delights to plan; and, in concerting the best methods of directing their accomplishment, the confumes the midnight. oil. How can fhe difturb human affairs, fince the dwells in contemplation, and defcends not to action? neither does the impel others to action by the arts of delufive eloquence. She applies to reafon alone; and if reafon is not convinced, all that he has done, is fwept away, like the web of Arachne. -Idem. PHYSIC. BY chace our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food; God never made his work for man to mend.-Dryden. PROMISES. THE man who is wantonly profufe of his promifes, ought to fink his credit as much as a tradefman would, by uttering a great number of promiffory notes, payable at a diilant day. The trueft conclufion in both cafes is, that neither intend, or will be able to pay. And as the latter molt probably intends to cheat you of your money, fo the former at leaft defigns to cheat you of your thanks.-Fielding. FRIDE.. TO fhew the ftrength and infamy of pride, O GOD! what is man!--even a thing of nought-a poor, infim, miferable. fhort-lived creature, that paffes away like a fhadow, and is haftening off the ftage, where the theatrical titles and diftinétions, and the whole mafk of pride which he has worn for a day, will fall off, and leave him naked as a neglected flave.-Send forth your imagination, I beseech you, to view the laft fcene of the greatest and proudeft who ever awed and governed the world---See the empty vapour difappearing one of the arrows of mortality this moment flicks fall within him: fee-it forces out his life, and freezes his blood and fpirits. Pride.—Partiality. —Patronage.— Profession. 203 Approach his bed of flate-lift up the curtain-regard a moment with filence Are thefe cold hands and pale lips, all that are left of him who was canoniz'd by his own pride, or made a god of by his flatterers?--Sterne. PRIDE, according to the doctrine of fome, is the univerfal pallion. There are others, who confider it as the foible of great minds; and others again, who will have it to be the very. foundation of greatnefs: but to real greatnefs, which is the union of a good heart with a good head, it is almoft diametrically. oppofite; as it generally proceeds from the depravity of both, and almost certainly from the badness of the latter. Indeed a little obfervation will show us, that fools are the most addicted to this vice and a little reflexion will teach us, that it is incompatible with true underftanding. Accordingly we fee, that while the wifeft of men have conftantly laniented the imbecility and imperfection of their own nature, the meaneft and weakelt have been trumpeting forth their own excellencies, and triumphing in their own fufficiency.-Fielding. : PARTIALITY. LET a man be never fo honeft, the account of his own conduct will, in fpite of himself, be fo very favourable, that his vices will become purified through his lips, and like foul liquors well ftrained, will leave all their foulnefs behind. For though the facts themselves may appear, yet fo different will be the motives, circumftances, and confequences, when a man tells his own ftory, and when his enemy tells it, that we scarce recognize the fact to be one and the fame.-Fielding. PATRONAGE. A MAN confpicuous in a high station, who multiplies hopes that he may multiply dependents, may be confidered as a bealt of prey.-Idler. PROFESSION. THE attachment every man has to his own profeflion, and the contempt he has for others, difcovers itfelf in numberlefs inftances. It has been faid of a geographer, that he received no other pleasure from the Eneid of Virgil, than by tracing out the voyage of neas in the map-and of a celebrated coach:-maker, who juft having Latin enough to read the flory of Photon in the Metamorphofis, hook his head, that fo fine a genius for making chariots, as Ovid had, was thrown away on making poems.-Fielding. PRAISE. THE real fatisfaction which praife can afford, is when what is repeated aloud, agrees with the whispers of confcience, by fhewing us that we have not endeavoured to deferve well in vain.-Rambler. MEN are seldom fatisfied with praise, introduced or followed by any mention of defect.-Life of Pope. SOME are lavish of praise, because they hope to be repaid. -Rambler. PRUDENCE. "GOODNESS of heart, and opennefs of temper, though they may give great comfort within, and adminifter to an honeft pride, will by no means, alas! do our business in this world; prudence and circumfpection are neceffary even to the best of men. They are, indeed, as it were, a guard to virtue, without which she can never be fafe. It is not enough that your defigns, nay, that your actions are intrinfically good, you muft take care they fhall appear fo.