Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding. Modesty, if it were to be recommended for nothing else, this were enough, that the pretending to little leaves 'a man at ease; whereas boasting requires a perpetual labour to appear what he is not: if we have none, it best hides our want of it. For as blushing will sometimes make whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of a sense. It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as the having overcome them, that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with the weeds of a field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there. To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer in others, is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so. A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by shewing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water. Our passions are like convulsion-fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after. To be angry, is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves. A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury; for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it. To relieve the oppressed is the most glorious act a man is capable of; it is in some measure doing the business of God and Providence. I as little fear God will damn a man that has charity, as I hope that the priests can save one who has not. Superstition is the spleen of the soul. Atheists put on a false courage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and apprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing for fear. An Atheist is but a mad ridiculous derider of piety; but, a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion ; he finds it easier to be upon his knees than to rise to a good action ; like an impudent-debtor, who goes every day to talk familiarly to his creditor, without ever paying what he owes. What Tully says of war may be applied to disputing, it should be always so managed, as to remember that the only end of it is peace; but generally true disputants are like true sportsmen, their whole delight is in the pursuit ; and a disputant no more cares for the truth than the sportsman for the hare. The scripture in time of disputes is like an open town in time of war, which serves indifferently the occasions of both parties; each makes use of it for the present turn, and then resigns it to the next comer to do the same. Such as are still observing upon others, are like those who are always abroad at other men's houses, reforming every thing there, while there own runs to ruin. When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings. Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days ; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples. When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed. The world is a thing we must of necessity either laugh at, or be angry at ; if we laugh at it, they say we are proud ; if we are angry at it, they say we are ill-natured. People are scandalized if one laughs at what they call a serious thing. Suppose I were to have my head cut off to-morrow, and all the world were talking of it to-day, yet why might I not laugh to think, what a bustle is here about my head. The greatest advantage I know of being thought a wit by the world is, that it gives one the greater freedom of playing the fool. We ought in humanity no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help. Were this thoroughly considered, we should no more laugh at one for having his brains crack'd than for having his head broke. A man of wit is not incapable of business, but above it. A sprightly generous horse is able to carry a pack-saddle as well as an ass; but he is too good to be put to the drudgery. Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man. Flowers of rhetoric in sermons and serious dise courses are like the blue and red flowers in corn, a pleasing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit from it. When two people compliment each other with the choice of any thing, each of them generally gets that which he likes least. He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes: for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one. Giving advice is many times only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one's self, under pretence of hindering another from doing one. "Tis with followers at court as with followers on the road, who first bespatter those that go before, and then tread on their heels. False happiness is like false money, it for time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions, but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and allay, and feel the loss. Dastardly men are like sorry horses, who have but just spirit and mettle enough to be mischievous. Some people will never learn any thing, for this reason, because they understand every thing too soon. A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labour of the bees, will often be stung for his curiosity. A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practise it. There are some solitary wretches who seem to have left the rest of mankind, only as Eve left Adam, to meet the devil in private. The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on. I seldom see a noble building, or any great piece of magnificence and pomp; but I thing how little is all this to satisfy the ambition, or to fill the idea of an immortal soul ! 'Tis a certain truth, that a man is never so easy, or so little imposed upon, as among people of the best sense : it costs far more trouble to be admitted or continued in ill company than in good ; as the former have less understanding to be employed, so they have more vanity to be pleased ; and to keep a fool constantly in good humour with himself, and with others, is no very easy task. The difference between what is commonly called ordinary company and good company, is only hearing the same thing said in a little room, or in a large saloon, at small tables or at great tables, before two candles or twenty sconces. Two women seldom grow intimate but at the expence of a third person; they make friendships as kings of old made leagues, who sacrificed some poor animal betwixt them, and commenced strict allies; so the ladies, after they have pulled some character to pieces, are from henceforth inviolable friends. It is with narrow-soul'd people as with narrowneck'd bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing. Since 'tis reasonable to doubt most things, we should most of all doubt that reason of ours which would demonstrate all things. To buy books as some do who make no use of them, only because they were published by an eminent printer, is much as if a man should buy cloaths that |