not know the circumstances of the persons, and from want of candour do not take care to speak with proper caution. The fact is, every man of rank and fortune is bred in a hotbed of flatterers and false friends, who live by the vices which they encourage in their patron. Let any one look round in the neighbourhood of his own village, and he will find that the lord and rich squire, who reigns the petty tyrant of his realms, is often surrounded by the worst people in it, whom he justly calls his dear friends. Indeed no virtuous man will approach him; for virtue and the love of independence go hand in hand.

Abuse of Speech.

"Truth is to be found and supported by a mature and due consideration of things themselves, and not by artificial terms and ways of arguing. These lead men not so much into the discovery of truth, * Seventh Book, 9th Epist. + Locke on Education, p. 287.

as into a captious and fallacious use of doubtful words, which is the most useless and most offensive way of talking, and such as least suits a gentleman, or a lover of truth, of any thing in the world.” This manly censure of quibbling and cavilling in conversation is well directed against the ill use of rhetoric, which our witty bard has aptly ridiculedFor all a rhetorician's rules

Teach nothing but to name his tools.

Hudibras, canto 1, p. 5.

Grammar.

When we hear foolish or unlearned men talk of the dulness and inutility of the labours of grammarians, we do not wonder or feel at all interested in such absurdities. We indeed are surprised that such men as Swift and Pope should endeavour to deny the merit of such men as Bentley, Burmanus, &c. and that they did not check their wit and their malice by the considerations on, and conviction of, the utility of such studies. Every wise man knows, that the connection between language, and the human understanding and knowledge, is very close. In proof of this, we may recollect the ancient philosophers often joined to their speculations on scientific subjects deep researches into the ground-work of grammar. See Ham's Hermes.

Duc de Rochefoucault.

When this acute author declares that "few persons would fall in love, if they had not heard of it," he must mean the higher kind of this passion, viz. the sentimental, as it is called; where a man prefers one woman, out of many equally handsome, for some mental accomplishment or disposition. In respect to the common passion between the sexes, an idiot is as well, if not more, acquainted with it, than the most learned man.

Ancient Philosophers.

There seems a wonderful deal of cant among the sages of antiquity, especially the sect of Stoics. To make themselves conspicuous, and as they thought superior, to the rest of mankind, they pretended to despise honours, wealth, and pleasures. Seneca talked in this manner in his writings, "ad captandum vulgus;" but lived in magnificent buildings, walked in luxurious and extensive gardens of his own, and no doubt laughed at his brothers in this canting philosophy.

They praise old Cato, and admire his fate,
But in their lives they Clodius imitate.

Juvenal.

Explainers and Demonstrators.

These are very troublesome persons in company, who on every subject go into the minutest details, and leave nothing to the audience to find out themselves. Such persons are considered as arrogant and pedantic, as they injure the self-love of every one who hears them, by being too didactic and instructive; as Falstaff says, "No reasons upon compulsion, Hal;" we like a man to give us instruction by hints and half speeches; this flatters us with a verbum sat sapienti.'

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Witty Persons.

As in the French drama all the characters are eloquent, so in Congreve all or most of his personages are witty, and do not "bear their faculties very meekly." Wives (to use a well-known phrase) quiz their husbands, nieces their uncles, and servants their masters. Such company, for a grave man, is rather formidable, where joking is argument, and ribaldry good sense. Shakespeare has taught us how to demean ourselves, should we fall in among such a gang.

He whom a fool doth very wisely hit,
Doth very foolishly, (although he smart,)
Not to seem senseless of the bob; if not,
The wise man's folly is anatomized,
E'en by the squandering glances of a fool.

N. B. It may be right to observe, that in Shakespeare's time a fool meant a merry wag, a tremendous companion for a dull man.

The Philosophy of prolonging Life.

Addison, in one of his Spectators, observes that the oldest men of his acquaintance were persons of tranquil dispositions. Such men wore well,' as he expresses it. The truth of the observation was strongly exemplified in the life of M. Fontenelle, who lived within a year of a century. The following verses on his death are truly descriptive of such a man as Addison describes, and have that simplicity and fidelity to nature not very common in French verses.

Amant de la philosophie,

Il suivit sans faste ses pas,
Portant l'équerre et le compas,
Sur les demarches de la vie.
Facile et plein d'amenité,
Par un seduisant badinage
Il ornait l'austere langage,
Qui fait craindre la verité.
D'autres occupés à paroitre,
Sans tourner leurs regards sur eux,
Enseignerent l'art d'etre heureux:
If faisait plus, il savait l'être.

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