O be ever active in laudable purfuits, is the diftinguiffing 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 itfelf hath its ftated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.

It is wiser to prevent a quarrel beforehand, than to revenge it afterwards.

IT 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 angef, and it is, his glory to pafs over a tranfgreffion.

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

A WISE man will defire no more than what he may get justly, ufe foberly, diftribute 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 fecuring 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.

CHAP. II.

WITHOUT a friend the world is but a wilderness.

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

WHEN Once you profess 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 handsome addrefs, and graceful conversation.

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

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

By others faults, wife men correct their own.

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

WHEN Our vices leave us, we flatter ourfelves that we leave them.

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

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

CHAP. III.

CUSTOM is the plague of wife men, and the idol of

fools.

As to be perfectly juft, is an attribute of the divine nature; to be fo 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 suffered himself to be deceived by her favours.

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

NONE more impatiently fuffer injuries, than thofe that are most 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 man, than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

THE prodigal robs his heir, the mifer 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 wifdóm.

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 moft 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 efteem. The wife man applauds him whom he thinks most virtuous, the reft of the world him who is moft 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 man will love himself too well to lofe, and his neighbour too well to win, an estate by gaming. The love of gaming will corrupt the best principles in the world.

CHAP. IV.

AN angry man who fuppreffes his paffions, thinks worfe than he speaks; and an angry man that will chide, speaks worse than he thinks.

A GOOD word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our filence, which cofts us nothing.

Ir is to affectation the world owes its whole race of coxcombs. Nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a

párt ;

part; fhe has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making.

IT is the infirmity of little minds, to be taken with every appearance, and dazzled with every thing that fparkles; but great minds have but little admiration, because few things appear new to them.

IT happens to men of learning, as to ears of corn; they shoot up and raise their heads high while they are empty; but when full and fwelled with grain, they begin to flag and droop.

He that is truly polite, knows how to contradict with refpect, and to please without adulation; and is equally remote from an infipid complaisance, and a low familiarity.

THE failings of good men are commonly more published in the world than their good deeds; and one fault of a deserving man fhall meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues, praife: fuch is the force of ill-will, and ill

nature.

IT is harder to avoid cenfure than to gain applaufe; for this may be done by one great or wife action in an age: but to escape cenfure, a man muft pafs his whole life without faying or doing one ill or foolish thing.

WHEN Darius offered Alexander ten thousand talents to divide Afia equally with him, he answered, the earth cannot bear two funs, nor Afia two kings. Parmenio, a friend of Alexander's, hearing the great offers Darius had made, faid, Were I Alexander I would accept them. So would I, replied Alexander, were I Parmenio.

NOBILITY is to be confidered only as an imaginary diftinction, unless accompanied with the practice of thofe generous virtues by which it ought to be obtained. Titles of honour, conferred upon fuch as have no personal merit, are at beft but the royal ftamp fet upon bafe metal.

THOUGH an honourable title may be conveyed to pofterity, yet the ennobling qualities, which are the foul of great

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nefs,