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النشر الإلكتروني

MXXXVI.

Every mind seems capable of entertaining a certain quantity of happiness, which no institutions can increase, no circumstances alter, and entirely independent on fortune. Let any man compare his present fortune with the past, and he will probably find himself, upon the whole, neither better nor worse than formerly.-Goldsmith.

MXXXVII.

Of comfort no man speak:

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let's choose executors, and talk of wills:
And yet not so;-for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposed bodies to the ground!
Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own, but death;
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones,
For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:-
How some have been deposed: some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghost they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd:-For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court; and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,-
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and-farewell king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,

For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends:-Subjected thus,

How can you say to me-I am a king?

Richard II.-Shakspeare.

MXXXVIII.

There is no one thing more to be lamented in our nation, than their general affectation of every thing that is foreign; nay, we carry it so far, that we are more anxious for our own countrymen when they have crossed the seas, than when we see them in the same dangerous condition before our eyes at home.-Tatler.

MXXXIX.

Oh, Solitude! first state of human kind!
Which bless'd remain'd till man did find
Ev'n his own helper's company:
As soon as two, alas! together join'd,
The serpent made up three.

MXL.

Cowley.

There is a creature who has all the organs of speech, a tolerable good capacity for conceiving what is said to it, together with a pretty proper behaviour in all the occurrences of common life: but naturally very vacant of thought in itself, and therefore forced to apply itself to foreign assistances. Of this make is that man who is

very inquisitive.-Steele.

MXLI.

Like Ixion,

I look on Juno, feel my heart turn to cinders
With an invisible fire; and yet, should she
Deign to appear cloth'd in a various cloud,
The majesty of the substance is so sacred,
I durst not clasp the shadow. I behold her
With adoration, feast my eye, while all

My other senses starve; and, oft frequenting
The place which she makes happy with her presence,
I never yet had power, with tongue or pen,

To move her to compassion, or make known
What 'tis I languish for; yet I must gaze still,
Though it increase my flame.

Bashful Lover-Massinger.

MXLIV.

Such a bedlam is most of the world become, where madness goeth for the only wisdom, and he is the bravest man that can sin and be damn'd with reputation and renown, and successfully drive or draw the greatest number with him into hell; to which the world hath no small likeness, forsaking God, and being very much forsaken by him.-Baxter.

MXLV.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing

MXLVI.

Shakspeare.

The understanding of a man naturally sanguine, may be easily vitiated by the luxurious indulgence of hope, however necessary to the production of every thing great or excellent, as some plants are destroyed by too open exposure to that sun which gives life and beauty to the vegetable world.-Johnson.

MXLVII.

Can chance of seeing first thy title prove?
And know'st thou not, no law is made for love?
Law is to things which to free choice relate;
Love is not in our choice, but in our fate:
Laws are but positive; love's power, we see,
Is nature's sanction, and her first degree.-Dryden.

MXLVIII.

I believe that nature herself has constituted truth as the supreme deity, which is to be adored by mankind, and that she has given it greater force than any of the rest; for, being opposed, as she is on all sides, and appearance of truth so often passing for the thing itself, in behalf of plausible falsehoods, yet by her wonderful operation, she insinuates herself into the minds of men; sometimes exerting her strength immediately, and sometimes lying hid in darkness for a length of time; but at last she struggles through it, and appears triumphant over falsehood.-Polybius.

MXLIX.

O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are struck upon thee! Volumes of report
Run with these false and most contrarious quests
Upon thy doings! Thousand 'scapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream,

And rack thee in their fancies!

ML.

Shakspeare.

The knowledge of warfare is thrown away on a general who dare not make use of what he knows. I commend it only in a man of courage and resolution; in him it will direct his martial spirit, and teach him the way to the best victories, which are those that are least bloody, and which, though achieved by the hand, are managed by the head.-Fuller.

MLI.

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.-Dryden.

MLII.

Whatever parent gives his children good instruction, and sets them at the same time a bad example, may be considered as bringing them food in one hand, and poison in the other.-Balguy.

MLIII.

A horse is not known by his furniture, but qualities; so men are to be esteemed for virtue, not wealth.-Socrates.

MLIV.

How the innocent,

As in a gentle slumber, pass away!

But to cut off the knotty thread of life
In guilty men, must force stern Atropos
To use her sharp knife often.

MLV.

Massinger.

Every true man's apparal fits your thief: if it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's apparal fits your thief.Shakspeare.

MLVI.

For sports, for pageantry, and plays,
Thou hast thy eves and holidays;

On which the young men and maids meet,
To exercise their dancing feet;

Tripping the comely country round,
With daffodils and daisies crown'd.
Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast;
Thy May-poles too, with garlands grac'd;
Thy morris-dance, thy Witsunale,
Thy shearing feast, which never fail;
Thy harvest-home, thy wassail bowl,
That's tost up after fox i' th' hole;
Thy mummeries, thy twelfth night kings
And queens, thy Christmas revellings;
Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit;
And no man pays too dear for it.

Herrick-On a Country Life.

MLVII.

Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best recommended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention of mankind to any part of VOL. II.

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