Nor flatterer's venomous insinuations. Here wrong's name is unheard; slander a monster is, Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt, What man grafts in a tree dissimulation. Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia. CCXII. There is a great number of noblemen among you, that are themselves as idle as drones; that subsist on other men's labour, on the labour of their tenants, whom, to raise their revenues, they pare to the quick. This, indeed, is the only instance of their frugality, for in all other things they are prodigal, even to beggaring of themselves. But besides this, they carry about with them a great number of idle fellows, who never learned any art by which they may gain their living, and these, as soon as either their lord dies, or they themselves fall sick, are turned out of doors; for your lords are readier to feed idle people, than to take care of the sick; and often the heir is not able to keep together so great a family as his predecessor did.-Sir T. More's Utopia. CCXIII. It is a notable example of virtue, where the conqueror seeks for friendship of the conquered.-Sir P. Sidney. CCXIV. The quality of mercy is not strain❜d: It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven The attribute to awe and majesty, And earthly power doth then show likest God's, CCXV. Eloquence, that leads mankind by the ears, gives a nobler superiority than power that every dunce may use, or fraud that every knave may employ, to lead them by the nose. But eloquence must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water on some gaudy day, and remain dry the rest of the year.-Bolingbroke. CCXVI. "Tis the curse of mighty minds oppress'd, To think what their state is, and what it should be: Impatient of their lot, they reason fiercely, And call the laws of providence unequal. CCXVII. Rowe. The hero passeth through the multitude, as a man that neither disdains a people, nor yet is any thing tickled with their vanity.-Sir P. Sidney. CCXVIII. Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant. CCXIX. Johnson. You cannot pump the ocean dry; and as long as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance will continue. "Ye Gods, annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy!" was a pious and passionate prayer;-but just as reasonable as many of the serious wishes of very grave and solemn politicians.-Burke on the American War. CCXX. Few swords, in a just defence, are able to resist many unjust assaulters.—Sidney. CCXXI.: I doubt, many men in these ill times have found themselves unhappily engaged in a partnership of mischief, before they apprehended they were out of the right way, by seriously believing what this man said (whose learning and knowledge was confessedly eminent) to be law, and implicitly concluding what another did (whose reputation for honesty and wisdom was as general) to be just and prudent; and I pray God, the faults of those misled men may not be imputed to the other, who have weight enough of their own, and their very knowledge and honesty increase their damnation-Clarendon. CCXXII. Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity: many, from the ignorance of these maxims and an inconsiderate zeal unto truth, have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth: a man may be in as just possession of truth, as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her with peace, than to hazard her on a battle-Sir T. Brown. CCXXIII. While the slightest inconveniences of the great are magnified into calamities; while tragedy mouths out their sufferings in all the strains of eloquence; the miseries of the poor are entirely disregarded; and yet some of the lower ranks of people undergo more real hardships in one day, than those of a more exalted station suffer in their whole lives.-Goldsmith CCXXIV. Although I persuade thee to associate thyself with thy betters, or at least with thy peers, yet remember always that thou venture not thy estate with any of those great ones that shall attempt unlawful things; for such men labour for themselves and not for thee; thou shalt be sure to part with them in the danger, but not in the honour; and to venture a sure estate in present, in hope of a better in future, is mere madness; and great men forget such as have done them service, when they have obtained what they would, and will rather hate thee for saying thou hast been a means of their advancement, than acknowledge it.-Sir W. Raleigh—to his Son. CCXXV. The fire, to see my wrongs, for anger burneth; Time runs away for sorrow; Place standeth still amazed To see my night of evils, which hath no morrow. To know my miseries; but, chaste and cruel, Yet still her eyes give to my flames their fuel. Fire! burn me quite, till sense of burning leave me; Air! let me draw no more my breath in anguish; Sea! drowned in thee, of tedious life bereave me; Earth! take this earth, wherein my spirits languish. Fame, say I was not born; Time, haste my dying hour; Place, see my grave uptorn; Fire, air, sea, earth, fame, time, place, show your pow'r For her's am I, and death fears her displeasure. Tho' I be her's, she makes of me no treasure. Sir P. Sidney. CCXXVI. The disesteem and contempt of others is inseparable from pride. It is hardly possible to overvalue ourselves, but by undervaluing our neighbours; and we commonly most undervalue those who are by other men thought to be wiser than we are; and it is a kind of jealousy in ourselves that they are so, which provokes our pride.Clarendon. CCXXVII. How easy 'tis when destiny proves kind, CCXXVIII. THE GAME OF CHESS. A secret many yeeres vnseene, In play at chesse, who knowes the game, The King. The King himselfe is haughtie care, He steps among them now and then, Dryden. Whom, when his foe presumes to checke. The Queene, The Queene is queint, and quicke conceit, Hir force is such against hir foes That whom she meets she ouerthrowes. |