Because conscience, and the fear of swerving from that which is right, maketh them diligent observers of circumstances, the loose regard whereof is the nurse of vulgar folly.

HOOKER.

Person belongs only to intelligent agents, capable of a law, and happiness and misery: this personality extends itself beyond present existence to what is past only by consciousness, whereby it imputes to itself past actions, just upon the same ground that it does the present. LOCKE.

To have countenanced in him irregularity, and disobedience to that light which he had,

would have been to have authorized disorder, confusion, and wickedness in his creatures. LOCKE.

Let a prince be guarded with soldiers, attended by councillors, and shut up in forts; yet if his thoughts disturb him, he is miserable.

PLUTARCH.

An honest mind is not in the power of a dishonest to break its peace there must be some guilt or consciousness. РОРЕ.

In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself: another is but one witness against thee; thou art a thousand; another thou mayest avoid; thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment. F. QUARLES. Conscience is at most times a very faithful and prudent admonitor. SHENSTONE.

I seek no better warrant than my own conscience, nor no greater pleasure than mine own contentation. SIR P. SIDNEY.

"Conscience" is a Latin word, and, according to the very notation of it, imports a double or joint knowledge; one of a divine law, and the other of a man's own action; and so is the application of a general law to a particular instance of practice.

SOUTH.

If a man accustoms himself to slight those first motions to good, or shrinkings of his conscience from evil, conscience will by degrees SOUTH. grow dull and unconcerned.

All resistance of the dictates of conscience brings a hardness and stupefaction upon it. SOUTH.

No honour, no fortune, can keep a man from being miserable when an enraged conscience shall fly at him, and take him by the throat. SOUTH.

The testimony of a good conscience will make the comforts of heaven descend upon man's weary head like a refreshing dew or shower upon a parched land. It will give him lively earnests and secret anticipations of approaching joy; it will bid his soul go out of the body undauntedly, and lift up his head with confidence before saints and angels. The comfort which it conveys is greater than the capacities of mortality can appreciate, mighty and unspeakable, and not to be understood till it is felt. SOUTH.

A palsy may as well shake an oak, or a fever dry up a fountain, as either of them shake, dry up, or impair the delight of conscience. For it lies within, it centres in the heart, it grows into the very substance of the soul, so that it accompanies a man to his grave, he never outlives it; and that for this cause only, because he cannot outlive himself. SOUTH.

It is not necessary for a man to be assured of the righteousness of his conscience by such an infallible certainty of persuasion as amounts to the clearness of a demonstration; but it is sufficient if he knows it upon grounds of such a probability as shall exclude all rational grounds of doubting. SOUTH.

Were men so enlightened and studious of their own good, as to act by the dictates of their reason and reflection, and not the opinion of others, conscience would be the steady ruler of human life; and the words truth, law, reason, equity, and religion, could be but synonymous terms for that only guide which makes us pass our days in our own favour and approbation.

SIR R. STEELE: Tatler, No. 48.

possess our minds in such a manner as to be It is necessary to any easy and happy life, to always well satisfied with our own reflections. The way to this state is to measure our actions by our own opinion, and not by that of the rest of the world. The sense of other men ought

to prevail over us in things of less consideration, but not in concerns where truth and honour are engaged. SIR R. STEELE: Tatler, No. 251.

No word more frequently in the mouths of men than conscience; and the meaning of it is, in some measure, understood: however, it is a word extremely abused by many who apply other meanings to it which God Almighty never in

tended.

SWIFT.

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him, this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge. SWIFT.

God is present in the consciences of good and bad: he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to mind, and a witness to bring them to judgment. JEREMY TAYLOR.

What is called by the Stoics apathy or dispassion [is called] by the Sceptics indisturbance, by the Molinists quietism, by common men peace of conscience. SIR W. TEMPLE.

Methinks though a man had all science and all principles yet it might not be amiss to have some conscience. TILLOTSON.

What comfort does overflow the devout soul from a consciousness of its own innocence and integrity! TILLOTSON.

The most sensual man that ever was in the world never felt so delicious a pleasure as a good conscience. TILLOTSON.

He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping. Therefore be sure you look to that. And in the next place, look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy; therefore value it, and be thankful for it.

IZAAK WALTON. Conscientious sincerity is friendly to tolerance, as latitudinarian indifference is to intolerance. WHATELY.

