ing of their memory,* but none of their judgment; is it that they are less ashamed of a short memory, because they have heard that this is a failing of great wits, or is it because nothing is more common than a fool, with a strong memory, nor more rare than a man of sense with a weak judgment.

XXX.

AS the mean have a calculating avarice, that sometimes inclines them to give, so the magnanimous have a condescending generosity, than sometimes inclines them to

receive.

XXXI.

PHILOSOPHY is to Poetry, what old age is to youth; and the stern truths of Philosophy are as fatal to the fictions of the one, as the chilling testimonies of experience are to the hopes of the other.

XXXII.

NO reformation is so hazardous as that of retrenchment; it forces the corrupt to give a practical assent to a system which they outwardly extol, but inwardly execrate. Even the bright talent and still brighter integrity of M. Necker,† were not equal to the host of enemies which his inflexible adherence to economy had created around him. I was placed, says he, in a situation, where I was under the constant necessity of disobliging all those whom I knew, in

* Of all the faculties of the mind, memory is the first that flourishes, and the first that dies. Quintilian has said "Quantum memoriæ tantum ingenii;" but if this maxim were either true, or believed to be so, all men would be as satisfied with their memory, as they at present are with their judgment.

+ So firm was the confidence reposed in this great man by the whole nation of France, that on his re-assumption of office, the French funds rose thirty per cent in one day. Had M. Necker had plenitude of power, or M. Mirabeau purity of principle, could the former have done what he would, or the latter what he could, in either case the French revolution had been prevented.

order to secure the interests of those whom I knew not. Even the ladies at court would demand pensions, says Madame De Stael, with as much confidence, as a Marshal of France would complain of being superseded. What, they would say, is three thousand livres to the king: three thousand livres, replied M. Necker, are the taxation of a village.

XXXIII.

SELFLOVE, in a well regulated breast, is as the steward of the household, superintending the expenditure, and seeing that benevolence herself should be prudential, in order to be permanent, by providing that the reservoir which feeds, should also be fed.

XXXIV.

SOME authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labour therefore, to treat with ease, of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicacity, of things that are profound.

XXXV.

WHAT we conceive to be failings in others, are not unfrequently owing to some deficiencies in ourselves; thus plain men think handsome women want passion, and plain women think young men want politeness; dull writers think all readers devoid of taste, and dull readers think witty writers devoid of brilliance; old men can see nothing to admire in the present days; and yet former days were not better, but it is they themselves that have become worse.

XXXVI.

A THOROUGH paced Antiquarian not only remembers what all other people have thought proper to forget, but he also forgets what all other people think it proper to remember.

XXXVII.

SPEAKING, says Lord Bacon, makes a ready man, reading a full man, and writing a correct man. The first position perhaps is true. for those are often the most ready to speak, who have the least to say. But reading will not always make a full man, for the memories of some men are like the buckets of the daughters of Danae, and retain nothing; others have recollections like the bolters of a mill, that retain the chaff and let the flour escape; these men will have fulness, but it will be with the drawback of dulness. Neither will writing always accomplish what his Lordship has declared, otherwise some of our most voluminous writers, would put in their claim for correctness, to whom their readers would more justly award correction. But if we may be allowed to compare intellectual wealth to current, we may say that from a man's speaking, we may guess how much ready money he has; from his reading what legacies have been left him; and from his writing, how much he can sit down and draw for, on his banker.

XXXVIII.

DRUNKENNESS is the vice of a good constitution, or of a bad memory; of a constitution so treacherously good, that it never bends until it breaks; or of a memory that recollects the pleasures of getting drunk, but forgets the pains of getting sober.

XXXIX. \

TRUE goodness is not without that germ of greatness that can bear with patience the mistakes of the ignorant,

and the censures of the malignant. The approbation of God is her "exceeding great reward," and she would not debase a thing so precious, by an association with the contaminating plaudits of man.

XL.

WOMEN that are the least bashful, are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived, than when we would infer any laxity of principle, from that freedom of demeanour, which often arises from a total ignorance of vice. Prudery, on the contrary, is often assumed rather to keep off the suspicion of criminality, than criminality itself, and is resorted to, to defend the fair wearer, not from the whispers of our sex, but of her own; but it is a cumbersome panoply, and, like heavy armour, is seldom worn, except by those who attire themselves for the combat, or who have received a wound.

XLI.

WHAT Fontenelle said of cuckoldom, might more truly be said of fame; it is nothing if you do not know it, and very little if you do. Nor does the similarity end here; for in both cases, the principals, though first concerned, are usually the very parties that are last informed.

AN ambassador* from Naples, once said of the young ladies of Paris, that they loved with their heads, and thought with their hearts; and could the same ambassador

* This same ambassador was no disgrace to his corps, and some o his fraternity would not be the worse for a spice of his penetration: On being asked by a lady, how it happened that the women have so much political influence in France, but so little in England? he replied, the reason is that men govern in France, but in England the Laws; the women can influence the men, but they can have nothing to do with the laws, but to obey them.

now see a certain class of young gentlemen in London, he might as truly say of them, that they did neither, with either.

XLIII.

GOOD faith is the richest Exchequer of Princes, for the more it is drawn upon, the firmer it is, and its resources increase, with its payments. But a falsehood from Royal Lips, is to a nation, what the mistake of a signal is to an army: : the word of a king is as a pharos to the mariner, to withhold his word is to withhold the light, but to give his word and not to fulfil it, is not only to withhold the true light, but to set up a false one.

XLIV.

WE pity those that have lost their eyes, because they admit their infirmity, are thankful for our assistance, and do not deny us that light which they themselves have lost. But it is far otherwise with the blindness of the mind, which, although it be a calamity far more deplorable, seldom obtains that full commiseration it deserves. The reason is, that the mentally blind too often claim to be sharp sighted, and in one respect are so, since they can perceive that in themselves which no one else can discover. Hence it happens that they are not only indignant at the proffered assistance of the enlightened, but most officiously obtrude their guidance upon them. Inflexibility, alas, is not confined to truth, nor inconstancy to error, and those who have the least pretensions to dogmatize, are not always those who have the the least inclination to do so. It is upon such lamentable occasions as these, that the Scriptural Paradox has been carried to a still greater excess of absurdity, when the presumption of those that are blind, would insist upon leading those that can see.

XLV.

EVERY man, if he would be candid. and sum up