Settlement but is very uncertain as to the Wives disposition how she has been bred and in what manner she will live with him they depend upon the frail agreement between the Mother-in-law and the Daughter-in-law and he is often deceived in it the first year of his Marriage * A Father-in-law loves his Daughter-in-law a Mother-in-law her Son-in-law so both are reciprocal * A Cruel Step-mother hates her Husbands Children and the more she loves her Husband the more she hates them * Step-mothers have made whole Towns and Villages desert and peopled the Country of Beggars Vagabonds Servants and Slaves more than Poverty * G. and H. are Neighbours their Lands are contiguous they inhabit a desart and solitary Country far from Towns or Commerce Methinks Solitude and the love Men have for Society should force 'em to a mutual correspondence But they are perpetually at variance and 't is hard to express the trifle that causes the difference which renders 'em implacable and continues their hatred in their descendants Relations nor even Brothers never differ'd about a thing of less moment Suppose there were but two men on the whole Earth who possest it entirely to themselves and parted it between them I am perswaded there would be quickly some cause of rupture created tho it were only for the limits of their Divisions * 'T is commonly easier to make peace amongst other men than to keep it ourselves * I am now approaching a little Town I am already on an ascent where I discover it seated in a pleasant Valley 't is shaded by Woods and Hills which cover it from cold Blasts and Northern Winds I see it in so fair a day that I view its Tower Steeple and Turrets it seems on the declension of a Hill and has a fine River running through it into lovely Meadows I am so pleas'd with the prospect that I burst forth into this Exclamation How pleasant must it be to live under so clear a Sky in so delicious an Abode I descend into the Town and have not lain there above two or three nights associating with the Inhabitants before I long to get out of it * There is a certain thing which never was seen under the Heavens and in all likelihood never will be 'T is a little City without Faction and Parties where the Families are united The Relations see one another with confidence Where a Marriage does not raise a Civil War Where there are not every moment Disputes and Quarrels about Precedency Where Lying Scolding Prating and Gossiping are banisht Where the Mayor and the Sheriffs the Assessors and the People have a good Understanding Where the Bishop lives well with the Dean the Dean with the Cannons The Cannons with the Parsons and the Parsons with their Clerks * Countrymen and Fools are apt to be angry and fancy you despise 'em if you are the least merry at their imperfections You must never venture the most innocent and in offensive Raiâ—lery or Pleasantry unless it be amongst polite Men and Men of Wit * Merit discerns and finds it self out reciprocally he that would be esteem'd must converse with persons who are themselves esteemable * He who thinks he is by his dignity above a Jest and will not take a Repartee ought not to give one * We are not angry at being rallied for some little defects and we should make choice of faults of the same kind when we rally others * 'T is the Blockheads priviledge to laugh at a Man of Wit but he is in the World what the Fool is at Court of no consequence * Buffoonry is an Indigence of Wit * You believe a Man your Bubble when he feigns himself to be so who then is the greatest Bubble He or You * Observâ— those People who never commend any oâ—e are always railing are conâ—ent with no body and you will find them persons with whom no body is content * The Pâ—oud and Disdainful will find the contrary of what they expect if by their Carriage they look for Esteem * The pleasure of Society amongst Friends is cultivated by a likeness of Inclinations as to Manners and a difference in Opinion as to Sciences the one confirms and humours us in our sentiments the oâ—hâ—r exercises and instructs us by disputation * Two persons will not be friends a long time if they canâ—t forgive each other little failings * How many fine unprofitable reasons are laid before one in great Adversity to put him into a state of Tranquility Outward things which we call Events are sometimes too strong for Reason oâ— Nature Eat Drink don't kill your self with Melancholy are insignificant admonitions which are â—mpossible to be put in practice when a Man is master'd by his Sorrows Are you a â—â—se man to put your self to such trouble Is it not to say Are you not a Fool to be unfortunate * There are some necessary counâ—els which are frequently hurtful to those wâ—o give themâ— and unprofitable to the persons they are addrest to You observe perhaps defects in Manners which are either not confest or esteem'd as Vertues You blot out a passage in an Author's Writings which pleases him most where he thought he surpast himself and by this means you lose the confideâ—ce of your friends without makiâ—g them better or more ingenious * Not long since certain persons of both Sexes leagued themselves together for Conversation and Witty Commerce They left talking intelligibly to the vulgar a thing said amongst them with a little clearness dâ—ew after it another more obscureâ— which they enricht with bad Enigma'â— and crâ—wn'd with long Applauses What they call'd delicacy thought turn and fine expression was a faculty they had to be unintelligible to others and themselves Good sense judgment memory or the least capacity was not necessary to furnish out their discourse some wit was proper tho not the best sort but that which is false where fancy has too great a share * I know Theobaldus you are old but would you have me think you decline That you are no longer a Wit or a Lover or as bad a Critick in all kind of Writingsâ— as you are an Author That you have nothing new easy natural and delicate in your Conversation No Sir your free and arrogant Mien perswade and assure me of the contrary You are the â—ame to day as you were fifty years ago and perhaps better for if you are so furious and lively at this Age how could you be more brisk and airy in your Yoâ—â—â— You who at these years infatuate the 〈◊〉 â—â—nd make 'em of your Party Whâ— can prevail on 'em to swear onâ—â— for yâ—u and upon your Credit that as ofâ—en as you speak they presently cry out That'â— delicate What did he say * We frequently talk hastily in Company through Vanity and Humour rarely with the necessary Caution Every one is desirous to reply before he has heard out the Question demanded of him he then follows his own Notions and
presiding over publick Affairs and that they could supply the place of Rules Precepts and Experience * We meet with few very dull and stupid Souls and fewer sublime and transcendant The generality of Mankind sails between these two extreams The interval is fill'd with a great number of ordinary Genius's which are very useful and serve to support a Commonwealth It contains what is agreeable and profitable Commerce Business War Navigation Arts Trades Memory Intrigue Society and Conversation * All the Sense in the world is useless to him that has none he has no sight and can't be profited by another mans * To feel the want of Reason is next to having it a fool is not capable of this knowledge The best thing we can have after Sense is to apprehend that we need it without Sense a man might then know how to behave himself so as not to be a Sot a Coxcomb or Impertinent * A man who has but a little Sense is serious and of an even frame he never laughs banters and makes any thing of a trifle as incapable of rising higher as of accommodating himself to what he thinks below him he can hardly condescend to toy with his Children * Every one says of a Coxcomb that he 's a Coxcomb No body dares tell him so to his face he dyes without knowing it and no body is revengâ—d on him * What a strange misunderstanding there is between the Heart and the Mind Phiâ—losophers live wickedly with all their Maxims and Politicians full of their notions and reflections can't govern themselves * Wit wears like other things Sciences like food nourish us and consume * Ordinary men are sometimes blest with a thousand unprofitable virtues having no occasion to make use of them * We meet some men who support easily the weight of favour and power who make their Greatness familiar to them and are not giddy on the high Posts they are advancâ—d to On the contrary those whom fortune without choice or discernment has blindly almost overwhelm'd with Blessings act proudly and without moderation Their Eyes their Conduct their Tone and difficulty of access declare a long while the admiration they are in themselves to see they are grown so eminent They become in the end so wild that their fall only can tame them * A stout robust Fellow with a broad pair of Shoulders carries heavy burdens with a good grace and keeps one hand at liberty while a Dwarf would be crush'd with half on 't Thus eminent Stations make great men yet more great and little ones less * Some Men who become extraordinary Persons skud along with full Sail in a Sea where others are lost and broken in pieces are advanc'd and promoted by ways quite opposite to those which seem most sure for promotion or advancement they draw from their irregularity and folly all the advantage of a consummate Wisdom They are devoted to others particularly to the Great on whom they depend and in their favour repose all their hopes They don't serve but they amuse them Men of Merit and Capacity are useful to the Great these are necessary they are always ready with their Jests which are as meritorious in them as the most valuable Actions are in others And by being comical obtain the most grave Posts and the most serious Dignities by continual grimaces They have done in time and before they are aware find themselves in a condition which they neither hop'd nor fear'd all that remains of them in the end is the example of their Fortune which is dangerous for any one to follow * 'T is expected of some persons who were once capable of a noble heroick Action that without being spent by such vast efforts as were requir'd to produce it they should at least be as Wise and Judicious as commonly men are that they should not be guilty of any little meanness unbecoming the reputation they acquir'd that by mingling with the people giving 'em an opportunity to view them at too little a distance they should not suffer them to let their curiosity and admiration grow to indifference and perhaps to contempt 'T is easier for some