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What is birth to man if it shall be a stain to his dead ancestors to have left such an offspring? SIR P. SIDNEY.

He that boasts of his ancestors, the founders and raisers of a family, doth confess that he hath less virtue. JEREMY TAYLOR.

Human and mortal though we are, we are, nevertheless, not mere insulated beings, without relation to the past or future. Neither the point of time nor the spot of earth in which we physically live bounds our rational and intellectual enjoyments. We live in the past by a knowledge of its history, and in the future by hope and anticipation. By ascending to an association with our ancestors; by contemplating their example, and studying their character; by partaking their sentiments, and imbibing their spirit; by accompanying them in their toils; by sympathizing in their sufferings and rejoicing in their successes and their triumphs,-we mingle our own existence with theirs, and seem to belong to their age. We become their contemporaries, live the lives which they lived, endure what they endured, and partake in the rewards which they enjoyed. DANIEL WEBSTER.

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it. WHATELY.

In reference to nobility in individuals, nothing was ever better said than by Bishop Warburton -as is reported-in the House of Lords, on the occasion of some angry dispute which had arisen between a peer of noble family and one of a new creation. He said that "high birth was a thing which he never knew any one disparage, except those who had it not; and he never knew any one make a boast of it who had anything else to be proud of." . . . And it is curious that a person of so exceptionable a character that no one would like to have him for a father, may confer a kind of dignity on his great-great-greatgrandchildren. . . . If he were to discover that he could trace up his descent distinctly to a man who had deserved hanging for robbery-not a traveller of his purse, but a king of his empire, or a neighbouring state of a province-he would be likely to make no secret of it, and even to be better pleased, inwardly, than if he had made out a long line of ancestors who had been very

honest farmers.

WHATELY:

Annot. on Bacon's Essay, Of Nobility.

ANCIENTS.

To account for this, we must consider that the first race of authors, who were the great heroes in writing, were destitute of all rules and arts of criticism; and for that reason, though they excel later writers in greatness of genius, they fall short of them in accuracy and correctness. The moderns cannot reach their beauties, but can avoid their imperfections. When the

world was furnished with these authors of the first eminence, there grew up another set of writers, who gained themselves a reputation by the remarks which they made on the works of those who preceded them. ADDISON: Spectator, No. 61.

We may observe that in the first ages of the of human nature were produced, men shined world, when the great souls and masterpieces by a noble simplicity of behaviour, and were strangers to those little embellishments which are so fashionable in our present conversation.

And it is very remarkable, that notwithstanding we fall short at present of the ancients in poetry, painting, oratory, history, architecture, and all the noble arts and sciences which depend them as much in doggerel humour, burlesque, more upon genius than experience, we exceed and all the trivial arts of ridicule. We meet with more raillery among the moderns, but more good sense among the ancients.

ADDISON: Spectator, No. 249.

It is pleasant to see a verse of an old poet revolting from its original sense, and siding with a modern subject. ADDISON.

The poetical fables are more ancient than the astrological influences, that were not known to

the Greeks till after Alexander the Great.

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In this age we have a sort of reviviscence, not, I fear of the power, but of a taste for the power, of the early times. COLERIDGE.

What English readers, unacquainted with Greek or Latin, will believe me when we confess we derive all that is pardonable in us from ancient fountains? DRYDEN.

In tragedy and satire I maintain, against some critics, that this age and the last have excelled the ancients; and I would instance in Shake

speare of the former, in Dorset of the latter.

DRYDEN.

Some are offended because I turned these tales into modern English; because they look on Chaucer as a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving. DRYDEN.

The heathen poet in commending the charity of Dido to the Trojans spoke like a Christian. DRYDEN.

The critics of a more exalted taste may discover such beauties in the ancient poetry as may escape the comprehension of us pigmies of a more limited genius. GARTH.

It is an unaccountable vanity to spend all our time raking into the scraps and imperfect remains of former ages, and neglecting the clearer notices of our own. GLANVILL.

made. All the metaphysical discoveries of all the philosophers from the time of Socrates to the northern invasion are not to be compared in importance with those which have been made in The sages of old live again in us, and in opin- beth. There is not the least reason to believe England every fifty years since the time of Elizaions there is a metempsychosis.

GLANVILL.

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Though the knowledge they have left us be worth our study, yet they exhausted not all its treasures: they left a great deal for the industry and sagacity of after-ages. LOCKE.

