Great Ones. Grief.-Guilt.
have been done by those called great men. They have often disturbed, deceived and pillaged the world: and he, who is capable of the highest mischief, is capable of the meanest. He, who plunders a country of a million of money, would, in suitable circumstances, steal a filver spoon; and a conqueror, who stands and pillages a kingdom, would, in an humbler situation, rifle a portmanteau" I should not, therefore, choose to expose my watch or purse in a crowd, to those men who have plundered Poland, if, instead of poffeffing a crown of jewels, and the pocket of fubmiffive nations, they had been in the circumstances of a Barrington Nor, though men should be called honorable, will it be safe to trust our liberties to their honor, without some collateral security - Idem.
BUT know, young prince, that valor foars above
What the world calls misfortune and affliction;
These are not ills. else they would never fall
On heaven's first fav'rites, and the best of men.
Heaven in bounty works up storms about us,
That give mankind occafion to exert
Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice
Virtues that shun the day, and lie conceal'd
In the smooth seasons and the calms of life. -Addison.
LET us not, Lucia, aggravate our forrows,
But to kind heav'n permit the event of things:
Our lives difcolor'd with the prefent woes,
May still grow bright and fmile with happier hours.
So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains
Of rushing torrents, and defcending rains,
Works itself clear; and, as it runs, refines,
Till by degrees the floating mirror shines;
Reflects each flower that on the border grows,
And a new heav'n in its fair bosom shows. Idem.
THE guilty ever are most hard to pardon;
Vice makes them ftubborn, haughty, and remorselefs;
And as their views all centre in self-love,
Soon hate what once controuls that darling passion.-E. Hay
AS by degrees from long, tho' gentle rains,
Great floods arife, and overflow the plains;
So men from little faults to great proceed,
Guilt grows on guilt, and crimes do crimes fucceed. Wan-
FEAR of detection, what a curse art thou! O, could the young and artless mind but know the agonies that dwell with guilt, it would prefer the humbleft lot with peace, to all that splendid vice can e'er bestow. -Griffith.
GOOD-SENSE is a fedate and quiefcent quality, which manages its poffeffions well, but does not increase them; it collects few materials for its own operations, and preferves safety, but never gains fupremacy.-Johnfon.
TRUST not too much your now resistless charms,
Thofe, age or fickness, foon or late, disarms;
Good humour only teaches charms to last,
Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past.
Love, rais'd on beauty, will like that decay,
Our hearts may bear its flender chain a day;
As flow'ry bands in wantonness are worn;
A morning's pleasure, and at evening torn:
This binds in ties more easy, yet more strong,
The willing heart, and only holds it long. -Pope.
GOOD-HUMOUR may be defined, a habit of being pleased; a constant and perennial softness of manner, eafiness of approach, and fuavity of difpofition; like that which every one perceives in himself, when the first transports of new felicity have fubfided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a flow fuccession of foft impulfes.-Rambler.
SURELY nothing can be more unreasonable than to lofe the will to please, when we are confcious of the power, or shew more cruelty than to choose any kind of influence before that of kindness and good-humour. He that regards the welfare of others, thould make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied ; and he that confiders the wants which every man feels, or will feel, of external afsistance, muft rather wish to be furrounded by those that love him, than by those that admire his excellencies or folicit his favours; For admiration ceafes with novelty, and intereft gains its end and retires. A man whose great qualities want the ornament of fuperficial attractions, is like a naked mountain with mines
Good Humour.-Gaiety -Gypsies.
of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhausted - Idem.
NOTHING can more shew the value of good-humour, than that it recommends those who are destitute of all other excellencies, and procures regard to the trifling, friendship to the worthless, and affection to the dull.-Idem.
GAIETY is to good-humour as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance. The one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety seldom fails to give fome pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or defpair. Goodhumour boasts no faculties, which every one does not believe in his own power, and pleases principally by not offending.Rambler.
WHOM call we gay? That honor has been long
The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
The innocent are gay. The lark is gay,
That dries his feathers, faturate with dew,
Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-fpring overshoot his humble nest.