-Fielding. PRUDENCE is a duty which we owe ourselves, and if we will be fo much our own enemies as to neglect it, we are not to wonder if the world is deficient in discharging their duty to us; for when a man lays the foundation of his own ruin, others too often are apt to build upon it.-Idem. PEEVISHNESS. HE that refigns his peace to little cafualties, and fuffers the courfe of his life to be interrupted by fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and lofes all that conftancy and equanimity, which constitute the chief praise of a wife man.-Rambler. PRODIGALITY. HE feldom lives frugally who lives by chance. Hope is always liberal; and they that trust her promises, make little fcruple of revelling to-day, on the profits of to-morrow.— Johnfon. POLITENESS. POLITENESS is one of those advantages which we never eftimate rightly, but by the inconvenience of its lofs. Its influence upon the manners is conftant and uniform, fo that, like an equal motion, it escapes perception. The circumflances of every action are fo adjusted to each other, that we do ont Private Infult.-Population.-Political Difcuffion. 205 fee where any error could have been committed, and rather acquiefce in its propriety, than admire its exactnefs.Rambler. WHEN the pale of ceremony is once broken, rudeness and infult foon enter the breach.-Idem. PRIVATE INSULT. THE abfurd and abominable doctrine, that private vices are public benefits, it is hoped will be blotted from the memory of man, and expunged from the catalogue of human follies, with the fyftems of government which gave it birth. The ground of this infulting doctrine is, that advantage may be taken of the extravagant foibles of individuals to increafe the revenues of the ftate; as if the chief end of fociety were, to fteal money for the government's purfe! to be fquandered by the governors, to render them more infolent in their oppref fions! it is humiliating, to answer fuch arguments as thefe; where we must lay open the most degrading retreats of proflituted logic, to difcover the pofitions on which they are founded. But orders and privileges will lead to any thing once teach a man, that fome are born to command, and others to be commanded; and after that, there is no camel too big for him to fwallow.-Barlow. POPULATION. NO nation is yet fo numerous, nor any country fo populous, as it is capable of becoming. Europe, taken together, would fupport at least five times its prefent number, even on its prefent fyftem of cultivation; and how many times this increafed population may be multiplied by new difcoveries in the infinite fcience of fubfiftence, no man will pretend to calculate. This of itfelf is fufficient to prove, that fociety at prefent has the means of rendering all its members happy in every refpect, except the removal of bodily difeafe.Barlow. POLITICAL DISCUSSION. WHAT employment, in the bufy scene in which man engages from the cradle to the tomb, is more worthy of him than political difcuffion? It affords a field for intellectual energy, and all the finest feelings of benevolence: It exercises and ftrengthens every faculty. It calls forth latent virtues, which elfe had slept in the bofom, like the diamond in the mine. And is this employment, thus ufeful and honorable, to b S confined to a few among the race of mortals? Is there to be a monopoly of political action and fpeculation? Why then did heaven beftow reafon and fpeech, powers of activity, and a fpirit of enterprize, in as great perfection on the lowest among the people, as on those who, by no merit of their own, inherit wealth and high ftation?? Heaven has declared its will by its acts. Man contravenes it; but time, and the progreffive improvement of the understanding, will reduce the anomaly to its natural rectitude. And if a few irregularities fhould fometimes arife in the procefs, they are of no importance when weighed with the happy refult; the return of distorted fyftems to truth, to reafon, and the will of God. Occafional ferments, with all their inconveniences, are infinitely preferable to the putrefcencé of ftagnation. They are fymptoms of health and vigor; and though they may be attended with tranfient pain, yet, while they continue to appear at intervals, there is no danger of mortification. Good hearts, accompanied with good understandings, feldom produce, even where miftaken, lasting evil. They repair and compenfate.-Spirit of Defpotifm. RELIGION. -TRUE religion Is always mild, propitious, and humble; Supporter fole of man above himself! Ev'n in this night of frailty, change, and death, |