Night.]

2661. WOMAN.

Women are as Roses.

2662. CONSUMPTION.

Alas, that female Excellence is so,

To die, e'en when they to Perfection grow. 2663. PLEASURE.

Pleasure will be paid one time or other.

2664. LOVE-it's NOBLENESS.

O Love is more noble than the Wealth of Worlds. 2665. WOMAN.

2. Women are not less true of Heart than Men. 2666. LOVE.

3. Those much in Vows are oft little in Love.

2667.

Jealous and Impatient.

4. Love can give no man place; brook no Denial. 2668. FLATTERY.

5. It is not only Trouts that are caught with tick2669. FORTUNE.

6. Fools think that all is Fortune.

2670. PRIDE.

[ling.

7. Self-contemplation makes a rare Turkeycock of Pride.

2671. GRANDEUR.

8. If those who think themselves Great had any eye behind them, they might see more Detraction at their heels than Fortune before them. 2672. ETYMOLOGIES-often fanciful and absurd. 9. 'Tis but crushing Words a little, and they will bow to any Etymology.

2673. GREATNESS.

Some are born Great; some achieve Greatness; and some have Greatness thrust on them.

* Dindon is the French expression for a vain and arrogant

Man.

Dd

2674. OPPORTUNITY.

Night.]

10. When our Fates seem to open their hand to us, let our Spirit embrace them in all that is wise and honourable.

2675. SINGULARITY-false and affected.

11. It is bad to put ourselves in the trick of Singularity when it is no better than a trick. 2676. ADVICE.

That Advice is at least sincere which comes from those who love us.

2677. DESIRE; laudable-ENERGY of it.

As far as Excellence goes, they are made who strenuously and perseveringly desire to be so. 2678. GROSSNESS.

¶ Avoid Gross Acquaintance.

2679. IMAGINATION.

Do not so fool yourself as to let Imagina

tion jade you.

2. We often think we have every Reason on our side when we have only our Fancy.

2680. VANITY.

3. Nothing is so credulous as Vanity, and so ignorant of what becomes it.

2681. PRIDE-VANITY.

4. Pride overweens on real Advantages; Vanity often presumes on those which have no

existence.

2682. DULLNESS-FLATTERY.

5. Dullness, like Flattery, is a mere Echo

APHORISMS may be extracted from the Characters of SHAKESPEARE where they are not expresst: as from real Life. See "Locke's Essay on Human Understanding."

Night.

2683. WIT

AFFECTATION of it.

6. To false Wit a Sentence is but a cheveril Glove: So quickly may the inside be turned out! 2684. WORDS.

7. In reasoning with others we must generally use Words. And Words have so much of Ambiguity, that it is difficult to prove Reason by them, so as not to deceive ourselves or others *.

2685.

Those that dally with Words easily corrupt 2686. FOLLY.

[them. 8. Foolery walks about the Globe; so far like the Sun, that it shews itself as openly.

2687. FOOLERY affected.

To play the Fool well requires a kind of Wit, 2688. AFFECTATION in STYLE.

9. Folly is much taken with affected Phrases. 2689. FLATTERY.

'Tis not a merry nor a happy World

When lowly feigning is thought Compliment. 2690. PITY.

Pity is often a degree to Love.

2691.

10. The wise and virtuous pity Enemies. 2692. POOR,

The Poor have some Excuse for being proud; The Prosperous have less.

2693. ENEMY;-a noble consoles.

If one should be a Prey, how much the better

It is not easy to find in SHAKESPEARE more than Shake speare knew; any more than in HOMER. It is more difficult in both to have a tolerable approach to a Comprehension of how much they knew.

To fall before the Lion than the Wolf.

2694. LOVE can not be conceal'd.

Night.]

À murtherous Guilt shews not itself more soon Than Love that would be hid.-Love's Night is

2695. REASON.

Reason with Reason fetter.

2696. LOVE.

Love sought is Good.

2697. OPPORTUNITY.

[Noon.

11. However brilliant Opportunity appears, little Time washes off it's Lustre.

2698. VALOUR.

§ Nothing can more prevail in commendation of Man with Woman, than report of Valour. 2699. BELIEF.

12. To believe rightly is to believe rationally; and not gross. impossibilities,

2700. IMPROBABILITY.

Many things happen in real Life that, if play'd on a Stage, would be condemn'd as: improbable Fictions.

2701. VALOUR-Mock.

† A terrible Oath sharply twang'd off, with a swaggering Action, gives pretended Manhood more approbation than ever proof would have earnt.

2702. CONSCIENCE.

[Faults § There's something in us that reproves our Howe'er a head-strong Fault may mock Reproof. 2703. QUARREL-SEEKERS.

2. There are Men who put Quarrels purposely on others, to taste their Valour.

Night.]

2704. QUARREL-SEEKERS.

3+. A boisterous and regardless Quarrel-maker Is fit for mountains, and the barbarous caves Where Manners ne'er were preacht.

2705. IGNORANCE.

There is no Darkness like Ignorance,

2706. DETRACTION less dangerous than FLATTERY; CENSURE more pleasing than

PRAISE.

It is better for a Man that his Foes should tell him that he is an Ass, than that his Friends by Flattery should make an Ass of him.

2707.

4. If his Foes tell a Man plainly that he is an Ass, and his Friends praise him till they make an Ass of him, he is the better for his Foes and the worse for his Friends. For by these he profits in the knowledge of himself; but by those he is deceiv'd into ignorance of himself*.

2708. DUPLICITY.

He is much of a Sinner who is a double Dealer. 2709. FITNESS.

5§. Do what you please, so that it be becoming t. 2710. MAN.

¶ Man, in all Perils know thyself a Man.

Be that thou know'st thou art:-and then thou As great as that thou fearest.

{art

There is an Essay in the Characteristics of PLUTARCH

how a Man may profit by his Enemies.

Not the Chesterfield Becomingness (though even that is not to be slighted); but the philosophic and moral:Quod verum atque decens."

HOR.