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BOOK 1

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CHAP. I.

O be ever active in laudable pursuits, is the diftin guifhing characteristic of a man of merit.

THERE is an heroic innocence, as well as an heroic courage.

THERE is a mean in all things. Even virtue itself hath its ftated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.

It is wifer to prevent a quarrel beforehand, than to re. venge it afterwards.

Ir is much better to reprove, than to be angry fecretly. No revenge is more heroic, than that which torments envy, by doing good.

THE difcretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pafs over a tranfgreffion.

MONEY, like manure, does no good till it is fpread. There is no real ufe of riches, except in the distribution; the reft is all conceit.

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A WISE man will defire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and live upon contentedly.

A CONTENTED mind, and a good confcience, will make a man happy in all conditions. He knows not how to fear, who dares to die.

THERE is but one way of fortifying the foul against all gloomy prefages and terrors of mind; and that is, by fecur1ng to ourselves the friendship and protection of that Being who difpofes of events, and governs futurity.

PHILOSOPHY is then only valuable, when it ferves for the law of life, and not for the oftentation of science.

WITHOUT

CHA P. II.

a friend the world is but a wilderness.

A MAN may have a thousand intimate acquaint ances, and not a friend among them all. If you have one friend, think yourself happy.

WHEN Once you profefs yourself a friend, endeavour to be always fuch. He can never have any true friends, that will be often changing them.

PROSPERITY gains friends, and adverfity tries them.

NOTHING more engages the affections of men, than a handfome addrefs, and graceful converfation.

COMPLAISANCE renders a fuperior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable.

EXCESS of ceremony fhews want of breeding. That civility is best, which excludes all fuperfluous formality.

INGRATITUDE is a crime fo fhameful, that the man was never yet found, who would acknowledge himself guilty

of it.

TRUTH

TRUTH is born with us; and we must do violence to nature, to shake off our veracity.

THERE cannot be a greater treachery, than first to raise a confidence, and then deceive it.

By others faults, wife men correct their own.

No man hath a thorough tafte of profperity, to whom adverfity never happened.

WHEN

our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we leave them.

It is as great a point of wisdom to hide ignorance, as to discover knowledge.

PITCH upon that course of life which is the most excellent; and habit will render it the most delightful.

C

CHA P. III.

USTOM is the plague of wife men, and the idol of fools.

As to be perfectly just, is an attribute of the divine nature; to be fɔ to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of

man.

No man was ever caft down with the injuries of fortune, unless he had before fuffered himself to be deceived by her favours.

ANCER may glance into the breast of a wife man, but refts only in the bofom of fools.

NONE more impatiently suffer injuries, than those that are moft forward in doing them.

By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in paffing it over, he is fuperior.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

A MORE glorious victory cannot be gained over another

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man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

THE prodigal robs his heir, the miser robs himself.

We should take a prudent care for the future, but so as to enjoy the present. It is no part of wisdom to be miferable to-day, because we may happen to be so to-morrow.

To mourn without measure is folly; not to mourn at all, infenfibility.

Some would be thought to do great things, who are but tools and instruments; like the fool who fancied he played upon the organ, when he only blew the bellows.

THOUGH a man may become learned by another's learning; he never can be wife but by his own wisdom.

HE who wants good fenfe, is unhappy in having learning, for he has thereby more ways of expofing himself.

It is ungenerous to give a man occafion to blush at his own ignorance in one thing, who perhaps may excel us in

many.

No object is more pleafing to the eye, than the fight of a man whom you have obliged; nor any mufic fo agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefactor.

THE Coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is, that by hearing what we are not, we may be inftructed what we ought to be.

THE character of the perfon who commends you, is to be confidered before you fet a value on his esteem. The wife man applauds him whom he thinks moft virtuous, the reft of the world him who is most wealthy.

THE temperate man's pleasures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is calm and ferene, because it

is innocent.

A GOOD

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