* XV. 'T is with our Lives as with our Estates a good Husband makes a little go a great way Whereas let the Revenue of a Prince fall into the Hands of a Prodigal 't is vanisht in a Moment So that the Time allotted us if it were well employ'd were abundantly enough to answer all the Ends and Purposes of Mankind XVI A neglected Dress in Old People multiplies their Wrinkles and exposes their Infirmities An affected Curiosity of Apparel has the same Effect Avarice Riches I. WHat a Man squanders away he takes away from his Heir what he lays up by sordid Avarice he takes away from himself The Medium is to do one's self Justice and others II. Children would perhaps be dearer to their Fathers and again Fathers to their Children but for the name of Heir III. All Men by their several Places Titles and Successions look upon themselves as Heirs one of another and by that Interest entertain all along a secret desire of their Neighbour's death The most fortunate Man in each particular Condition is he that has most to lose and leave to his Successor * IV. It is not for acquiring Wealth but for misemploying it when he has acquir'd it that Man ought to be blamed * V. I cannot call Riches better than the Baggage of Virtue for as the Baggage is to an Army so is Riches to Virtue * VI. Of great Riches there is no real Use except it be in the Distribution the rest is but Conceit * VII Covetousness is enough to make the Master of the World as Poor as he that has just nothing for a Man may be brought to a Morsel of Bread by Griping as well as by Profuseness 'T is a madness for a Man that has enough already to hazard all for the getting of more and then upon the Miscarriage to leave himself nothing VIII Avarice is in many Cases more opposite to a Man's Interest than Liberality IX Some Men despise Mony but not one of a Thousand knows how to part with it X. Avarice is often the Cause of contrary Effects There are a World of People that Sacrifice all their present Possessions to remote and uncertain Hopes and others again slight great Advantages to come for some mean Interest in present XI Riches do by no means teach us to be less fond of Riches The possessing of abundance is very far from giving us the quiet that there is in not desiring them XII Nothing is so hard to perswade Men to as the contempt of Riches except ones Arguments be drawn from the Stores of Christian Religion and therefore the Wise Men among the Ancients were in truth very foolish who without any light of Faith or Expectation of a better State despised Riches and Pleasures They endeavour'd to distinguish themselves by uncommon and unnatural Notions and so to triumph over the rest of Mankind by an imaginary Elevation of Soul Those that were the Wisest among them were satisfied with talking of these things in Publick but behaved themselves after another rate in Private XIII 'T is the Infatuation of Misers to take Gold and Silver for things really good whereas they are only some of the means by which good Things are procured XIV A Covetous Man renders himself the most miserable of Men wrongs many and obliges none but when he dyes XV. The Condition of a Miser is so wretched that the greatest Curses a Man can give him is That he may Live long XVI That Man is Rich who receives more than he lays out and on the contrary that Man is to be accounted Poor whose Expence exceeds his Revenue XVII Nothing maintains it self so long as a moderate Fortune and nothing so soon dwindles away as a great one XVIII Great Riches are generally the nearest occasion of Poverty XIX A Covetous Man lays up for Old Age when Young and for Death when Old A Prodigal Heir makes him a fine Funeral and devours the rest of his Wealth XX. The Covetous Man spends more in one Day when Dead than he did in Ten Years when Alive * XXI There are two sorts of Avarice a True and a Bastard True Covetousness is a restless and insatiable desire of Riches not for any further end or use but only to hoard and preserve and perpetually increase them This is the greatest Evidence of a base ungenerous Mind and at the same time the highest Injustice in the World For what can be more unreasonable than for a Man to ingross to himself all that which is for the Common Support and Conveniency of Mankind and to propagate his Crime by locking up his beloved Treasures and thereby robbing continually the Publick of what he has once gotten from private Persons The Bastard kind of Avarice is the rapacious Appetite of Gain not for the Mony 's own sake but for the pleasure of Refunding it immediately through all the Channels of Pride and Luxury That Man who iâ— guilty of this is in a manner excusable sincâ— by his Prosuseness he makes a kind of Restitution * XXII 'T is said of a Virtuous and Wise Man that having nothing he had all when a Miser having all things yet has nothing * XXIII There is not a greater Argumenâ— of a narrow wretched Soul than to dote upon Mony nothing more reasonable than to despise it when we have it not and nothing more honourable than to employ it generously and do good with it when we have it * XXIV The Patriarchs before the Flood who lived Nine Hundred Years scarcely provided for a few Days and we who live but a few days provide at least for