Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	word_n	world_n	worth_n	44	3	8.1130	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47658	The characters, or, The manners of the age by Monsieur de la Bruyere ... made English by several hands ; with the characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, and a prefatory discourse to them, by Monsieur de la Bruyere ; to which is added, a key to his Characters.; Caractères. English	La Bruyère, Jean de, 1645-1696.; Theophrastus. Characters. English.	1699 (1699)	Wing L104; ESTC R10537	259,067	532

are too low but he is oblig'd frequently to fall on 'em to ease him of his resentment and by this means he raises 'em in the beauties of his Stile and Genius * Every one should avoid imitating a Dorilas or a Handburg in a vain Puerile Stile a Man may be sometimes bold in his Expressions use transpositions and any thing which paints his Subject to the Life pitying those who are not sensible of the pleasure there is in this Liberty to such as understand it * He who regards nothing more in his Works than the taste of the Age has a greater value for his Person than his Writings He should always aim at Perfection and tho his Contemporaries refuse him Justice Posterity will give it him * We must never put a Jest in the wrong place It ●ffends instead of pleasing and vitiates our own Judgments as well as other Mens The Ridicule is only proper when it comes in with a good Grace and in a manner which both pleases and instructs * Horace and Boileau have said such a thing before you I take your word for 't but I said it as my own and may not I think a just thought after them as others may do the same after me OF Personal Merit * WHO is there that is not convinc'd he is but a useless Person tho he has never so many good Qualities and never such an Extraordinary Merit when he con●iders that at his Death he leaves a World which is not likely to miss him and where there are such Numbers to supply his Place * All the Worth of some People lyes in their mighty Names Look but near 'em and that which we took for Merit disappears 'T was only the distance which impos'd on us before * Tho I have a great Opinion of their Judgment who choose to employ such as are either led by their Genius or Profession to the Affairs in which they engage 'em yet I shall venture to say that there are in the world a great many Persons known or unknown who are out of Employ that would manage themselves in Publick Stations very happily And this I 'm inclin'd to think from the strange Success of some People whom Fortune only has thrown into Posts and from whom till then no great Matters were expected How many great Men and extraordinary Genius's are dead without ever being talkt of And how many are there living that neither are now nor ever will be talkt of * He that takes no indirect Courses to procure Reputation he that is not ingag'd in any Cabal where they make it their business to proclaim one another's Panegyricks but stands alone and has no body to cry him up whose Merit is his only Recommendation how extream difficult will he find it to make his way thro his Obscurity and come to stand upon a Level with a Coxcomb in great Reputation * 'T is seldom that one Man of himself finds out the Merit of another Men are so employ'd about themselves that they have not the Leisure to distinguish and penetrate into others which is the Cause that a great Merit join'd to a great Modesty may be a long time before it is discover●d * A Genius and great abilities are sometimes wanting sometimes only opportunities Some deserve Praise for what they have done and others for what they cou●d have done * 'T is not so hard to meet with Wit as with those who make use of what they have● or those who put a just Value on the Wit of others * There are more Tools than Workmen and of the last more bad than good What think you of him that took up his Plain to Saw with it and wou'd needs Plain his Work with his Saw * There is not in the World so toilsome a Trade as that of pursuing Fame Life concludes before you have gone thro with the rough part of your Labour * What 's to be done with this Egisippus who sollicits for an Employment Shall he have a Post in the Exchequer or in the Army 'T is indeed perfectly indifferent which of 'em he has nor can any thing but Interest decide it For he 's ev'n as good an Accomptant as he is a Soldier Oh! but his Friends say he 's capable of any thing that is He has a Talent for no one thing more than another and that is in other terms he 's capable of nothing Thus 't is with most Men. They bestow their Youth entirely upon themselves They debauch themselves with Idleness and Pleasure and then falsly think when they are Old or Poor the Commonwealth is bound to relieve 'em never regarding that important Maxim which says That Men ought to employ the first Years of Life to become so qualify'd that the Commonwealth may have occasion for their Knowledge or Industry That they ought to resemble those Materials in a Building which are of absolute Necessity