near the mastery of the original; and his labours are like dishes of meat twice drest, that become insipid, and lose the pleasant taste they had at first. He differs from an author as a fiddler does from a musician, that plays other men's compositions, but is not able to make any of his own. All his studies tend to the ruin of the interests of linguists; for by making those books common that were understood but by few in the original, he endeavours to make the rabble as wise as himself without taking pains, and prevents others from studying languages, to understand that which they may know as well without them. -Butler. CCXXIV. Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.-Lavater. CCXXV. There is no rule in the world to be made for writing letters, but that of being as near what you speak face to face as you can; which is so great a truth, that I am of opinion, writing has lost more mistresses than any one mistake in the whole legend of love.-Steele. CCXXVI. As a walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor.-Shakspeare. CCXXVII. Some men make a womanish complaint, that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain, if she demands it at pleasure; since it was on this condition you received it.-Cicero. CCXXVIII. A virtuous woman should reject the first offer of marriage, as a good man does that of a bishoprick; but I would advise neither the one nor the other to persist in refusing what they secretly approve.-Addison. CCXXIX. A man of wit, who is naturally proud, abates nothing of his pride or stiffness for being poor; on the contrary, if any thing will soften him, and render him more pliant and sociable, it is a little prosperity.—Bruyere. CCXXX. Every good poet includes a critic; the reverse will not hold.-Shenstone. CCXXXI. -As old sinners have all points O' th' the compass in their bones and joints, CCXXXII. Butler. Love is exactly like war, in this; that a soldier, though he has escaped three weeks complete o' Saturday night -may nevertheless be shot through his heart on Sunday morning.-Sterne. CCXXXIII. Some men are more beholden to their bitterest enemies, than to friends who appear to be sweetness itself. The former frequently tell the truth, but the latter never.-Cato. CCXXXIV. The creditor, whose appearance gladdens the heart of a debtor, may hold his head in sunbeams, and his foot on storms.-Lavater. CCXXXV. A too idly reserved man, is one that is a fool with discretion, or a strange piece of politician, that manages 5 the state of himself. His actions are his privy-council, wherein no man must partake beside. He speaks under rule and prescription, and dares not show his teeth without Machiavel. He converses with his neighbour as he would in Spain, and fears an inquisitive man as much as an inquisition. He suspects all questions for examinations, and thinks you would pick something out of him, and avoids you. He delivers you common matters with great conjuration of silence, and whispers you in the ear acts of parliament. You may as soon wrest a tooth from him as a paper, and whatsoever he reads is letters. He dares not talk of great men for fear of bad comments, and he knows not how his words may be misapplied. Ask his opinion and he tells you his doubt; and he never hears any thing more astonishedly than what he knows before. His words are like the cards at primivist, here 6 is 18, and 7, 21; for they never signify what they sound; but if he tell you he will do a thing, it is much as if he swore he would not. He is one, indeed, that takes all men to be craftier than they are, and puts himself to a great deal of affliction to hinder their plots and designs, where they mean freely. He has been long a riddle to himself, but at last finds Edipus; for his overacted dissimulation discovers him, and men do with him as they would with Hebrew letters, spell him backwards, and read him.-Bishop Earle. CCXXXVI. If the master takes no account of his servants, they will make small account of him, and care not what they spend, who are never brought to an audit.-Fuller. CCXXXVII. The darts of love, like lightning, wound within, CCXXXVIII. Butler. As ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools at a distance, so good breeding is an expedient to make fools and wise men equals.-Steele. CCXXXIX. The difference there is betwixt honour and honesty, seems to be chiefly the motive: the mere honest man does that from duty, which the man of honour does for the sake of character.-Shenstone. CCXL. The scholars of modern times, perceiving how unpropitious the study of poetry, and other elegant and sublime sciences, generally prove to the acquisition of wealth, now sordidly apply their minds to the more gainful employments of law, physic, and divinity. The prospect of lucre is now the only stimulus to learning; and he is the deepest arithmetician, who can count the greatest number of fees; the truest geometrician, who can measure out the largest fortune; the most perfect astrologer, who can best turn the rise and fall of others' stars to his own advantage; the ablest optician, who can most reflect upon himself the beneficial beams of great men's favours; the most ingenious mechanic, who can raise himself to the highest point of preferment; and the soundest theologian, who can preach himself into an excellent living.-Burton. CCXLI. Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Domitian said, that nothing was more grateful; Aristotle affirmed, that beauty was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world: Homer, that 'twas a glorious gift of nature: and Ovid, alluding to him, calls it a favour bestowed by the gods.--From the Ita lian. CCXLII. A man endowed with great perfections, without goodbreeding, is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.-Steele. CCXLIII. Thus much the poet must necessarily borrow of the philosopher, as to be master of the common topics of morality. He must at least be specially honest, and in all appearance a friend to virtue throughout his poem. The good and wise will abate him nothing in this kind. And the people, though corrupt, are, in the main, best satisfied with this conduct.-Shaftesbury. CCXLIV. Each heart is a world of nations, classes, and individuals; full of friendships, enmities, indifferences; full of being and decay, of life and death; the past the present, and the future: the springs of health and engines of disease: here joy and grief, hope and fear, love and hate, fluctuate, and toss the sullen and the gay, the hero and the coward, the giant and the dwarf, deformity and beauty, on ever-restless waves. You find all within yourself that you can find without: the number and character of your friends within, bear an exact resemblance to your external ones; and your internal enemies are just as many, as inveterate, as irreconcilable, as those without; the world that surrounds you is the magic glass of the world, and of its forms within you; the brighter you are yourself, so much brighter are your friends; so much more polluted your enemies. Be assured then, that to know yourself perfectly, you have only to set down a true statement of those that have ever loved or hated you.-Lavater. CCXLV. Honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey a sauce to sugar.-Shakspeare. CCXLVI. Nor can the rigourousest coursc |