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nefs, are a fort of incommunicable perfections, and cannot be transferred. If a man could bequeath his virtues by will, and fettle his fenfe and learning upon his heirs, as certainly as he can his lands, a noble defcent would then indeed be a very valuable privilege.

TRUTH is always confiftent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware: whereas a lie is troublesome, and fets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

THE pleasure, which affects the human mind with the noft lively and tranfporting touches, is the fenfe that we act in the eye of infinite wifdom, power, and goodness, that will crown our virtuous endeavours here with a happinefs hereafter, large as our defires, and lafting as our immortal fouls: without this the higheft ftate of life is infipid, and with it the lowest is a Paradife.

CHAP. V.

HONOURABLE URABLE age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years: but wisdom is the gray hair unto man, and unfpotted life is

old age.

WICKEDNESS, Condemned by her own witnefs, is very timorous, and being preffed with confcience, always forecaffeth evil things: for fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon offereth.

A WISE man will fear in every thing. He that contemneth fmall things fhall fall by little and little.

A RICH man beginning to fall is held up of his friends; but a poor man being down is thruft away by his friends: when a rich man is fallen, he hath many helpers; he fpeaketh things not to be fpoken, and yet men justify him: the poor man flipped,and they rebuked him; he spoke wifely,and

could

could have no place. When a rich man speaketh, every man holdeth his tongue, and look, what he faith they extol it to the clouds: but if a poor man fpeak, they fay what fellow is this?

MANY have fallen by the edge of the fword, but not fo many as have fallen by the tongue. Well is he that is defended from it, and hath not paffed through the venom thereof; who hath not drawn the yoke thereof, nor been bound in her bonds; for the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron,. and the bands thereof are bands of brafs; the death thereof is an evil death.

My son, blemish not thy good deeds, neither use uncomfortable words when thou giveft any thing. Shall not the dew affuage the heat; fo is a word better than a gift. Lo is not a word better than a gift? but both are with a gracious man.

BLAME not before thou haft examined the truth; under. ftand first, and then rebuke.

Ir thou wouldeft get a friend, prove him first, and be not hafty to credit him ; for fome men are friends for their own occafions, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble.

FORSAKE Not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him; a new friend is as new wine; when it is eld, thou shalt drink it with pleafure.

A FRIEND cannot be known in profperity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity.

it

ADMONISH thy friend; it may be he hath not done it; and if he have, that he do it no more. Admonish thy friend; may be he hath not faid it; or if he have, that he fpeak it not again. Admonish a friend; for many times it is a flander; and believe not every tale. There is one that. flippeth in his fpeech, but not from his heart: and who is he that hath not offended with his tongue?

WHOSO difcovereth fecrets lofeth his credit, and fhall never find a friend to his mind,

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HONOUR thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the forrows of thy mother; how canft thou recompense them the things they have done for thee?

THERE is nothing fo much worth as a mind well inftructed.

THE lips of talkers will be telling fuch things as pertain not unto them: but the words of fuch as have understanding are weighed in the balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the tongue of the wife is in their heart. To labour, and to be content with that a man hath, is a fweet life.

BE in peace with many; nevertheless, have but one counfellor of a thousand.

Be not confident in a plain way.

LET reafon go before every enterprife, and counfel before every action.

CHAP. VI.

THE latter part of a wife man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and falfe opinions, he had contracted in the former.

CENSURE is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.

VERY few men, properly speaking, live at prefent. but are providing to live another time.

PARTY is the madness of many for the gain of a few. To endeavour to work upon the vulgar with fine fenfe, is like attempting to hew blocks of marble with a razor. SUPERSTITION is the fpleen of the foul.

He who tells a lie is not fenfible how great a task he undertakes: for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

SOME people will never learn any thing; for this reason, because they understand every thing too foon.

THERE is nothing wanting to make all rational and dif.

intereRed

interested people in the world of one religion, but that they fhould talk together every day.

MEN are grateful in the fame degree that they are re. fentful.

YOUNG men are fubtle arguers: the cloak of honour covers all their faults; as that of paffion all their follies. ECONOMY is no difgrace; it is better living on a little, than out living a great deal.

NEXT to the fatisfaction I receive in the profperity of an honeft man, I am best pleased with the confufion of a rascal. · WHAT is often termed fhynefs, is nothing more than refined fenfe, and an indifference to common obfervations.

THE higher character a perfon fupports, the more he fhould regard his minutest actions.

EVERY perfon infenfibly fixes upon fome degree of refinement in his difcourfe, fome meafure of thought which he thinks worth exhibiting. It is wife to fix this pretty high, although it occafions one to talk the lefs.

To endeavour all one's days to fortify our minds with learning and philofophy, is to fpend fo much in armour, that one has nothing left to defend.

DEFERENCE often fhrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy, as the fenfitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

MEN are fometimes accufed of pride, merely because their accufers would be proud themfelves if they were in their places.

PEOPLE frequently ufe this expreffion, I am inclined to think fo and fo,' not confidering that they are then speaking the moft literal of all truths.

MODESTY makes large amends for the pain it gives the perfons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy perfon in their favour.

Tua difference there is betwixt honour and honefty

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feems to be chiefly in the motive.

The honeft man does

that from duty, which the man of honour does for the fake of character.

ALIAR begins with making falfehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood. VIRTUE fhould be confidered as a part of taste; and we fhould as much avoid deceit, or finifter meanings in difcourfe, as we would puns, bad language, or falfe grammar.

CHAP. VII.

DEFERENCE is the moft complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

He that lies in bed all a fummer's morning, lofes the chief pleasure of the day: he that gives up his youth to indolence undergoes a lofs of the fame kind.

SHINING characters are not always the most agreeable ones. The mild radiance of an emerald is by no means lefs pleafing than the glare of the ruby.

To be at once a rake, and to glory in the character, difcovers at the fame time, a bad difpofition, and a bad taste. How is it poffible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not fo much as take warning?

ALTHOUGH men are accused for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own ftrength. It is in men as in foils, where fometimes there is a vein of gold, which the owner knows not of.

FINE fenfe and exalted fenfe are not half fo valuable as common fenfe. There are forty men of wit for one man of fense; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a lofs for want of ready change.

LEARNING is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in fkilful hands; in unfkilful, moft mifchievous.

A MAN fhould never be ashamed to own he has been in

the

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