men to enrich themselves with a thousand virtues than to correct one single defect They are even so unfortunate that this Vice often agrees least with their condition and makes â—em most ridiculous It lessens the Splendor of their great Qualifications hinders 'em from being perfect and prevents 'em of a compleat reputation a greater knowledge and higher degrees of morality are not exacted of them nor that they should be more fond of order or discipline more faithful to their Duty more zealous for the publick good or more labourious we would only desire them to be less amorous * Some men in the course of their lives differ so much from themselves as to their inclinations that we shall certainly mistake them if we judge of them only by what appear'd in them in their youthâ— Some were pious wise and learned who by the inseparable softness of a smiling fortune too long continu'd are so no more others begin their lives by applying all their thoughts to promote their pleasures whom at last misfortunes have render'd religious just and temperate It must indeed be very great causes which work these effects and they are generally so when men are prevailâ—d on to make such changes They get then an experienc'd sincerity learn'd by patience and adversity They owe their politeness contemplation and the high capacity they sometimes acquire to their commerce with women a confinement at home and the leisure of a bad fortune All mens misfortunes proceed from their inability to be alone from Gaming Riot Extravagance Wine Women Ignorance Railing Envy and forgetting their duty towards God and themselves * Men are sometimes insufferable to themselves shades and solitude trouble them creating in them fears and vain terrors The least evil that can befal 'em iâ— to give way to trouble * Lazyness begets trouble and the application which some men have for pleasure is never free from it Gaming and keeping much company has its share but he who works hard has enough to do with himself otherwise * The greatest part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miseâ—able * There are some works which begin at one end of the Alphabet and end at the other good bad and worst all find room in 'em nothing of whatever nature is forgot after a great deal of pains and much affectation we call them the sport of the mind and there is the same sport in mens conduct when they have begun a thing they must end it and try all ways to effect it perhaps it might be better to change their design or to let it quite alone but the difficulty and oddness of the thing tempâ— 'em to proceed they go on and are encourag'd by a spirit of contradiction and vanity which serves instead of Reason that gives 'em over and desists being concern'd with them
of the Stars this Sun this Earth and the ninety millions of miles that are betwixt â—em would seem to him but as one point There are demonstrations given for it 'T is for this reason that the distance there is betwixt any two Stars tho they appear never so near one another is not to be measur'd You would think if you judg'd by your eye the Plyades almost touch'd one another There is a Star seems to be plac'd on one of those which make the Tail of the Great Bear your sight can hardly perceive that part of the Heavens which divides 'em they make together as it were but one double Star Yet if the most skilful Astronomers cannot with all their Art find out their distance from each other how far asunder must two Stars be which appear remote from one another And how much farther yet the two Polar Stars How prodigious the length of that line which reaches from one to the other How immense the Circle which this line is the Diameter of How unfathomable the solidity of the Globe which this Circle is but a Section of Shall we still wonder that these Stars though so exceeding great seem no larger to us than so many Sparks Shall we not rather admire that from so vast a heighth they should pâ—eserve the least appearance of bodies and that they should be seen at all And indeed the quantity of them that is unseen is innumerable 'T is true we limit the number of the Stars but that is only of such Stars as are visible to us for how should we number those we cannot see Those for example which make up the Via Lactea that trace of light which on a clear night you may observe from North to South in the Sky Those I say which being by their extraordinary heighth so far out of the reach of our eyes that we cannot distinguish every individual Star amongst 'em give a white cast only to that part of the Heavens they are plac'd in Behold then the Earth on which we tread it hangs loose like a grain of Sand in the air A multitude of fiery Globes the vastness of whose bulk confounds my imagination and whose heighth exceeds the reach of my conceptions all perpetually rowling round this grain of Sand has been for above these six thousand years and are still daily crossing the wide the immense spaces of the Heavens Or if you desire an other and yet as wonderful a system the Earth itself is turning round the Sun which is the center of the Universe with a swiftness that surpasses my imagination Methinks I see the motion of all these Globes the orderly march of these prodigious bodies they never disorder never hit never touch one another should but the least of them happen to start aside and to run against the Earth what must become of the Earth But on the contraryâ— all keep their respective stations remain in the order prescrib'd to them follow the tracts which are laid before them And this at least with respect to us is done with so little noise that the vulgar knows not that there are such Bodies What a strange and wonderful effect of chance Could intelligence itself have done any thing beyond this One only thing I cannot understand Lucilius These vast bodies are so exact and so constant in theiâ— courses in their revolutions and their relations to each other that a little Animal being confin'd in a corner of that wide space which is call'd the world having made their observations on them has contriv'd an exact and an infallible method of foretelling in what degree of their respective Courses every one of these Stars will be two thousand four thousand nay twenty thousand years hence Here lyes my scruple Lucilius If it be by chance that they observe such constant rules what is order and what are rules Nay I 'll ask you what is chance is it a Body is it a Spirit is it a Being which you distinguish from all other Beings which has a particular existence or which resides in any place Or rather is it not a mode or a fashion of Being When a Bowl runs against a Stone we are apt to say it is a chance but is it any thing more than the accidental hitting of these bodies one against the other If by this chance or this hitting the Bowl it changes its strait course into an oblique one if its direct motion becomes more contracted if ceasing from rowling on its Axis iâ— winds and whirls like a top shall I from thence infer that motion in general proceeds in this Bowl from the same chance Shall I not rather suspect that the Bowl owe it to itself or to the impulse of the arm that threw it Or because the circular motions of the wheels of a Clock are limited the one by the other in their degrees of swiftness shall I be less curious in examining what may be the cause of all these motions Whether it lyes in the wheels themselves or is derived from the moving faculty of a weight that gives 'em the swing But neither these Wheels nor this Bowl could produce this motion in themselves And it does not lye in their own nature if they can be depriv'd of it without changing this nature It is thereforâ— likely that they are mov'd some other way and through a foreign power And as for the Coelestial Bodies if they should be depriv'd of their motion should therefore their nature be alter'd Should they cease from being bodies I can't believe they should Yet they move and since they move not of themselves nor by their own nature one would examine Lucilius whether there is not some principle without 'em that causes this motion Whatever you find it I call it God Shou'd we suppose these great bodies to be without motion indeed I could not ask who moves ' em But I should still be allow'd to inquire who made them as I may examine who made these Wheels or this Bowl And though each of these Bodies was suppoâ—'d to be but a heap of Atomes which have accidentally knit themselves together through the figure and conformity of their parts I should take one of those Atomes and should say who created this Atome is it Matter is it a Spirit had it any Idea of itself before it made itself If so then it existed a minute before it did exist It was and it was not at the same time And if it be the Author of its own being and of its manner of being why made it itself a Body rather than a Spirit Or else had this Atome no beginning Is it Eternal Is it Infinite Will you make a God of this Atome * The mite has eyes and turns away if it meets with such objects as may be hurtful to it place it on any thing that is black for the help of your observation and if while it is walking you lay but the least bit of Straw in its way you 'll see
