Part ii
. Chap. lxxiv._
Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted.
_The Little Gypsy_ (_La Gitanilla_).
My heart is wax moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.[792-6]
_The Little Gypsy_ (_La Gitanilla_).
FOOTNOTES:
[784-9] See Shakespeare, page 101.
[785-1] See Shakespeare, page 46.
[785-2] See Bacon, page 167.
[785-3] See Shakespeare, page 71.
[785-4] He had a face like a benediction.--_Jarvis's translation._
[785-5] See Shakespeare, page 44.
[785-6] See Heywood, page 18.
[785-7] See Heywood, page 17.
[785-8] See Heywood, page 19.
[785-9] See Middleton, page 172.
[785-10] See Shakespeare, page 143.
[786-1] See Shakespeare, page 45.
[786-2] See Butler, page 211.
[786-3] See Chaucer, page 5.
[786-4] See Lyly, page 33.
[787-1] See Scott, page 493.
[787-2] See Heywood, page 10.
[787-3] See Heywood, page 20.
[787-4] See Wither, page 200.
[787-5] See Shakespeare, page 93.
[787-6] See Heywood, page 18.
[787-7] See Heywood, page 15. Also Plutarch, page 740.
[787-8] See Marlowe, page 41.
[787-9] See Middleton, page 172.
[788-1] I would do what I pleased; and doing what I pleased, I should have my will; and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to be desired, there is an end of it.--_Jarvis's translation._
[788-2] For let our finger ache, and it endues Our other healthful members even to that sense Of pain.--_Othello, act iii. sc. 4._
[788-3] The painter Orbaneja of Ubeda, if he chanced to draw a cock, he wrote under it, "This is a cock," lest the people should take it for a fox.--_Jarvis's translation._
[788-4] See Pliny the Younger, page 748.
[789-1] See Rabelais, page 773.
[789-2] SPENSER: _Britain's Ida, canto v. stanza 1._ ELLERTON: _George a-Greene_ (a Ballad). WHETSTONE: _Rocke of Regard._ BURNS: _To Dr. Blacklock._ COLMAN: _Love Laughs at Locksmiths, act i._
[789-3] See Heywood, page 9.
[789-4] See Fortescue, page 7.
[789-5] See Rabelais, page 773. Also Shakespeare, page 77.
[789-6] See Heywood, page 13.
[790-1] Sit thee down, chaff-threshing churl! for let me sit where I will, that is the upper end to thee.--_Jarvis's translation._
This is generally placed in the mouth of Macgregor: "Where Macgregor sits, there is the head of the table." Emerson quotes it, in his "American Scholar," as the saying of Macdonald, and Theodore Parker as the saying of the Highlander.
[790-2] See Burton, page 187.
[790-3] See Heywood, page 18.
[790-4] See Spenser, page 28.
[790-5] See Middleton, page 173.
[790-6] See Heywood, page 11.
[790-7] See Chaucer, page 5.
[790-8] See Publius Syrus, page 708.
[790-9] See Rabelais, page 773.
[791-1] To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose.--_Ecclesiastes iii. 1._
[791-2] See Sterne, page 378.
[791-3] See Publius Syrus, page 712.
[791-4] See Chaucer, page 4.
[791-5] See Heywood, page 20.
[791-6] See Heywood, page 11.
[791-7] See Burton, page 193.
[792-1] See Middleton, page 172.
[792-2] See Middleton, page 174.
[792-3] Blessing on him who invented sleep,--the mantle that covers all human thoughts, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, and, lastly, the general coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the wise.--_Jarvis's translation._
[792-4] See Heywood, page 15.
[792-5] See Longfellow, page 613.
[792-6] See Byron, page 554.
BARTHOLOMEW SCHIDONI. 1560-1616.
I, too, was born in Arcadia.[793-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[793-1] Goethe adopted this motto for his "Travels in Italy."
JOHN SIRMOND. 1589(?)-1649.
