buffoonery; the consequence of this will be a practical devia tion from virtue, the principles will become sapped, the fences of conscience broken down; and when debauchery has corrupted the character, a total inversion will take place, and the sinner will glory in his shame.-Robert Hall.

VIGILANCE. Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late. Shakspeare.

VIRTUE. To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil intentions.—Penn.

VIRTUE. It is not the painting, gilding, or carving, that makes a good ship; but if she be a nimble sailer, tight and strong, to endure the seas, that is her excellency. It is the edge and temper of the blade that makes a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so it is not money or possessions that make man considerable, but his virtue.— Seneca.

VIRTUE. Virtue I love, without austerity; pleasure, without effeminacy; and life, without fearing its end.-St. Evere mond.

VIRTUE-Were there but one virtuous man in the world, he would hold up his head with confidence and honor; he would shame the world, and not the world him.-South.

VIRTUE-A virtuous and well-disposed person, like a good metal, the more he is fired, the more he is fined; the more he is opposed, the more he is approved: wrongs may well try him, and touch him, but cannot imprint in him any false stamp.-C. Richelieu.

VIRTUE. The lofty mountain of virtue is of quite a contrary make to all other mountains. In the mountains of the earth the skirts are pleasant, but the tops rough; whereas the skirt of the mountain of virtue is harsh, but the top de

licious. He who studies to come at it, meets in his first step nothing but stones, briars, and thistles; but the roughness of the way diminishes as he proceeds in his journey, and the pleasure of it increases, until at length on the top he finds nothing but beautiful flowers, choice plants, and crystal fountains. Tillotson.

VIRTUE. The most virtuous of all men, says Plato, is he that contents himself with being virtcous without seeking to appear so.-Telemachus.

VIRTUE. Virtue is certainly the most noble and secure possession a man can have. Beauty is worn out by time or impaired by sickness-riches lead youth rather to destruction than welfare, and without prudence are soon lavished away; while virtue alone, the only good that is ever durable, always remains with the person that has once entertained her. She is preferable both to wealth, and a noble extraction.— Savage's Letters of the Ancients.

VIRTUE-Many who have tasted all the pleasures of sin, have forsaken it, and come over to virtue: but there are few instances of any, who having tried the sweets of virtue, could ever be drawn off from it, or find in their hearts to fall back to their former course.-Jeffrey

VIRTUE-Every virtue gives a man a degree of felicity in some kind honesty gives a man a good report; justice, estimation; prudence, respect; courtesy and liberality, affection; temperance gives health; fortitude, a quiet mind, not to be moved by any adversity.-Sir Fra. Walsingham.

VIRTUE. When a Socrates is put to death. wisdom and truth seem to suffer; and when an Aristides is exiled, justice appears to be in disgrace. But virtue is its own reward, and depends not on the fluctuating opinions of mortals, nor on the breath of popular applause, which is often on the side

of

error, and entirely opposite to the real interests of its vo taries. Proud's History.

VIRTUE. The true art of assisting beauty, consists in embellishing the whole person by the proper ornaments of vir tuous and commendable qualities. By this help alone it is, that those who are the favorite work of nature, or as Mr. Dryden expresses it, "the porcelain of human kind," become animated, and are in a capacity of exerting their charms; and those who seem to have been neglected by her, like models wrought in haste, are capable in a great measure of finish. ing what she has left imperfect.-Hughes.

VIRTUE. Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants that will not bear too familiar approaches.—Shenstone.

VIRTUE. Virtues seems to be nothing more than a motion consonant to the system of things: were a planet to fly from its orbit, it would represent a vicious man.-Shen

stone.

VIRTUE AND MANNERS.-Virtue is so delightful whenever it is perceived, that men have found it their interest to cultivate manners, which are, in fact, the appearances of certain virtues; and now we are come to love the sign better than the thing signified, and indubitably to prefer (though we never own it) manners without virtue, to virtue without manners.-Sidney Smith.

VIRTUE AND RELIGION.- -Virtue is the dictate of reason, or the remains of the divine light, by which men are made benefi cent and beneficial to each other. Religion proceeds from the same end, and the good of mankind so entirely depends upon these two, that no people ever enjoyed anything worth desiring, that was not the product of them.-- Algernon Sidney.

VIRTUE AND VICE.-Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue honorable, though in a peasant.—Addison.

VIRTUE AND VICE. He who thinks no man above him but for his virtue, and none below him but for his vice, can never be obsequious or assuming in a wrong place, but will frequently emulate men in rank below him, and pity those above him.-Tatler.

VIRTUE AND VICE.-Every state and condition of life, if attended with virtue, is undisturbed and delightful; but when vice is intermixed, it renders even things that appear splendid, sumptuous, and magnificent, distasteful and uneasy to the possessor.-Plutarch.

VIRTUE AND VICE, THEIR PROGRESS.-He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time, are three things that never stand still.-Colton.

VIRTUE, A REALITY.-Never expecting to find perfection in men, and not looking for divine attributes in created beings. in my commerce with my contemporaries I have found much human virtue. I have seen not a little public spirit; a real subordination of interest to duty; and a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation. The age unquestionably produces (whether in a greater or less number than in former times, I know not) daring profli gates, and insidious hypocrites. What then? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the world, because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it? The smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value. They who raise suspicions on the good, on account of the behavior of ill men, are of the party of the latter.— Burke.

VIRTUE, CLOISTERED.—I cannot praise a fugitive and clois tered virtue unexercised, and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue, therefore, which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure.-Milton.

VIRTUE, GOD ON THE SIDE OF.— -There are two things that speak as with a voice from heaven, that He that fills that eternal throne, must be on the side of virtue, and that which HE befriends must finally prosper and prevail. The first is, that the bad are never completely happy and at ease, although possessed of everything that this world can bestow; and that the good are never completely miserable, although deprived of everything that this world can take away. The second is, that we are so framed and constituted, that the most vicious cannot but pay a secret though unwilling homage to virtue, inasmuch, as the worst men cannot bring themselves thoroughly to esteem a bad man, although he may be their dearest friend, nor can they thoroughly despise a good man, although he may be their bitterest enemy.-Colton.

VIRTUE, HOW TO PURSUE-Learn to pursue virtue from the man that is blind, who never makes a step without first examining the ground with his staff.

VIRTUE, IN A PRINCE. As the sun disdains not to give light to the smallest worm, so a virtuous prince protects the life of his meanest subject.-Sir P. Sidney.

VIRTUE, ITS INFLUENCE.-Virtue, like fire, turns all things into itself: our actions and our friendships are tinctured with it, and whatever it touches becomes amiable.-Sencca.