XLII. It is a certain truth, that a man is never so easy, or so little imposed upon, as among people of the best sense: it costs far more trouble to be admitted or continued in ill company than in good; as the former have less understanding to be employed, so they have more vanity to be pleased; and to keep a fool constantly in good humour with himself, and with others, is no very easy task. XLIII. The difference between what is commonly called ordinary company and good company, is only hearing the same things said in a little room or in a large saloon, at small tables or at great tables, before two candles or twenty sconces. XLIV. It is with narrow-souled people as with narrownecked bottles: the less they have in them the more noise they make in pouring it out. XLV. Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but thing. thing, but very few a generous XLVI. Since it is reasonable to doubt most things, we should most of all doubt that reason of ours, which would demonstrate all things. XLVII. To buy books, as some do who make no use of them, only because they were published by an eminent printer ; printer; is much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because they were made by some famous tailor. XLVIII. It is as offensive to speak wit in a fool's company, as it would be ill manners to whisper in it; he is displeased at both for the same reason, because he is ignorant of what is said. XLIX. False criticks rail at false wits, as quacks and impostors are still cautioning us to beware of counterfeits, and decry others cheats only to make more way for their own. L. Old men for the most part are like old chronicles, that give you dull but true accounts of time past, and are worth knowing only on that score. LI. There should be, methinks, as little merit in loving a woman for her beauty, as in loving a man for his prosperity; both being equally subject to change. LII. We should manage our thoughts in composing any work, as shepherds do their flowers in making a garland: first select the choicest, and then dispose them in the most proper places, where they give a lustre to each other. LIII. As handsome children are more a dishonour to a deformed father than ugly ones, because unlike him self; self; so good thoughts, owned by a plagiary, bring him more shame than his own ill ones. When a poor thief appears in rich garments, we immediately know they are none of his own. LIV. Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provisions of life, and are allured by their appetites to their destruction. LV. The most positive men are the most credulous; since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer, and worst enemy, their own self-love. LVI. Get your enemies to read your works, in order to mend them; for your friend is so much your second self, that he will judge too like you. LVII. Women use lovers as they do cards; they play with them awhile, and when they have got all they can by them, throw them away, call for new ones, and then perhaps lose by the new ones all they got by the old ones. LVIII. Honour in a woman's mouth, like an oath in the mouth of a gamester, is ever still most used, as their truth is most questioned. LIX. Women, as they are like riddles, in being unintelligible, so generally resemble them in this, that they please us no longer when once we know them. LX. A man who admires a fine woman, has yet no more reason to wish himself her husband, than one . who admired the Hesperian fruit, would have had to wish himself the dragon that kept it. LXI. He who marries a wife, because he cannot always live chastely, is much like a man, who, finding a few humours in his body, resolves to wear a perpetual blister. LXII. Married people, for being so closely united, are but the apter to part; as knots, the harder they are pulled, break the sooner. LXIII. A family is but too often a commonwealth of malignants: what we call the charities and ties of affinity, prove but so many separate and clashing interests: the son wishes the death of the father; the younger brother that of the elder; the elder repines at the sisters portions: when any of them marry, there are new divisions, and new animosities. It is but natural and reasonable to expect all this, and yet we fancy no comfort but in a family. LXIV. Authors in France seldom speak ill of each other, but when they have a personal pique; authors in England seldom speak well of each other, but when they have a personal friendship. Lxv. LXV. There is nothing wanting to make all rational and disinterested people in the world of one religion, but that they should talk together every day. LXVI. Men are grateful in the same degree that they are resentful. LXVII. The longer we live, the more we shall be convinced, that it is reasonable to love God, and despise man, as far as we know either. LXVIII. That character in conversation, which commonly passes for agreeable, is made up of civility and falsehood. LXIX. A short and certain way to obtain the character of a reasonable and wise man, is, whenever any one tells you his opinion, to comply with it. LXX. What is generally accepted as virtue in women, is very different from what is thought so in men: a very good woman would make but a paltry man. LXXI. Some people are commended for a giddy kind of good humour, which is as much a virtue as drunk enness. LXX II. Those |