and which being set there to advantage give a grace to the whole Fabrick 'T is our Duty to render our selves perfectly well qualify'd for any Employment the rest does not concern us 'T is the business of others * To owe our Merit to our selves alone without any dependance on others or to renounce our pretensions to Merit is an inestimable Maxim and of infinite advantage in the World 'T is favourable to the Insufficient the Vertuous and the Witty whom it either renders Masters of their Fortune or their Ease but pernicious to the Great whom it would abridge of their Attendants or rather of the number of their Slaves wou'd mortify their Pride with the Loss of some share of their Authority and wou●d reduce 'em almost to their own Equipage This wou'd deprive 'em of the Pleasure of being courted prest sollicited of the satisfaction of being attended or of refusing of promising and not performing This wou'd thwart ●em in the humour they have sometimes of bringing Coxcombs into Play and extenuating Merit when they chance to discern it This wou'd banish from Courts Intrigues Caballings ill Offices Flattery Corruption and Deceit This wou'd of a tempestuous Court full of Plots and Contrivances make it to resemble one of the ordinary Representations of the Theatre where the wise are never but Spectators This wou'd restore Dignity to the several conditions of Men and Serenity to their Looks enlarge their Liberty and revive in 'em together with the natural Talents the habit of Labour and Exercise This wou'd excite 'em to Emulation to a Desire of Glory to a Love of Vertue and instead of vile unquiet or lazy Courtiers burthensome often to the Commonwealth wou'd teach 'em Prudence in the Conduct of their Families or in the Management of their Estates or make 'em upright Judges or good Officers or great Commanders or Orators or Philosophers and all the Inconvenience of this to any of 'em wou'd be perhaps to leave their Heirs not so vast an Estate as an excellent Example * There is occasion for a great deal of Resolution as

their Reputation if they pretend to it why should not I scorn them It is an happy thing to be a Philosopher but a very unhappy thing to wear that Character to give him that stile is an affront till the suffrage of most men declare him so and in restoring to that August name its proper Idea you attribute to him all due esteem * There is a Philosophy which raises us above Ambition and Fortune that equals us to what shall I say places us above the Rich the Great and the Powerful that prompts us to contemn preferments and those that procure them that exempts us from the fatigu● of cringing petitioning and importunate solicitations and even prevents those excessive transports of Joy which are the usual companions of great promotions There is another Philosophy which disposes and subjects us to all these things for the sake of our Neighbours and Friends This is the better of the two * It will shorten and rid us of a thousand tedious discussions to take it for granted that some persons are not capable of talking well and to condemn all that they have do or will say * We only approve of others for the resemblance we imagin they bear to our selves and so it seems to esteem any one is to equal him to our selves * The same vices which are deformed and insupportable in others we don't feel in our selves they are not burthensom to us but seem to rest without weight as in their proper centers Such an one speaking of another draws a dismal Picture of him not in the least imagining that at the same time he is Painting himself There is nothing would make us correct our own faults so readily as to be able to observe them in others 't is at this just distance that they appear what they are and raise in us an indignation equal to their demerit Wise conduct turns upon two Centers the past and the future he that hath a faithful memory and a vast foresight is out of danger of censuring in others those faults he may have been guilty of himself or condemning an action which in a parallel case and in like circustances it will be impossible for him to avoid * The Souldier and the Politician like cunning Gamesters trust nothing to chance● but they advise they prepare themselves and seem ready to determine they don't only know what the Fool and the Coward are ignorant of I mean to make use of the first opportunity but by their measures and precaution they know how to serve themselves of this or that accident or of several of them together If this happens they get by it if that comes to pass they also get by it and the same accident is advantageous several different ways These wise men ought to be commended for their good fortune as well as wise conduct and chance ought to be recompenc'd as vertue in them * I place nothing above a great Polititian but he that despises him and is more and more perswaded that the World does not deserve his thoughts * There is in the best Counsels something that displeases 't is not our own thought and therefore presumption and caprice furnish pretences enough