Nine Hundred Years * XXV As Riches at first make a Gentleman so the want of them degrades him * XXVI As Riches go off from a Man they expose to the World his Weakness that lay undiscovered before * XXVII There is one kind of Affliction which never leaves us and that is which proceeds from the loss of our Fortunes Time which softens and allays all other Griefs does but exasperate and increase this and the Sense of itâ— renews even as often as we feel the pinch oâ— preâ—â—ing Necessities Beauty Homeliness I. IF we consider Agreeableness distinct from Beauty we may call it a sort of Symmetry or Proportion the Rules of which no body can positively define or a secret Relation and Affinity of the Features one to another and of all these together to the Complexion Looks and Air of the Person II. Few Women's Worth out lives their Beauty III. Gracefulness is to the Body what good Sense is to the Mind IV. There is nothing so natural to Persons of the Fair-Sex as to take a pleasure in their own Beauty They please themselves as much as 't is possible for others to please them and are the first that discover their own Charms and fall in Love with them V. A Beautiful Woman is more concern'd to preserve her Beauty than her Lover and shews less Tenderness for a Heart already vanquish'd than
its Gastly Circumstances The Wisest and Bravest Men are they that take the fairest and most honourable Pretences to keep their View from it But every body that knows it as it really is â—inds it to be a thing full of Horror The Constancy of Philosophers was nothing else but the Necessity of Dying they thought when there was no Remedy but a Man must go it was best to go with a good Grace And since they were not able to make their Lives Eternal they would stick at nothing to make their Names so and secure all that from the Wreck which was capable of being secur'd Let us put the best Face upon the Matter we can content our selves with not speaking all we think and hope more from a happy Constitution than all the feeble Reasonings that gull us with a fancy that we can approach it without concern The Glory of Dying gallantly the Hope of being Lamented when we are gone the desire of leaving a good Name behind us the Assurance of being set free from the Miseries of the present Life and of depending no longer upon a â—ickle and humourfom Fortune are Remedies not altogether to be rejected though they be far from being Sovereign They help no more to put us in Heart than a poor Hedge in an Engagement contributes to encourage the Soldiers that are to march near where the Enemy is firing it appears a good Shelter at a distance but proves a very thin defence at close view We do vainly flatter our selves to think that Death will be the same when near as we fancy it to be when remote and that our Reasonings which in Truth are Weakness it self will prove of so harden'd a Temper as to hold out proof and not yield to the severest of all Tryals Besides it shews we are but little acquainted with Self-Love when we imagine that will do us any Service toward the looking upon that very thing as a Trifle which must unavoidably cause its utter Ruin and Reason from which we expect so many Supplies is then too weak to perswade us what we wish to be true Nay Reason it self generally betrays us upon this occasion and instead of animating us with a Contempt of Death gives us a more lively Representation of all its Terror and Gastliness All it is able to do in our behalf is only to advise us to turn our Heads another way and divert the Thought by fixing our Eyes upon some other Objects Cato and Brutus chose noble Ones A Lackey not long ago satisfied himself with dancing upon the Scaffold whither he was brought to be broke upon the Wheel And thus though the Motives be different they produce still the same Effects So true it is that after all the disproportion between Great Men and the Vulgar People of both sorts do often meet Death with the same Face and Disposition But still with this difference that in the Contempt of Death which Great Men express the desire and love of Honour is the thing that keeps Death from their sight and in the Vulgar 't is Ignorance and Stupidity that leaves them at liberty to think upon something else and keeps them from seeing the greatness of the Evil they are to suffer V. Every thing in this Life is Accidental even our Birth that brings us into it Death is the only thing we can be sure of and yet we behave our selves just as if all the rest were certain and Death alone accidental * VI. We are apt to pick Quarrels with the World for every little Foolery or every trivial Cross But our Tongues run quite to another Tune when we come once to parting with it in earnest * VII Nothing but the Conscience of a virtuous Life can make Death easie to us Wherefore there 's no trusting to a Death-bed Repentance When Men come to that last Extremity once by Langor Pain or Sickness and to lye Agonizing betwixt Heaven and Hell under the stroke either of a Divine Judgment or of Humane Frailty they are not commonly so sensible of their Wickedness or so effectually touch'd with the remorse of a true Repentance as they are distracted with the Terrors of Death and the dark Visionary Apprehensions