As science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self-knowledge. . . . But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind, as well as a consciousness of our own actions. . . . Conscience is the reason em

ployed about questions of right and wrong, and accompanied with the sentiments of approbation and condemnation. WHEWELL.

CONSISTENCY.

This mode of arguing from your having done any thing in a certain line to the necessity of doing every thing has political consequences of other moment than those of a logical fallacy.

BURKE:

Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, 1791.

127

This discovers to us the expedient of a steadi. ness and consistency of conduct, and renders the having willed a thing a motive with us to will it still, until some cogent reason shall occur to the contrary. A. TUCKER.

Another of these pretenders to being, or being thought to be, wise, prides himself on what he calls his consistency,-on his never changing his opinions or plans; which, as long as man is fallible, and circumstances change, is the wisdom of one either too dull to detect his mistakes, or too obstinate to own them.

WHATELY :

Annot. on Bacon's Essay, Of Seeming Wise. It is a mere idle declamation about consistency to represent it as a disgrace to a man to confess himself wiser to-day than yesterday. WHATELY.

me.

CONSTANCY.

I must confess, there is something in the changeableness and inconstancy of human nature that very often both dejects and terrifies Whatever I am at present, I tremble to think what I may be. While I find this principle, how can I assure myself that I shall be always true to my God, my friend, or myself? In short, without constancy there is neither love, friendship, nor virtue in the world. ADDISON.

How much happier is he who . . . remains immovable, and smiles at the madness of the dance about him! DRYDEN.

It is not to be imagined how far constancy will carry a man; however, it is better walking slowly in a rugged way than to break a leg and be a cripple. LOCKE.

The lasting and crowning privilege, or rather property, of friendship is constancy.

SOUTH.

friendship as overlooks and passes by lesser failConstancy is such a stability and firmness of ures of kindness, and yet still retains the same habitual good will to a friend. SOUTH.

CONTEMPLATION.

There is a sweet pleasure in contemplation. All others grow flat and insipid on frequent use; and when a man hath run through a set of vanities in the declension of his age, he knows not what to do with himself, if he cannot think. SIR T. P. BLOUNT.

128

Contemplative men may be without the pleasure of discovering the secrets of state, and men of action are commonly without the pleasure of tracing the secrets of divine art. GREW: Cosmologia.

Contemplation is keeping the idea which is brought into the mind, for some time actually in view. LOCKE.

Nothing can be a reasonable ground of despising a man but some fault chargeable upon him; and nothing can be a fault that is not naturally in a man's power to prevent: otherwise it is a man's unhappiness, his mischance or calamity, but not his fault. SOUTH.

CONTENTMENT.

This virtue [content] does indeed produce, in some measure, all those effects which the alchymist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing, by banishing the desire of them. If it cannot remove the disquietudes arising out of a man's mind, body, or fortune, it makes him easy under them. It has indeed a kindly influence on the soul of man in respect of every being to whom he stands related. It extinguishes all murmur, repining, and ingratitude towards that Being who has allotted to him his part to act in this world. It destroys all inordinate ambition, and every tendency to corruption, with regard to the community wherein he is placed. It gives sweetness to his conversation, and a perpetual serenity to all his thoughts. Among the many methods which might be made use of for the acquiring of this virtue, I shall mention the two following: First of all, a man should always consider

ADDISON.

Contempt putteth an edge upon anger more than the hurt itself; and when men are ingenious in picking out circumstances of contempt, they do kindle their anger much.

LORD BACON.

Every man is not ambitious, or covetous, or passionate; but every man has pride enough in his composition to feel and resent the least slight and contempt. Remember, therefore, most carefully to conceal your contempt, however just, wherever you would not make an implacable enemy. Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes; and if you hint to a man that you think him silly, ignorant, or even ill bred, or awkward, he will hate you more and longer than if you tell him plainly that you think him a rogue.

LORD CHESTERFIELD:

Letters to his Son, Sept. 5, 1748.

It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former being never forgiven, but the latter sometimes forgot.

LORD CHESTerfield.

secondly, how much more unhappy he might be than he really is. ADDISON: Spectator, No. 574. Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy purchase. J. BALGUY. He that would live at ease should always put the best construction on business and conversaJEREMY COLLIER.

tion.

