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lic to presume from this? They may generally presume that the cause so remunerated was a bad one, in the opinions of those who are so grateful for its defence. In private life, a client will hardly set any bounds to his generosity, should his counsel be ingenious enough to gain him a victory, not only over his antagonist, but even over the laws themselves; and, in public affairs, we may usually infer the weakness of the cause, by the excessive price that ministers have freely paid to those whose eloquence, or whose sophistry has enabled them to make that weakness triumph.

CCCCXVII.

MUCH may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it, no small deduction from the little life of man. Cicero has termed them intcrcisiva tempora, and the ancients were not ignorant of their value; nay, it was not unusual with them either to compose or to dictate, while under the operation of rubbing after the bath.

CCCCXVIII.

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ARBITRATION has this advantage, there are some points of contest which it is better to lose by arbitration, than to win by law. But as a good general offers his terms before the action, rather than in the midst of it, so a wise man will not easily be persuaded to have recourse to a reference, when once his opponent has dragged him into a

court.

CCCCXIX.

IN death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest; but so various are the modes of going out of the

world, that to be born may have been a more painful thing than to die, and to live may prove a more troublesome thing than either.

CCCCXX.

MORE have been ruined by their servants, than by their masters.

CCCCXXI.

LOVE, like the cold bath, is never negative, it seldom leaves us where it finds us; if once we plunge into it, it will either heighten our virtues, or inflame our vices.

CCCCXXII.

IF there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress. If there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the deathbed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of ill.

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CCCCXXIII.

PUBLIC charities and benevolent associations for the gratuitous relief of every species of distress, are peculiar to Christianity; no other system of civil or religious policy has originated them; they form its highest praise and characteristic feature; an order of benevolence so disinterested, and so exalted, looking before and after, could no more have preceded revelation, than light the sun.

CCCCXXIV.

APPLAUSE is the spur of noble minds, the end

and aim of weak ones.

CCCCXXV.

IN most quarrels there is a fault on both sides. A quarrel may be compared to a spark, which cannot be produced without a flint, as well as a steel, either of them may hammer on wood for ever, no fire will follow

CCCCXXVI.

OUR wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and alway's

a temptation to others.

CCCCXXVII.

TO know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it; the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.

CCCCXXVIII.

THOSE who are embarked in that greatest of all undertakings, the propagation of the gospel, and who do so from a thorough conviction of its superior utility and excellence, may indeed fail in saving others, but they are engaged in that labour of love, by which they are most likely to save themselves, particularly if they pray that through God's assistance both ends may be obtained.

ССССХХІХ.

TWO things, well considered, would prevent many quarrels; first, to have it well ascertained whether we are not disputing about terms, rather than things; and, secondly, to examine whether that on which we differ, is worth contending about.

CCCCXXX.

FAITH and works are as necessary to our spiritual

life as Christians, as soul and body are to our natural life as men; for faith is the soul of religion, and works the body.

CCCCXXXI.

SOLOMON has said "there is nothing new under the sun;" and perhaps destruction has caused as much novelty as invention; for that is often only a revival which we think a discovery.

CCCCXXXII.

IT is an unfortunate thing for fools, that their pretensions should rise in an inverse ratio with their abilities, and their presumption with their weakness; and for the wise, that diffidence should be the companion of talent, and doubt the fruit of investigation.

CCCCXXXIII.

THERE are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield t to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from in terest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.

CCCCXXXIV.

WE generally most covet that particular trust which we are least likely to keep. He that thoroughly knows his friends, might, perhaps, with safety, confide his wife to the care of one, his purse to another, and his secrets to a third, when to permit them to make their own choice would be his ruin.

CCCCXXXV.

ELOQUENCE is the language of nature, and cannot be learnt in the schools; the passions are powerful pleaders, and their very silence, like that of Garrick, goes

directly to the soul; but rhetoric is the creature of art, which he who feels least, will most excel in; it is the quackery of eloquence, and deals in nostrums, not in cures.

CCCCXXXVI.

WHEN honours come to us, rather than we to them; when they meet us, as it were, in the vestibule of life, it is well if our enemies can say no more against us, than that we are too young for our dignities; it would be much worse for us, if they could say that we are too old for them; time will destroy the first objection, but confirm the second.

CCCCXXXVII.

PICKPOCKETS and beggars are the best practical physiognomists, without having read a line of Lavater, who, it is notorious, mistook a highwayman for a philosopher, and a philosopher for a highwayman.

CCCCXXXVIII.

FAULTS of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.

CCCCXXXIX.

WE are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is a civil war, and in all such contentions, triumphs are defeats.

CCCCXL.

ATTEMPTS at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism; as he that struggles, tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.

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