hole, into which all the vices conspire against you.Burke. XXX. If all the world and Love were young, XXXI. Thinking nurseth thinking.-Sidney. XXXII. Let Solomon pronounce what he will, the drunkard will never be terrified with the fear of beggary, whilst he sees rich and great men affected with the same pleasure with which he is delighted and reproached, and to whom it may be he stands more commended by his faculty in drinking than he would be by the practice of any particular virtue.— Clarendon. XXXIII. A wise riche man is like the backe or stocke of the chimney, and his wealth the fire; he receives it not for his own need, but to reflect the heat to others' good.-Sir T. Overbury. XXXIV. This purifying of wit, this enriching of memory, enabling of judgment, and enlarging of conceit, which commonly we call learning; under what name soever It be directed, the final end is, to lead and draw us to as high perfection as our degenerate souls (made worse by their clay lodgings) can be capable of. This, according to the inclinations of man, bred many-formed impressions: for some that thought this felicity principally to be gotten by knowledge, and no knowledge to be so high or heavenly as to be acquainted with the stars, gave themselves to astronomy: others, persuading themselves to be demi-gods, if they knew the causes of things, became natural and supernatural philosophers some, an admirable delight drew to music : and some the certainty of demonstrations, to the mathematics: but all, one and other, having this scope, TO KNOW, and by knowledge to lift up the mind from the dungeon of the body, to the enjoying of its own divine essence. But when, by the balance of experience, it was found that the astronomer, looking to the stars, might fall into a ditch, that the enquiring philosopher might be blind to himself; and the mathematician might draw forth a strait line with a crooked heart;—then, lo! did Proof, the over-ruler of opinions, make manifest that all these are but serving sciences ; which, as they are all directed to the highest aim of the mistress-knowledge; knowledge of a man's self, in the ethic and politic consideration, with the end of well-doing, and not of well-knowing only so the ending of all earthly learning, being virtuous action, those skills that most serve to bring forth that, have a most just title to be princes over the rest.—Sir P. Sidney. XXXV. Passions are likened best to floods and streams: They that are rich in words must needs diseover, XXXVI. Whatsoever the base man finds evil in his own soul he can with ease lay upon another. - Sir P. Sidney. XXXVII. Celestial Happiness! Whene'er she stoops Humour is but a picture of particular life, as comedy is of general; and though it represents dispositions and customs less common, yet they are not less natural than those that are more frequent among men; for if humour itself be forced, it loses all the grace; which has been indeed the fault of some of our poets most celebrated in this kind.—Sir W. Temple. XXXIX. The mortal that drinks is the only brave fellow, Though never so poor, he's a king when he's mellow; Grows richer than Croesus with whimsical thinking, And never knows care whilst he follows his drinking. E. Ward. XL. If our credit be so well built, so firm, that it is not easy to be shaken by calumny or insinuation, envy then commends us, and extols us, beyond reason, to those upon whom we depend, till they grow jealous, and so blow us up when they cannot throw us down.- Cla rendon. XLI. Cowards fear to die; but courage stout, On the snuff of a candle-Sir W. Raleigh. XLII. Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal.— Burke. XLIII. Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life.-Sidney. XLIV. Others may use the ocean as their road, XLV. Waller. Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion; and ever will be so, as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an healing and cementing principle.-Burke. XLVI. Let dainty wits cry on the sisters nine, That, bravely mask'd, their fancies may be told: Or else, let them in statelier glory shine Ennobling new-found hopes with problems old: Or with strange similies enrich each line, Of herbs, or beasts, which Ind or Africk hold. For me, in sooth, no muse but one I know, Phrases and problems from my reach do grow, And strange things cost too dear for my poor spirits. How then? even thus, in Stella's face I read, What love and beauty be, then all my deed But copying is, what in her nature writes. Astrophel and Stella-Sir P. Sidney. XLVII. Go where you will, you may expect to find the world composed of two sorts of persons; the men of business, and the men of pleasure. XLVIII. St. Evremond. A poor neighbour's house set on fire, is to be better guarded, or watched, than a great city afar off.-Sir W. Raleigh. XLIX. Avarice is a most stupid and senseless passion, and the surest symptom of a sordid and sickly mind. — Char |