As for a little more money and a little more time, why it's ten to one if either one or the other would make you whit happier. If you had more time, it would be sure to hang heavily. It is the working man is the happy man. Man was made to be active, and he is never so happy as when he is so. It is the idle man is the miserable man. What comes of holidays, and far too often of sight-seeing, but evil? Half the harm that happens is on those days. And as for money-Don't you remember the old saying, Enough is as good as a feast ?" Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure, and trouble therewith."

66

BENJ. FRANKLIN.

Man doth not seem to rest satisfied either with fruition of that wherewith his life is preserved, or with performance of such actions as advance him most deservedly in estimation.

HOOKER.

out the way they wish-that they are to sit down in happiness, and feel themselves so at ease on all points as to desire nothing better and nothing more. I own there are instances of some who seem to pass through the world as if all their

HOOKER.

He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstances.

HUME.

It is justly remarked by Horace, that howsoever every man may complain occasionally of the hardships of his condition, he is seldom willing to change it for any other on the same level; for whether it be that he who follows an employment made choice of it at first on account of its suitableness to his inclination; or that when accident, or the determination of others, have placed him in a particular station, he, by endeavouring to reconcile himself to it, gets the custom of viewing it only on the fairest side; or whether every man thinks that class to which he belongs the most illustrious, merely because he has honoured it with his name; it is certain that, whatever be the reason, most men have a very strong and active prejudice in favour of their own vocation, always working upon their minds, and influencing their behaviour.

DR. S. JOHNSON: Rambler, No. 9.

The indolency we have sufficing for our present happiness, we desire not to venture the change; being content; and that is enough.

LOCKE.

The highest point outward things can bring one unto is the contentment of the mind, with which no estate is miserable.

SIR P. SIDNEY.

It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations, as the sparks fly upwards, unless he has brutified his nature, and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion. SOUTHEY.

When the mind has been perplexed with anxious cares and passions, the best method of bringing it to its usual state of tranquillity is, as much as we possibly can, to turn our thoughts to the adversities of persons of higher consideration in virtue and merit than ourselves. By this means all the little incidents of our own lives, if they are unfortunate, seem to be the effect of justice upon our faults and indiscretions. When those whom we know to be excellent, and deserving of a better fate, are wretched, we cannot but resign ourselves, whom most of us know to merit a much worse state than that we are placed in.

SIR R. STEELE: Tatler, No. 233. There are thousands so extravagant in their ideas of contentment as to imagine that it must consist in having everything in this world turn

but a little experience will convince us 'tis a fatal expectation to go upon. We are "born to trouble;" and we may depend upon it whilst we live in this world we shall have it, though with intermissions ;-that is, in whatever state we are, we shall find a mixture of good and evil; and therefore the true way to contentment is to know how to receive these certain vicissitudes of life, the returns of good and evil, so as neither to be exalted by the one nor overthrown by the other, but to bear ourselves towards everything which happens with such ease and indifference of mind, as to hazard as little as may be. This is the true temperate climate fitted for us by nature, and in which every wise man would wish to live. STERNE.

There is scarce any lot so low but there is something in it to satisfy the man whom it has befallen; Providence having so ordered things that in every man's cup, how bitter soever, there are some cordial drops-some good circumstances, which, if wisely extracted, are sufficient for the purpose he wants them—that is, to make him contented, and, if not happy, at least resigned. STERNE.

A quiet mediocrity is still to be preferred before a troubled superfluity.

SIR J. SUCKLING. To secure a contented spirit, measure your desires by your fortunes, and not your fortunes JEREMY TAYLOR. by your desires.

It conduces much to our content, if we pass by those things which happen to our trouble, and consider that which is prosperous; that by the representation of the better, the worse may be blotted out. JEREMY TAYLOR.

Submission is the only reasoning between a creature and its Maker, and contentment in his will is the best remedy we can apply to misforSIR W. TEMPLE.

tunes.

That happy state of mind, so rarely possessed, in which we can say, "I have enough," is the highest attainment of philosophy. Happiness consists, not in possessing much, but in being content with what we possess. He who wants little always has enough. ZIMMERMANN.

CONTROVERSY.

The universities of Europe, for many years, carried on their debates by syllogism, insomuch that we see the knowledge of several centuries laid out into objections and answers, and all the good sense of the age cut and minced into almost an infinitude of distinctions.

When our universities found there was no end