DCXIV.

To be proud of learning, is the greatest ignorance.Bishop Taylor.

DCXV.

More hearts pine away in secret anguish, for unkindness from those who should be their comforters, than for any other calamity in life. Young.

DCXVI.

Antronius.-I have often heard that one wise woman is two fools.

Magdalia.-Some fools are of that opinion. The woman that is truly wise does not think herself so; but she that is not so, and yet thinks herself so, is twice a fool. Colloquies of Erasmus.

DCXVII.

The only way for a rich man to be healthy, is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he was poor; which are esteemed the worst parts of poverty.-Sir. W. Temple.

DCXVIII.

In bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay; like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir.-Lord Bacon.

DCXIX.

-Methinks it were a happy life
To be no better than a homely swain;
To sit upon a hill,

To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run:
How many make the hour full complete,
How many hours bring about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may live.
When this is known, then to divide the times:
So many hours must I tend my flock;
So many hours must I take my rest;

So many hours must I contemplate;
So many hours must I sport myself;

So many days my ewes have been with young;
So many weeks ere the poor fools will yean;
So many years ere I shall sheer the fleece:

So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years,
Pass'd over to the end they were created,

Would bring white hairs into a quiet grave.

Ah, what a life were this! How sweet! How lovely!
Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade

To Shepherds, looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy

To Kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?
O, yes, it doth; a thousand fold it doth.

And to conclude,-the Shepherd's homely curds,
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,

His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
Is far beyond a prince's delicates,
His viands sparkling in a golden cup,
His body couched in a curious bed,

When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.

Henry IV-Shakspeare.

DCXX.

I will give The Man of Pleasure's character in a manner less perplexed, and which your sister may probably censure as too plain; and may wish a clue were wanting to find the meaning.

He is one, who, desirous of being more happy than any man can be, is less happy than most men are.

One, who seeks happiness every where, but where it is to be found.

One, who out-toils the labourer, not only without his wages, but paying dearly for it.

He is an immortal being, that has but two marks of a man about him, upright stature, and the power of playing the fool, which a monkey has not.

He is an immortal being, that triumphs in this single, deplorable, and yet false hope, that he shall be as happy

as a monkey when they are both dead; though he despairs of being so, while yet alive.

He is an immortal being, that would lose none of its most darling delights, if he were a brute in the mire; but would lose them all entirely, if he were an angel in heaven.

It is certain, therefore, that he desires not to be there. And if he not so much as desires it now, how can he ever hope it, when his day of dissipation is over? And if no hope-what is our Man of Pleasure? A man of distraction and despair to-morrow.-Letter on pleasure. -Young.

DCXXI.

The bold encroaches on the deep

Gain by degrees large tracts of land,
Till Neptune with one gen'ral sweep
Turns all again to barren strand.
The multitude's capricious pranks
Are said to represent the seas;
Which breaking Bankers and the Banks,
Resume their own whene'er they please.

Money, the life-blood of the nation,
Corrupts and stagnates in the veins,

Unless a proper circulation

Its motion and its heat maintains.
Because 'tis lordly not to pay,
Quakers and aldermen in state
Like peers have levees ev'ry day
Of duns attending at their gate.
We want our money on the nail
The banker's ruin'd if he pays:
They seem to act an ancient tale;
The birds are met to strip the jays.
Riches, the wisest monarch sings,
Make pinions for themselves to fly:
They fly like bats on parchment wings,
And geese their silver plumes supply.

VOL III.

P

No money left for squand'ring heirs!
Bills turn the lenders into debtors:
The wish of Nero now is theirs,

That they had never known their letters.
Conceive the works of midnight hags,
Tormenting fools behind their backs;
Thus bankers o'er their bills and bags
Sit squeezing images of wax.
Conceive the whole enchantment broke;
The witches left in open air,
With pow'r no more than other folk,
Expos'd with all their magic ware.
So pow'rful are a banker's bills,

Where creditors demand their due;
They break up counters, doors and tills,
And leave the empty chests in view.
Thus when an earthquake lets in light
Upon the god of gold and hell,

Unable to endure the sight,

He hides within his darkest cell.

Written in 1720--Swift.

DCXXII.

Whoso upon himself will take the skill
True Justice unto people to divide,

Had need have mighty hands, for to fulfil

That which he doth with righteous doom decide,
And for to maister wrong and puissant pride.
For vain it is to deem of things aright,
And makes wrong-doers justice to deride,
Unless it be performed with dreadless might;

For power is the right hand of justice truely hight.

DCXXIII.

Spenser.

We live in an age wherein vice is not taught so per functorily, as to be in danger to be dislodged after it is once entered and received; the devil is too good a husband to venture a beloved sin upon a constitution capable of being ashamed of his guests; he secures

himself in that point, by choosing such proselytes as will first brag of having committed some notorious sins, before he admits them to the pleasure and guilt of them, that so the shame of being discovered to be liars may harden their faces against all other shame; the fame of being eminently wicked hath mastered and suppresed the infamy of it; and many would rather be without the pleasure of the sins they most delight in, than without the pleasure of publishing and bragging of them after the commitment; as if there would be too much innocence left, if there should not be an equal proportion of impudence planted in its place.-Clarendon.

DCXXIV.

In
age
to wish for youth is full as vain
As for a youth to turn a child again.

DCXXV.

Denham.

Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, be cause mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business, which are signs of being weary of themselves.-Sir W. Temple.

DCXXVI.

Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.-Saville.

DCXXVII.

It is certain, that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company.-Shakspeare.

DCXXVIII.

Old men love novelties; the last arriv'd

Still pleases best, the youngest steals their smiles.

DCXXIX.

Young.

Those men who destroy a healthful constitution of body by intemperance, and an irregular life, do as mani