If on my theme I rightly think, There are five reasons why men drink,-- Good wine, a friend, because I 'm dry, Or lest I should be by and by, Or any other reason why.[793-2]
_Causæ Bibendi._
FOOTNOTES:
[793-2] These lines are a translation of a Latin epigram (erroneously ascribed to Henry Aldrich in the "Biographia Britannica," second edition, vol. i. p. 131), which Menage and De la Monnoye attribute to Père Sirmond:
Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi: Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis atque futura; Et vini bonitas, et quælibet altera causa.
_Menagiana, vol. i. p. 172._
FRIEDRICH VON LOGAU. 1604-1655.
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;[793-3] Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.
_Retribution._ (_Sinngedichte._)
Man-like is it to fall into sin, Fiend-like is it to dwell therein; Christ-like is it for sin to grieve, God-like is it all sin to leave.
_Sin._ (_Sinngedichte._)
FOOTNOTES:
[793-3] See Herbert, page 206.
Opse theou myloi aleousi to lepton aleuron.--_Oracula Sibylliana, liber viii. line 14._
Opse theôn aleousi myloi, aleousi de lepta.--LEUTSCH AND SCHNEIDEWIN: _Corpus Paroemiographorum Græcorum, vol. i. p. 444._
Sextus Empiricus is the first writer who has presented the whole of the adage cited by Plutarch in his treatise "Concerning such whom God is slow to punish."
ISAAC DE BENSERADE. 1612-1691.
In bed we laugh, in bed we cry; And, born in bed, in bed we die. The near approach a bed may show Of human bliss to human woe.[794-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[794-1] Translated by Samuel Johnson.
FRANCIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 1613-1680.
(_Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims._)
Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.[794-2]
We have all sufficient strength to endure the misfortunes of others.
_Maxim 19._
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.[794-3]
_Maxim 22._
We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
_Maxim 25._
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
_Maxim 26._
Interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
_Maxim 39._
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.
_Maxim 49._
There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.
_Maxim 71._
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
_Maxim 76._
The love of justice is simply, in the majority of men, the fear of suffering injustice.
_Maxim 78._
Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself.
_Maxim 79._
Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.
_Maxim 83._
A man who is ungrateful is often less to blame than his benefactor.
_Maxim 96._
The understanding is always the dupe of the heart.
_Maxim 102._
Nothing is given so profusely as advice.
_Maxim 110._
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
_Maxim 127._
Usually we praise only to be praised.
_Maxim 146._
Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence.
_Maxim 180._
Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.
_Maxim 212._
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
_Maxim 218._
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
_Maxim 226._
There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.
_Maxim 245._
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.[795-1]
_Maxim 259._
We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.
_Maxim 294._
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.[796-1]
_Maxim 298._
Lovers are never tired of each other, though they always speak of themselves.
_Maxim 312._
We pardon in the degree that we love.
_Maxim 330._
We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.[796-2]
_Maxim 347._
The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.
_Maxim 377._
We may give advice, but we cannot inspire the conduct.
_Maxim 378._
The veracity which increases with old age is not far from folly.
_Maxim 416._
In their first passion women love their lovers, in all the others they love love.[796-3]
_Maxim 471._
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
_Maxim 496._
In the adversity of our best friends we often find something that is not exactly displeasing.[796-4]
FOOTNOTES:
[794-2] This epigraph, which is the key to the system of La Rochefoucauld, is found in another form as No. 179 of the Maxims of the first edition, 1665; it is omitted from the second and third, and reappears for the first time in the fourth edition at the head of the Reflections.--AIME MARTIN.
[794-3] See Goldsmith, page 401.
[795-1] See Shelley, page 566.
[796-1] See Walpole, page 304.
[796-2] "That was excellently observed," say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken.--SWIFT: _Thoughts on Various Subjects._
[796-3] See Byron, page 557.
[796-4] This reflection, No. 99 in the edition of 1665, the author suppressed in the third edition.
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.
DEAN SWIFT: _A Paraphrase of Rochefoucauld's Maxim._
J. DE LA FONTAINE. 1621-1695.
The opinion of the strongest is always the best.
_The Wolf and the Lamb. Book i . Fable 10._
By the work one knows the workman.
_The Hornets and the Bees. Fable 21._
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
_The Cock and the Fox.