MLXXX.

An inward sincerity will of course influence the outward deportment; but where the one is wanting, there is great reason to suspect the absence of the other.Sterne.

MLXXXI.

Thick waters show no images of things;

Friends are each other's mirrors, and should be Clearer than crystal, or the mountain springs, And free from cloud, design, or flattery. For vulgar souls no part of friendship share, Poets and friends are born to what they are.

MLXXXII.

Cath. Phillips.

Observation is an old man's memory.-Swift.

MLXXXIII.

Sir S. Legend.-To find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task. But, faith and troth, you speak very discreetly. I hate a wit, I had a son that was spoiled among them; a good hopeful lad, till he learned to be a wit, and might have risen in the State. But, a plague on't! his wit ran him out of his money, and now his poverty has run him out of his wits.-Love for Love. Congreve.

MLXXXIV.

Wit, and 't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits that think they have thee do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man: for, what says Quinapalus? Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.-Shakspeare.

MLXXXV.

The immortal gods

Accept the meanest altars, that are raised
By pure devotions; and sometimes prefer
An ounce of frankincense, honey, or milk,
Before whole hecatombs, or Sabaan gems,
Offer'd in ostentation.

Massinger.

MLXXXVI.

Science distinguishes a man of honour from one of those athletic brutes, whom, undeservedly, we call heroes. Cursed be the poet who first honoured with that name a mere Ajax, a man-killing idiot!-Dryden.

MLXXXVII.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.

MLXXXVIII.

Shakspeare.

The vicious man lives at random, and acts by chance; for he that walks by no rule can carry on no settled or steady design.-Tillotson.

MLXXXIX.

'Tis virtue which they want, and wanting it,
Honour no garment to their backs can fit.

Cynthia's Revels-Ben Jonson.

MXC.

The tongue of a fool is the key of his counsel, which, in a wise man, wisdom hath in keeping.-Socrates.

MXCI.

Moderation, is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.-Fuller.

MXCII.

Heaven first, in its mercy, taught mortals their letters,
For ladies in limbo, and lovers in fetters;

Or some author, who, placing his persons before ye,
Ungallantly leaves them to write their own story.
Guy Mannering.

MXCIII.

Your legs do sufficiently show you are a gentleman born, Sir; for a man born upon little legs, is always a gentleman born.-Ben Jonson.

MXCIV.

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances, "memento quod es homo;" and, "memento quod es Deus, aut vice Dei," the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.-Lord Bacon.

MXCV.

Were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all sins:
Inconstancy falls off; ere it begins.

MXCVI.

Shakspeare.

If we estimate at a shilling a day what is lost by the inaction and consumed in the support of each man chained down to involuntary idleness by imprisonment, the public loss will rise in one year to three hundred thousand pounds; in ten years to more than a sixth part of our circulating coin.-Johnson.

MXCVII.

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'tis all barren-and so it is; and so is all the world to him who who will not cultivate the fruits it offers.-Sterne.

MXCVIII.

Grant, me, gentle Love, said I,
One dear blessing ere I die;
Long I've borne excess of pain,
Let me now some bliss obtain.
Thus to almighty Love I cry'd;
When angry, thus the god reply'd:
Blessings greater none can have
Art thou not Amynta's slave?
Cease, fond mortal, to implore,
For Love, Love himself's no more

Congreve

MXCIX.

We have now imprisoned one generation of debtors after another, but we do not find that their numbers lessen. We have now learned, that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud or avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.-Johnson.

MC.

"Tis not a tale, 'tis not a jest,
Admir'd with laughter at a feast,

Nor florid talk, which can that title gain,
The proofs of wit, for ever must remain.
Cowley.

MCI.

Though every old man has been young, and every young one hopes to be old, there seems to be a most unnatural misunderstanding between those two sages of life. This unhappy want of commerce arises from the insolent arrogance or exultation in youth, and the irrational despondence or self-pity in age.-Steele.

MCII.

Promising is the very air of the time; it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will and testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.Shakspeare.

МСІІІ.

I know a lady that loves talking so incessantly, she won't give an echo fair play; she has that everlasting rotation of tongue, that an echo must wait till she dies, before it can catch her last words.-Congreve.

MCIV.

We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember.-Johnson.

MCV.

Would men learn but to distinguish spirits,
And set true difference 'twixt those jaded wits
That run a broken pace for common hire,
And the high raptures of a happy muse,
Borne on the wings of her immortal thought,
That kicks at earth with a disdainful heel,
And beats at heaven-gates with her bright hoofs;
They would not then with such distorted faces,
And desperate censures, stab at Poesy.

They would admire bright knowledge, and their minds
Should ne'er descend on so unworthy objects
As gold, or titles; they would dread far more
To be thought ignorant, than be known poor.

The Poetaster-Ben Johnson.

MCVI.

- Who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat!
O, no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.
Shakspeare.

MCVII.

In translations no nations might more excel than the English, though, as matters are now managed, we come so far short of the French. There may indeed be a reason assigned, which bears a very great probability; and that is, that here the booksellers are the undertakers of works of this nature, and they are persons more devoted to their own gain than the public honour. They are very parsimonious in rewarding the wretched scribblers they employ; and care not how the business is done, so that it be but done. They live by selling titles, not books; and if that carry off one impression,