some Letters the best written of any thing in our Language * Terence wanted nothing but Warmth with what Purity Exactness Politeness Elegance and Characters are his Plays adorn'd Moliere wanted nothing but to avoid Jargon and to write purely What Fire What Naivete What a sourse of good Pleasantry What Imitation of Manners What Images What a Flail of Ridicule are in his Comedies What a Man could we make of these two Comedians * I have read Malherbe and Theophile they both understood Nature with this difference The first in a plain uniform Stile discoverâ—d at once something noble fine simple and natural like a good Painter or a True Historian The other without Choice or Exactness with a free and uneven Pen sometimes loaden with Descriptions grows heavy in particulars and gives you an Anatomy and sometimes he feigns exaggerates and goes so much beyond the natural truth that he makes a Romance * Ronsard and Balzac have each in their kind good and bad things enough to form after 'em very great Men in Verse or Prose * Marot by his turn and stile seems to have written since Ronsard There is little difference between the first and us but the alteration of a few words * Ronsard and his Contemporaries were more prejudicial than serviceable to Stile They kept it back in the way to perfection and expos'd it to the danger of being always defective â—Tis surprizing that Marot's Works which are so easy and natural had not taught Ronsard otherwise full of Rapture and Enthusiasm to make a greater Poet than Marot or himself and that on the contrary Belleau Iodelle and St. Gelais were so soon follow'd by a Racan and a Malherbe or that our Language e're it was scarce corrupted should be so quickly recover'd * Marot and Rabelais are inexcusable for scattering so much Ribaldry in their Writings they had both Genius and Wit enough to have omitted it without striving to please such as would rather meet matter of Laughter than Admiration in an Author Rabelais is incomprehensible his Book is an inexplicable Enigma a meer Chimeâ—aâ— it has a Womans face with the feet and tail of a Serpent or some Beast more deformâ—d T is a monstrous collection of Political and ingenious Morality with a mixture of Beastliness Where 't is bad 't is abominable and fit for the diversion of the Rabble and where 't is good 't is exquisite and may entertain the most delicate Two Writers in their Works have condemn'd Montagne I confess he sometimes exposes himself to censure but neither of these Gentlemen will allow him to have any thing valuable One of â—em thinks too little to taste an Author who thinks a great deal and the other thinks too subtilely to be pleasâ—d with what is Natural A grave serious and scrupulous stile will live a long while Amyot and Coeffeteau are read and who else of their Contemporaries Balzac for his phrase and expression is less old than Voiture But if the Wit Genius and Manner of the last is not Modern nor so conformable to our present Writers 't is because they can more easily neglect than imitate him and that the few who follow'd could never overtake him * The Mercure Gallant is a trifle next to nothing and there are many labours of the same importance however the Author has had the good luck to live well by his Invention and there have been Fops always ready to take off an Impression of his foolish Book Whence we may perceive 't is the Ignorance of the peoples judgment which makes men sometimes fearful to venture abroad a great many dull pieces * An Opera is the Sketch of some magnificent shew of which it serves to give one an Idea I wonder how an Opera with all its Charge and Musick should yet so suddenly tire me There are some places in an Opera which make us desire more and others that dispose us to wish it all over according as we are pleas'd or offended with the Scenes the Action and the things represented An Opera is not now adays a Poem 't is Verses nor a Shew since Machines have disappearâ—d by the dextrous management of Amphion and his race 'T is a consort of Voices assisted by Instruments We are cheated by those who tell us Machines are the amusements of Children and proper only for Puppet-plays It encreases and embellishes the Fiction and keeps the Spectators in that sweet Illusion which is the highest pleasure of the Theatre especially where it has a mixture of the Marvellous There is no need of Wings or Carrs or Metamorphoses But 't is however the design of an Opera and its representation to hold the Mind the Eye and the Ear in an equal Inchantment * The Criticks or such as would be thought so will ever have the decisive voice at all publick sights They canton and divide themselves into parties pushâ—d on of both sides by a particular interest opposite to that of the Publick or Equity admiring only such a Poem or such a piece of Musick and condemning all the rest They are sometimes so warm in their prejudices that they are at a loss how to defend 'em and injure the reputation of their Cabal by their visible injustice and partiality These men discourage the Poets and Musicians by a thousand contradictions retarding the progress of the Arts and Sciences depriving several masters of the fâ—uit they would draw from emulation and the World of many excellent performances * What 's the reason that we laugh so freely and are asham'd to weep at the Theatre Is Nature less subjects to be soften'd by pity than to burst forth at what is Comical Is it the alteration of our looks that prevents us â—Tis as great in an extraordinary Laughter as in the most bitter Weeping and we turn away our faces to laugh as well as to weep in the presence of people of Quality or such as we respect It is our backwardness to be thought tender or to shew any emotion at a false subject where we fancy we are made Cullies Without naming some grave men or persons of sound judgments who think there is as much weakness shewn in Laughing excessively as in Weeping What is it that we look for at a Tragedy Is it to Laugh Does not truth reign there as lively by its Images as in a Comedy And does not the Soul imagine things true in either kind before it suffers itself to be mov'd Or is it so easie to be pleas'd that verisimility is not necessary towards it If not we must suppose 't is the natural effect of a good Tragedy to make us Weep freely in sight of the whole Audience without any other trouble than drying our Eyes and wiping our Faces It being no more ridiculous to be seen Weeping than to be heard to Laugh by the whole Theatre On the contrary we then conclude there was something acted very pleasantly and to the life and the restraint a man puts on
Extraction Their Merit is not Noisy or Ostentatious but Solid accompanyâ—d with a thousand Vertues which in spight of all their Modesty break out and shine to all who have but Eyes to discern ' em * I cou'd wish to be a Woman that is a Fair and Beautiful Woman from Thirteen to Two and Twenty but after that Age to be a Man again * Nature has been very kind to some young Ladies but they are not sensible of the Happiness They Spoil by Affectation those Gifts which they enjoy by the distinguishing favour of Heaven The Tone of their Voice their Mien is not their own They study they consult their Glasses how to Dress themselves as much out of Nature as they can and 't is not without a great deal of Trouble that they are able â—o make themselves less Agreeable * If 't is the Ambition of Women only to appear Handsome in their own Eyes they are in the right without doubt to take what course they please to Beautify themselves and in the choice of their Dress and Ornaments to follow their own caprice and fancy But if 't is the Men whom they wou'd charm if 't is for them they Wash and Paint I have told their votes in that case and I do assure them from all the Men or from the greatest part that the White and Red they use make 'em look hideous and frightful that they hate as much to see Women with Paint on their Faces as with false Teeth in their Mouths or Balls to plump out their Cheeks that they solemnly protest against all Art which indeed does but make 'em ugly and is the last and infallible means that Heav'n takes to reclaim Men from their Love If Women were form'd by Nature what they make themselves by Art if they were to lose in a Minute all the freshness of their their Complexion and were to have their Faces as thick with Red and Paint as they lay 'em on they wouâ—d look on themselves as the most wretched Creatures in the World * A Coquet is one that is never to be perswaded out of her Inclination for appearing always agreeable nor out of the good Opinion she has of her own Beauty Time and Years she regards as things that wrinkle and decay other Women but forgets that Age is writ in the Face and that the same Dress which became her when she was young does but make her look the older now Affectation attends her evâ—n sickness and pain She dies in a High-head and colour'd Ribbonds * Lyce hears that anotheâ— Coquet laughs at her pretending to Youth and her wearing those Dresses which do not agree with a Woman of Forty Lyce is no less 't is true but Years with her have not twelve Months nor do they add to her Age that is she thinks so and when she looks in the Glass and lays on the Paint on her own Face and sticks on the Patches she confesses there is an Age when 't is not decent to affect to appear youthful and that Clarice indeed with her Paint and Patches is very ridiculous * Women when they expect their Lovers make great preparation in their Dress but if they are surpriz'd by them in it they immediately vanish and are seen no more In the presence of indifferent Persons what disorder they 're sensible of they rectify with ease and before them make no scruple to adjust themselves or else disappear for a moment and return drest * A fine Face is the finest of all Sights and the sweetest Musick is the Sound of her Voice whom we love * That a Woman is agreeable depends on Fancy but Beauty is something more real and independant on inclination and opinion * There are Women of such perfect Beauty and such transcendant Merit that tho 't is impossible for us not to love 'em yet we dare not encourage our passion to hope for any greater favour than that of seeing 'em and conversing with â—em * A Beautiful Woman that has the qualities of a Man of Honour is of all the Conversation in the World the most delicious In her alone is to be found all the Merit of both Sexes * Every little kind accidental thing that comes from the Fair is strangely moving and perswasive to the Persons in whose favour 't is intended 'T is not so with the Men their Caresses their Words their Actions are sincere and soft and transported yet are not half so perswading * Caprice from Women is inseparable and is the Counter-poison of their Beauty It prevents the damage which their Beauty wou'd otherwise do the Men and cures 'em when no other Remedy will take effect * Women are engag'd to Men by the Favours they grant ' em Men are disingag'd by the same Favours * When a Woman no longer loves a Man she forgets him so much as not to remember the favours he has receiv'd from her * A Woman that has but one Gallant thinks she is no Coquet She that has more thinks her self but a Coquet * A Woman may avoid the Reputation of being a Coquet by a firm engagement to one particular Person who yet passes for a Fool for having made a bad choice * An old Gallant is of so little consideration that he must give way to a new Husband and a Husband is of so short duration that a new Gallant justles him out of place * An old Gallant either fears or despises a new Rival according to the Character of the Person he serves An old Gallant often wants nothing but the name to be a very Husband He is oblig'd to that circumstance or else he wou'd have been discarded a thousand times * Few Intreigues are secret a great many Women are not better known by their Husbands names than by the names of their Gallants * A Woman of Gallantry is Ambitious of being belovâ—d t is enough for a Coquet that she 's thought lovely and desirable The business of one is to make an engagement of the other to make a Coquest The first passes successively from one Engagement to another the second has a great many Amusements on her hands at once Passion and Pleasure are predominant in one Vanity and Levity in the other The gallantry of this proceeds from a weakness in the Heart or perhaps a vice in Complexion that the other is a Coquet proceeds from an irregularity of the Mind The Gallant Lady is fear'd the Coquet hated From these two Characters might be form'd a third which wou'd be the worst in the World * A weak Woman is one that being guilty of a Fault reproaches herself more than she 's reproacht Her Heart is in a perpetual War with her Reason She wou'd fain be cur'd of her folly but is hardly ever cur'd at least 't is very long first * An Inconstant Woman is one that is no longer in Love a False Woman is one that is already in Love with another Person She 's Fickle that neither knows whom she loves nor
