Where there is no hope, there can be no endeavour.

Ibid. vol. 3, p. 26.

Hope is the chief blessing of man, and that hope only is rational, of which we are certain, that it cannot deceive us..

Ibid. vol. 4, p. 36.

Without hope there can be no caution.

Ibid. vol. 3, p. 8

It is seldom that we find either men or places. such as we expect them. He that has pictured a prospect upon his fancy, will receive little pleasure from his eyes; he that has anticipated the conversation of a wit, will wonder to what prejudice he owes his reputation. Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded; for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 34.

Whatever enlarges hope, will likewise exalt courage.

Western Islands, p. 383..

HUMANITY.

He does nothing who endeavours to do more than is allowed to humanity.

Prince of Abyffinia, p. 179

HEALTH..

Such is the power of health, that, without its co-operation, every other comfort is torpid and lifeless, as the power of vegetation without the

sun.

L 5

Rambler, vol, Is Pm 291...
Healthy

Health is so necessary to all the duties of life, as well as the pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly; and he that, for a short gratification, brings weakness and diseases upon himself, and for the pleasure of a few years passed in the tumults of diversion and clamours of merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own happiness, but as a robber of the public; as a wretch that has voluntarily disqualified himself for the business of his station, and refused that part which Providence assigns him in the general task of human nature.

Ibid. p. 289.

The valetudinarian race have made the care of health ridiculous, by suffering it to prevail over all other considerations; as the miser has brought Frugality into contempt, by permitting the love of money not to share but to engross his mind.

Ibid.

HISTORY.

He that records transactions in which himself was engaged, has not only an opportunity of knowing innumerable particulars which escape spectators, but has his natural powers exalted by that ardour which always rises at the remembrance of our own importance, and by which every man is enabled to relate his own actions better than another's.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 69.

He that writes the history of his own times, if he adherès strictly to truth, will write that which his own times will not easily endure. He must

be

be content to reposite his book till all private passions shall cease, and love and hatred give way to curiosity.

Ibid. p. 72.

Those familiar histories which draw the portraits of living manners, may perhaps be made of greater use than the solemnities of professed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is so great as to take possession of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will, care ought to be taken, that when the choice is unrestrained, the best examples only should be exhibited, and that which is likely to operate so strongly, should not be mischievous or uncertain in its effects. Rambler, vol. 1, p. 21.

It is not a sufficient vindication of a character in history, that it is drawn as it appears; for many characters ought never to be drawn: nor of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to observation and experience; for that ob-servation which is called knowledge of the world, will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

Ibid. p. 22.

GOOD-HUMOUR.

Good-humour may be defined, a habit of being pleased; a constant and perennial softness of manner, easiness of approach, and suavity of disposition; like that which every one perceives in himself, when the first transports of new felicity

L 6

felicity have subsided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a slow succession of soft impulses. Ibid. vol. 2, p. 102.

Good-humour is a state between gaiety and unconcern; the act of a mind at leisure to regard the gratifications of another.

Ibid.

Surely nothing can be more unreasonable than to lose the will to please when we are conscious of the power, or show more cruelty than to choose any kind of influence before that of kindness and good-humour. He that regards the welfare of others, should make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied ; and he that considers the wants which every man feels, or will feel, of external assistance, must rather wish to be surrounded by those that love him, than by those that admire his excellencies or solicit his favours; for admiration ceases with novelty, and interest gains its end and retires. A man whose great qualities want the ornament of superficial attractions, is like a naked mountain with mines of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhausted.

Ibid. p. 105.

Nothing can more show the value of goodhumour, 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.

Ibid.

Prince Henry, though well acquainted with the vices and follies of Falstaff, and though his conviction compelled him to do justice to su

2

perior

perior qualities, yet no sooner sees him lying on the ground, but he exclaims, " he could have better spared a better man." His tenderness broke out at the remembrance of the cheerful companion and the loud buffoon, with whom he had passed his time in all the luxury of Idleness, who had gladded him with unenvied merriment, and whom he could at once enjoy and despise.

Ibid,

GOOD-HUMOUR,

(Compared with Gaiety.)

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 some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair. Good-humour boasts no faculties which every one does not believe in his own power,, pleases principally by not offending.

and

Ibid. p. 102.

I

HYPOCRISY.

The hypocrite shows the excellency of virtue by the necessity he thinks himself under of seeming to be virtuous.

HONOUR.

Ibid. vol. I, p. 125.

Among the Symerons, or fugitive Negroes in the South Seas, being a nation that does not set them above continual cares for the immediate necessaries of life, he that can temper iron best, is among them most esteemed: and, perhaps, it would be happy for every nation, if honours and applauses