Ill breeding.-Integrity.-Indian.-Ignorance. ILL BREEDING. 147 ILL breeding, fays the abbé Bellegarde, is not a fingle defect, it is the refult of many. It is fometimes a grofs ignorance of decorum, or a ftupid indolence, which prevents us from giving to others what is due to them. It is a peevish malignity, which inclines us to oppofe the inclinations of thefe with whom we converfe. It is the confequence of a foolish vanity, which hath no complaifance for any other perfon; the effect of a proud and whimsical humour, which foars above all the rules of civility; or laftly, it is produced by a melancholy turn of mind, which pampers itself with a rude and difobliging behaviour.-Fielding. INTEGRITY. INTEGRITY without knowledge is weak, and generally ufelefs; and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.-Johnfan. INDIAN. LO! the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind He-afks no angel's wing, no feraph's fire: His faithful dog fhall bear him company-Pope. IGNORANCE. THE man who feels himself ignorant, fhould, at leaft, be modeft.-Johnson. ASSUMING ignorance is, of all difpofitions, the most ridiculous for, in the fame proportion as the real man of wifdom is preferable to the unlettered ruftic, fo much is the ruftic fuperior to him, who, without learning, imagines himself learned. It were better that fuch a man had never read; for then he might have been confcious of his weaknefs: but the half-learned man, relying upon his ftrength, feldom perceives his wants till he finds his deception paft a cure.-Goldsmith. JUDGE. MAY one be pardon'd, and retain th' offence? -FOR in a government Th' offence is greatest in the inftrument JURYMAN. AN office that requires the purest mind! Then judge with reafon, and decree with truth.-Cooke. JUSTICE. OF all the virtues, juftice is the best; Pirates and thieves, too oft with courage grac'd, THERE is no virtue fo truly great and god-like as justice. Moft of the other virtues are the virtues of created beings, or accommodated to our nature as we are men. Juflice is that which is practifed by God himfelf, and to be practifed in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and Omnipotence are requifite for the full exertion of it: the one to discover every degree of uprightness in thoughts, words, and actions : the other, to meafure out and impart fuitable rewards and punishments. As, to be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature, to be fo to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man. Such a one, who has the public administration in his hands, acts like the reprefentative of his maker, in recompenfing the virtuous, and punishing the offender. When a nation once lofes its regard to juftice-when they do not look upon it as fomething venerable, holy, and inviolable -when any of them dare prefume to leffen, affront or terrify thofe who have the diftribution of it in their hands--when a judge is capable of being influenced by any thing but law, or a caufe may be recommended by any thing that is foreign to its own merits-we may venture to pronounce that fuch a nation is haftening to its ruin. I always rejoice when I fee a tribunal filled with a me of an upright and inflexible temper, who, in the execution of his country's laws, can overcome all private fear, refentment, folicitation, and even pity itself. Whenever paffion enters into a fentence or decifion, fo far will there be in it a tincture of injustice. In fhort, juftice difcards party, friendship, and kindred; and is therefore always reprefented as blind, that we may fuppofe her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a caufe, without being diverted or prejudiced by objects foreign to it.-Guardian. NOTHING is more unjust than to judge of a man by too fhort an acquaintance, and too flight infpection; for it often happens, that in the loofe and thoughtiefs, and diffipated, there is a fecret radical worth, which may fhoot out by proper cultivation; that the fpark of heaven, though dimmed and .obftructed, is yet not extinguished, but may, by the breath of counfel and exhortation, be kindled into a flame. To imagine that every one who is not completely good, is irrevocably abandoned, is to fuppofe that all are capable of the fame degree of exceller ce; it is, indeed, to exact from all, that perfection which none ever can attain. And fince the purcit vitae is confiftent with fome vice, and the virtue of the greatest number, with almoft an equal proportion of contrary qualities, let none too haftily conclude, that all goodness is loft, though may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the flaves of external circumftances; and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of cuftom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them.-Rambler. it JEALOUSY of TYRANNY. IT may be faid, that a too great jealoufy of liberty is equally dangerous with a too great confidence; that as the latter may plunge us into flavery, the former may into anarchy: I fhould allow fome weight to this objection, if in the whole course of our hiftory, a refutation, in a fingle inftance, could be produced of thefe pofitions; that the fpirit of liberty is flow to act, even against the worst princes, and exerts itself in favor of the best with more effect than any other spirit whatsoever. I must therefore repeat, that the keeping alive the jealous spirit ofberty is a common caufe; that a deteftation of tyrants, or even those who lean to tyranny, is infeparable from this fpirit; that Charles the Firft was a tyrant in principle and in action; that those who labour to reconcile us to his conduct and character, would deftroy the fpirit of liberty, and ultimately establish the principle of non refiftance; that a junto of mercenaries and court retainers do labour to thefe purposes; that it is, therefore, the duty of every common citizen, who has the interest of his country at heart, to exert continually whatever force he has, to defeat their purpofes; or, at least, weaken their influence; for in mechanics, the fmallest force continually applied will overcome the most violent motions communicated to bodies.-Gen. Lee. KING. IT is the curfe of kings to be attended By flaves, that take their humours for a warrant, And, on the winking of authority To underftand a law, to know the meaning Of prints were brought forth by fome more weighty King. Cause than those of meaner perfons: they are A vicar go to law for a tythe pig, And undo his neighbours, makes them fpoil. WHAT poor things are kings! Oh! I am mortal. Men but flatter me. Oh, Fate! why were not kings made more than men ? All other things, but cannot fee themselves.-Fountain. Greedy of more: they use not what they have. To kings that luftre which we think divine; The wife who know 'em, know they are but men, But, dazzl'd with the luftre, cannot fee The thorns which line it, and whofe painful prickings He knows no fears of flate to damp his joys; 151 |