expires * 'T is not so hard to meet with Love in Excess as with perfect Friendship * Love and Friendship exclude one another * He that has had Experience of a great and violent Love neglects Friendship and he that has consum'd all his Passion upon Friendship is nothing advanc'd towards Love * Love alone begets Love We commence but languishing Lovers when we have but just quitted the dearest and most affectionate Friendship * Nothing more resembles the strongest Friendship than those Engagements which we make for the Interest and Security of our Love * We never Love heartily but once and that 's the first time we love The Inclinations that succeed are more at our Command * Sudden Love is longest to be cur'd * Love that grows slowly and leisurely is too like Friendship ever to be a violent Passion * He who loves to that degree that he wishes he were able to love a thousand times more than he does yields in Love to None but to Him who loves more than he wishes for * If I shou'd grant that 't is possible for those who are transported with a great and violent Passion to love one another better than themselves Who shou'd I most oblige They that love or they that are belov'd * Men are sometimes inclinable enough to be in Love but can't succeed in their Desire They seek all Occasions of being conquer'd but escape still for which reason 't is if I may be allow'd the Expression that they are bound to continue free * The couple who love too violently at first contribute each of 'em to their loving one another less in a short time and at length to their hating one another Who has the greatest share in this Rupture the Man or the Woman is not easily to be decided The Women accuse the Men of being wild and roving and the Men say they are false and inconstant * As nice as we are in Love we pardon more Faults in Love than in Friendship * 'T is a Revenge sweet to a Man that loves passionately by all his Conduct and Carriage to an ungrateful Mistris to make her appear extreamly ungrateful 'T is but an unpleasant thing to Love when we have not a Fortune great enough to render those we love as happy as they themselves can desire * The Woman that makes no Return to our present Passion whatever important services she may afterwards do us in the residue of our Life will hardly meet with any thing from us but Ingratitude * When we are very grateful 't is a sign that we have a great Inclination and Affection for the person that has oblig'd us * To be but in the company of those we love satisfies us it does not signify whether we speak to 'em or not whether we think on them or on indifferent things To be near 'em is all * Hatred is not so remote from Friendship as Antipathy * 'T is more common to see People pass from Antipathy to Love than from that to Friendship * We make a Confidence of our secret in Friendship but in Love it escapes from us 'T is possible to have some People's Confidence and yet not to have their Hearts But he who has the Heart has no need of Confidence every thing is open to him In Friendship we only see those Faults which may be prejudicial to our Friends In those we love we see no Faults but those by which we suffer our selves 'T is the first Disgust in Love only as well as the first Fault in Friendship which we are able to make a good use of * If a Suspicion that is unjust fantastical and groundless has been call'd Jealousy methinks that Jealousy which is a sentiment just natural founded on Reason and Experience shou'd deserve some other Name 'T is not always a great passion that is the cause of Jealousy our natural temper has some share in it yet 't is a Paradox for a violent Love to be without Delicacy Our Delicacy often disturbs none but our selves â—â—ealousy makes us not only uneasy our selves but disturbs others Those Women who while they are not at the pains of dissembling with us are not sparing to give us all occasions of Jealousy don't indeed deserve our Jealousy if we had the power to regulate our selves more by their Sentiments and Conduct than by our own Affections * The coldnesses and disorders which happen in Friendship have their causes In Love there 's hardly any other reason for our ceasing to love but that we are too well belov'd * 'T is no more in our power to love always than 't is not to love sometimes * Love receives its Deaths Wound from Disgust and is bury'd by Oblivion * We are sensible of the Beginning and Decline of Love by the Impatience we have to be alone * To cease from loving is a sensible proof that Man is limited and that the Heart has its bounds 'T is a Weakness to love 'T is sometimes another Weakness to attempt the cure of it We are cur'd of that just as we are comforted for our afflictions 'T is impossible in Nature always to grieve or always to love * There ought to be in the Heart inexhaustible sourses of Grief for some Losses â—Tis seldom that either by our vertue oâ— force of mind we overcome a great afflictioâ—â— We weep bitterly and are sensibly toucht but at length we are either so weak or so inconstant that we take up and are comforted * When an ugly Woman is belov'd it must certainly be very deperately for either it must proceed from a strange weakness in her Lover or from some more secret and invincible charms than those of her Beauty * Visits amongst Lovers are made for a good while out of custom and ceremony to profess they love by words when 't has been a long time that their Actions and Manners have declar'd the contrary * Wou'd you endeavour to forget any one 't is the certain course to think on nothing else Love has this in common with Scruples that 't is exasperated by the Reflections which are us'd to free us from it If 't were Practicable there 's nothing necessary to weaken our Passion but never to think on 't * We wou'd have it in our power that those whom we love might receive all their good or else all their ill fortune from our Hands * 'T is a greater happiness in comparison to regret the loss of a person we love than to â—ive with one we hate * How disinterested soever we may be in respect of those we love we must sometimes constrain our selves for their sakes and have the generosity to accept of what they present us He 's fit to receive who is toucht with as delicate a pleasure in accepting as his friend is sensible of in giving * To give is to act We are not to be passive in the case to have our benefits extorted from us by the importunity or necessity of our Petitioners *
abound in Riches * To make one's Fortune is so fine a Phrase and so very significant that t is universally us'd it past from the Court to the City broke its way into the Cloysters scal'd the Walls of the Abbyes of both Sexes There is no place sacred or prophane where it has not penetrated it pleases Strangers and Barbarians 't is met with in all Languages and there is scarce any one now who can speak but has learnt to make use on 't * He who has cunning enough to make Contracts and fill his Coffers thinks presently he has a Head fit for Government * To make one's Fortune a Man ought to have some sort of Wit but neither the good nor the fine the great nor the sublime the strong nor the delicate I cannot exactly tell which it is and am yet to be inform'd Custom and Experience are more useful in making one's Fortune than Wit We think of it too late and when at last we resolve on t we begin by those Faults which we have not always time to repair Whence perhaps it proceeds that Fortunes are so rarely acquired A Man of a little Genius may be fond of advancing himself and in such case neglecting all things else he will think on 't from morning till night and then break his Rest with contriving how to effect it He begins early and sets out in his youth in the way to Preferment If he finds any thing oppose his passage he naturally turns his byass and goes on the right-hand or left according as he sees it most convenient If new Obstacles arise here he returns into the old path he quitted and disposes himself by the nature of the Difficulties sometimes to surmount 'em sometimes to avoid em or take other measures as Use Interest and Opportunity direct him Is so good a Head and such great Talents necessary for a Traveller to follow at first sight the great Road and if that is full or crowded to cross the Fields and continue in a bye and a nearer way till by this means he gets again at last into the former Road and finishes his Journey Is so much Sense requisite in an ambitious Man to attain his Ends Is he then a Wonder or only a Coxcomb who by his Riches purchases himself Favour and Advancement There are some stupid and weak Men who place themselves in fine Stations and die rich yet we ought not to suppose they have contributed to it by the least Industry or Labour Some body has directed em to the fountain-head or perhaps chance only led 'em to it They have been then askt Would you have water Draw and they have drawn it * Whâ—n wâ— arâ— young wâ— arâ— often poor we havâ— neither made Acquisitions nor are our Inheritances fallen yet into our hands We become rich and old at the same time thus â—tis rare that Men can unite all their Advantages And if perhaps any Person is so fortunate he deserves not our Envy since he may by Death be so great a Loser rather when we consider his Circumstances and the Shortness of their Continuance we ought to pity him * A Man should be thirty years old before he thinks of his Fortune â—Tis seldom compleated before fifty he goes to Building in his old Age and dies amongst the Painters and Glasiers * What is the fruit of a great Fortune Unless it be to possess the Vanity Industry Labour and Expence of those who went before us and to