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Philofophy is then only valuable, when it ferves for the law of life and not for the oftentation of fcience.

W

CHA P. II.

ITHOUT a friend the world is but a wilderness.

A man may have a thousand intimate acquaintances and not a friend amongst them all. If you have one friend think yourself happy,

When once you profess yourself a friend, endeavor to be al ways fuch. He can never have any true friends who is always changing them.

Profperity gains friends, and adverfity tries them,

Nothing more engages the affections of men, than a hand, fome addrefs, and graceful converfation.

Complaifance renders a fuperior amiable, an equal agreea ble, and an inferior acceptable.

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Excefs of ceremony fhews want of breeding. That civility is beft, which excludes all fuperfluous formality.

Ingratitude is a crime fo fhameful, that the man was never yet found who would acknowledge himself guilty of it. Few things are impoffible to induftry and kill.

Diligence is never wholly loft.

There cannot be a greater treachery than firft to raise a cong fidence, and then deceive it.

By other's faults wife men corre there own.

No man hath a thorough taste of profperity, to whom adver? fty never happened,

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we leave them,

It is as great a point of wifdom to hide ignorance as to dif cover knowledge.

Pitch upon that courfe of life which is the moft excellent ; and habit will render it the most delightful.

CUST

CHA P. III.

USTOM is the plague of wife men, and the idol of fools, As to be perfealy juft, is an attribute of the divine na ture; to be fo to the utmost of our abilities is the glory of man. No man was ever caft down with the injuries of fortune, uniefs he had before fuffered himself to be deceived by her favors. Anger may glance into the breaft of a wife man, but reils only in the bofom of fools,

None more impatiently fuffer injuries than thofe that are most forward in doing them.

By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in paffing it over, he is fuperior

To err is human, to forgive, divine.

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness Thould begin on ours.

The prodigal robs his heir, the mifer robs himself.

We fhould take a prudent care for the future, but so as to en joy the prefent. It is no part of wifdom, to be miferable to-day, becaufe we may happen to be more fo to-morrow.

To mourn without measure is folly; not to mourn at all infenfibility.

Some would be thought todo great things, who are but tools and inftruments; like the fool who fancied he played upon the organ, when he only drew the bellows.

Tho a man may become learned by another's learning, he can never become wife but by his own wisdom.

He who wants good fenfe is unhappy in having learning; for he has thereby more ways of expofing himself.

It is ungenerous to give a man occafion to blush at his own ignorance in one thing, who perhaps may excel us in many.

No object is more pleafing to the eye, than the fight of a man whom you have obliged; nor any mufic so agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefactor.

The coin that is moft current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is that by hearing what we are not we may be inftructed what we ought to be.

The character of the perfon who commends yon, is to be confidered, before you fet a value on his esteem. The wife man applauds him whom he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world, him who is most wealthy.

The temperate man's pleafures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is calm and ferene, because it is innocent. A good man will love himself too well to lofe, and his neighbor too well to win, an eftate by gaming. The love of gaming will corrupt the best principles in the world.

CHA P. IV.

AN angry man who fuppreffes his paffions, thinks worse than

than he thinks.

A good word is an eafy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our filence, which cofts us nothing.

It is to affectation the world owes its whole race of cox. combs. Nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a part; fhe has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making.

It is the infirmity of little minds to be taken with every ap pearance, and dazzled with every thing that fparkles; but great minds have but little admiration, because few things ap. pear new to them:

It happens to men of learning as to ears of corn; they fhoot up and raise their heads high, while they are empty; but when full and fwelled with grain, they begin to flag and droop.

He that is truly polite, knows how to contradict with ref pect, and to please without adulation; and is equally remote from an infipid complaifance, and a low familiarity.

The failings of good men are commonly more publifhed in the world than their good deeds, and one fault of a deferving man will meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues praife. Such is the force of ill will and ill nature.

It is harder to avoid cenfure than to gain applause; for this may be done by one great or wife action in an age; but to ef cape cenfure, a man muft pafs his whole life without saying or doing one ill or foolish thing.

When Darius offered Alexander ten thousand talents to di vide Afia equally with him, he aufwered: The earth cannot bear two funs, nor Afia two kings. Parmenio, a friend of Alexander's, hearing the great offers that Darius had made, faid, Were I Alexander, I would accept them. So would I replied Alexander, were I Parmenio.

An old age unfupported with matter for difcourfe and medita. tion, is much to be dreaded. No ftate can be more deftitute than that of him, who, when the delights of fenfe forfake him, has no pleasures of the mind.

Such is the condition of life that fomething is always wanted to happiness. In youth we have warm lopes, which are foon blafted by rafhnefs and negligence; and great defigns, which are defeated by experience. In age, we have knowledge and prudence, without fpirit to exert, or motives to prompt them We are able to plan schemes and regulate measures, but have not time remaining to bring them to completion.

Truth is always confiftent with itself, and needs nothing to

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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 troublefome, and fets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

The pleafure which affects the human mind with the most fively and tranfporting touches, is the fenfe that we act in the eye of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, that will crown our virtuous endeavours here, with happiness hereafter, large as our defires, and lafting as our immortal fouls; without this the highest ftate of life is infipid, and with it, the lowest is a paradife.

CHA P. V.

HONORABLE age is not that which ftandeth in length of time, nor which is measured by number of years; but wisdom is the grey hair unto man, and an unfpotted life is old

age.

Wickednefs, condemned by her own witnefs, is very timar ous, and being preffed with confcience, always forecaileth evil things; for fear is nothing elfe, but a betraying of the fuccers

which reafon offereth.

A wife 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 by 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 spoken, and yet men justify him; the poor man flipt and they rebuked him; he spoke wifely and could have no place, When a rich man fpeaketh every man holdeth his tongue, and lo! what he fayeth they extol to the clouds ; but if a poor man fpeak, they lay, 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 fon, blemish not thy good deeds, neither ufe uncomfor table 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; understand firit, and then rebuke,

If thou wouldst get a friend, prove him firft, and be not haf ty to credit him, for fome men are friends for their own occafions, and will not abide in the day of trouble.

Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him : : a new friend is as new wine; when it is old thou shalt drink it with pleasure.

A friend cannot be known in profperity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adverfity.

Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not done it; and if he hath, that he do it no more. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not said it; or if he hath, that be speak 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 speech, but not from his heart; and who is he that hath not offended with his tongue ?

Whofo difcovereth fecrets lofeth his credit, and shall never And a friend to his mind.

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

There is nothing of 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 underltanding are weighed in the balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the tongue of the wife is in their heart.

To labor, and to be contented with what a man hath, is a fweet life.

Be not confident, even in a plain way.

Be in peace with many; neverthelefs have but one counsellor of a thousand.

Let reafon go before every enterprize, and counfel before e very 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 contract. ed in the former.

Cenfure is a tax a man pays to the public for being eminent, Very few men, properly fpeaking, live at prefent, but are providing to live another time.

Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few.

To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine fenfe, is like attempting to hew blocks of marble with a razor.

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