The peasant, too, a witness of his fong,
Himself a songster, is as gay as he.
But save me from the gaiety of thofe
Whose head-aches nail them to a noon-day bed;
And save me too from theirs, whose haggard eyes
Flash desperation, and betray their pangs
For property stripp'd off by cruel chance;
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain,
The mouth with blafphemy, the heart with woe. -Cowper.
I SEE a column of flow rising smoke
O'ertop the lofty wood that skirts the wild.
A vagabond useless tribe there eat
Their miferable meal. A kettle flung
Between two poles upon a stick transverse,
Receives the morfel flesh obscene of dog,
Or vermin, or at best, of cock purloin'd
From his accustom'd perch. Hard faring race!
They pick their fuel out of every hedge,
Which, kindled with dry leaves, jult saves unquench'd
The spark of life. The sportive wind blows wide
Their flutt'ring rags, and shows a tawny skin,
The vellum of the pedigree they claim.
Great skill have they in palmistry, and more
To conjure clean away the gold they touch,
Conveying worthless dross into its place.
Loud when they beg-dumb only when they steal.
Strange that a creature rational, and cast
In human mould, should brutalize by choice
His nature, and though capable of arts
By which the world might profit and himself,
Self banish'd from fociety, prefer
Such squalid floth to honorable toil.
Yet even these, though, feigning fickness, oft
They swathe the forehead, drag the limping limb,
And vex their flesh with artificial fores,
Can change their whine into a mirthful note,
When fafe occafion offers, and with dance
And music of the bladder and the bag
Beguile their woes, and make the woods resound.
Such health and gaiety of heart enjoy
The houfeless rovers of thy fylvan world;
And breathing wholesome air, and wand'ring much,
Need other physic none to heal th' effects
Of loathsome diet, penury, and cold.-Idem.
THE man who pauses on his honesty Wants little of the villain. - Martyn.
BE honesty our riches. Are we mean And humbly born? the true heart makes us noble. These hands can toil, can fow the ground and reap, For thee and thy sweet babes. Our daily labor Is daily wealth. It finds us bread and raiment. Could Danish gold do more? - Mallet.
LET none prefume
To wear an undeferved dignity:
O that estates, degrees, and offices,
Were not, deriv'd corruptly; that clear honor
Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare!
How many be commanded, that command:
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd
From the true feed of honor! How much honor
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,
To be new vann'd!-Shakespeare.
MINE honor is my life: both grow in one.
Take honor from me, and my life is done.
Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die. - Idem.
Q. PRAY what's the height of honor.
A: No man to offend,
Ne'er to reveal the secrets of a friend;
Rather to fuffer than to do a wrong:
To make the heart no stranger to the tongue:
Provok'd, not to betray an enemy;
Nor eat his meat, I choak with flattery;
Blushless to tell wherefore I wear my scars,
Or for my confcience, or for my country's wars:
To aim at just things. If we have wildly run
Into offences, wish them all undone.
'Tis poor in truth, for a wrong done, to die:
Honor, to dare to live, and fatisfy. -Maffinger.
HE was a man
That liv'd up to the standard of his honor,
And prized that jewel more than mines of wealth.
He'd not have done a shameful thing but once;
Tho' kept in darkness from the world, and hidden,
He could not have forgiven it to himself. -Otway.
NOT all the threats or favours of a crown,
A prince's whisper, or a tyrant's frown,
Can awe the spirit, or allure the mind
Of him who to strict honor is inclin'd.
Tho' all the pomp and pleasure that does wait
On public places and affairs of state,
Should fondly court him to be base and great;
With even paffions and with fettled face,
He would remove the harlot's false embrace.
Tho' all the storms and tempefts should arife,
That church-Magicians in their cells devise,
And from their fettled bafis nations tear,
He would unmoved the mighty ruin bear;
Secure in innocence, contemn them all,
And, decently array'd in honor, fall. - Earl of Halifax.
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