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MAN's chief good is an upright mind; which no

earthly power can bestow, nor take from him.

We ought to diftruft our paffions, even when they ap pear the most reasonable.

It is idle, as well as abfurd, to impofe our opinions. upon others. The fame ground of conviction operates differently on the fame man in different circumftances, and on different men in the fame circumstances.

Choose what is moft fit; cuftom will make it the most agreeable.

A cheerful countenance betokens a good heart. Hypocrify is a homage that vice pays to virtue. Anxiety and constraint are the conftant attendants, of pride.

Men make themselves ridiculous, not fo much by the qualities they have, as by the affectation of thofe they have not.

Nothing blunts the edge of ridicule fo effectually as good humour.

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To fay little and perform much is the characteristic a great mind.

A man who gives his children a habit of industry, provides for them better than by giving them a stock of money.

II.

OUR good or bad fortune depends greatly on the

choice we make of our friends.

The young are flaves to novelty, the old to custom. No preacher is fo fuccefsful as time. It gives a turn of thought to the aged, which it was impoffible to infpire while they were young.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.

Self-partiality hides from us those very faults in ourfelves which we fee and blame in others.

The injuries we do and those we fuffer are feldom weighed in the fame balance.

Men generally put a greater value upon the favours they beftow, than upon thofe they receive.

He who is puffed up with the firft gale of profperity, will bend beneath the firft blaft of adverfity.

Adverfity borrows its fharpeft fting from our impatience.

Men commonly owe their virtue or their vice to education as much as to nature.

There is no fuch fop as my young mafter of his ladymother's making. She blows him up with felf-conceit, and there he ftops. She makes a man of him at twelve, and a boy all his life after.

An infallible way to make your child miferable, is to fatisfy all his demands. Paffion fwells by gratification; and the impoffibility of fatisfying every one of his defires, will oblige you to ftop fhort at laft, after he has become headstrong.

III.

WE efteem moft things according to their intrinfic merit: it is ftrange man fhould be an exception. We prize a horfe for his ftrength and courage, not for his furniture. We prize a man for his fumptuous palace, his great train, his vaft revenue; yet these are his furniture, not his mind.

The true conveniences of life are common to the king with his meanest fubject. The king's fleep is not sweeter, nor his appetite better.

The

The pomp which diftinguishes the great man from the mob, defends him not from the fever nor from grief. Give a prince all the names of majesty that are found in a folio dictionary, the first attack of the gout will make him forget his palace and his guards. If he be in choler, will his princedom fecure him from turning pale and gnashing his teeth like a fool? The fmalleft prick of a nail, the flighteit paffion of the foul, is capable of rendering infipid the monarchy of the world.

Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.

Thofe who are the most faulty, are the most prone to find faults in others.

The first and most important female quality is fweetnefs of temper. Heaven did not give to the female fex infinuation and perfuafion, in order to be furly: it did not make them weak, in order to be imperious: it did not give them a fweet voice, in order to be employed in fcolding it did not provide them with delicate features, in order to be disfigured with anger.

Let fame be regarded, but confcience much more. It is an empty joy to appear better than you are; but a great bleffing to be what you ought to be.

Let your conduct be the result of deliberation, never of impatience.

In the conduct of life, let it be one great aim, to fhow that every thing you do proceeds from yourself, not from your paffions. Chryfippus rewards in joy, chastises in wrath, doth every thing in paffion. No perfon ftands in awe of Chryfippus, no perfon is grateful to him. Why? Because it is not Chryfippus who acts, but his paffions. We fhun him in wrath as we fhun a wild beast; and this is all the authority he hath over us.

Indulge not defire at the expence of the flightest article of virtue: pafs once its limits, and you fall headlong into vice.

Examine well the counsel that favours your defires. The gratification of defire is fometimes the worst thing that can befal us.

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IV.

TO be angry is to punish myfelf for the fault of an

other.

A word dropt by chance from your friend offends your delicacy. Avoid a hafty reply; and beware of opening your difcontent to the first perfon you meet. When you are cool, it will vanifh, and leave no impreffion.

The most profitable revenge, the moft rational, and the most pleasant, is to make it the intereft of the inju rious perfon not to hurt you a fecond time.

It was a faying of Socrates, that we fhould eat and drink in order to live; inftead of living, as many do, in order to eat and drink.

Be moderate in your pleasures, that your relish for them may continue.

Time is requifite to bring great projects to maturity. Precipitation ruins the belt contrived plan: patience ripens the moft difficult.

When we fum up the miferies of life, the grief beftowed on trifles makes a great part of the account; trifles, which, neglected, are nothing. How thameful fuch a weakness!

The penfionary De Wit being afked how he could tranfact fuch variety of business without confufion, anfwered, That he never did but one thing at a time.

Guard your weak fide from being known. If it be attacked, the best way is to join in the attack.

Francis I. confulting with his generals how to lead his army over the Alps into Italy, Amarel his fool fprung from a corner, and advised him to confult rather how to bring it back.

The best practical rule of morality is, Never to do but what you are willing all the world fhould know.

Solicitude in hiding failings makes, them appear the greater. It is a fafer and eafier courfe frankly to acknowledge them. A man owns that he is ignorant : we admire his modefty. He fays he is old: we scarce think him fo. He declares himself poor: we do not believe it.

When you defcant on the faults of others, confider

whe

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