MXCIV.

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances, "memento quod es homo;" and, " memento quod es Deus, aut vice Dei;" the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.-Lord Bacon.

MXCV.

Were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all sins:
Inconstancy falls off; ere it begins.

MXCVI.

Shakspeare.

If we estimate at a shilling a day what is lost by the inaction and consumed in the support of each man chained down to involuntary idleness by imprisonment, the public loss will rise in one year to three hundred thousand pounds; in ten years to more than a sixth part of our circulating coin.-Johnson.

MXCVII.

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'tis all barren-and so it is; and so is all the world to him who who will not cultivate the fruits it offers.-Sterne.

MXCVIII.

Grant, me, gentle Love, said I,
One dear blessing ere I die;
Long I've borne excess of pain,
Let me now some bliss obtain.

Thus to almighty Love I cry'd;
When angry, thus the god reply'd:
Blessings greater none can have
Art thou not Amynta's slave?
Cease, fond mortal, to implore,
For Love, Love himself's no more

Congreve.

MXCIX.

We have now imprisoned one generation of debtors after another, but we do not find that their numbers lessen. We have now learned, that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud or avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.-Johnson.

MC.

'Tis not a tale, 'tis not a jest,
Admir'd with laughter at a feast,

Nor florid talk, which can that title gain,
The proofs of wit, for ever must remain.

MCI.

Cowley.

Though every old man has been young, and every young one hopes to be old, there seems to be a most unnatural misunderstanding between those two sages of life. This unhappy want of commerce arises from the insolent arrogance or exultation in youth, and the irrational despondence or self-pity in age.-Steele.

*

MCII.

Promising is the very air of the time; it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will and testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.Shakspeare.

MCIII.

I know a lady that loves talking so incessantly, she won't give an echo fair play; she has that everlasting rotation of tongue, that an echo must wait till she dies, before it can catch her last words.-Congreve.

MCIV.

We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember.-Johnson.

MCV.

Would men learn but to distinguish spirits,
And set true difference 'twixt those jaded wits
That run a broken pace for common hire,
And the high raptures of a happy muse,
Borne on the wings of her immortal thought,
That kicks at earth with a disdainful heel,
And beats at heaven-gates with her bright hoofs;
They would not then with such distorted faces,
And desperate censures, stab at Poesy.

They would admire bright knowledge, and their minds
Should ne'er descend on so unworthy objects
As gold, or titles; they would dread far more
To be thought ignorant, than be known poor.

The Poetaster-Ben Johnson.

MCVI.

Who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat!
O, no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.
Shakspeare.

MCVII.

In translations no nations might more excel than the English, though, as matters are now managed, we come so far short of the French. There may indeed be a reason assigned, which bears a very great probability; and that is, that here the booksellers are the undertakers of works of this nature, and they are persons more devoted to their own gain than the public honour. They are very parsimonious in rewarding the wretched scribblers they employ; and care not how the business is done, so that it be but done. They live by selling titles, not books; and if that carry off one impression,

they have their ends, and value not the curses they and their authors meet with from the bubbled chapmen. While translations are thus at the disposal of booksellers, and we have no better judges or rewarders of the performance, it is impossible that we should make any progress in an art so very useful to an inquiring people, and for the improvement and spreading of knowfedge, which is none of the worst preservatives against slavery.-Dryden.

MCVIII.

That which we esteem a happiness in one situation of mind, is otherwise thought of in another. Which situation, therefore, is the justest, must be considered; how to gain that point of sight, whence probably we may best discern; and how to place ourselves in that unbiassed state, in which we are fittest to pronounce.— Shaftesbury.

MCIX.

In England, where there are as many new books published as in all the rest of Europe together, a spirit of freedom and reason reigns among the people; they have been often known to act like fools, they are generally found to think like men.-Goldsmith.

MCX.

Poets are bubbles, by the town drawn in, Suffer'd at first some trifling stakes to win: But what unequal hazards do they run!

Each time they write, they venture all they've won. Congreve.

water.

MCXI.

The qualities requisite to conversation are very exactly represented by a bowl of punch.-Punch is a liquor compounded of spirit and acid juices, sugar and The spirit volatile and fiery, is the proper emblem of vivacity and wit; the acidity of the lemon will very aptly figure pungency of raillery, and acrimony of censure; sugar is the natural representative of luscious adulation and gentle complaisance; and water is the

proper hieroglyphic of easy prattle, innocent and tasteless. Johnson.

MCXII.

Cease to lament for that thou canʼst not help, And study help for that which thou lament'st. Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.

MCXIII.

Shakspeare.

Let any man who knows what it is to have passed much time in a series of jollity, mirth, wit, or humorous entertainments, look back at what he was all that while a doing, and he will find that he has been at one instant sharp to some man he is sorry to have offended, impertinent to some one it was cruelty to treat with such freedom, ungratefully noisy at such a time, unskilfully open at such a time, unmercifully calumnious at such a time; and from the whole course of his applauded satisfactions, unable in the end to recollect any circumstance which can add to the enjoyment of his mind alone, or which he would put his character upon, with other men.-Steele,

MCXIV.

A just man cannot fear;

Not, though the malice of traducing tongues,
The open vastness of a tyrant's ear,

The senseless rigour of the wrested laws,
Or the red eyes of strain'd authority,
Should, in a point, meet all to take his life:
His innocence is armour 'gainst all these.

MCXV.

Ben Jonson,

He hath an ill master that is ruled by himself. A master that is blind, and proud, and passionate; that will lead you unto precipices, and thence deject you; that will effectually ruin you, when he thinks he is doing you the greatest good; whose work is bad, and his wages no better; that feedeth his servant in plenty, but as swine, and in the day of famine, denjeth them the husks.-Baxter.