to reject it at first sight and reflection only forces its reception * What surprizing success accompanies some Favourites during the whole course of their lives what better fortune could support them without interruption without the least disgrace They have the first Posts the Princes Ear vast Treasures a perfect Health and an easie Death but what a strange account have they to give for their past life for the Counsels they have given for those they have neglected to give or follow for the good deeds they have not done and on the contrary for the evil ones they have done either by themselves or others in a word for all their Prosperity We gain by our Death the praises of our Survivors frequently without any other merit than that of ceasing to be the same Elogies serve at present for Cato and Piso. The Report runs that Piso is dead 't is a a great loss he was a good Man and deserv'd a longer life he was an agreeable Man had Wit Resolution and Courage he was Generous and Trusty Add only that he 's dead * That we cry up those that distinguish themselves by their honesty disinterest and probity is not so much their Elogy as a disgrace to the rest of mankind * Such an one relieves the necessitous who neglects his own Family and leaves his Son a beggar another builds a new House tho' he has not paid for the Lead of that which was finish●d ten years before a third makes presents and largesses and ruins his Creditors I would fain know whether Pity Liberality and Magnificence can be the Vertues of an unjust Man or whether Humour and Vanity are not rather the causes of this Injustjce * Dispatch is an essential Circumstance of that Justice we owe to others to occasion attendance is unjust The first do well they do what they ought but to say of him that in all his management protracts time that he does well is to do very ill * 'T is said of a great Man who had two set meals a day and spent the rest of his time to cause digestion that he dyed of hunger to say that he is not rich or that his affairs are in ill Circumstances this is figurative it might be more literally said of his Creditors * The Honesty Respect and Politeness of those advanced in years give me a good opinion of what we call Antient time * 'T is an over-confidence in Parents to have too great Expectation from the good Education of their Children and a great Error to expect nothing and neglect it * Were it true what several affirm that Education doth not change the Soul and Constitution and that the alterations that it makes were not substantial but meerly superficial I would yet forbear saying that it would be unprofitable * He that speaks little is sure of advantage 't is presum'd he has Wit and if indeed he does not want it 't is presum'd he is Excellent * To think only of our selves and the present time is the source of Error in Politicks * The greatest misfortune next to that of being Convicted of a Crime is often that of being able to justify our selves such a proceeding discharges and acquits us tho we still remain Criminal in the mouths of the People * A Man is just to some practical rules of Religion we see him nicely observe them no Man commends or discommends him he is not thought of another reclaims after ten Years neglect of all Religious duties he is cried up and applauded for it every Mans judgment is free for my part I blame his long forgetfulness of his duty and think him happy in his Reformation * The Flatterer has too weak an opinion both of himself and others * Some persons are forgot in the distribution of Favours

injustice * The temper of some Judges is such that interest authority intimacy or relation render a just Cause obnoxious to 'em their affectation of appearing not to be corrupted causing them to be unjust * The love of women is of a worse consequence in a Magistrate tho he has but a few private intrigues than in one that is a profest Whore-master The first is so close that it is impossible to discover thro whose means one may make an interest with him The other has a thousand weak sides on which he may be assaulted and is wrought upon by every woman he converses with * The administration of Justice is very near as much respected in the Common-wealth as the dispensation of holy Mysteries And the character of a Magistrate is in a manner as sacred as that of a Priest A man of the Gown can hardly dance at a publick Ball be seen at a Play or forget plainness and modesty in his Apparel without bringing contempt upon himself And one would wonder that a Law should be necessary to regulate his carriage and his garb and to force him at once to be grave and respected * There is no Trade but what requires a Prenticeship And if one considers the different stations of men one may observe there is none from the highest to the lowest but has had a time in which he has qualified himself by practice and experience for his profession in which the faults he has committed have been without consequence nay in which those faults have been like so many steps to perfection War itself which seems to be