FROM

LAVATER'S APHORISMS ON MAN.

THE

1.

HE more independent of accidents, the more self-subsistent, the more fraught with internal resources, the greater the cha

Calmness of will is a sign of grandeur. The vulgar, far from hiding their will, blab their wishes. A single spark of occasion discharges the child of passions into a thousand crackers of desire.

III.

Three things characterise man-person, fate, merit; the harmony of these constitutes real grandeur.

IV.

The most exuberant encomiast turns easily into the most inveterate censor.

V.

Humility and love, whatever obscurities may involve religious tenets, constitute the essence of true religion. The humble is formed to adore; the loving to associate with eternal love.

VI.

Who has a daring eye, tells downright truths and downright lies.

VII.

Who censures with modesty, will praise with sincerity.

VIII.

The wrangler, the puzzler, the word-hunter, are incapable of great thoughts or actions.

IX.

Who seeks to sever friends is incapable of friendship, shall lose all that merits the name of friend, and meet a fiend in his own heart.

X.

Be certain, that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again.

XI.

He who is good before invisible witnesses, is eminently so before the visible.

XII.

The more there is of mind in your solitary employments, the more dignity there is in your character.

XIII.

The calm presence of a sublime mind inspires veneration, and excites great thoughts and noble sentiments in the wise and good,

XIV.

She neglects her heart, who studies her glass.

XV.

Keep him at least three paces distant, who hates bread, music, and the laugh of a child.

xvi.

All great minds sympathize.

XVII.

There are but three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary, the progressive.

XVIII.

Let none turn over books, or roam the stars, in quest of God, who sees him not in man.

XIX.

A woman, whose ruling passion is not vanity, is superior to any man of equal faculties.

Three days of uninterrupted company in a vehicle will make you better acquainted with another, than one hour's conversation with him every day for three years.

XXI.

You are not yet a great man, because you are railed at by many little, and esteemed by some great, characters; then only you deserve that name, when the cavils of the insignificant, and the esteem of the great, keep you at equal distance from pride and despondence, invigorate your courage, and add to your humility.

XXII.

Where true wisdom is, there surely is repose of mind, patience, dignity, delicacy. Wisdom without these is dark light, heavy ease, sonorous silence.

XXIII.

He who reforms himself, has done more towards reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy impotent patriots.

XXIV.

He who hates the wisest and best of men, hateth the Father of men: for where is the Father of men to be seen, but in the most perfect of his children?

XXV.

A God, an animal, a plant, are not companions of man; nor is the faultless. Then judge with lenity of all; the coolest, wisest, best, all, without exception, have their points, their moments of enthusiasm, fanaticism, absence of mind, faint-heartedness, stupidity; if you allow not for these, your criticisms on man will be a mass of accusations or caricatures.