of what 's to come People in that Condition do but discharge themselves of burdensom Reflections as they do of the Cargo of a Ship at Sea that has sprung a Leak Every thing is done in a Hurry and Men only part with their Sins in the one Case as they do with their Goods in the other to fish them up again so soon as the Storm is over Grace must be very strong in these Conflicts wholly to vanquish the Weaknesses of distressed Nature That certainly is none of the Time to make choice of for the great Work of reconciling our selves to Heaven when we are divided and confounded betwixt an Anguish of Body and Mind And the Man is worse than Mad that ventures his Salvation upon that desperate Issue VIII There is not any thing that Men are so prodigal and at the same time so fond of as their Lives IX Death happens but once but the Sense of it renews in all the Moments of our Lives and the fear we have of it is ten times worse than the submitting to it X. That part of Death which is certain is much alleviated by that which is uncertain XI We hope to grow Old and yet we fear Old Age that is to say we love Life and decline Death XII Nature generally makes a long Sickness intermediate betwixt Life and Death with design it seems to make Death it self a kind of Release both to him that Dyes and those that survive him XIII That Death which prevents a crazy Old Age comes in better time than that which terminates it XIV There are but three great Events for us Men Birth Life and Death We are not sensible of our Birth we suffer in Dying and forget to live XV. Most Men spend the first part of their Lives in rendring the other miserable * XVI Men fear Death as Children fear to go in the Dark and as that natural Fear is encreased in Children with Tales so is the other Certainly the Stoicks bestowed too much cost upon Death and by their great Preparations made it appear more fearful It is as natural to die as to be born and to a little Infant perhaps the one is as painful as the other * XVII It is observable that there is no Passion in the Mind of Man but it Masters the Fear of Death And therefore Death is no such terrible Enemy when a Man has so many Friends about him that can gain him the Victory Revenge Triumphs over Death Love â—lights it Honour aspires to it Grief flies to it Fear procures it Nay we read that Pity it self which is the Tenderest of all Affections has provok'd many to die out of meer Compassion Nay Seneca adds Niceness and Satiety A Man says he would die though he were neither Valiant nor
* Love is a kind of penurious God very niggard of his Opportunities he must be watch'd like a hard-hearted Treasurer for he bolts out of a sudden and if you take him not in the nick he vanishes in a twinkling XXX * There is no reason in the World to revenge upon a Lover the Deceits of his Love for as in War so in Love Stratagems are always allow'd XXXI * A silly Mistress is like a weak Place soon got soon lost XXXII * Mistresses are like Books if you pore upon them too much they doze you and make you unfit for Company but if us'd discreetly you are the sitter for Conversation by them XXXIII * Some Women pray for Husbands that they may the better love at random XXXIV * Many a Spark that hunts after a Mistress often gets a Wife and stands condemn'd to a Repentance during Life without Redemption except one of the two dies XXXV * Some People fall in love by Contagiâ—n and meerly by conversing with the infected XXXVI * Men do not see or taste or find the thing they love but they create it They fashion an Idol in what Figure or Shape they please set it up worship it dote upon it pursue it and sometimes run mad for it XXXVII * The extravagant Transports of Love and the wonderful Force of Nature are uncontroulable The one carries us out of our selves and the other brings us back again XXXVIII Two passionate Lovers cannot partake of other Pleasures than those which they receive from their Love XXXIX There is no Passion that more excites us to every thing that is Noble and Generous than an honest Love XL. Short absence excites Passions whereas a long one destroys them XLI Women who preserve a Passion for Persons that are absent raise but little in those who see them and the continuation of their Love for the Absent is less an Honour to their Constancy than a Scandal to their Beauty XLII The Love of young People is only an irregular Passion and boiling Desire that has no other Object than Pleasure and which Enjoyment dissipates XLIII Love comes in by the Ears as well as by the Eyes and therefore it is a great Indiscretion in a Man to make a long Descant upon his Mistress's Perfections before his Friend XLIV Love has as it were never well establish'd his Power till he has ruin'd that of Reason XLV Love begins by Love and the greatest Friendship can never influence but a very small Passion XLVI Nothing resembles true Friendship so well as those Engagements which have a secret Love at the bottom XLVII We never love truly but once and that 's the first time we love The following Passions are less involuntary XLVIII That Passion which is rais'd on the sudden is the most difficult to be cur'd XLIX That Love which encreases by degrees is so much like Friendship that it can