pit, it was pity he should ever come out of it." But the faithful minister lives sermons. And yet, I deny not, but dissolute men, like unskilful horsemen, which open a gate on the wrong side, may, by the virtue of their office, open heaven for others, and shut themselves out. -Fuller.

CLXIV.

If we did not take great pains, and were not at great expense to corrupt our nature, our nature would never corrupt us.-Clarendon.

CLXV.

One would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started into discourse; but instead of this, we find that conversation is never so much straitened and confined as in numerous assemblies.-Addi

son.

CLXVI.

He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence.-Lavater.

CLXVII.

There is no instance of a miser becoming a prodigal without losing his intellects; but there are thousands of prodigals becoming misers. If, therefore, your turn be profuse, nothing is so much to be avoided as avarice; and, if you be a miser, procure a physician who can cure an irremediable disorder.-Lavater.

CLXVIII.

There is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting passions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks, and pale complexions, are the natural indications of a female gamester. Her morning sleeps are not able to repay her midnight watchings. I have known a woman carried off half dead from Bassette, and have many a time grieved to see a person of quality gliding by me in her chair at two o'clock in the morning, and looking like a spectre amidst a glare of flambeaux. In short, I never

knew a thorough-paced female gamester hold her beauty two winters together.-Guardian.

CLXIX.

If husbandmen preserve not the innocence of rural life, they are much to blame, for no men are so free from the temptations of iniquity. They live by what they can get by industry from the earth; and others, by what they can catch by craft from men. They live

upon an estate given them by their mother; and others, upon an estate cheated from their brethren. They live, like sheep and kine, by the allowances of nature; and others, like wolves and foxes, by the acquisitions of rapine.-Cowley.

CLXX.

That friendship's raised on sand,
Which every sudden gust of discontent,
Or flowing of our passions, can change
As if it ne'er had been.

CLXXI.

Massinger.

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, tho' 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.

CLXXII.

Though judgment must collect the materials of the goodly structure of friendship, it is affection that gives the cement; and passion as well as reason should concur in forming a firm and lasting coalition. Hence, perhaps, it is, that not only the most powerful, but the most lasting friendships are usually the produce of the early season of our lives, when we are most susceptible of the warm and affectionate impressions. The connections into which we enter into any after period, decrease in strength, as our passions abate in heat; and there is not, I believe, a single instance of a vigorous friendship that

ever struck root in a bosom chilled by years.-Fitzosborne's Letters.

CLXXIII.

Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty.—Goldsmith.

CLXXIV.

A bankrupt is made by breaking, as a bird is hatched by breaking the shell; for he gains more by giving over his trade than ever he did by dealing in it. He drives a

trade, as Oliver Cromwell did a coach, till it broke in pieces. He is very tender and careful in preserving his credit, and keeps it as methodically as a race-nag is dieted, that in the end he may run away with it: for he observes a punctual curiosity in performing his word, until he has proved his credit as far as it can go: and then he has catched the fish, and throws away the net; as a butcher, when he has fed his beast as fat as it can grow, cuts the throat of it. When he has brought his design to perfection, and disposed of all his materials, he lays his train, like a powder-traitor, and gets out of the way, while he blows up all those that trusted him. After the blow is given, there is no manner of intelligence to be had of him for some months, until the rage and fury is somewhat digested, and all hopes vanished of ever recovering any thing of body, or goods, for revenge or restitution; and then propositions of treaty and accommodation appear like the sign of the hand and pen out of the clouds, with conditions more unreasonable than thieves are wont to demand for restitution of stolen goods. He shoots like a fowler at a whole flock of geese at once, and stalks with his horse to come as near as possibly he can without being perceived by any one, or giving the least suspicion of his design, until it is too late to prevent it; and then he flies from them, as they should have done before from him. His way is so commonly used in the city, that he robs in a road, like a highwayman, and yet they will never arrive at wit

enough to avoid it; for it is done upon surprise: and as thieves are commonly better mounted than those they rob, he very easily makes his escape, and flies beyond pursuit, and there is no possibility of overtaking him.Butler.

CLXXV.

It is notorious to philosophers, that joy and grief can hasten and delay time. Locke is of opinion, that a man in great misery may so far lose his measure, as to think a minute an hour; or in joy make an hour a minute.-Tatler.

CLXXVI.

Indolence is a kind of centripetal force.-Shenstone.

CLXXVII.

Be a pattern to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is infected by the licentious passions and vices of great men, so it is likewise reformed by their moderation.-Cicero.

CLXXVIII.

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one, or the admonitions of the others.-Diogenes.

CLXXIX.

He who has opportunities to inspect the sacred moments of elevated minds, and seizes none, is a son of dulness; but he who turns those moments into ridicule will betray with a kiss, and in embracing, murder.Lavater.

CLXXX.

What but miracles can serve

So great a madness to preserve,

As his, that ventures goods and chattels
(Where there's no quarter giv'n) in battles,
And fights with money bags as bold,
As men with sandbags did of old;

Puts lands, and tenements, and stocks,
Into a paltry juggler's box;

And, like an alderman of Gotham,
Embarketh in so vile a bottom;
Engages blind and senseless hap

'Gainst high, and low, and slur, and knap,
(As Tartars with a man of straw
Encounter lion's hand to paw)

With those that never venture more
Than they 'ad safely ensur'd before;

Who, when they knock the box and shake,
Do, like the Indian rattlesnake,
But strive to ruin and destroy
Those that mistake it for fair play:
That have their fulhams at command,
Brought up to do their feats at hand;
That understand their calls and knocks,
And how to place themselves i' th' box;
Can tell the oddses of all games,
And when to answer to their names;
And, when he conjures them t' appear,
Like imps are ready every where;
When to play foul, and when run fair
(Out of design) upon the square,
And let the greedy cully win,
Only to draw him further in.

CLXXXI.

Butler-on Gaming.

The proverb ought to run, "A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money."—Shen

stone.

CLXXXII.

Melancholy discloses its symptoms according to the sentiments and passions of the minds it affects. An ambitious man fancies himself a lord, statesman, minister, king, emperor, or monarch, and pleases his mind with the vain hopes of even future preferment. The mind of a covetous man sees nothing but his re or spe, and looks at the most valuable objects with an eye of hope,