Truths illustrated by great authors [ed. by W. White].

Truth. Sir W. Temple.

TRUTH will be uppermost, one time or other, like Cork,

though kept down in the water.

NO bad man ever wished that his Breast was made of

glass, or that others could read his thoughts. But the misery is, that the Duplicities, the Temptations, and the Infirmities that surround us, have rendered the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, as hazardous and contraband a commodity as a Man can possibly deal in.

Truth. Dryden.

E find but few historians of all ages, who have been diligent enough in their search for Truth: it is their common method to take on trust what they distribute to the public; by which means a Falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to Posterity.

Truth. - Hare.

is a mistake to suppose the Poet does not know Truth

for he is ever seeing her in the mirrors of Nature. The difference between them is, that the Poet is satisfied with worshipping her reflected image, while the Philosopher traces her out and follows her to her remote abode between Cause and Consequence, and there impregnates her. The one loves and makes love to Truth; the other esteems and weds her.

A some time, when his soaring Insolence

Shall reach the people, (which time shall not want,

If he be put upon't; and that's as easy,

As to set Dogs on sheep,) will be the Fire

To kindle their dry stubble; and their Blaze
Shall darken him for ever.

Tyranny. Claudian.

[E who strikes terror into others, is himself in con

Htinual fear.

The Unseen.

VERY thing unknown to us, we suppose to be mag.

THAT Nature which contemns its origin,

Cannot be border'd certain in itself;

She, that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use.

HE that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know it, and he's not robb'd at all.

Shakespeare.
O PERILOUS mouths,

That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue,
Either of Condemnation or Approof!

Bidding the Law make curt'sy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the Appetite,
To follow as it draws!

The Usurer. — Fuller.

YO not to a covetous old Man with any Request too

day's Prey for his Covetousness is up before him, and he before thee, and he is in Ill humour: but stay till the Afternoon, till he be satiated upon some Borrower.

Shakespeare.

SCEPTRE, snatch'd with an unruly Hand,
Must be as boisterously maintain'd as gain'd:

And he that stands upon a slippery place,

Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.

Valour. Shakespeare.

IN the Reproof of Chance

Lies the true Proof of Men. The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way

With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall❜d greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so

Doth Valour's Show, and Valour's Worth, divide,

L L

In storms of Fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,

Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies fled under shade, why, then the Thing of Courage,
As roused with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And with an accent tuned in self-same key,

Returns to chiding Fortune.

His outsides; to wear them like his raiment, carelessly : And ne'er prefer his Injuries to his Heart,

Vanity.

PRIDE and Vanity are for ever spoken of side by side;

and many suppose that they are merely different shades of the same feeling. Yet, so far are they from being akin, they can hardly find room in the same breast. A Proud Man will not stoop to be vain; a Vain Man is so busy in bowing and wriggling to catch fair words from others, that he can never lift up his head into Pride.

LADIES of Fashion starve their Happiness, to feed their Vanity, and their Love to feed their Pride.

Vanity. - Pope.

VERY man has just as much Vanity as he wants Understanding.

Vanity. Colton.

IF you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill

her above the brim with Love of herself;-all that runs over will be yours.

VAN

Vanity. Greville.

ANITY is the Poison of agreeableness; yet as Poison, when artfully and properly applied, has a salutary effect in medicine, so has Vanity in the commerce and society in the World.

THERE

Vanity. Anon.

are persons who would lie prostrate on the ground, if their Vanity or their Pride did not hold

them up.

EVER

VERY person complains of the badness of his Memory, but none of their defective judgment.

Vanity. Anon.

PRIDE in former ages may have been held in too good

repute; Vanity is so now. Pride, which is the fault of greatness and strength, is sneered at and abhorred to Vanity, the froth and consummation of weakness, every indulgence is shown. For Pride stands aloof by itself; and that we are too mob-like to bear: Vanity is unable to stand, except by leaning on others, and is careful, therefore, of giving offence; nay, is ready to fawn on those by whom it hopes to be fed.

Vanity. Swift.

Save the strangest men in the World; they cannot men make a Vanity of telling their faults; they

dissemble; they own it is a folly; they have lost abundance of advantages by it; but if you would give them the World, they cannot help it; there is something in their nature which abhors Insincerity and Constraint: with many other insufferable topics of the same altitude. Vanity. Anon.

THEY who do speak ill of themselves, do so mostly as the surest way of proving how modest and candid they are.

VAN

Vanity.

VANITY bids all her Sons be brave, and all her Daughters chaste and courteous. But why do we need her instructions? Ask the comedian who is taught a part which he does dot feel.

Verbosity. Shakespeare.

E draweth out the thread of his Verbosity finer than

fantasms, such insociable and point-device companions, such Rackers of Orthography.

Vice. - Byron.

HINK'S thou there is no tyranny but that
Of Blood and Chains? The despotism of Vice-

The weakness and the wickedness of Luxury-
The negligence-the apathy-the evils

Of sensual Sloth-produce ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses

The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
Vice. Colton.

HE that has energy enough in his constitution to root

out a Vice, should go a little farther, and try to plant in a Virtue in its place, otherwise he will have his labour to renew; a strong soil that has produced Weeds, may be made to produce Wheat, with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.

Vice. - Pope.

ICE is a monster of so frightful mien,

VICE

As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.