stands engaged for the Debts of his Friend, or otherwise contributes either to his acquiring or improving a Fortune.

4. Magnanimity is a Virtue, by which a Man is. incited to do great and noble Actions; and to look upon all the Revolutions and Turns of Fortune as weak and of no Influence, when they come in Competition with Virtue.

5. Mere Poverty is not so great an Affliction as Poverty after Riches, and Want after Abundance. 6. Philosophy, if we would rightly interpret it, is nothing else than the Study of Wisdom.

7. Folly is a mean Thing, abject, sordid, servile, subject to inany and the most cruel l'assions: and from these grievous Masters nothing can deliver you but Wisdom, which is the only true Liberty.

8. Virtue would be a melancholy and uncomfortable Thing, if it should never meet with due Esteem and Approbation.

9. Piety is the Foundation of all Virtues: was this removed, Fidelity, Society, and that most excellent Virtue, Justice, must necessarily be destroyed.

10. Temperance is that Virtue, which directs us to follow a Mean in every Thing we either pursue or avoid.

11. If Fortune pleases, of a common Soldier you shall be made a Captain; of a Rhetorician, a Consul; of a Beggar, a Prince.

12. Honesty, or Justice, from which Virtues alone Men are called good, seem something great and wonderful to the Multitude: and no Wonder; for no Man can be just, who fears Death, Pain, Exile, or Poverty; or who prefers their Contraries to Justice.

13. As that Knowledge, which is divided from Justice, is called Craft rather than Wisdom; so that Courage, which is bold and adventurous, without regard to the public Good, should be called: Rashness rather than Valour.

14. When Necessity spurs, Despair will be called Wisdom.

15. Perfect Reason is called Virtue; and Virtue is the chief Good of Man: He therefore who hath perfected his Reason, cannot but be happy.

16. All Things which seem Evils to other Men, will be softened and turned to Good, if your Virtue riseth eminent above them: only be assured, that nothing is good but what is right and fit; and all the Inconveniences attending it will, in their own Right, be called Goods, when Virtue hath adorned them and given them a Grace.

17. There is so little Difference between a slothful Man and a Prodigal, that they may be called Brethren: for he that looks not after his own Business, must needs come to Poverty, as well as he that is a Spendthrift.

18. Advisedness is accounted so necessary a Part of Wisdom, that no Man is accounted wise without it: a rash Man is looked upon as next in Degree to a Fool.

19. All who place their Studies in the Contemplation of Things, are accounted and named wise Men.

20. They who are adorned with all the Virtues, are called both wise and good Men.

21. He that is born a Prince, and he that is born a Beggar, are equal before they are born, and will be equal after they are dead.

Item omnia ferè Verba, &c.

IN like Manner almost all Verbs take an Adjective after them, which must agree with the Substantive before them, in Case, Gender, and Number: i. e. when the one has a Respect or Relation to the other.

1. What Things are good may become better by Learning; and those which are not the best, may in some measure be corrected and heightened thereby. 2. Time makes Proof of a Friend; who, if he be sincere, continues steadfast in Adversity, as well as in Prosperity.

3. Together with Riches, a Man gets many, and perhaps great and powerful Friends, though he had none before: but he that has most need of them, is so far from getting any, that if he had one, he loses even him when he grows poor.

4. Must I be poor? I shall find Companions enough. Must I be banished? I will look upon the Place where I am sent as my native Home. Must I he bound? What then? An I now free? Nature hath bound me to this heavy Load of Body. Must I die? I can then be no more sick or bound: I can die no more.

5. Every Work appears hard before you have tried it.

6. Have not some, without such Discipline and subtle Instructions, proved good Men, and made great roficiency in the School of Virtue, while obedient only to bare Precepts? I grant it: but this is owing to an happy Disposition, and good

natural Parts, which at first View apprehend what is fit and right.

7. The Souls of all are immortal; but of the good and brave, divine.

8. Those Things which seem useful, as Honors, Riches, Pleasure, and the like, are never to be preferred to Friendship.

9. Real Legacies seem to me not honorable, when they are acquired by the Arts of Fawning, Deceit, and Flattery; by Hypocrisy, and not by Sincerity.

10. They are to be accounted brave and magnanimous, who do not an Injury, but repel one.

11. Plain-Dealing is a Jewel, but he that wears it shall die poor.

12. What avails it a Man to have lived four-score Years spent in Idleness? Such a one hath not lived, but only existed, and tarried in the World: he cannot be said to die lately, for he has been long dead. Another Man died young; but he lived a good Citizen, a faithful Friend, and a dutiful Son; however imperfect therefore his Age may be, his. Life was complete and perfect.

Note. The Infinitive Mood esse, and other Infinitives (both Neuter and Passive) like to esse in Signification, require the same Case after them, that stands next before them, whether it be Nominative, Accusative, or Dative.

I. Nominative.

1. Artificers have the Prerogative to find a Welcome in all Countries: so that Banishment

to an excellent Workman, can hardly be called a Punishment.

2. Make not too much haste to be rich: for tho' with a great deal of Bustle and Stir, an Estate may in a short Time be huddled up; yet the Foundation of it being laid in Rapine, Extortion, or Fraud, it moulders away frequently as suddenly as it was gotten.

3. One may be a good Physician, a good Governor, a good Grammarian, without being a good Man.

4. He that would be truly happy, must think his own Lot best; and so live with Men, as considering that God sees him; and so speak to God, as if Men heard him.

5. The true Art of Conversation seems to be this : an apparent Freedom and Candour; with a resolute Reservedness, as little appearing as possible.

6. A straight Stick appears in the Water to be crooked.

7. All Vices sometimes bear a Shew of Virtue : thus, Prodigality takes to itself the Name of Bounty; Covetousness desires to be called Thriftiness; and Revenge looks like Greatness of Spirit.

:

8. You cannot indeed avoid Difficulties, but you may overcome them: Philosophy will shew you the Way have Recourse to this, if you would continue safe, secure, and happy; in a Word, if (what is the greatest of all) you would be free.

9. Justice, or Honesty, without which nothing can be commendable, is the Foundation of perpetual Fame and Glory.

10. Of all Injustice, the chief is that of those