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ference betwixt wine and ale seems to be that of chemic and galenic medicines. 22. It is the reduplication or accumulation of compliments, that gives them their agreeableness: I mean, when, seeming to wander from the subject, you return to it again with greater force. As a common instance: 'I wish it was capable of a precise demonstration how much I esteem, love, and honour you, beyond all the rich the gay, the great of this sublunary sphere: but I believe that both divines and laymen will agree that the sublimest and most valuable truths are oftentimes least capable of demonstration.'

23. It

is a noble piece of policy that is used in some arbitrary governments (but suitable to none other) to instill it into the minds of the people that their Great Duke knoweth all things. 24. In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends. 25. Pride and modesty are sometimes found to unite together in the same character: and the mixture is as salutary as that of wine and water. The worst combination I know is that of avarice and pride; as the former naturally obstructs the good that pride eventually produces. What I mean, is expense. 26. A great many tunes, by a variety of circumrotatory flourishes, put one in mind of a lark's descent to the ground.

27. People frequently use this expression, "I am inclined to think so and so;" not considering that they are then speaking the most literal of all truths.

28. The first part of a newspaper which an ill-natured man examines, is the list of bankrupts, and the bills of mortality. 29. The chief thing which induces men of sense to use airs of superiority, is

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the contemplation of coxcombs; that is, conceited fools; who would otherwise run away with the men of sense's privileges. 30. To be entirely engrossed by antiquity, and, as it were, eaten up with rust, is a bad compliment to the present age.

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31. Ask to borrow sixpence of the muses, and they will tell you, at present they are out of cash, but hereafter they will furnish you with five thousand pounds. 32. The argument against restraining our passions, because we shall not always have it in our power to gratify them, is inuch stronger their restraint, than it is for their indulgence. 33. Few men, that would cause respect and distance merely, can say any thing by which their end will be so effectually answered as by silence. 34. There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is, that people can commend it without envy. 35. One may, modestly enough, calculate one's appearance for respect upon the road, where respect and convenience so remarkably coincide. 36. Altho' a man cannot procure himself a title at pleasure, he may vary the appellation he goes by considerably. As from Tom, to Mr. Thomas, to Mr. Musgrove, to Thomas Musgrove, esquire. And this by a behaviour of reserve, or familiarity. 37. For a man of genius to condescend in conversation with vulgar people, gives the sensation that a tall man feels on being forced to stoop in a low room. 38. There is nothing more universally prevalent than flattery. Persons, who discover the flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications. It is a tacit sort of compliment, that he esteems them to be such as it is

worth his while to flatter:

ent?

"And when I tell him, he hates flattery,

he says he does, being then most flatter'd.'-Shakes.

39. A person has sometimes more public than private merit. Honorio and his family wore mourning for their ancestor; but that of all the world was internal and sincere. Your plain domestic people who talk of their humility and home-felt satisfactions, will, in the same breath discover how much they envy a shining character. How is this consist"You are prejudiced,' says Pedandicus; 'I will not take your word, or your character of that man.' 'But the grounds of my prejudice are the source of my accusation. A proud man's intimates are generally more attached to him, than the man of merit and humility can pretend his to be. The reason is, the former pays a greater compliment in his condescension. The situation of a king, is so far from being miserable, as pedants term it, that, if a person have magnanimity, it is the happiest I know; as he has assuredly the most opportunities of distinguishing merit, and conferring obligations.

"Contemptæ dominius splendidior rei.”

40.

A man, a gentleman, evidently appears more considerable by seeming to despise his fortune, than a citizen and mechanic by his endeavours to magnify it.

41. What man of sense, for the benefit of coal-mines, would be plagued with colliers' conversation? 42. Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives the persons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person in their favour. 43. Third thoughts often coincide with the first, and are generally the best grounded. We first relish nature and the country; then artificial amusements, and

the city; then become impatient to retire to the 44. While we labour to sub

country again.

45.

due our passions, we should take care not to extinguish them. Subduing our passions, is disengaging ourselves from the world; to which, however, whilst we reside in it, we must always bear relation; and we may detach ourselves to such a degree as to pass an useless and insipid life, which we were not meant to do. Our existence here is at least one part of a system. A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind. Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever. Fighting, and law-suits, bleeding; at least an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money; the former of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation. 46. Were a man of pleasure to arrive at the full extent of his several wishes, he must immediately feel himself miserable. It is one species of despair to have no room to hope for any addition to one's happiness.

His following wish must then be to wish he had some fresh object for his wishes. A strong argument that our

minds and bodies were both meant to be for ever active. 47. I have seen one evil underneath the sun, which gives me particular mortification. The reserve or shyness of men of sense generally confines them to a small acquaintance; and they find numbers their avowed enemies, the similarity of whose tastes, had fortune brought them once acquainted, would have rendered them their fondest friends. 48. A mere relater of matters of fact is fit only for an evidence in a court of justice.` 49. If a man be of superior dignity to a woman, a woman is surely as much superior to a man that is

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effeminated. Lily's rule in the grammar has well enough adjusted this subordination. “The maseuline is more worthy than the feminine, and the feminine more worthy than the neuter." 50. A gentleman of fortune will be often complaining of taxes; that his estate is inconsiderable; that he can never make so much of it as the world is ready to imagine. A mere citizen, on the other hand, is always aiming to shew his riches; says that he employs so many hands; he keeps his wife a chaise and one; and talks much of his Chinese ornaments at his paltry cake-house in the country. They both aim at praise, but of a very distinct kind. Now, supposing the cit worth as much in money as the other is in land, the gentleman surely chuses the better method of ostentation, who considers himself as somewhat superior to his fortune, than he who seems to look up at his fortune, and consequently sets himself beneath it. 51. The only kind of revenge which a man of sense need take on a scoundrel, is by a series of worthy behaviour, to force him to admire and esteem his enemy, and yet irritate his animosity, by declining a reconciliation. As Sir John Falstaff might say, "turning even quarrels to commodity." 52. It is possible, by means of glue, to connect two pieces of wood together; by a powerful cement, to join marble; by the meditation of a priest, to unite a man and a woman; but of all associations the most effectual is betwixt an ideot and a knave. They become in a manner incorporate. The former seems so framed to admire and idolize the latter, that the latter may seize and devour him as his proper prey. 53. The same degree of penetration that shews you another in the wrong, shews him also, in respect to

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