In the philosophy of history the moderns have very far surpassed the ancients. It is not, indeed, strange that the Greeks and Romans should not have carried the science of government, or any other experimental science, so far as it has been carried in our time; for the experimental sciences are generally in a state of progression. They were better understood in the seventeenth century than in the sixteenth, and in the eighteenth century than in the seventeenth. But this constant improvement, this natural growth of knowledge, will not altogether account for the immense superiority of the modern writers. The difference is a difference not in degree, but of kind. It is not merely that new principles have been discovered, but that new faculties seem to be exerted. It is not that at one time the human

intellect should have made but small progress, and at another time have advanced far; but that at one time it should have been stationary, and at another time constantly proceeding. In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. They reasoned as justly as ourselves on subjects which required pure demonstration. But in the moral sciences they made scarcely any advance. During the long period which elapsed between the fifth century before the Christian era and the fifteenth after it, little perceptible progress was

that the principles of government, legislation, and political economy were better understood in the time of Augustus Cæsar than in the time of Pericles. In our own country, the sound doctrines of trade and jurisprudence have been within the lifetime of a single generation dimly hinted, boldly propounded, defended, systematized, adopted by all reflecting men of all parties, quoted in legislative assemblies, incorpo

rated into laws and treaties.

LORD MACAULAY: History, May, 1828.

Seeing every nation affords not experience and tradition enough for all kind of learning; therefore we are taught the languages of those people who have been most industrious after wisdom.

MILTON.

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Superior beings above us, who enjoy perfect happiness, are more steadily determined in their choice of good than we, and yet they are not less happy or less free than we. LOCKE.

ANGER.

There is no other way but to meditate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger,-how it troubles man's life; and the best time to do this is to look back upon anger when the fit is thoroughly over. Seneca saith well, "that anger is like rain, which breaks itself upon that it falls." The Scripture exhorteth us "to possess our souls in patience:" whosoever is out of patience is out of possession of his soul. . Anger is certainly a kind of baseness; as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns,—children, women, old folks, sick folks. Only men must beware that they carry their anger rather with scorn than with fear; so that they may seem rather to be above the injury than below it; which is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it. .. To contain anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things whereof you must have special caution: the one of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper; for "communia maledicta" are nothing so much; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets; for that makes him not fit for society: the other, that you do not peremptorily break off in any business in a fit of anger; but howsoever you show bitterness, do not act anything that is not revocable. LORD BACON:

Essay LVIII.: Of Anger.

There is no affectation in passion; for that putteth a man out of his precepts, and in a new case there custom leaveth him.

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The sun should not set upon our anger, neither should he rise upon our confidence. We should freely forgive, but forget rarely. I will not be revenged, and I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself. C. C. COLTON.

When anger rises, think of the consequences. CONFUCIUS.

Had I a careful and pleasant companion, that should show me my angry face in a glass, I should not at all take it ill. Some are wont to have a looking-glass held to them while they wash, though to little purpose; but to behold a man's self so unnaturally disguised and disordered, will conduce not a little to the impeachment of anger. PLUTARCH.

To be angry, is to revenge the faults of others POPE. upon ourselves.

If anger is not restrained, it is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that pro

vokes it.

SENECA.

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Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, seems to consider as the chief point of distinction between anger and hatred, the necessity to the gratification of the former that the object of it should not only be punished, but punished by means of the offended person, and on account of the particular injury inflicted. Anger requires that the offender should not only be made to grieve in his turn, but to grieve for that particular wrong which has been done by him. The natural gratification of this passion tends, of its own accord, to produce all the political ends of punishment: the correction of the criminal, and example to the public.

WHATELY:

Annot, on Bacon's Essay, Of Anger.

38

ANGLING.-ANTICIPATION.-ANTIQUITIES.

Aristotle, in his Rhetoric,

defines anger to be "a desire, accompanied by mental uneasiness, of avenging one's self, or, as it were, inflicting punishment for something that appears an unbecoming slight, either in things which concern one's self, or some of one's friends." And he hence infers that, if this be anger, it must be invariably felt towards some individual, not against a class or description of persons. WHATELY:

Annot. on Bacon's Essay, Of Anger.

ANGLING.

Angling was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness. IZAAK WALTON.

I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite. IZAAK WALTON.

He that reads Plutarch shall find that angling was not contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. IZAAK WALTON.

ANTICIPATION.

As the memory relieves the mind in her vacant moments, and prevents any chasms of thought by ideas of what is passed, we have other faculties that agitate and employ her for what is to come. These are the passions of hope and fear.

By these two passions we reach forward into futurity, and bring up to our present thoughts objects that lie hid in the remotest depths of time. We suffer misery and enjoy happiness before they are in being; we can set the sun and stars forward, or lose sight of them by wandering into those retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and earth shall be no more.

ADDISON: Spectator, No. 471.

I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives. ADDISON.

The problem is, whether a man constantly and strongly believing that such a thing shall be, it don't help any thing to the effecting of the thing. LORD BACON.

