When once you profefs yourself a friend, endeavour to be always fuch. He can never have any true friends, that will be often changing them. Profperity gains friends, and adverfity tries them. Nothing more engages the affections of men than a handfome addrefs, and graceful converfation. Complaifance renders a fuperior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior accept able. Excels of ceremony fhews want of breeding. That civility is buit, which excludes all fuperfluous formality. Ingratitude is a crime fo fhameful, that the man was never yet found, who would acknowledge himfelf guilty of it. Truth is born with us; and we must do violence to nature to thake off our veracity. There cannot be a greater treachery, than Erft to raise a confidence, and then deceive it. By others faults wife men correct their own. No man hath a thorough rate of prosperity, to whom adverfity never happened. When our vices leave us, we flatter felves that we leave them. It is a great a point of wisdom to hide norance, as to difcovered knowledge. Anger may glance into the breaft of a wife man, but refts only in the bofom of fools. None more impatiently fuffer injuries, than those who are moft forward in doing. them. By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in palling it over he is fuperior. To err is human: to forgive, divine. A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours. The prodigal robs his heir, the mifer robs himfelf. We fhall take a prudent care for the fucure, but fo as to enjoy the prefent. It. is no part of wildom to be miferable to-day because we may happen to be fo to-mor row.. To mourn without meafure, is folly; ner to mourn at all, infenfibility. Some would be thought to do great things who are but tools and inftruments, like the fool who fancied he played upon the organy our-when he only blew the bellows. Though a man may become learned by anig-other's learning, he can never be wife but by his own wifdem. Pitch upon that courfe of life which is the moft excellent: and habit will render is the moft delightful. Cuftom is the plague of wife men, and the idol of fools. As, to be perfectly juft, is an attribute of the Divine nature; to be fo to the utmost of our abuities, is the glory of man. No man was ever catt down with the injuties of fortune, unlets he had before fuffered felf to be deceived by her favours. The coin that is moft current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is, that by hearing what we are not, we may be inftructed what 'we ought to bc. He that is truly polite, knows how to comtradict with refpect, and to please without adulation; and is equally remote from a infipid complaifance, and a low familiari ty. The character of the perfon who com- The failings of good men are commonly mends you, is to be confidered before you more published in the world than their good fet a value on his efteem. The wife man deeds; and one fault of a deferving man thail applauds him whom he thinks moft virtuous; meet with more reproaches, than all his virthe reft of the world, him who is most weal-tues praife: fuch is the force of ill-will and ahy. ill-nature. The temperate man's plcafures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is calm and ferene, because it is innocent. A good man will love himself too well to lofe, and all his neighbours too well to win, an eftate by gaming. The love of gaming will corrupt the best principles in the world." An angry man who fuppreffes his paflions, thinks worfe than he fpeaks; and an angry man that will chide, fpeaks worse than he thinks. A good word is an eafy obligation; but not to fpeak ill, requires only our filence, which cofts us nothing. It is to affectation the world owes its whole race of coxcombs. Nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a part; she has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making. It is the infirmity of little minds, to be taken with every appearance, and dazzled with every thing that fparkles; but great minds have but little admiration, Becaufe few things appear new to them. It is harder to avoid cenfure, than to gain applaufe; for this may be done by one great or wife action in an age; but to escape cenfure, a man muft pafs his whole life without faying or doing one ill or foolish thing. When Darius offered Alexander ten thoufand talents to divide Afia equally with him, he anfwered, The earth cannot bear two funs, nor Afia two kings.-Parmenio, a friend of Alexander's, hearing the great offers Darius had made, said, Were I Alexander I would accept them. So would I, replied Alexander, were I Parmenio. Nobility is to be confidered only as an ima ginary diftinction, unless accompanied with the practice of thofe generous virtues by which it ought to be obtained. Titles of honour conferred upon fuch as have no perfonal me rit, are at beft but the royal stamp set upon bafe metal. Though an honourable title may be conveyed to pofterity, yet the ennobling qualities which are the foul of greatnefs, are a fort of incommunicable perfections, and cannot be It happens to men of learning, as to ears transferred. If a man could bequeath his of corn: they fhout up, and raise their heads virtues by will, and fettle his fenfe and learnbigh while they are cinpty: but when fulling upon his heirs, as certainly as he can his al swelled with grain, they begin to flag and lands, a noble defcent would then indeed be dipop. a valuable privilege.. Truth Truth is always confiftent with itself, and Reeds nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is teady to drop out before we are aware: whereas a lye is troublefome, 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 goodnefs, that will crown our virtuous endeavours here with a happiness hereafter, large as our defires, and lating 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 standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years; but wifdom is the grey hair Hato man, and unfpotted life is old age. Wickedness, condemned by her own witnefs, is very tinorous, and being preffed with confcience, always forecafteth evil things; for fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon offereth. A wife man will fear in every thing. He that contemneth finall things, thall 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 spoken, and yet men juftify hia: the poor man flipt, and they rebuked him, he fpoke wifely, and could have no place. When a rich man fpeaketh, everyman holdeth his tongue, and, look, what he faith they extul it to the clouds, but if a poor man fpeaks, they fay, What fellow is this? Many have fallen by the edge of the fword, but not fo many as have fallen by the tongue. 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 haft examined the truth; understand first, and then re buke. If thou wouldeft get a friend, prove him firft, and be not hafty to credit him; for fome men are 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 adverfi ty. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not done it; and if he have, that he do it ne more. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not faid it; or if he have, that he speak it not again. Admonish a friend; for mans 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 discovereth 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 how canft thou recompence them the things | one religion, but that they should talk together that they have done for thee. every day. 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 sweet life. Be at peace with many; neverthelefs, have but one counsellor of a thousand. Be not confident in a plain way. Let reafon go before every enterprize, and counfel before every action. 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 patlion all their follies. Occonomy 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 pleased with the confution of a rafcal. 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 fhould regard his minutest actions. The latter part of a wife man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and falle opinions he had contracted in the Every perfon infenfibly fixes upon fome former. degree of refinement in his difcourfe, fome Cenfure is the tax a man pays to the pub-meafure of thought which he thinks worth lic for being eminent. exhibiting. It is wife to fix this pretty high, although it occafions one to talk the lets. Very few men, properly fpeaking, live at prefent, but are providing to live another time. To endeavour all one's days to fortify our minds with learning and philofophy, is to fpend 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 pe proud themfelves if they were in their places. People frequently ufe this expreffion, 1 am inclined to think fo and fo, not confidering that they are then speaking the most literal of all truths. Modefty makes large amends for the ran 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 motive. The honeft man does that from duty, which the man of honour does for the fake of character. A liar begins with making falfehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itlelf appear like falfehood. Virtue fhould be confidered as a part of tafte; and we fhould as much avoid deceit, or finifter meanings in difcourfe, as we weald puns, bad language, or falfe gram mar. Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compli ments. He that lies in bed all a fummer's morning, lofes the chief pleasure of the day; he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a lofs of the fame kind. Shining characters are not always the most agreeable ones; the mild radiance of an emerald is by no means lefs pleafing 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 so 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 fense; 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 skilful hands; in unskilful, most mifchievous. A man fhould never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but faying in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. 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, pleasing to those 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 moft injured by flanderers: as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been pecking at. The eye of a critic is often like a microfcope, made fo very fine and nice, that it dif covers the atoms, grains, and minutest particles, without ever comprehending the whole, com- paring the parts, or fecing 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 contefted 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 less to remove. Honour |