work our selves in Planting Building and Inlarging for our Posterity * Men open their Shops and set out their Wares every Morning to cheat their Customers and lock 'em up at night after having cheated all day * In all Conditions the poorest Man is the nearest Neighbour to Honesty and the rich as little distant from Knavery Ability and Cunning seldom get a Man excessive Riches A shew of Honesty is in all Trades the surest way to grow rich * The shortest and best way to make your Fortune is to convince People 't is their Interest to serve you * Men tempted by the Cares of Life or a desire to acquire Riches and Glory incourage themselves in their Deceit and cultivate wicked Talents and Knavish Practices forgetting the Danger and Consequence till they Quit 'em afterwards for a discreet Devotion which was never seen in 'em before their Harvests were gathered and they were in Possession of a well-establishâ—d Fortune * There are Miseries which make People Cowards some who want Food dread the Winter and are afraid of living whilst others elsewhere are eating early fruits forcing the Earth and the Seasons to furnish 'em with Delicates I have known meer Citizens have the Impudence to swallow at a Morsel the Nourishment of a hundred Families let who will set themselves against such Extremities Iâ—ll render my self as little obnoxious to the World as possible and if I can will neither be happy or unhappy but hide and secure my self in the Littleness of my Condition * The Poor are troubled that they want all things and no body comforts them The Rich are angry that they can want the least thing or that any one would resist them * He is rich whose Receipt is more than his Expences and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Receipt There is nothing keeps longer than a little Fortune and nothing is sooner done than a great one Great Riches are near Neighbours to Poverty If he is only rich who wants nothing a very wise Man is a very rich Man If he is only poor who desires much and is always in want the Ambitious and the Covetous languish in extream Poverty * The Passions tyrannize over Mankind Ambition reigns over the rest and gives them a little while the Appearance of all the Vertues I once believ'd Tryphon who commits every vice sober chaste liberal humble and even devout and I might have believ'd it still if he had not made his Fortune * There is no end to a Man's desire of growing rich and great when the Cough seizes him when Death approaches his Face shrivel'd and his Legs weak he cries My Fortune my Establishment * There is but two ways of rising in the World by your own Industry and anotherâ—s Weakness * Features discover Complexion and Manners and an Air the Goods of Fortune you may see by a Man's Countenance if he has great or small Revenues * Crysantes a wealthy impertinent Man would not be seen with Eugeneus who is a Man of Wit but poor lest he should dishonour him Eugeneus has the same Dispositions for Crysantes and there 's no great fear they will often run against one another * If good Thoughts good Books and their Authors depended on Riches or such as have acquir'd 'em What a hard Fate would the Learn'd lie under What a Power would then be assum'd over them With what Authority would they treat those poor Wretches whose Merit has not advanc'd or enrich'd them And for this reason they
with us and from time to time are fortify'd by Custom There are others which we contract and were before Strangers to us Men are sometimes born with easie Dispositions Complacency a desire to please but by the treatment they meet from those they live with or on whom they depend they are suddenly oblig'd to change their Measures and even their Nature they grow melancholy and flegmatick humours with which they were before unacquainted They have another Complexion and are astonish'd to find themselves petulant and stubborn * Some may ask why Mankind in General don't compose but one Nation and have not a proneness to speak one Language to live under the same Laws to agree amongst themselves in the same Customs and Worship for my part seeing the contrariety of their Inclinations Taste and Sentiments I wonder to see seven or eight Persons live under the same Roof within the same Walls and make a single Family * There are some strange Fathers who seem during the whole course of their Lives to be preparing Reasons for their Children to be comforted with their Deaths * Every thing is strange in the Humours Morals and Manners of Men one lives Sowre Passionate Covetous Furious Submissive Laborious and full of his own Interests who was born Gay Peaceable Idle Magnificent of a noble Courage and far from any thing Base or Pitiful The Cares of Life the Situation they find themselves in and the Law of Necessity force Nature and cause such great Changes Thus at the bottom such a Man canâ—t tell what to make of himself his Outside changes so often has so many Alterations and Revolutions that he is really neither what he thinks he is himself nor what he appears to be * Life is short and tiresom it has always something to do we adjourn our Joy and Repose to the time to come often the Age when our best blessings Youth and Health are already disappear'd The time comes and we are still surpriz'd with new desires The Fever seizes or suppresses us or if we are cur'd 't is only to desire more time * When a Man desires a favour of a Person he renders himself to him on Discretion when he 's sure it cannot be deny'd him he watches his Opportunities Parleys and Capitulatesâ— * 'T is so common for Men not to be Happy and so essential to all Good to be acquir'd with Trouble that what is come at easily is suspected We can hardly comprehend how any thing can be for our advantage which costs us so little or how we could reach the ends we propos'd by such just Measures We think we deserve Good Fortune but ought not to have it very often * The Man who says He was not born Happy may at least become so if he would make use of his Friends and Relations good fortune and did not envy rob him of this advantage * Tho perhaps I have said somewhere or other that the afflicted are wrong'd yet men seem to be born for Misfortune Grief and Poverty few escape and since all sorts of disgraces may befal them they ought to be prepar'd for all sorts of disgrace * Men meet one another about their affairs with so much difficulty are so sharp where the least interest is concern'd so apt to be intangl'd with the least intricacies are so willing to deceive and so unwilling to be deceiv'd set so great a value on what belongs to themselves and so mean a price on what belongs to others that I protest I know not how or which way they can conclude Marriages Contracts Acquisitions Peace Truces Treaties and Alliances * Among some people Arrogance supplies the place of Greatness Inhumanity of Stedfastness and Cheating of Wit Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves They cannot be deceived and then will not deceive a long while I would willingly purchase the Character of a Cheat if it were only by being stupid or passing for such We are never honestly deceiv'd for Malice and Lying always attend Cheating * We hear nothing in the Streets of great Cities and out of the mouths of those that pass by us but such words as these Writs Executions Interrogatories Bonds and Pleading Is it thus because the least equity ought not to be seen in the world or should it be on the conâ—â—ary fill'd with persons who are always demanding what is not their due or refusing very plainly to pay what they owe. * The Invention of Parchments is a scandal to Humanity what a shame 't is that men can't keep their words without being forc'd to it If you carry away Passion Interest and Injustice what a Calm would there be in the greatest Cities subsistance and the cares of Life would not make a third part of the confusion * Nothing helps a man more to bear quietly the injuries he receives from Parents and Friends than a reflection on the vices of humanity and how costly 't is for persons to be constant generous and faithful or to love any thing better than their own Interests He knows their capacity and does not require them to penetrate a solid fly in the Air or be equitable He hates Mankind in general for having no greater respect for Vertue But he excuses it in particulars he even is tempted by the highest motives to love 'em and studies as much as possible to deserve the same indulgence * There are certain Goods which we most passionately desire and the Idaea of them only moves and transports us If we happen to obtain 'em we enjoy them more peaceably than we thought we should and are less busie in rejoycing over them than in aspiâ—ing after greater * There are some evils some frightful and horrible misfortunes which we dare not think on the prospect of 'em only makes us tremble If they chance to fall on us we find more succour than we could imagine arm our selves against our fortune and do better than our hopes * Sometimes a pleasant House falling to us a fine Horse or a pretty Dog presented us a Suit of Tapestry or a Watch will mittigate a vast loss * I often suppose that men were to live for ever in this world And reflect afterwards whether 't is possible for them to do more towards their establishment than they do now * If Life is miserable 't is painful to live if happy 't is dreadful to dye one comes from t'other * Thereâ—s nothing Men are â—o fond to preserve and less careful about it than Life * We are afraid of old age but we aâ—e not sure we can attain it * Death never happens but once yet we feel it every moment of our Lives 'T is worse to apprehend than to suffer * Irene is with difficulty convey'd to the Temple of Aesculapius to consult the God about all her Ills. She complains fiâ—st that she 's weary and fatigu'd The God pronounces 't is occasion'd by the length of her Journey She says she has no stomach to her Supper the Oracle bids