the production of confusion and disorder is not without some rules belonging to it Men must learn how to flock in the open Field together to murther one another and there are proper methods of killing and destroying The Soldier has his School Why must the Magistrate have none There are establish'd practices there are laws and customs and why no time for enquiring after them or why not enough for a man to digest them in his mind and to make himself master of them The prenticeship and the first essay of a youth who is brought from School to mo●nt the Tribunal and whom his Bags have made a Judge is the soveraign Arbiter of such causes on which no less than our lives and fortunes depend * The chief thing which makes an Orator is Probity Without it he degenerates into a Declaimer he disguises and exaggerates matter of fact he is deceitful in his citations his mouth is full of calumnies he espouses not so much the cause as the passion and the animosity of his Client and may be rank'd among those Advocates of whom the Proverb says that they are hir'd to be injurious * 'T is true say● one this summ is due to him● he has a lawful right to it but ● know w●●●e to have him There is a certain piece of formality where in if he fai●s he can neve● retrieve his fault and consequently he ●oses his debt he has undeniab●y abdicated his right Now he ●hall ce●tai●●y forget this piece of formality Such a co●scie●ce as this makes an accompli●h'd ●awyer * An e●cellent and useful a prudent● just and ●eas●nable Maxim for all Cou●●s of Judica●ure would be the direct contrary of that which prefers formality to equity * The Wrack is an admirable invention and an infallible method for taking off the innocent that is of a weak constitution and for saving the guilty whom nature has endow'd with greater strength * The punishment of a Rascal is an example for his fellows The condemning of an innocent person is the concern of all good men I shall go near to say because I am not a Thief nor a Murtherer I shall never be punish●d as such A very bold inference A deplorable condition is that of an innocent person who by too great a precipitation in his tryal has been found guilty Can even that of his Judge be more dismal * Should I read that in former ages one of those Magistrates who are appointed for the apprehending and extirpation of Pick-pockets and Thieves had been long acquainted with all those Rascals That he knew their names and faces had an account of their walks and of every particular act of theirs could tell how many pockets had been picked and what had been stolen out of each could penetrate so far into the depth of their mysteries and had so great a share in their abominable actions that to prevent the noise that some great man was ready to make about a Jewel that was taken from him in a croud when coming out of a publick meeting he knew how to restore it to him and that this Magistrate had been try'd and condemn'd for this villainous behaviour I should place such a relation in the same rank with those we find in History which time has made incredible How then should I believe that it may now most reasonably be inferr'd from fresh and notorious circumstances that there is still such a pernicious connivance and that it is look'd upon as a customary thing and hardly taken notice of * How many men oppose strength to weakness cannot be mov'd by compassion stand buff against all the sollicitations of the poor have no regard for the common sort of people shew themselves rigid and severe in things of no moment will not accept of the least gratification nor be perswaded by their dearest friends and their nearest relations and are byass'd only by women * 'T is not altogether impossible for a man in great favour to lose a cause * A dying man who speaks in his last Will may expect to be heard like an Oracle His words will certainly create many disputes Men will put their own constructions upon them such constructions I mean as will suit their interest and their inclinations best * There are some men of whom one may truly say that Death fixes not so much their Wills as it puts a period to their unsteadiness and their inconstancy An angry fit while they live moves 'em to prepare a Will Their passion wears off and 't is either torn or burnt Their Closet is no less stock'd with Wills than it is with Almanacks and every year at least produces a new one The second is disanull'd by a third which is made as insignificant by another more exact And the validity of this also is destroyed by a fifth Yet the last must stand if opportunity power or malignity is wanting in the person whose interest it is to suppress it For what can more clearly shew the intention of the most inconstant man than a last Deed of his under his own hand which has been made so late that at least he has not had time to will the contrary * Were there no Wills to regulate the rights Heirs and Successors I question whether men would need any Tribunal to adjust their differences and disputes the function of a Judge would almost be reduc'd to