True religion and virtue give a cheerful and happy turn to the mind, admit of all true pleasures and even procure the truest.-Addison. INTEMPERANCE.-I do not allow the pretence of temperance, to all such as are seldom or never drunk, or fall into surfeits, for men may lose their health, without losing their senses, and be intemperate every day, without being drunk perhaps once in their lives.-Sir Wm. Temple. GENTILITY. If gentility be a virtue, whoever is not virtuous loses his title, and if 'tis not a virtue 'tis a trifle.-De la Bruyere. DISCRETION.-There are many shining qualities in the mind of man, but there are none so useful as discretion; it is this indeed which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence, virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.-Spectator. CONQUEROR. It is in your power always to come off conqueror, provided you will never engage in any but combats, were success will be determined by your own choice.-Epictetus. 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.-Lacon. Next to acquiring good friends, the best purchase is useful books.-Lacon. Religion is the best armour in the world, but the worst cloak.-Rule of Life. FREEDOM.-There can be no friendship where there is no freedom.-Penn. FRIENDSHIP.-Cicero used to say, "That it was no less an evil to be without a friend, than to have the heavens without a sun." And Socrates thought friendship the sweetest possession, and that no piece of ground yielded more, or pleasanter fruit than a true friend.-Rule of Life. Pride is observed to defeat its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.-Bolingbroke. Ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human breast as, when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of indiscretions. CONVERSATION.-Great talents for conversation require to be accompanied with great politeness; he who eclipses others owes them great civilities, and whatever a mistaken vanity may tell us, it is better to please in conversation than to shine in it. The Preceptor. PRECEPTS.-He that lays down precepts for the government of our lives and the moderating of our passions, obliges human nature, not only in the present, but in all succeeding generations. Seneca's Morals. TIME.-Time is the most indefinable, yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and like the flash of the lightning at once exists and expires. Time is the measurer of all things, but is itself immeasurable, and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed. Like space, it is incomprehensible, because it has no limits, and it would be still more so if it had. It is more obscure in its sources than the Nile, and in its termination than the Niger; and advances like the swiftest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent. It gives wings of lightning to pleasure, but feet of lead to pain, and lends expectation a curb, but enjoyment a spur. It robs beauty of her charms to bestow them on her picture, and builds a monument to merit but denies it a house; it is the transient and deceitful flatterer of falsehood, but the tried and final friend of truth. Time is the most subtle yet the most insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing, is permitted to take all; nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us and us from the world. It constantly flies yet overcomes all things by flight, and although it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror of Death. Time, the cradle of Hope, but the grave of Ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise, bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other; but like Cassandra it warns us with a voice that even the sagest discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom walks before it; opportunity with it; and repentance behind it; he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies; but he that has made it his enemy, will have but little to hope from his friends.-Lacon. D VIRTUOUS POVERTY.-If we are good and vir tuous, notwithstanding the outward meanness of our condition and appearance, we shall possess a certain eminence and nobility of spirit, which cannot fail of meeting with a suitable reward in the end. If all be well within, our outward condition is hardly worth the minding. We have no reason to suspect that God neglected us because we are not placed in the midst of affluence. He never intended that such should be the reward of the righteous. A good man would be but poorly rewarded, were he to have only the means of living in affluence in a world like the present: God has infinitely greater things in reserve for his faithful servants. Besides an approving conscience, which is a continual feast to the soul, and of itself has considerable power to bear us up under the severest calamities; we have also an everlasting happiness in prospect, a bright reversion provided for us, in the better country in heaven, to which, in a short time, we shall find admittance; and surely, for so short a time, we may be content to live any how. If we are happy in the issue, we have reason to think that we have made an easy conquest: we may be glad to compound for a little short-lived trouble here, when we have the well-grounded hope of a complete blessedness, to crown our victory in the conflict. Let us remember, that through many trials, God rears up his family to that blessedness; and there is no better recommendation to his favour, than resignation and acquiescence under all his dispensations. If we patiently endure this rough and wintry season of calamity, we are encouraged to expect, that, in the end, we shall be counted worthy of enjoying a purer and serener climate.-While we bend our steps towards heaven, let us not repine at the hardships of the way nor the roughness of the passage.-Anon. FAITH. Faith is not only a means of obeying, but a principal act of obedience; it is not only a needful foundation; it is not only as an altar, on which to sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice itself, and perhaps of all, the greatest. It is a submission of our understandings, an oblation of our idolised reason to God, which he requires so indispensably, that our whole will and affections, though seemingly a larger sacrifice, will not without it be received at our hands.-Young. ANCESTORS. Boast not these titles of your ancestors Brave youths; they 're their possessions, none of yours; When your own virtues equalled have their names, By which you 're planted, shows your fruit shall bide; Hang all your rooms with one large pedigree, 'Tis virtue alone is true nobility.-Jonson. If it is always dear to buy a thing cheap, which one does not want; so it is sometimes dearer to receive a thing as a present, than to pay the full price of it. The prodigal robs his heir: the miser robs himself. |