whole Life is imploy'd in and whose most vigorous attention is taken up in sawing of Marble this is very foolish and trivial But there are others more astonishing for they are intirely useless and spend their days in doing nothing this is yet less than sawing Marble * The major part of Mankind so far forget that they have a Soul and launch out into such Actions and Exercises that we appear in the wrong if we believe we speak advantageously of any Man when we say he thinks this is become a common Elogy and yet it raises a Man only above a Dog or an Horse * How do you divert your self how do you spend your time Is the Question asked both by Fools and Men of Sense if I answer 't is to open my Eyes and to see to prepare my Ears to hear to enjoy Health Ease and Liberty 't is to say nothing the solid the great and the only good is slighted makes no impression The Answer should be Do you Game do you Dance Is it good for Man to have a liberty if it were possible so large and extensive that it would only prompt him to desire one thing else that is to have less liberty Liberty is not Idleness it is a free use of time to choose our Labour and our Exercise in one word to be free is not to do nothing but to be the sole Arbiter of what we do and what we leave undone In this Sense what good so great as Liberty * Caesar not being old enough to think of the Conquest of the Universe had no other happiness to endeavour after than a brave course of Life and a great Name after Death he was born fierce and ambitious enjoy'd a vigorous health he could not better imploy his time than in the Worlds Conquest Alexander being too young for so serious a design 't is stupendious that in his juvenile years Women and Wine had not confounded his Enterprize * A young Prince of an August Race the love and hope of his People given by Heaven to prolong the felicity of the Earth greater than his Progenitors the Son of an Hero who was his Pattern hath now told the Universe by his divine qualities and anticipated Vertues that the Sons of Hero's are nearer being so than other men * If the World should continue an hundred millions of years it is still in its Spring and is but now beginning we our selves are not far from the first Men and the Patriarchs and who could distinguish us from them in Ages so distant but if we may judge of what is to come by what is past how many things are there unknown to us in Arts and Sciences in Nature nay I durst say in History too What vast discoveries would then be made what different Revolutions would then happen in the States and Empires of the whole World How great would our Ignorance appear and how slender our Experience that is not of above six or seven thousand years standing * There is no way too tedious for him that Travels gently and without hurry and there are no advantages too remote from those that prepare themselves with Patience * To make Court to none and not to expect Courtship from any is an happy condition a Golden Age and the most Natural State of Man * The World is for those that follow the Court or people Cities but Nature is theirs who inhabit the Country they only live or at least only know that they live * Why do you treat me with this coldness and why do you complain on me for some Expressions of mine in relation to some of our young Courtiers You are not Vicious Thrasyllus are you for my part I know it not but you inform me so your self that which I know is that you are not Young And you that are personally offended at what I said of some great people don't cry out of a wound intended for another Are you Haughty Malicious a Buffoon a Flatterer a Hypocrite I was ignorant of it indeed and did not think of you but was speaking of some Great men * Moderation and Prudence in Conduct leave men obscure To be known and admir'd 't is necessary to have great Virtues or whatâ—s perhaps equal great Vices * Men are pre-engag'd prejudic'd and charmâ—d indifferently with the conduct of great and mean persons a fortunate Câ—ime wants little of being commended as much as a real Virtue and success supplies the place of all Virtues 'T is a black action a horrid odious attempt indeed that Success cannot justify * Men seduc'd by fair appearances and specious pretences are easily inducâ—d to like and approve an ambitious design of some great man's contrivance They speak of it with concern the boldness or the novelty pleases 'em it becomes familiar to 'em already and they expect nothing but the success when on the contrary it happens to miscarry they confidently and without any regard to their former judgmeâ—t decide of the action that it was rash and cou'd never take * There aâ—e some designs which are of that vast consequence and make so great a figure which have imployâ—d the Tongues of Men so long which have caus'd so much hope or fear to several People engag'd in 'em according to their different Interestsâ— in which all the Honour and Fortunes of a man are concern'd these have made too much shew to be withdrawn without being executed How dreadful soever the danger may be that a man begins to foresee will be the consequence of his undertaking He must on tho it overwhelms him the least evil he is to expect is the miscarriage * In a ill man there is not wherewithal to make a great man You may commend his Insight and his Contrivance admire his Conduct extol his Address to make use of the properest and shortest means to attain his ends if his ends are bad Prudence has no share in them and where Prudence is wanting find Greatness if you can Of the Fashion 'T IS a very foolish thing and very much betrays our weakness to be subject to the fashion in our Diet way of Living Health and Conscience Brown Meat is out of fashion and therefore 't is insipid and â—twouâ—d be an offence against good manners to cure a Fever otherwise than by bleeding It has been out of fashion this great while to die by the hands of Theotymus none but the populace are now sav'd by his Pious Exhortations he has outliv'd himself * Curiosity is not an inclination to what is good and beautiful but to what is rare and singular for those things which another can't match 'T is not an affection for those things which are best but for those which are most in the fashionâ— 'T is not an amusement but a passion often so violent that it yields to Love and Ambition only in the meanness of its object 'T is not a passion for every thing that is scarce and in vogue but only for some particular
by Travellers there 's a continual knocking at the Gate all desire to see the House but none the Master There are others who have Daughters and are not able to give them a Groat nay which is less can hardly cloath and feed them they are so poor that they are forc't to deny themselves a Bed and clean Linnen the source of their misery is very obvious 't is a Repository of rare Statues which indeed would sell at a great rate but they cannot prevail with themselves to part with them Dyphilus is a lover of Birds he began with one and ends with a thousand his House is so far from being the more pleasant that 't is pestered with them the Hall the Parlour the Stair cases the Porch the Chamber and Closets are so many Aviaries nothing is heard but discord and wild notes the Autumnal winds and most rapid Cataracts do not make a noise so shrill and piercing you cannot hear one another speak but in those Chambers that are set apart for receiving visits where you are plagued with his little yelping Curs 't is no longer an agreeable amusement to Dyphilus but a toilsome fatigue which his body can hardly undergo he spends his days those days that pass away and never return in feeding his Birds and clearing their dung he gives a man a Salary for no other service but to teach them with a Flagelet and take care that his Canary-birds tread one another 't is true what he spends on one hand he spares on the other his Children have neither Tutors nor Education In the Evening tir'd with his own pleasure he shuts himself up without being able to enjoy the least repose till his Birds are at roost and those little Creatures that he only dotes on for their Song cease their Notes he dreams of them in his sleep he is himself metamorphos'd into a Bird he is copple-crown'd he chirps he perches he fancies in the night that he moltes that he is brooding Who can describe all the different kinds of trivial curiosity imagin you hear one talk of his Leopard of his Plume of his Musick he brags that they are the most choice and rare in the World Why does he not sell them they cost him very dear There 's another an admirer of Insects he augments his Collection every day he is the greatest Critick in Europe at a Butterfly he has them of all sizes and colours What time can you find to pay him a visit he 's afflicted with bitter sorrow is in a sowr Chagrin temper to the plague of his whole Family he has had an irreparable loss go near him observe what he shews you on his Finger 't is a Canker-worm just dying and expiring but 't was such Canker-worm * Duel is the triumph of fashion and the place where her Tyranny reigns with the greatest splendour 'T is a custom not to permit a Coward to live this obliges him to go to be kill'd by a man of more bravery than himself and so passes undistinguished from a man of courage it hath entail'd honour and renown on an action full of folly and extravagance it has obtain'd reputation by the presence of Kings and sometimes hath had a sort of Religion to countenance its practice it decided the Innocence of men and whether accusations in capital Crimes were true or false it was so deeply rooted in the opinion of the World and got such an intire possession of the minds of men that it has been one of the most glorious actions of the Life of a most potent Monarch to cure them of this folly * The antient manner us'd in disciplining Armies in Negotiations or in the Eloquence of the Chair and in Poetry â—s now grown obsolete Men are degenerate from what they formerly were is it their merit which is out of date or have we lost the taste we had of them * A man of mode is not so long Fashions are very transitory But if perchance he is a man of merit he cannot suffer annihilation but by something or other will still subsist always equally worthy of estimation tho he is less esteem'd Virtue has that happiness in her that she can self-subsist she knows how to treat Admirers Party-men and Patriots the want of assistance and approbation doth not only not afflict her but purifies and renders her more perfect whether she be in fashionâ— or out of fashion she is still Virtue * If you tell men and especially the great ones that such a man has Virtue theyâ—ll tell you let him keep it then that he has a great deal of Wit and above all that he is very pleasant and diverting they 'll answer you so much the better for him that he has a Wit well cultivated and is very knowing they 'll ask you what 's a Clock what weather it is but if you give them to understand there 's a Juggler one that turns Aqua Vitae black 'T is wonderful tho they often see it at Feasts Thâ—n they cry out where is he bring him to me this evening to morrow or as soon as you can possibly find him he is brought and the wretch who is only fit to be shown in Fairs or at private Entertainments for Money presently becomes their familiar * There 's nothing brings a Man sooner in fashion than playing high it passes from the Peer to the Bully I wou'd fain see a polite gallant and witty man were he a Catullus or one of his disciples dare to compare himself with him that loses eight hundred Pistoles at a sitting * A fashionable man is like a certain Blue Flower that grows spontaneously in plough'd grounds indeed it chokes the weeds but spoils the crop and takes up the room of something thatâ—s better it has no beauty nor value but what 's owing to a slender caprice which is born and dead in the same instant To day he is in vogue and admir'd by the Ladies to morrow he is neglected and left to the scorn of the Mob On the contrary a man of merit is a Flower which is not valued for its colour only we call it by its name 't is cultivated for its odoriferous scent and beauty 't is one of the graces of nature one of those things which beautify the Creation it has been admir'd by all men in all ages our Fathers set a high value on it and we in imitation of them have as great an opinion of it nor can the disgust and antipathy of any particular persons injure its reputation 'T is a Lilly 't is a Rose * We see Eustrates plac'd in his small Boat bless'd with a pure Air and a serene Sky he sets sail with a fair wind which in all probability is like to continue but all of a sudden it changes the Heavens are clouded and the Tempest appears a wave oversets the Boat and he is sunk to the bottom Eustrates rises to the surface of the Waters endeavours to swim and we hope at
