and what is your Design, it will be very aeceptable to me.

4. How great soever you think yourself, be humble, and you will obtain the greater Praise.

5. Let me know how many you would have to sup with you, and we will come.

6. If Time makes a Poem (like Wine) the better; I desire to know, how many Years stamp a Value upon it?

7. I know not what any of your Friends write to you, but I understand they differ much in their Opinions.

Construction of Prepositions.

Præpositio subaudita, &c.

THE Ablative Case is often governed of the Preposition in, or some other Preposition understood.

1. Friendship consists in Equality of Tempers: to will, and not to will the same Thing, is a Sign of the strictest Amity.

2. My Father, now grown old, quitted his Office as a Magistrate, and retired into the Country.

3. Whoever he be that excels in Moderation and Constancy, is quiet in his Mind, and so satisfied in himself, as not to he cast down by Fear, nor too much elevated by Hope; he is a wise Man.

4. Do you ask why Virtue wants nothing? It rejoiceth in Things present, and hankers not after

what is absent: every Thing is great, because, be it what it will, it satisfieth.

5. We are enjoined to perform, even to a Stranger, all the Service we can, without Detriment to onrselves: as, not to debar a Man from a running Stream; to suffer Fire to be kindled at our Fire; and to give faithful Counsel to a Person who is in doubt.

Præpositio in compositione, &c.

A Preposition joined to a Verb, and becoming part of a Verb by Composition, governs the same Case of the Noun following, as if it stood alone by itself before the Noun: as in the Example, Prætereo te insalutatum, I pass by thee unsaluted.

1. We must take all the care we can to abstuin from Offences.

2. Drunkenness heightens and discovers every Vice: it takes away Modesty, the usual Restraint from all bad Enterprizes: for many abstain from Things forbidden more through Fear of Shame, than their own good Will.

3. If Praise cannot incite us to do rightly, Fear will scarce restrain us from the basest Actions.

4. When thou speakest of others, look well about thee on every side: consider of whom, and before whom, and what thou art going to speak: for thy. Words cannot be recalled.

5. It is an useful Reflection, sometimes to consider, how many, who were born at the same Time with you, have departed this Life before you.

6. As Life, so all the Ornaments of Life are subservient to Wisdom: but her chief end is

Happiness: thither she leads, thither she opens the Way: she sheweth what is truly evil, and what only seems so she roots out Vanity from our Minds, and instilleth solid Greatness.

Verba composita, &c.

VERBS compounded with the Prepositions a, ab, abs, ad, con, de, è, ex, in, sometimes repeat the Preposition before the Noun following, and that not inelegantly.

1. A, ab, abs.

1. All Craft must be abolished, and that Cunning, which affects to look like Prudence, but is far different from it: nor is there in Life any Thing more pernicious, that when in Roguery there is Disguise.

2. It is in vain to appeal to those, whose Ear and Mind are averse to us.

3. God cannot more traduce some Things that seem desirable, as Riches, than that he gives them to the vilest of Men, and takes them from the best.

4. We naturally abhor Wickedness, because no one is so safe, as to be out of the reach of Fear: good Fortune delivers many from Punishment, but none from the Fear of it; because Conscience condemns them.

5. It cannot be a pleasant Life, where Prudence is absent.

6. Nothing better suits a good and quiet Citizen, than to absent himself from civil Broils.

7. These, and all other Troubles that can

happen unto Man, I so bear, as to thank Philosophy; which not only delivers me from Solicitude, but arms me against every Assault of Fortune: and I think you ought to do the same; being persuaded, that nothing but Guilt deserves to be considered as a real Evil.

2. Ad.

1. To apply a superfluous Plenty of Words to a Cause of no great consequence, is a kind of Luxury.

2. Though every Virtue attracts us to her, and makes us love those who possess it, yet nothing does this more effectually than Liberality.

3. Though it may be more desirable to pass through Life without Pain and Injury, yet it adds to the Immortality of Glory, to be affectionately wanted by our Fellow-Citizens, rather than not at all to have been injured.

3. Con.

1. I dissent from those who defy a Storm, and, not disliking a public and busy Life, are continually struggling with great Difficulties, to shew their Courage: a wise Man should bear this, but would not make it his Choice,

2. We must abstain from Anger, whether the Person who provokes us be a Superior, an Equal, or Inferior: to contend with a Superior is a mad Thing; with an Equal, doubtful; and with an Inferior, mean and base.

3. Virtue is ever uniform, agreeing with Reason, with unwearied Constancy.

4. De.

1. Every Man is to take up with his own Inconveniency, rather than deprive another of what is his Property.

2. It is not only liberal, but sometimes advantageous, for a Man to depart a little from his Right. 3. Their own Deceit, their own Improbity, their own Indiscretion, drive Men from an healthful State of Mind.

5. E, Ex.

1. Despise not one that is deformed: a great Man may come out of a Cottage, and a great Mind dwell in a deformed Body.

2. From Beggars some have become on a sudden very rich; and the more illustrious from being obscure and ignoble.

3. He was so wary and circumspect, that he spake nothing but what he had well considered.

4. There is no greater Pest in Friendship, than Ambition, from which the greatest Enmities have arisen among the most friendly.

6. Inter.

1. There is this Difference between Wisdom and Philosophy Wisdom is the perfect Good of the human Mind; Philosophy is the Love of, and Affection for Wisdom: Philosophy only shews what Wisdom truly is.

2. Will any Man say, there is no Difference between Pain and Pleasure? Or if he thinks so,

must he not be mad?