DCCCLXXXII.

There are men who seem to think nothing so much characteristic of genius, as to do common things in an uncommon way; like Hudibras, "to tell the clock by algebra," or like the lady in Dr. Young's "Satires,” drink tea by stratagem." "-Johnson.

DCCCLXXXIII.

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I is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defence against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.— Addison.

DCCCLXXXIV.

When fiction rises pleasing to the eye,

Men will believe, because they love the lie;
But truth berself, if clouded with a frown,
Must have some solemn proofs to pass her down.

DCCCLXXXV.

Churchill.

Habit or custom, like a complex mathematical scheme, flows from a point, insensibly becomes a line, and unhappily, (in that which is evil,) it may become a curve.Robinson.