injustice * The temper of some Judges is such that interest authority intimacy or relation render a just Cause obnoxious to 'em their affectation of appearing not to be corrupted causing them to be unjust * The love of women is of a worse consequence in a Magistrate tho he has but a few private intrigues than in one that is a profest Whore-master The first is so close that it is impossible to discover thro whose means one may make an interest with him The other has a thousand weak sides on which he may be assaulted and is wrought upon by every woman he converses with * The administration of Justice is very near as much respected in the Common-wealth as the dispensation of holy Mysteries And the character of a Magistrate is in a manner as sacred as that of a Priest A man of the Gown can hardly dance at a publick Ball be seen at a Play or forget plainness and modesty in his Apparel without bringing contempt upon himself And one would wonder that a Law should be necessary to regulate his carriage and his garb and to force him at once to be grave and respected * There is no Trade but what requires a Prenticeship And if one considers the different stations of men one may observe there is none from the highest to the lowest but has had a time in which he has qualified himself by practice and experience for his profession in which the faults he has committed have been without consequence nay in which those faults have been like so many steps to perfection War itself which seems to be the production of confusion and disorder is not without some rules belonging to it Men must learn how to flock in the open Field together to murther one another and there are proper methods of killing and destroying The Soldier has his School Why must the Magistrate have none There are establish'd practices there are laws and customs and why no time for enquiring after them or why not enough for a man to digest them in his mind and to make himself master of them The prenticeship and the first essay of a youth who is brought from School to moâ—nt the Tribunal and whom his Bags have made a Judge is the soveraign Arbiter of such causes on which no less than our lives and fortunes depend * The chief thing which makes an Orator is Probity Without it he degenerates into a Declaimer he disguises and exaggerates matter of fact he is deceitful in his citations his mouth is full of calumnies he espouses not so much the cause as the passion and the animosity of his Client and may be rank'd among those Advocates of whom the Proverb says that they are hir'd to be injurious * 'T is true sayâ— one this summ is due to himâ— he has a lawful right to it but â— know wâ—â—â—e to have him There is a certain piece of formality where in if he faiâ—s he can neveâ— retrieve his fault and consequently he â—oses his debt he has undeniabâ—y abdicated his right Now he â—hall ceâ—taiâ—â—y forget this piece of formality Such a coâ—scieâ—ce as this makes an accompliâ—h'd â—awyer * An eâ—cellent and useful a prudentâ— just and â—easâ—nable Maxim for all Couâ—â—s of Judicaâ—ure would be the direct contrary of that which prefers formality to equity * The Wrack is an admirable invention and an infallible method for taking off the innocent that is of a weak constitution and for saving the guilty whom nature has endow'd with greater strength * The punishment of a Rascal is an example for his fellows The condemning of an innocent person is the concern of all good men I shall go near to say because I am not a Thief nor a Murtherer I shall never be punishâ—d as such A very bold inference A deplorable condition is that of an innocent person who by too great a precipitation in his tryal has been found guilty Can even that of his Judge be more dismal * Should I read that in former ages one of those Magistrates who are appointed for the apprehending and extirpation of Pick-pockets and Thieves had been long acquainted with all those Rascals That he knew their names and faces had an account of their walks and of every particular act of theirs could tell how many pockets had been picked and what had been stolen out of each could penetrate so far into the depth of their mysteries and had so great a share in their abominable actions that to prevent the noise that some great man was ready to make about a Jewel that was taken from him in a croud when coming out of a publick meeting he knew how to restore it to him and that this Magistrate had been try'd and condemn'd for this villainous behaviour I should place such a relation in the same rank with those we find in History which time has made incredible How then should I believe that it may now most reasonably be inferr'd from fresh and notorious circumstances that there is still such a pernicious connivance and that it is look'd upon as a customary thing and hardly taken notice of * How many men oppose strength to weakness cannot be mov'd by compassion stand buff against all the sollicitations of the poor have no regard for the common sort of people shew themselves rigid and severe in things of no moment will not accept of the least gratification nor be perswaded by their dearest friends and their nearest relations and are byass'd only by women * 'T is not altogether impossible for a man in great favour to lose a cause * A dying man who speaks in his last Will may expect to be heard like an Oracle His words will certainly create many disputes Men will put their own constructions upon them such constructions I mean as will suit their interest and their inclinations best * There are some men of whom one may truly say that Death fixes not so much their Wills as it puts a period to their unsteadiness and their inconstancy An angry fit while they live moves 'em to prepare a Will Their passion wears off and 't is either torn or burnt Their Closet is no less stock'd with Wills than it is with Almanacks and every year at least produces a new one The second is disanull'd by a third which is made as insignificant by another more exact And the validity of this also is destroyed by a fifth Yet the last must stand if opportunity power or malignity is wanting in the person whose interest it is to suppress it For what can more clearly shew the intention of the most inconstant man than a last Deed of his under his own hand which has been made so late that at least he has not had time to will the contrary * Were there no Wills to regulate the rights Heirs and Successors I question whether men would need any Tribunal to adjust their differences and disputes the function of a Judge would almost be reduc'd to
left Meeting daily with new ways of Worship new Manners new Rites and Ceremonies they imitate those who wander about the shops before they have resolv'd what kind of stuff to buy Variety of choice disables them from choosing Each piece hath something which pleases their fancy yet unable to fix upon any they always come out without purchacing * The practice of Religion and Devotion is deferr`d by some till lewdness and impiety are profess'd by all It being then like the vulgar they will avoid following the crowd They are delighted with singularity in so serious and so important a subject They would only follow the mode in things of no moment and which have no consequence nay they have for ought I know already placâ—d a sort of undauntedness and bravery in running the risque of a future state The truth is a mans circumstances as well as his share of ingenuity and his private designs may be such that one would scorn to believe like the learned much more the ignorant * A man in health questions whether there is a God as he does whether Fornication be a sin If he 's sick and given over his Miss is laid aside and the dread of his Maker leaves no room for his doubts * Your modish Wits or Libertines should examin themselves thoroughly before they set up for such that at least and indeed according to their own principles they might dye as they have liv'd Or if they find their stock of wit is like to fail at the approaches of death that they might be contented to live as they must dye * A Jest in a dying man is very unseasonable If apply'd to certain subjects it is dreadful To bequeath to others matter of laughter at the expence of one 's own eternal happiness is extreamly dismal Let prejudice make you fancy what you please of a future state dying is still a most serious work which becomes constancy better than jest or raillery * There have been in all ages many of those learned and ingenious persons who embracing like Slaves the loose principles of some great men have groan'd under their yoak against the dictates of their own minds and consciences all their life time who never liv'd but for other men the humouring of whom one would think they had look'd upon to be the chief end of their Creation Who have been ashamed to be seen by them to work out their own Salvation and to appear outwardly such as they were perhaps within their hearts Who have run headlong into their own ruin out of weakness and complaisance Shall we then imagine that this world can bestow so much greatness and power on