The day of mirth is commonly short, and is often followed by the long and tedious night of sorrow, In order to die in hope, we must live virtuously. Temporal death, which brings despair to the wicked, is hope and the gate of eternal life to the righteous. 2. Find, lose; present, future; good, bad; Young, old; learned, ignorant; small, great; In our endeavours to find present enjoyment, we often lose the means of future comfort. To the good and the bad many things happen alike on earth, but in the eternal state virtue shall be rewarded and vice punished. In the final day of reckoning, it shall be ill with the vicious, and well with the virtuous. The prospective view of time is long, and full of expectation, but its retrospective appearance is short and unsatisfactory. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the learned and the ignorant, are on an equal footing at the close of their career. To rest satisfied with small attainments, when the means of accomplishing greater are abundant, is an evidence that we are deficient in energy, The young are slaves to novelty, and the old to custom. The more a man speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of. Men generally put a greater value upon the favours they bestow, than upon those they receive. To be totally indifferent to praise or censure is a real defect in character. It is wise in a man to endeavour to shine in himself, and foolish to try to outshine others. 3. Coarse, fine; cold, warm; blunt (v.), sharpen; That piece of cloth is coarse, this is fine; the one would make a cold covering, the other a warm one. If you blunt not the edge of ridicule by your indifference, you will sharpen it by your concern. Forget the faults of others, and remember your own. Practise humility, and reject every thing that has the appearance of pride. Allow nothing to interrupt your public or private devotion, except the performance of some humane action. That which gives pain to others, deserves not the' name of pleasure. Industry is the road to wealth, and idleness to poverty. Some are timid and sluggish, and others are bold and active. As there is no intrinsic merit in personal beauty; so there is no natural demerit in deformity. It is the greatest folly in a man to offend his conscience, in order to please his humour. Mirth is short and transient: cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Conscience speaks peace to the innocent, and terror to the guilty. The opposite effects of positive and negative electricity are attraction and repulsion. Love, hatred; before, behind; angry, pleased; True, false; raised, depressed; mirth, sadness; Knowledge, ignorance; wisdom, folly; highest, low est; Increases, diminishes; deficiency, excess; Power, weakness; creates, destroys; public, private. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. He who will not look before him, will have reason to look behind him. He that is angry without a cause, must be pleased without amends. It is the province of superiors to direct, of inferiors to obey. Hearts may agree though heads differ. Europe was at one time like a great field of battle, where the weak struggled for freedom, and the strong to fix the chains of bondage. Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are apt to be depressed with sadness, How different is the view of past life in the man who has grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who has grown old in ignorance and folly. Without a sense of divine wisdom and goodness, the highest state of life is insipid, and with it the lowest is a paradise. The desire of fame increases the energies of virtue, and diminishes the excesses of vice. Contemporaries are anxious to redeem a deficiency of penetration by an excess of praise. The power of evil habits over our wills exhibits in a striking manner the weakness of our nature. It is curious that intellectual darkness creates some authors, whom physical darkness would destroy. A prime minister of state has not so much business in public, as a wise man has in private. 5. Empty, full; happy, miserable; praise, censure; Foolish, wise; scatter, gather; prodigal (n.), miser; Natural, artificial; wealth, poverty; most, least ; Justifieth, condemneth; wicked, just; bright, dark; Guilty, innocent; silent, talkative; shorten, prolong; Prosperity, adversity; agreement, variance. None are so empty as those who are full of themselves. Providence never intended that any state here should be either completely happy or entirely miserable. To be totally indifferent to praise or censure is a real defect in character. He who will not sow in a cold day, will not reap in a warm one. Tell not your mind to a friend that is foolish, nor to an enemy that is wise. They never scattered with one hand, who had not reason to gather with both. The prodigal robs his heir, the miser robs himself. Content is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty. He generally talks most who has least to say. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, are an abomination to the Lord. Almost every object that attracts our notice has its bright and its dark side. A man is no sooner found to be less guilty than expected, than he is concluded to be more innocent than he is. Some men are silent for want of matter, and some are talkative for want of sense. Immoderate pleasures shorten men's days more than the best medicines can prolong them.. He who is puffed up with the first gale of prosperity, will sink beneath the first blast of adversity. All virtues are in agreement, all vices are at variance. 6. Reward, punishment; hope, fear; misery, happiness. Ancients, moderns; honour, reproach; crafty, upright; Selfishness, charity; bashfulness, impudence; one, other. Timidity, rashness; little, much; silence, loquacity; Virtue is its own reward, and vice its own punishment. As, while hope remains, there can be no full and positive misery; so, while fear is yet alive, happiness is incomplete. Among the ancients, Longinus possessed most delicacy; among the moderns, Mr. Addison is a high example of delicate taste. There is a worldly happiness, which God perceives to be no other than disguised misery; and there is a worldly honour, which, in his estimation, is reproach: the one is the wisdom of the crafty, the other of the upright; the one terminates in selfishness, and the other in charity. In courts, bashfulness and timidity are as prejudicial on the one hand, as impudence and rashness on the other. Slight condescensions cost little, but are worth much. Were we as eloquent as angels, yet we would please some people much more by silence than by loquacity. He that aspires to be the head of a party must often act from false reasons which are weak, because he dares not avow the true reasons which are strong. To be above others, he must condescend, at times, to be beneath himself. Pedantry prides itself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them.. Those who seek virtue early will find her before it be late. Vice is covered by wealth and virtue by poverty. Moderation in pleasure may sometimes be innocent; but excess is always criminal. END OF SECTION FIRST, |