We shall find our expectation of the future to be a gift more distressful even than the former. To fear an approaching evil is certainly a most disagreeable sensation; and in expecting an approaching good we experience the inquietude of wanting actual possession.

Thus, whichever way we look, the prospect is disagreeable. Behind, we have left pleasures we shall never enjoy, and therefore regret; and before, we see pleasures which we languish to possess, and are consequently uneasy till we possess them. GOLDSMITH:

Citizen of the World, Letter XLIV.

All fear is in itself painful; and when it conduces not to safety is painful without use. Every consideration, therefore, by which groundless terrors may be removed, adds something to human happiness. It is likewise not unworthy of remark, that, in proportion as our cares are employed upon the future, they are abstracted from the present, from the only time which we can call our own, and of which, if we neglect the apparent duties, to make provision against visionary attacks, we shall certainly counteract our own purpose; for he, doubtless, mistakes his true interest who thinks that he can increase his safety when he impairs his virtue.

DR. S. JOHNSON: Rambler, No. 29.

ANTIQUITIES.

We

The great magazine for all kinds of treasure is supposed to be the bed of the Tiber. may be sure, when the Romans lay under the apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, that they would take care to bestow such of their riches that way as could best bear the water. ADDISON.

A man that is in Rome can scarce see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or historian. ADDISON.

There are in Rome two sets of antiquities,the Christian and the Heathen: the former,

though of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable and legend that one receives but little satisfaction. ADDISON.

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[An antiquary] is one that has his being in Antiquity, what is it else (God only excepted) this age, but his life and conversation is in the but man's authority born some ages before us? days of old. He despises the present age as Now, for the truth of things, time makes no alan innovation, and slights the future; but has a teration; things are still the same they are, let great value for that which is past and gone, the time be past, present, or to come. Those like the madman that fell in love with Cleo- things which we reverence for antiquity, what patra. All his curiosities take place of one an- were they at their first birth? Were they false? other according to their seniority, and he values-time cannot make them true. Were they them not by their abilities, but their standing. He has a great veneration for words that are stricken in years and are grown so aged that they have outlived their employments. . . . He values things wrongfully upon their antiquity, forgetting that the most modern are really the most ancient of all things in the world, like those that reckon their pounds before their shillings and pence, of which they are made up.

SAMUEL BUTLER: Characters.

It is with antiquity as with ancestry; nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other. C. C. COLTON.

The ancient pieces are beautiful because they resemble the beauties of nature; and nature will ever be beautiful which resembles those beauties of antiquity. DRYDEN.

In the dark recesses of antiquity, a great poet may and ought to feign such things as he finds not there, if they can be brought to embellish that subject which he treats. DRYDEN.

The prints which we see of antiquities may contribute to form our genius and to give us great ideas. DRYDEN.

We have a mistaken notion of antiquity, calling that so which in truth is the world's nonage. GLANVILL.

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious; but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use: the former are often prized above their intrinsic value, and kept with care; the latter seldom pass for more than they are worth, and are often subject to the merciless hands of sweating critics and clipping compilers: the works of antiquity were ever praised, those of the moderns read: the treasures of our ancestors have our esteem, and we boast the passion: those of contemporary genius engage our heart, although we blush to own it: the visits we pay the former resemble those we pay the great: the ceremony is troublesome, and yet such as we would not choose to forego: our acquaintance with modern books is like sitting with a friend; our pride is not flattered in the interview, but it gives more internal satisfaction. GOLDSMITH:

Citizen of the World, Letter LXXV. Considering the casualties of wars, transmigrations, especially that of the general flood, there might probably be an obliteration of all those monuments of antiquity that ages precedent at some time have yielded. SIR M. HALE.

true?-time cannot make them more true. The
circumstance, therefore, of time, in respect of
truth and error is merely impertinent.
JOHN HALES, THE EVER-MEMORABLE:
Of Inquiry and Private Judgment in
Religion.

It is looked upon as insolence for a man to adhere to his own opinion against the current stream of antiquity. LOCKE.

He had . . . that sort of exactness which would have made him a respectable antiquary.

LORD MACAULAY.

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This fear of any future difficulties or misfortune is so natural to the mind, that were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him, than from those evils which had really befallen him. To this we may add, that among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure. ADDISON: Spectator, No. 505.

Anxiety is the poison of human life. It is the parent of many sins, and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, where you may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment,-what means this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can your solicitude alter the cause or unravel the intricacy of human events? Can your curiosity pierce through the cloud which the Supreme Being hath made impenetrable to mortal eye? To provide against every important danger by the employment of the most promising means is the office of wisdom; but at this point wisdom stops.

APATHY.

BLAIR.

There are some men formed with feelings so blunt, that they can hardly be said to be awake during the whole course of their lives.

BURKE.

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