LXXIV. 74.

Style in pating is the same as in writing; a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed.-—Sir J. Reynolds.

LXXV.75

Where jealousie is the jailour, many break the prison, it opening more wayes to wickednesse than it stoppeth; so that where it findeth one, it maketh ten dishonest.Fuller.

LXXVI. 76

The most usual way among young men who have no resolution of their own, first to ask one friend's advice, and follow it for some time: then to ask advice of another, and turn to that; so of a third; still unsteady, always changing. However, be assured that every change of this nature is for the worse; people may tell you of your being unfit for some peculiar occupations in life; but heed them not; whatever employment you follow with perseverance and assiduity will be found fit for you; i will be your support in youth, and comfort in age. In learning the useful part of every profession, very moderate abilities will suffice; even if the mind be a little balanced with stupidity, it may in this case be useful. Great abi lities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones. Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion still improves, by observing, that the most swift are ever the least manageable.

To know one profession only is enough for one man; and this (whatever the professors may tell you to the contrary) is soon learned. Be contented, therefore, with one good employment; for if you understand two at a time, people will give you business in neither.-Goldsmith.

LXXVII. 77.

He that is a good man, is three quarters of his way towards the being a good christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.-South.

LXXVIII. 7

Raillery is no longer agreeable only while the whole

company is pleased with it. I would least of all be understood to except the person rallied.-Steele.

IXXIX. 79;

The condition of human nature resembles a table chequered with compartments of black and white: potentates and people have their rise and fall; cities and families their trines and sextiles, their quartiles and op

positions. Burton, LXXX. 80

Judgment is but a curious pair of scales,

That turns with th' hundredth part of true or false,
And still the more 't is us'd is wont t' abate
The subtlety and niceness of its weight,
Until 't is false, and will not rise, nor fall,
Like those that are less artificial;

And therefore students, in their ways of judging,
Are fain to swallow many a senseless gudgeon,
And by their over-understanding lose

Its active faculty with too much use;

For reason,

when too curiously 't is spun, Is but the next of all remov'd from none.

LXXXI.

Butler.

It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossible that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.-Lavater.

LXXXII. 82

Jarres concealed are half reconciled; which if generally known, 'tis a double task, to stop the breach at home and men's mouths abroad. To this end, a good husband never publicly reproves his wife. An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present; after which, many study rather revenge than reformation. -Fuller.

83.

LXXXIII.

'Tis urged

That we corrupt youth, and traduce superiors.

When do we bring a vice upon the stage,
That does go off unpunish'd? Do we teach,
By the success of wicked undertakings,
Others to tread in their forbidden footsteps?
We show no arts of Lydian panderism,
Corinthian poisons, Persian flatteries,
But mulcted so in the conclusion, that
Even those spectators that were so inclined,
Go home chang'd men. And for traducing such
That are above us, publishing to the world
Their secret crimes, we are as innocent

As such as are born dumb. When we present
An heir, that does conspire against the life
Of his dear parent, numbering every hour
He lives, as tedious to him; if there be

Among the auditors, one whose conscience tells him
He is of the same mould, WE CANNOT HELP IT.

Or when a covetous man's express'd, whose wealth
Arithmetic cannot number, and whose lordships
A falcon in one day cannot fly over;
Yet he so sordid in his mind, so griping,
As not to afford himself the necessaries
To maintain life; if a patrician

(Though honour'd with a consulship) find himself
Touch'd to the quick in this,- -WE CANNOT HELP IT
Or when we show a judge that is corrupt,
And will give up his sentence, as he favours
The person, not the cause; saving the guilty,
If of his faction, and as oft condemning
The innocent, out of particular spleen;
If any in this reverend assembly,

Nay, even yourself, my lord, that are the image
Of absent Cæsar, feel something in your bosom
That puts you in remembrance of things past,
Or things intended, 'TIS NOT IN US TO HELP IT.
I have said, my lord: and now, as you find cause,
Or censure us, or free us with applause.

The Roman Actor.-Massinger.

LXXXIV. ¿4.

A good inclination is but the first rude draught of virtue; but the finishing strokes are from the will; which, if well disposed, will by degrees perfect; if ill disposed, will by the superinduction of ill habits quickly deface it.— South.

LXXXV. 5
8

There is not a man in the world, but desires to be, or to be thought to be, a wise man ; and yet if he considered how little he contributes himself thereunto, he might wonder to find himself in any tolerable degree of understanding.-Clarendon.

LXXXVI. 86.

I would, if possible, represent the errors of life, especially those arising from what we call gallantry, in such a manner as the people of pleasure may read me. In this case I must not be rough to gentlemen and ladies, but speak of sin as a gentleman.-Steele.

LXXXVII. 87.

The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals; it is diffused but in a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigour, unifor mity, and success.-Goldsmith.

LXXXVIII.

88.

He that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow, destroys a quick hedge to make a dead one.-Fuller.

LXXXIX. 89.

Many men knowing that merry company is the only medicine against melancholy, spend all their days among good fellows in a tavern or alehouse, drinking venenum pro vino, like so many malt-worms, men-fishes, watersnakes, or frogs in a puddle, and become mere funguses and casks.-Burton.

XC. 9.

Man, with raging drink/inflam'd,
Is far more savage and untam'd;

Supplies his loss of wit and sense
With barb'rousness and insolence;
Believes himself, the less he's able,
The more heroic, and formidable;
Lays by his reason in his bowls,
As Turks are said to do their souls,
Until it has so often been
Shut out of its lodging, and let in,
At length it never can attain
To find the right way back again;
Drinks all his time away, and prunes
The end of's life as vignerons
Cut short the branches of a vine,
To make it bear more plenty o' wine;
And that which nature did intend

T'enlarge his life, perverts t' its end.

XCI..

Butler.

A drunkard is one that will be a man to-morrow morning, but is now what you will make him, for he is in the power of the next man, and if a friend the better. One that hath let go himself from the hold and stay of reason, and lies open to the mercy of all temptations. No lust but finds him disarmed and fenceless, and with the least assault enters. If any mischief escape him, it was not his fault, for he was laid as fair for it as he could. Every man sees him, as Cham saw his father the first of this sin, an uncovered man, and though his garment be on, uncovered; the secretest parts of his soul lying in the nakedest manner visible: all his passions come out now, all his vanities, and those shamefuller humours which discretion clothes. His body becomes at last like a miry way, where the spirits are beclogged and cannot pass: all his members are out of office, and his heels do but trip up one another. He is a blind man with eyes, and a cripple with legs on. All the use he has of this vessel himself, is to hold thus much; for his drinking is but a scooping in of so many quarts. Tobacco serves to air him after a washing, and is his only breath and breathing while. He is the