To live above our station shows a proud heart; and to live under it, discovers a nar row soul. Avarice and ambition are the two elements that enter into the composition of all crimes, ambition is boundless, and avarice insatiable. If a proud man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his own at the same time. It is not the height to which men are advanced, that makes them giddy; it is the looking down with contempt upon those below them. To be proud of knowledge, is to be blind in the light! to be proud of virtue is to poison yourself with the antidote; to be proud of authority is to make your rise your dawn. fal. The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune. Great marks are soonest hit. The most laudable ambition is to be wise; and the greatest wisdom is to be good. He that praises, bestows a favour; but he that detracts, commits a robbery. Ill nature is a contradiction to the laws of providence, and the interest of mankind, a punishment, no less than a fault, to those that have it. There is an odious spirit in many persons who are better pleased to detect a fault, than to commend a virtue. A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing. A man that has no virtue in himself envies it in others. Censure is a tax, a man pays the public for being eminent. Nothing is truly infamous, but what is wicked; and therefore shame can never disturb an innocent and virtuous mind. It is to be observed, the most censorious are generally the least judicious; who having nothing to recommend themselves, will be finding fault with others. has No man envies the merit of another, that of his own. any He that envies, makes another man's virtue his vice, and another's happiness his torment; whereas he that rejoices at the prospe rity of another, is a partaker of the same. If we knew how little others enjoy, it would rescue the world from one sin; there would be no such thing as envy in the world. Other passions have objects to flatter them, and seemingly to content and satisfy them for awhile; there is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury, and pelf in covetousness; but envy can give us nothing but vexation. Pride fixes her appetite upon bubbles, and therefore seldom can satisfy her hunger, because she scarcely ever attempts to taste substantial food. Of all passions envy is the most detestable; compassion is softened by the sufferings of men, but envy rejoices in their tortures. Under the banners of envy march hatred, calumny, malignity, and treachery. How dull is that evening which closes the day of a life wholly sacrificed to ambition. HEALTH, FRIENDSHIP, COMPANY AND CONVERSATION. HEALTH, invaluable treasure! thou giv est fresh lustre to the beams of the sun, and fresh radiance to the skies of heaven! Thou bestowest a more balmy odour on the breath of the morning, and deepenest the richness of that tincture which flushes over the rose! Ah health, thou prime source of pleasure, and vivifying soul of every felicity beneath the moon! for thee and thy inspiring influence, I would travel, were I assured of meeting thy rewarding smiles, into the heart of the most uncheery and unpeopled climate. With what a fervent alacrity doth the sick man even leave his velvet couch, and downy pillows, to court those breezes and those vales, however distant Н |