CCCCLXIV.

Dazzled with the height of place,
While our hopes our wits beguile,
No man marks the narrow space
Between a prison and a smile.
Then since fortune's favours fade,
You that in her arms do sleep,
Learn to swim and not to wade,
For the hearts of kings are deep.
But if greatness be so blind,
As to trust in tow'rs of air,
Let it be with godness joyn'd,
That at least the fall be fair.

CCCCLXV.

Lord Bacon.

The polite of every country seem to have but one character. A gentleman of Sweden differs but little, except in trifles, from one of any other country. It is among the vulgar we are to find those distinctions which characterize a people.-Goldsmith.

CCCCLXVI.

'Tis meet that noble minds keep ever with their like, For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd.

CCCCLXVII.

Settle.

There is no difference between knowledge and temper ance; for he who knows what is good and embraces it, who knows what is bad and avoids it, is learned and temperate, But they who know very well what ought to be done, and yet do quite otherwise, are ignorant and stupid.-Socrates.

CCCCLXIX.

Sir W. Raleigh.

Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: the brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to vent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.-FalstaffShakspeare.

CCCCLXX.

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us,
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

CCCCLXXI.

Shakspeare.

Men, instead of applying the salutary medicines of philosophy and religion to abate the rage, and recover the temper of their vitiated imaginations, cherish the disease in their bosoms, until their increasing appetites, like the hounds of Actæon, tear into pieces the soul they were intended to enliven and protect.-Burton.

CCCCLXXII.

A great object is always answered, whenever any property is transferred from hands that are not fit for that property, to those that are.-Burke on Economical Reform.

CCCCLXXIII. Honour, thou spongy idol of man's mind,

Thou soak'st content away, thou hast confin'd

VOL III

Ambitious man and not his destiny,
Within the bounds of form of ceremony.
Oh! happy life of shepherds, whose content
Rests in a soul that's free and innocent;

They stay their lodging, and remove their roof,
Not for their own, but for their flocks' behoof.
While some (to fill the blanks of their mean story)
Do travel in their cares, to gain vain glory,
They never leave the plains unless sometime,
To look about them, they the mountains climb;
But dwell not there, for e'en this change doth show,
What choicer sweets they do enjoy below:
Here the rough winds do buzz about their ears,
Their rocky steepness adds unto their fears:
Here they are ready to be torn assunder,
By magic's hateful blasts and envy's thunder;
From hence they may descend; but, greatness, stay,
If you come down, it must be t'other way;

For 'tis a bliss, in which your honour shares,

That though you would, you cannot leave your cares. Sir P Sidney's Arcadia. CCCCLXXIV.

Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon;
My scrip of joy, immortal diet;
My bottle of salvation;

My gown of glory (hope's true gage,)
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.
Blood must be my body's only balmer,
Whilst my soul, like a quiet Palmer,
Travelleth towards the land of heaven,
No other balm will there be given.
Over the silver mountains,

Where spring the nectar fountains,
There will I kiss

The bowl of bliss.

And drink mine everlasting fill
Upon every milken hill.

My soul will be adry before,

But after, it will thirst no more.

I'll take them first,
To quench my thirst,
And taste of nectar's suckets,
At those clear wells,

Where sweetness dwells,

Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.
Then by that happy blissful day,
More peaceful pilgrims I shall see,
That have cast off their rags of clay,
And walk apparell'd fresh like me;
And when our bodies, and all we
Are fill'd with immortality,

Then the blessed parts we'll travel
Stor'd with rubies thick as gravel;
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire flowers,
High walls of coral, and pearly bowers.
From thence to heavens bribeless hall,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into gold,
No forg'd accuser bought or sold,
No cause deferr'd, no vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king's attorney;
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And he hath angels, but no fees.
And when the twelve grand million jury
Of our sins, with direful fury,

'Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his death, and then we live.
Be thou my speaker (taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder;)
Thou wouldst salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.
And thine is mine eternal plea

To him that made heaven, earth, and sea,

That since my flesh must die so soon.

And want a head to dine next noon:

Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread, Set on my soul an everlasting head.

Then am I ready, like a Palmer fit,

To tread those bless'd paths, which before I writ!

O death and judgment, heaven and hell!
Who oft doth think, must needs die well.
Sir W. Raleigh.

CCCCLXXV.

Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.— Burke.

CCCCLXXVI.

I am persuaded, if many of us, who have lived to good years, did faithfully compute in what particular meditations and actions we have spent our time, we should not be able, amongst the years we have spent in pursuing our pleasures, our profits, our ambition, the days and nights we have dedicated to our lusts, our excesses, and importunities and solicitations we have used to mend our fortunes; we should not be able to set down one hour for every year of our life, I fear not one hour for our whole life, which we have solemnly spent to mend our Christianity; in which we have devoutly considered the majesty and providence and goodness of God, the reason and the end of our own creation; that there is such a place as Heaven for the reward of those who do well, or hell for the punishment of the wicked: for if we had spent but one hour in the contemplating those particulars, which are the first and most general notions of Christianity, it were not possible but we should be startled out of our lethargic laziness, and should make some progress in the practice of Christianity, as well as in those paths and roads that lead to our pleasure or profit. What is this inadvertency and incogitancy, but to believe that, as we received this badge of Christianity in our infancy, when we knew not of it, so it will grow and increase upon us in our sleep and times of leisure, without taking notice of it? that the little water that was thrown upon our face in baptism, was enough to preserve the beauty of God's image in us, without any addition of moisture from ourselves, either by tears in our repentance, or so much as by sweat in our industry and labour? and to declare to all the world, that we hold the life of a Christain to be nothing else, but spending so many days as nature allows us, in a climate where