any mortal man as he shou'd deserve that his will his humour or his fancy shou'd be the rule of our belief and of our lives Nay that we shou'd be such Courtiers at our very deaths as to make such an exit not as we think is like to be safest for our own Souls but as we hope will be most pleasing to him * One would expect from those who act contrary to all the world besides and contradict such principles as are receiv'd by all that they knew more than other men that their reasons were plain and their arguments convincing * Shouâ—d a just chaste moderate and sober man affirm there is no God self-interest certainly wou'd have no hand in such an assertion But where is this man to be found * Shou'd a just chaste moderate and sober man affirm there is no God I wou'd think such an assertion was Impartial But where is this man to be found * Cou'd I but see that man who was really perswaded that there is no God I shou'd hear at least by what strange convincing arguments he had found it out * The impossibility I find my self under of proving there is no God is a demonstration to me that there is one * God condemns and punishes those who trespass against him And is the only Judge in this cause Which were contrary to reason but that his Being is the spring of all Justice and Truth That iâ— thaâ— he is God * Some secret Instinct whispers me that there is a God and it never does that there is none I need no further proof And arguments to me are needless I conclude from thence that he is and this conclusion is grounded in my nature I took up with this principle too readily from my childhood and my sticking close to it afterwards hath been too natural for me ever to have the least jealousie of any falshood in it Ay but there are some men who make a shift to forsake this principle I question whether there are or no. But if there be it argues that there are Monsters * There is no such thing as an Atheist Your Great men who we are most apt to susâ—pect of being given that way are too lazy to determine in their own minds whether there is a God or no. And they indulge that temper so far that they are utterly careless and indifferent upon this so weighty a matter as well as upon the nature of their own Souls and the consequences of true Religion They neither deny nor grant any of these things for they bestow no thoughts upon ' em * A Great man falls only in a swoon as we think but dyes in a moment Another in a Consumption sees death daily creeping upon him till he sinks under the weight of a lingering distemper These are dreadful but useless presidents These circumstances tho so remarkable and so opposite to each other are not taken notice of affect no body 〈◊〉 no more regarded than the fall of a 〈◊〉 or the fading of a Flower We are inquisitive only about their vacant imployments How such and such a place was dispos'd of and envy those that succeed ' em * Is there so much goodness fidelity and equity among men that we shou'd place such a confidence in them as not to desire at least that there was a God to whom we might appeal from their Injustice and who might protect us against their persecutions and treacheries * If the Wits find so much grandeur and sublimity in Religion that it dazles and confounds their understandings they deviate from their character and must acknowledge their own dulness and stupidity If on the other hand they are offended at the meanness and simplicity of it we must allow them to be Wits indeed and greater Wits than so many great men who have gone before them than the Leos the Bazils the Ieroms Austins and others who notwithstanding all their learning and their extraordinary wisdom glory'd in a compleat profession of Christianity * Some who never read the Fathers are frighted at their very names How dull how rough how insipid how pedantick do they fancy 'em in their discourses their expessions and their arguments But how wou'd these men wonder at the strangeness of such a notion if they perus'd their writings and found in 'em a more exaâ—â—â—â—â—quence
their presence that the Wine he commonly used was prejudicial to him ordered Wine to be brought him both of Rhodes and Lesbos he drinks of both of them and says they did not in the least conceal their Country and that each in its kind was excellent the first was very strong but that of Lesbos more pleasant and to that it was he gave the preference Whatsoever we read of this Story in Aulus Gellius 't is certain that when Aristotle was accused by Eurimedon a Priest of Ceres of having spoken ill of the Gods fearing the fate of Socrates left Athens and retired to Chalâ—is a City of Euboea and left his School to a Lesbian whom he intrusted with his Writings on condition he should conceal them and 't is to this Theophrastus that we are obliged for the works of that great Man His name became so famous thro all Greece being successor to Aristotle that he could reckon soon after in the School that was left him near two thousand Scholars He was envied by Sophocles Son to Amphiclides and who at that time was chief Magistrate who out of Enmity to him but under a pretext of an exact polity and to hinder publick asâ—â—mblies made a Law which prohibited under pain of Death any Philosopher to teach in Schools They all submitted to it but the following year Philo succeeding Sophocles who was discharged his Office the Athenians repealed this detestable Law that the other had made and â—aying a fine of five Talents upon him re-established Theophrastus and the rest of the Philosophers He was in this more fortunate than Aristotle who was forced to submit to Eurimedon He had like to have seen one Agnonides punished by the Athenians as impious only because he durst accuse him of Impiety so great was the opinion this People had of him and which he merited by his Vertue They gave him the Character of a man of singular prudence zealous for the publick good Laborious Officious Affable Liberal Plutarch reports that when Eresus was opprest with Tyrants who usurped the Government of the Country he joyned Phydius his Countryman and out of his own Estate contributed with him to arm the banished men who entring into their City expelled the Traytors and restored the whole Isle of Lesbos to its liberty His many and excellent accomplishments did not only acquire him the good will of the People but the esteem and familiarity of Kings he was a friend of Cassander's who succeeded Arideus Brother to Alexander the Great in the Kingdom of Macedon and Ptolomy Son of Lagus and first King of Egypt kept a constant correspondence with this Philosopher At last he died worn out with Age and Fatigues and ceased at the same time both to Labour and Live all Grâ—ece lamented him and all the Athenians assisted at his Funeral It is said that in his extream old age not being able longer to go on Foot he caused himself to be carried on a Litter thro the City that he might be seen by the people to whom he was so dear It s reported also that his Scholars that stood about his Bed before his Death asking him if he had nothing to recommend to them he addrest himself to them after this manner Life deceives us it promises us great pleasure in the possession of Honour but Life and Misery begin together which end in Death there is often nothing more unprofitable than the love of reputation Therefore my Disciples be content if you contemn the esteem of men you 'll save your selves a great deal of trouble if it abate not your courage it may come to pass that Honour may be your reward remember only that in Life are many useless things and but few that tend to a solid end I have now no leisure to determine what Sect I ought to espouse but for you my Survivors you cannot too seriously consider what you ought to do These were his last words Cicero in the third Book of his Tusculan Questions says that Theophrastus dying complained of nature that she had given Harts and Crows so long a Life which was altogether useless and had alotted Man too short a time in regard it was of such consequence for them to live long that if the age of men were extended to a greater number of years their Life would be cultivated by an universal knowledge and all Arts and Sciences might be brought to perfection And St. Ierome concerning the matter before cited assures us that Theophrastus at one hundred and seven years old taken ill of that distemper of which he died lamented that he was obliged to quit Life at a time when he just began to be wise He used to say we ought not to love Friends to try them but to try them to love them That Friends ought to be common amongst brethren as all things are common amongst Friends That you ought as soon to trust to a Horse without a Bridle as to a Man that speaks without Judgment The greatest expence that a man can be at is that of his time He said once to a person that sate silent at Table during the entertainment If you are a Man of sense you are to blame to say nothing but if otherwise you do very well These were some of his Maxims But if we speak of his works they are infinities and we cannot find that any of the Antients wrote more than Theophrastus Diogones Laertius reckoned up more than two hundred different Tracts and the suctjects of which they treated the greatest part of which are lost by the injuries of time and the other remaining parts he reduces to twenty Tracts which are collected out of the Volumes of his works there are Nine Books of the History of Plants Six Books of their causes he wrote of Winds of Fire of Stones of Honey of the signs of fair Weather the signs of Tempests of the signs of Rain of Smells of Sweat of the Vertigo of Weariness of the Relaxations of the Nerves of Swooning of Fish that live out of the Water of Animals that change their colour of Animals that are suddenly born of Animals subject to envy the Characters of Manners these are what remain of his Writings amongst which this last only which I translate is not inferiour in beauty to any of those which are preserved but may be â—uperior in merit to any of those which are lost But if any one should coldly receive this moral Treatise on the account of those things they may observe there which are only applicable to the times in which they were wrote and are not suitable to their Manners what can they do more advantageous and obliging to themselves than to get loose from that prepossession in favour of their own Customs and Manners which they not only take up on trust without any deliberation but peremptorily pronounce all others contemptible which are not conformable to them and thereby deprive themselves of that pleasure and instruction which the reading of