"Twixt ev'ry prayer he says, to name you once, As others drop a bead, be any sign

Of love, then madam, I dare swear he loves you.
Araminta. O y' are a cunning boy, and taught to lie
For your lord's service: but thou know'st a lie
That bears this sound, is welcomer to me,

Than any truth that says he loves me not.

The Restoration-Buckingham.

CCCLXVII.

A man who owes a little, can clear it off in a very little time, and, if he is a prudent man, will; whereas a man, who, by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay: and therefore never looks into his accounts at all.-Chesterfield.

CCCLXVIII.

What maintains one vice, would bring up two children. You may think that a little tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more costly, clothes perhaps a little finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no matter: but remember, many a little makes a meikle; and farther, beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.-Franklin.

CCCLXIX.

The love of variety, or curiosity of seeing new things, which is the same, or at least sister passion to it-seems wove into the frame of every son and daughter of Adam; we usually speak of it as one of nature's levities, though planted within us for the solid purposes of carrying forwards the mind to fresh inquiry and knowledge: strip us of it, the mind (I fear) would doze for ever over the present page; and we should all of us rest at ease with such objects as presented themselves in the parish or province where we first drew breath.

It is to this spur, which is ever in our sides, that we owe the impatience of the desire for travelling: the passion is no way bad-but as others are-in its mismanagement or excess; order it rightly, the advantages are worth the pursuit; the chief of which are--to learn

the languages, the laws and customs, and understand the government and interest of other nations-to acquire an urbanity and confidence of behaviour, and fit the mind more easily for conversation and discourse-to take us out of the company of our aunts and grandmothers, and from the track of nursery mistakes; and by showing us new objects, or old ones in new lights, to reform our judgments-by tasting perpetually the varieties of nature, to know what is good-by observing the address and arts of men, to conceive what is sincere-and by seeing the difference of so many various humours and manners-to look into ourselves and form our own.-Sterne.

CCCLXX.

Nothing is more frequent than to see women weep and tremble at the sight of a moving preacher, though he is placed quite out of their hearing: as in England we very frequently see people lulled asleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowing and distortions of enthusiasm.-Addison.

CCCLXXI.

(Knowledge.) A climbing height it is, without a head,
Depth without bottom, way without an end;
A circle with no line environed,

Not comprehended, all it comprehends,
Worth infinite, yet satisfies no mind
Till it that infinite of the Godhead find.

Sir Fulk Greville.

CCCLXXII.

In criticism, to combat a simile is no more than to fight with a shadow, since a simile is no better than the shadow of an argument.-Pope

CCCLXXIII.

The heav'ns on high perpetually do move;
By minutes'-meal the hour doth steal away,
By hours the days, by days the months remove,
And then by months the years as fast decay;
Yea, Virgil's verse, and Tully's truth do say,

That time flieth, and never claps her wings;
But rides on clouds, and forward still she flings.
Gascoigne.

CCCLXXIV.

A man who has taken his ideas from study alone, generally comes into the world with a heart melting at every fictitious distress. Thus he is induced, by misplaced liberality, to put himself into the indigent circumstances of the person he relieves.-Goldsmith.

CCCLXXV.

A brave captain, is as a root, out of which (as into branches) the courage of his soldiers doth spring.— Sir P. Sidney.

CCCLXXVI.

A single jail, in Alfred's golden reign,
Could half the nation's criminals contain;
Fair justice then, without constraint adorn'd,
Held high the steady scale, but sheath'd the sword;
No spies were paid, no special juries known;
Bless'd age! but ah! how different from our own!

CCCLXXVII.

Johnson

When a friend is turned into an enemy, and, as the son of Sirach calls him, "a bewrayer of secrets," the world is just enough to accuse the perfidiousness of the friend, rather than the indiscretion of the person who confided in him.-Addison.

CCCLXXVIII.

Ambition, that high and glorious passion which makes such havoc among the sons of men, arises from a proud desire of honour and distinction, and when the splendid trappings in which it is usually caparisoned are removed, will be found to consist of the mean materials of envy, pride, and covetousness. It is described by

different authors, as a gallant madness, a pleasant poison, a hidden plague, a secret poison, a caustic of the soul, the moth of holiness, the mother of hypocrisy, and, by crucifying and disquieting all it takes hold of, the cause of melancholy and madness.-Burton.

CCCLXXIX.

Mishapen time, copesmate of ugly night;
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisley care;
Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,
Base watch of woes, sin's pack-horse, virtue's snare:
Thou nursest all, and murderest all that are.

CCCLXXX.

Shakspeare.

People of quality are fine things, indeed, if they had but a little more money; but for want of that, they are (often) forced to do things they are ashamed of.-The Confederacy-Vanbrugh.

CCCLXXXI.

Mankind are all hunters in various degree;
The priest hunts a living-the lawyer a fee,
The doctor a patient-the courtier a place,
Though often, like us, he's flung out in the chace.

The cit hunts a plum-while the soldier hunts fame,
The poet a dinner-the patriot a name;

And the practis'd coquette, though she seems to refuse,

In spite of her airs, still her lover pursues.

From a Hunting Song—by Paul Whitehead.

CCCLXXXII.

There is as much greatness of mind in the owing of a good turn, as in the doing of it; and we must no more, force a requital out of season, than be wanting in it. He that precipitates a return, does as good as say I am weary of being in this man's debt; not but that the hastening of a requital, as a good office, is a commendable disposition; but it is another thing to do it as a discharge; for it looks like casting off a heavy and troublesome burden. -Seneca.

CCCLXXXIII.

It is recorded of Sir Matthew Hale, that he, for a long time, concealed the consecration of himself to the stricter duties of religion, lest, by some flagitious and shameful action, he should bring piety into disgrace. For the same reason it may be prudent for a writer, who

apprehends that he shall not enforce his own maxims by his domestic character, to conceal his name, that he may not injure them.-Johnson.

CCCLXXXIV.

As love without esteem is volatile and capricious; esteem without love is languid and cold.-Adventurer.

CCCLXXXV.

The magnificence of our theatres is far superior to any others in Europe, where plays only are acted. The great care our performers take in painting for a part, their exactness in all the minutia of dress, and other little scenical proprieties, have been taken notice of by Ricoboni, a gentleman of Italy, who travelled Europe with no other design but to remark upon the stage; but there are several improprieties still continued, or lately come into fashion. As, for instance, spreading a carpet, (for tragedies,) in order to prevent our actors from spoiling their clothes; this immediately apprizes us of what is to follow; for laying the cloth is not a more sure indication of dinner than laying the carpet of bloody work at Drury-lane.-Goldsmith.

CCCLXXXVI.

The effects of human industry and skill are easily subjected to calculation: whatever can be completed in a year, is divisible into parts, of which each may be performed in the compass of a day; he, therefore, that has passed the day without attention to the task assigned him, may be certain that the lapse of life has brought him no nearer to his object; for whatever idleness may expect from time, its produce will be only in proportion to the diligence with which it has been used. He that floats lazily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed move forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following.-Adventurer.