Laconics.

I am wise enough to know by the measure of my own abilities, that my soil is incapable of producing any of those rich flowers that are here set and growing; and that all the fruits of my own growth are not worth any one of them.-Montaigne.

DCCXV.

BE not ashamed of thy virtues honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.-Ben Jonson.

DCCXVI.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colours more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without it.-Addison.

DCCXVII.

Great brains (like brightest glass) crack straight, while those

Of stone or wood hold out, and fear not blows;

And we their ancient hoary heads can see

Whose wit was never their mortality.

Bishop Earle.

DCCXVIII.

Fame cannot

Better be held, nor more attain'd than by
A place below the first: for what miscarries
Shall be the general's fault, though he perform
To the utmost of a man.

DCCXIX.

Shakspeare.

A courtier, to all men's thinking, is a man, and to most men the finest all things else are defined by the understanding, but this by the senses: but his surest marke is, that hee is to bee found onely about princes. Hee smells; and putteth away much of his judgement about the scituation of his clothes. Hee knowes no man that is not generally knowne. His wit, like the marigold, openeth with the sunne, and therefore he riseth not before ten of the clocke. Hee puts more confidence in his words than meaning, and more in his pronuntiation than his words. Occasion is his Cupid, and hee hath but one receipt of making loue. Hee followes nothing but inconstancie, admires nothing but beauty, honours nothing but fortune Loues nothing. The sustenance of his discourse is newes, and his censure like a shot depends vpon the charging. Hee is not, if he be out of court, but, fish-like, breathes destruction, if out of his owne element. Neither his motion, or aspect are regular, but he mooues by the vppe spheres, and is the reflexion of higher substances. If you finde him not heere, you shall in Paules with a pick-tooth in his hat, a cape cloke, and a long stocking.-Sir T Overbury.

DCCXX.

A lady of genius will give a genteel air to her whole dress by a well-fancied suit of knots, as a judicious writer gives a spirit to a whole sentence by a single expression, As words grow old, and new ones enrich the language, ro there is a constant succession of dress; the fringe succeeds the lace, the stays shorten or extend the waist, the riband undergoes divers variations, the head-dress receives frequent rises and falls every year; and in short, the

whole woman throughout, as curious observers of dress have remarked, is changed from top to toe, in the period of five years.-Gay.

DCCXXI.

Cellars and granaries in vain we fill

With all the bounteous summer's store,
If the mind thirst and hunger still:
The poor rich man's emphatically poor.
Slaves to the things we too much prize,
We masters grow of all that we despise.

DCCXXII.

Cowley,

A thorough critic is a sort of puritan in the polite world. As an enthusiast in religion stumbles at the ordinary occurrences of life, if he cannot quote scripture examples on the occasion, so the critic is never safe in his speech or writing, without he has, among the celebrated writers, an authority for the truth of his sentence.-Steele.

DCCXXIII.

There should be, methinks, as little merit in loving a woman for her beauty, as in loving a man for his prospe. both being equally subject to change.-Pope.

rity;

DCCXXIV.

(Laughter.) Come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne,
And by men, heart-easing mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth
With two sister Graces more,

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.

Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee

Jest and youthful jollity,

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,

Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.

Come, and trip it as you go,
On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures, free.

DCCXXV.

Milton.

Books, while they teach us to respect the interests of others, often make us unmindful of our own; while they instruct the youthful reader to grasp at social happiness, he grows miserable in detail, and, attentive to universal harmony, often forgets that he himself has a part to sustain in the concert.-Goldsmith.

DCCXXVI.

Money and time are the heaviest burthens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use. To set himself free from these incumbrances, one hurries to Newmarket; another travels over Europe; one pulls down his house and calls architects about him; another buys a seat in the country, and follows his hounds over hedges and through rivers; one makes collections of shells; and another searches the world for tulips and carnations.— Johnson.

DCCXXVII.

It is impossible for government to circumscribe or fix the extent of paper credit, which must of course fluctuate. Government may as well pretend to lay down rules for the operations, or the confidence of every individual in the course of his trade. Any seeming temporary evil arising must naturally work its own cure,-Franklin.

DCCXXVIII.

That fame is the universal passion is by nothing more conspicuously discovered than by epitaphs. The generality