never be a violent Passion L. As nice as we are in Love we still forgive more Faults in that than in Friendship LI. We tell our Secrets in Friendship but they slip from us in Love LII There are many Remedies to cure Love but never a one of them is infallible LIII The greatest Miracle Love can work is to cure a Coquet Humour LIV. Coquets make it a Pride to be jealous of their Lovers only to conceal their Envy of other Women LV. The reason why Lovers are but seldom uneaâ—ie in one another's Company is because they never talk of any thing but themselves LVI It is a Lover's Fault if he is not sensible when he ceases to be belov'd LVII A Man of Parts may love indiscreetly but not â—ottishly LVIII The Grace of Novelty is to Love what the Blue-mourn or Gloss is to the Fruits it gives them a Lustre which is easily defac'd and when once gone never returns any more LIX A Fever is the properest Simile of Love for in both Cases the Degree and the Continuance of the Disease is out of our own Power LX. 'T is better for a Man sometimes to be deceiv'd in what he loves than to be plainly dealt with LXI It is as hard for a Woman to manage a fond Lover as a cold one LXII Women generally keep the first Lover only for want of a second LXIII Men often go from Love to Ambition but seldom come back again from Ambition to Love LXIV All our Passions engage Men in some Faults but those of Love are the most ridiculous LXV Of all violent Passions Love becomes a Woman best LXVI In the first Passion Women have commonly an Affection for the Lover but afterwards they seldom love but for the Pleasure of Loving LXVII Love tho' never so agreeable a Passion pleases still more by the ways it takes to shew it self than it does upon its own account LXVIII Tho' Love is worn out yet it makes both Lover and Mistress uneasie to part LXIX It is oftentimes much harder to forbear loving an unkind Mistress than to bear with her cruel Usage LXX It is with old Love as with old Age a Man lives to all the Miseries but is dead to all the Pleasures of Life LXXI There is one kind of Love whose excess prevents Iealousie LXXII In Love Cozening always exceeds Distrust LXXIII There are some self-conceited Fops who when they are in Love entertain themselves with their own Passion instead of the Person that causes it Marriage Matrimony Children I. MAny Marriages prove convenient and useful but few delightful II. * 'T is much with Wedlock as with our Elixirs and Antidotes there goes a thousand Ingredients to the making of the Composition but then if they be not tim'd proportion'd and prepar'd according to Art 't is a Clog to us rather than a Relief III. * Marriages are govern'd rather by an over-ruling Fatality than any solemnity of Choice and Judgment tho' 't is a hard matter to â—ind out a Woman even at the best that 's of a just Scantling for her Age Person Humour and Fortune to make a Wife of The one single disparity of Years is of it self sufficient without a more than ordinary Measure of Vertue and Prudence to make a Man ridiculous IV. * A Wife and Children are a kind of Discipline of Humanity and Single Men tho' they be many times more charitable because their Means are less exhausted yet on the other side they are more cruel and hard-hearted because their Tenderness is not so oft call'd upon V. * Grave Natures led by Custom and therefore constant are commonly loving Husbands VI. * Chast Women are often proud and froward as presuming upon the Merit of their Chastity VII * It is one of the best Bonds both of Chastity and Obedience in the Wife if the think her Husband Wise which she will never do if she find him Iealous VIII * Wives are young Men's Mistresses Companions for middle-middle-Age and old Men Nurses IX * The Joys of Parents are secret and so are their Griefs and Fears They cannot utter the
one nor will they express the other Children sweeten Labour but they make Misfortunes more bitter They increase the Cares of Life but they mitigate the Remembrance of Death X. * They that are the First Raisers of their Families are most indulgent toward their Children beholding them as the Continuance not only of their Kind but of their Works and so both Children and Creatures XI * He that has Wife and Children has given Hostages to Fortune for they are Impediments to great Enterprises either of Vertue or Mischief The Perpetuity by Generation is common to Beasts but Memory Merit and Noble Works are proper to Men And certainly a Man shall find the Noblest Works and Foundations have always proceeded from Childless Men which have sought to express the Images of their Minds where those of their Bodies have fail'd and both in Aâ—â—ection and Means have married and endow'd the Publick So that the Care of Posterity is most in them that have none XI * The most ordinary cause of a single Life is Liberty especially in certain Self-pleasing and Humourous Minds which are so sensible of every Restraint that they will go near to think their Girdles and Garters to be Bonds and Shackles XII * Unmarried Men are best Friends best Masters best Servants but not always best Subjects for they are light to run away and almost all Fugitives are of that Condition Mind Understanding Wit Memory Heart I. THe Strength and Weakness of a Man's Mind are improper Terms since they are really nothing else but the Organs of our Bodies being well or ill dispos'd II. 