MDCI. Too much or too little wit Do only render th' owners fit MDCII. Butler. The first minister of state has not so much business in public, as a wise man has in private: if the one have little leisure to be alone, the other has less leisure to be in company; the one has but part of the affairs of one nation, the other all the works of God and nature under his consideration.-Cowley. MDCIII. It is no very uncommon thing in the world to meet with men of probity; there are likewise a great many men of honour to be found. Mer of courage, men of sense, and men of letters, are frequent: but a true fine gentleman is what one seldom sees. He is properly a compound of the various good qualities that embellish mankind. As the great poet animates all the different parts of learning by the force of his genius, and irradiates all the compass of his knowledge by the lustre and brightness of his ímagination; so all the great and solid perfections of life appear in the finished gentleman, with a beautiful gloss and varnish; every thing he says or does is accompanied with a manner, or rather a charm, that draws the admiration and goodwill of every beholder.-Steele. (Gold.) MDCIV. Here's musick In this bag shall wake her, though she had drank opium, Of cannons to make breaches; give but fire The iron doors of a judge, and make you entrance; Shall cool their feet without; this being the picklock MDCV. Massinger. It is as usual to see a young serving man an old beggar, as to see a light horse first from the great saddle of a nobleman, to come to the hackney coach, and at last die in drawing a carre. But the good master is not like the cruell hunter in the fable, who beat his old dogge, because his toothlesse mouth let go the game: he rather imitates the noble nature of our Prince Henry; who took order for the keeping of an old English mastiffe, which had made a lion run away.-Fuller. MDCVI. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate : Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd: And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Shakspeare-to Mr. W. H. MDCVII. As nothing is more natural than for every one to desire to be happy, it is not to be wondered at that the wisest men in all ages have spent so much time to discover what happiness is, and wherein it chiefly consists. An eminent writer, named Varro, reckons up no less than two hundred and eighty-eight different opinions upon this subject; and another, called Lncian, after having given us a long catalogue of the notions of several philosophers, endeavours to show the absurdity of all of them, without establishing any thing of his own.-Budgell. MDCVIII. An alderman is a peer of the city, and a member of their upper house; who, as soon as he arrives at so many thousand pounds, is bound by the charter to serve the public with so much understanding, what shift soever he make to raise it, and wear a chain about his neck like a rein-deer, or in default to commute, and make satisfaction in ready money, the best reason of the place; for which he has the name only, like a titular prince, and is an alderman-extraordinary. But if his wife can prevail with him to stand, he becomes one of the city supporters; and like the unicorn in the king's arms, wears a chain about his neck very right-worshipfully. * * When he sits as a judge in his court, he is absolute, and uses arbitrary power; for he is not bound to understand what he does, nor render an account why he gives judgment on one side rather than another; but his will is sufficient to stand for his reason, to all intents and purposes. He does no public business without eating and drinking; and when he comes to be lord-mayor he does not keep a great house, but a very great house-warming for a whole year; for though he invites all the companies in the city, he does not treat them, but they club to entertain him, and pay the reckoning beforehand. His fur gown makes him look a great deal bigger than he is, like the feathers of an owl; and when he pulls it off, he looks as if he were fallen away, or like a rabbit, had his skin pulled off.-Butler. MDCIX. He that first started the doctrine, that bravery was the best defence against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to commit wickedness to secure ourselves. But for such as presume upon our modesty, to keep them off with their own weapons, and not gratify their unreason able impudence with an easy compliance, it is but just and good, and the duty of every honest man. Neither is it a hard matter to put off some mean and ordinary people, who will be apt to prove troublesome to you in that nature. Some shift them off with a jest or smart repartee as Theocritus being asked in the bagnio to lend his napkins, by two persons, whereof one was a stranger to him, and t'other a notorious felon; he made answer: You, sir, I know not well enough, and you I know too well.-Plutarch. MDCX. The prince that pardons The first affront offer'd to majesty, To be strangled in the birth, not to be cherished. MDCXI. Massinger. Security diminishes the passions; the mind, when left to itself, immediately languishes; and, in order to preserve its ardour, must be every moment supported by a new flow of passion. For the same reason despair, though contrary to security, has a like influence.-Hume. MDCXII. So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other. -Johnson. INDEX. ABILITIES, 834 Absence of mind, 814 Abuse, 238 Academies, 969 Acquaintance, 712, 1351 Axioms, 896. Babblers, 461, 756, 845 Bar, the, 873 Bashfulness, 586, 1547 Actors, 476, 616, 839, 1020, 1338, Beauty, 99, 161, 302, 529, 631, 1551 Advice, 774, 1011, 1137 Affection, 602, 1166, 1334, 1337 Age, 117, 196, 919, 1157, 1184 1481 Allegories, 120 Almanacs, 435 Almsgiving, 994 828, 1038 644, 932, 1219, 1282, 1406, Benefits, 520, 584, 601, 729, 808, Benevolence, 365, 391, 543, Birth, 372, 377, 501, 1452 Books, 68, 179, 431, 466, 500, Ambition, 293, 356, 552, 663, Brains, 328, 1296, 1513 Amusements, 1133 Ancestry, 887, 1452, 1495 Anger, 1105, 1192, 1237, 1277, 1305, 1410, 1448 Anticipation, 872 Argument, 1483, 1523 Applause, 1046 Arrogance, 748, 1495 Art, 71, 1106 Atheists, 555, 746, 1564 Authority, 1581 Authors, 77, 193, 320, 413, Brevity, 343 Building, 929 Business, 294, 706, 1186 Busy men, 1298 Butts, 1041 Cameleon, 769 Candour, 603, 1430 Cant, 324, 681 Capacity, 1516 Cards, 341, 549 1278, Care, origin of, 1123 Carving, 344 510, Caution, 607, 1113 |