to spoil it; and if otherwise, you are either to curse the strength of their memory, or the weakness of their judgment: and it is a hard thing to close up a discourse, and to cut it short, when you are once in, and have a good deal more to say. Neither is there any thing in which the force and readiness of a horse is so much seen, as in a round, graceful, and sudden stop; and I see even those who are pertinent enough, who would but cannot stop short in their career; for whilst they are seeking out a handsome period to conclude the sense, they talk at random, and are so perplexed and entangled in their own eloquence, that they know not what they say.Montaigne.

CXXI.

Poetry is music in words: and music is poetry in sound: both excellent sauce, but they have lived and died poore, that made them their meat.-Fuller.

CXXII.

There are numbers in the world, who do not want sense, to make a figure, so much as an opinion of their own abilities, to put them upon recording their observa tions, and allowing them the same importance which they do to those which others print.-Shenstone.

CXXIII.

A man that is temperate, generous, valiant, chaste, faithful, and honest, may, at the same time, have wit, humour, mirth, good breeding, and gallantry. While he exerts these latter qualities, twenty occasions might be invented to show he is master of the other noble virtues. Such characters would smite and reprove the heart of a man of sense, when he is given up to his pleasures.- -Steele.

CXXIV.

When princes idly lead about,
Those of their party follow suit,
Till others trump upon their play,
And turn the cards another way.

Butler.

CXXV.

Employment, which Galen calls" nature's physician," is so essential to human happiness, that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.-Burton.

ter.

CXXVI.

She neglects her heart who studies her glass.-Lava

CXXVII.

The best born, and the first born, are oftimes the worst, and the last to be borne.-Zimmerman.

CXXVIII.

When a doubt is propounded, you must learn to distinguish, and show wherein a thing holds, and wherein it doth not hold: ay or no never answered any question. The not distinguishing where things should be distinguished, and the not confounding where things should be confounded, is the cause of all the mistakes in the world.-Selden.

CXXIX.

It would be as difficult a task to reckon up the different kinds of love's idols, as Milton's was to number those that were known in Canaan, and the lands adjoining. Most of them are worshipped like Moloch, in fires and flames. Some of them, like Baal, love to see their votaries cut and slashed, and shedding their blood for them. Some of them, like the idol in the Apocrypha, must have treats and collations prepared for them every night. It has indeed been known, that some of them have been used by their incensed worshippers like the Chinese idols, who are whipped and scourged when they refuse to comply with the prayers that are offered to them.Addison.

CXXX.

Who would not rather get him gone
Beyond th' intolerable zone,

Or steer his passage thro' those seas
That burn in flames, or those that freeze,
Than see one nation go to school,
And learn of another like a fool?

To study all its tricks and fashions
With epidemic affectations.

And dare to wear no mode of dress
But what they in their wisdom please;
As monkies are by being taught

To put on gloves and stockings, caught;
Submit to all that they devise,

As if it were their liveries;

Make ready and dress the imagination,
Not with the clothes, but with the fashion;
And change it to fulfil the curse

Of Adam's fall, for new, though worse.

Butler-On our Imitation of the French.

CXXXI.

The proportion of genius to the vulgar, is like one to a million; but genius without tyranny, without pretension, that judges the weak with equity, the superior with humanity, and equals with justice, is like one to ten millions.-Lavater.

CXXXII.

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concern thinks certainly he knows that which he hath least studied, and of which he is most profoundly ignorant.-Shaftesbury.

CXXXIII.

The difference is as great between

The optics seeing, as the objects seen.
All manners take a tincture from our own,
Or come discolour'd thro' our passions shown;
Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,

Contracts, invests, and gives ten thousand dyes.

CXXXIV.

Pope.

False friendship, like the ivy, decays and ruins the wall it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports.-Burton.

CXXXV.

There are several persons who in some certain periods

of their lives are inexpressibly agreeable, and in others as odious and detestable. Martial has given us a very pretty picture of one of this species, in the following epigram:

Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem,
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.

Epig. xii. 47.
In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow;
Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

CXXXVI.

Spectator.

To say a person writes a good style, is originally as pedantic an expression, as to say he plays a good fiddle. -Shenstone.

CXXXVII.

I fear the word bear is hardly to be understood among the polite people; but I take the meaning to be, that one who ensures a real value upon an imaginary thing, is said to sell a bear, and is the same thing as a promise among courtiers, or a vow between lovers.-Tatler.

CXXXVIII.

The good wife is none of our dainty dames, who love to appear in a variety of suits every day new; as if a good gown, like a stratagem in warre, were to be used but But our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband's estate; and if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match.-Fuller.

once.

CXXXIX.

I take an impudent fellow to be a sort of outlaw in good breeding, and therefore what is said of him no nation or person can be concerned for. For this reason one may be free upon him. I have put myself to great pains in considering this prevailing quality, which we call impudence, and have taken notice that it exerts itself in a different manner, according to the different soils

wherein such subjects of these dominions as are masters of it were born. Impudence in an Englishman is sullen and insolent; in a Scotchman it is untractable and rapacious; in an Irishman absurd and fawning: as the course of the world now runs, the impudent Englishman behaves like a surly landlord, the Scot like an ill-received guest, and the Irishman like a stranger, who knows he is not welcome. There is seldom any thing entertaining either in the impudence of a South or North Briton; but that of an Irishman is always comic. A true and genuine impudence is ever the effect of ignorance without the least sense of it.-Steele.

CXL.

Not actions always show the man: we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.
Perhaps prosperity becalm'd his breast;
Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east;
Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat,
Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great.
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave;
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave.
Who reasons wisely, is not therefore wise;
His pride in reas'ning, not in acting, lies.

CXLI.

Pope.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint; the affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.-Lavater.

CXLII.

What fool would trouble fortune more,
When she has been too kind before?

Or tempt her to take back again
What she had thrown away in vain,
By idly vent'ring her good graces
To be dispos'd of by ames-aces;
Or settling it in trust in uses
Out of his pow'r, on trays and deuces;
To put it to the chance, and try,
I' th' ballot of a box and dye,