'T is a great Errour the making a difference between the Wit and the Iudgment For in truth the Iudgment is nothing else but the Brightness of Wit which penetrates into the very bottom of Things observes all that ought to be observ'd there and descries what seem'd to be imperceptible From whence we must conclude That 't is the Extention and Energy of this Light of Wit that produces all those Effects usually ascrib'd to Iudgment III. All Men may be allow'd to give a good Character of their Hearts or Inclinations but no body dares to speak well of his own Wit IV. Polite Wit consists in nice curious and honest Thoughts V. The Gâ—llantry of Wit consists in Flattery well couch'd VI. It often happens that some things offer themselves to our Wit which are naturally finer and better than is possible for a Man to make them by the Additions of Art and Study VII Wit is always made a Cully to the Heart VIII Many People are acquainted with their own Wit that are not acquainted with their own Heart IX It is not in the power of Wit to act a long while the Part of the Heart X. A Man of Wit would be sometimes miserably at a loss but for the Company of Fools XI A Man of Wit may sometimes be a Coxcomb but a Man of Iudgment never can XII The different Ways or Methods for compassing a Design come not so much from the Quickness and Fertility of an industrious Wit as dim-â—ighted Vnderstanding which makes us pitch upon every fresh Matter that presents it self to our groping Fancy and does not furnish us with Judgment sufficient to discern at first sight which of them is best for our Purpose XIII The Twang of a Man's Native Country sticks by him as much in his Mind and Disposition as it does in his Tone of Speaking XIV Wit serves sometimes to make us play the Fool with greater Considence XV. Shallow Wits are apt to censure every thing above their own Capacity XVI 'T is past the Power of Imagination it self to invent so many distant Contrarieties as there are naturally in the Heart of every Man XVII No body is so well acquainted with himself as to know his own Mind at all times XVIII Every body complains of his Memory but no body of his Iudgment XIX There is a kind of general Revolution not more visible in the turn it gives to the Fortunes of the World than it is in the Change of Men's Vnderstandings and the different Relish of Wit XX. Men often think to conduct and govern themselves when all the while they are led and manag'd and while their Vnderstanding aims at one thing their Heart insensibly draws them into another XXI Great Souls are not distinguish'd by having less Passion and more Virtue but by having nobler and greater Designs than the Vulgar XXII We allow few Men to be either Witty or Reasonable besides those who are of our own Opinion XXIII We are as much pleas'd to discover another Man's Mind as we are discontented to have our own found out XXIV A straight and well-contriv'd Mind finds it easier to yield to a perverse one than to direct and manage it XXV Coxcombs are never so troublesome as when they pretend to Wit XXVI A little Wit with Discretion tires less at long-run than much Wit without Iudgment XXVII Nothing comes amiss to a great Soul and there is as much Wisdom in bearing other People's Defects as in relishing their good Qualities XXVIII It argues a great heighth of Iudgment in a Man to discover what is in another's Breast and to conceal what is in his own XXIX If Poverty be the Mother of Wickedness want of Wit must be the Father XXX * A Mind that has no Ballance in it self turns insolent or abject out of measure with the various Change of Fortune XXXI * Our Memories are frail and treacâ—erous and we think many excellent things which for want of making a deep impression we can never recover afterwards In vain we hunt for the stragling Idea and rummage all the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul for a lost Thought which has left no Track or Footsteps behind it The swift Offspring of the Mind is gone 't is dead as soon as born nay often proves abortive in the moment it was conceiv'd The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts is to â—asten them in Words and chain them in Writing XXXII * A Man is never so great a Dunce by Nature but Love Malice or Necessity will supply him with some Wit XXXIII * There is a Defect which is almost unavoidable in great Inventors it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds to do wonderful Things in the beginning but shortly after to be over-born by the Multitude and Weight of their own Thoughts then to yield and cool by little and little and at last grow weary and even to loath that upon which they were at first the most eager This is the wonted Constitution of great Wits such tender things are those exalted Actions of the Mind and so hard it is for those Imaginations that can run swift and mighty Races to be able to travel a long and constant Journey The Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable that we have certianly lost very many Inventions after they have been in part fashion'd by the meer Languishing and Negligence