Part 3
As some insects are said to derive their colour from the leaf upon which they feed, so do the minds of men assume their hue from the studies which they select for it.
THE HEART.
The heart, like the cement of the ancient Romans, acquires hardness by time.
CONSOLATION.
The truest consolation for the ills of life, is the recollection of its brevity.
EXPERIENCE.
Experience is a torch lighted in the ashes of our illusions.
DIFFICULTIES.
Difficulties vanquish the weak, but are vanquished by the strong.
CHARACTERS.
We never injure our own characters so much, as when we attack those of others.
LOVE.
When one link in the chain of love is broken, its strength and security are gone.
DEATH.
When we have outlived our youth, we have little to regret in the death of our old age; it is but the release of a superannuated friend, who has outlived every other.
DEATH-BED.
We value time but on the bed of death, When its brief sands are running to an end; O! how we then remember with dismay Our wasted hours, which, like reproachful ghosts Of murder’d friends, rise up and pass before us! How quickly flee the moments,—precious then As moments ne’er were dear to us before, Each counted with an agonising pang As they recede, and with them—ebbing life, Leaving the shrinking soul in terror dire, To meet, as best it may, the conqueror Death.
CONTACT WITH SUPERIOR MINDS.
It is doubtful whether advantage is derived from a constant intercourse with superior minds. If our own be possessed of power, the collision is likely to excite it into action, and original thoughts are consequently elicited. But, if a great inequality exists, the inferior mind is quelled by the strong, or loses whatever features of idiosyncracy it might once have possessed, in an unconscious subserviency to its more vigorous opponent.
CONFESSION.
How many errors do we confess to our Creator, that we dare not reveal to his fallible creatures.
LOVE.
Some natures, like trees of the torrid zone, Yield fruit but once, and prematurely die; No second love such hearts are form’d to own, They palpitate but once with passion’s sigh.
LOVE-MATCHES.
Love-matches are formed by people who pay for a month of honey with a life of vinegar.
WOMEN.
Women, with their bright imaginations, tender hearts, and pure minds, create for themselves idols, on which they lavish their worship, making their hearts temples, in which the false god is adored. But, alas! the object of their best and fondest feelings generally too soon proves to be of base clay, instead of pure gold; and though pity would fain intervene to veil its defects, or even to cherish it in despite of them, virtue, reason, and justice combine finally to destroy it; but, in the deed, too often injure the fane in which it was enshrined.
LIFE.
Life resembles a river flowing rapidly to the ocean of eternity, and in its flight passing by brilliant, as well as sombre objects, without the power of doing aught more than for a few brief moments receiving our hue from them.
COURAGE.
A higher degree of courage is required to pardon an injury than to avenge it. In the first, the triumph is over self, the most difficult of all; but in the second, it is over another, which is always more easily achieved.
LIGHT LITERATURE.
Works of light literature often have a vogue that more solid ones fail to acquire; as paper kites mount in the air, when a more consistent substance cannot ascend.
DECEIVERS.
We are born to deceive, or to be deceived. In one of these classes we must be numbered; but our self-respect is dependent upon our selection. The practice of deception generally secures its own punishment; for callous indeed must be that mind which is insensible to its ignominy! But he who has been duped, is conscious, even in the very moment that he detects the imposition, of his proud superiority to one who can stoop to the adoption of so foul and sorry a course. The really good and high-minded, therefore, are seldom provoked by the discovery of deception; though the cunning and artful resent it, as a humiliating triumph obtained over them in their own vocations.
CONCEALED GRIEF.
Concealed griefs are the most consuming, as secret maladies are the most fatal.
WOMEN.
Women should not paint love, until they have ceased to inspire it.
EMINENT MEN.
As high mountains attract clouds and vapours, so do eminent men attract censure. They act like the conductors placed on lofty buildings to draw the lightning from less elevated objects.
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.
Love is a flower, with which we adorn our youth; but friendship is a fruit with which we solace our maturity.
PEDANTS.
Pedants are often mistaken for savants, yet the difference between them is great; one affects, the other possesses science. The pedant is to the savant, what the apothecary is to the physician: one understands the means, the other both the means and the end.
WIT.
Wit lives in the present, but genius survives in the future.
EXPERIENCE.
Experience enables us to detect the errors of the past, but it seldom guards us against those of the future.
ENVY.
The vain and pretending are ever the most prone to envy; for they covet that which they would fain make people believe they possess.
THE PAST.
The past shows us but the tombs of our buried illusions and hopes.
PITY.
All that we bestow in pity to the unfortunate, we take away in respect; hence, he that would be respected must never allow himself to become an object of pity.
PRIDE AND VANITY.
Vanity lives on the commendations of others, but pride is supported by self-respect. Hence the vain pine in solitude, while the proud retain their self-reverence and are satisfied.
WEAKNESSES.
Our weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our strength is the forced fruit.
PRODIGALS.
Persons who never learn the difference between a shilling and a sixpence, until they want the latter.
EXISTENCE.
Existence is only felt to be valuable while it is necessary to some one dear to us. The moment we become aware that our death would leave no aching void in a human heart, the charm of life is gone.
WOMEN.
There is a vast difference between a feminine, and an effeminate woman; the first has all the gentleness of her sex,—the second, all the weakness.
PLEASURE.
Pleasure is like a cordial; a little of it is not injurious, but too much destroys.
POETRY.
The gleams in the poetry of some writers are like straw fires, bright, vivid, but transitory.
COSMETICS.
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
COURTIERS.
The two principal requisites in a courtier are, a flexible conscience, and an inflexible politeness.
MISFORTUNES.
There are some misfortunes, the recollection of which floats ever uppermost in our minds, like oil thrown on water.
WOMEN.
Young women ought, like angels, to pardon the faults they cannot comprehend; and old women, like saints, should compassionate, because they have endured temptations, and experienced the difficulty of resisting them.
MEDIOCRITY.
In the society of persons of mediocrity, he who has the most wit will please the least, for each person will either misunderstand, or be jealous of him.
COSMETICS.
Cosmetics are to the face, what affectation is to the manners; they impose on none, and disgust many.
MEN.
A vicious man is governed by his appetites, a weak man by his affections, but a wise man is governed by his principles.
MORALISTS.
To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be.
WOMEN.
Those women who are most loved by their own sex, are precisely such as are least sought by the other.
CONSCIENCE.
He who takes conscience for his guide, will not easily lose his way.
MINDS.
A sensible mind applies patience to misfortunes; a frivolous one, forgetfulness.
CONSCIENCE.
Conscience oft slumbers, but has fearful dreams, And wakes as painfully as mourners do From the first sleep that follows the dread shock Of losing one that dearer was than life.
MISFORTUNES.
They only can thoroughly compassionate misfortune who have drunk from its bitter cup; for, how can the prosperous freely sympathize in that which they have never experienced, and consequently cannot understand?
YOUTH AND MATURITY.
Youth is pliant and elastic; if it receives impressions easily, they are as easily effaced: but maturity is rigid, and, admitting them slowly, retains them with a proportionate tenacity.
CONSCIENCE.
The rewarder of virtue, and avenger of crime.
CATHERINE OF RUSSIA.
Catherine I. of Russia was called the mother of her people; but Catherine II. might, with nearly equal justice, be named the _wife_.
MOURNERS.
They only truly mourn the dead, who endeavour so to live as to ensure a re-union with them in heaven.
MEMORIES.
Some persons are so tenacious of memory, that they forget nothing but the services they have received, and the errors they have committed.
COURAGE AND VIRTUE.
A man should never boast of his courage, nor a woman of her virtue, lest their doing so should be the cause of calling their possession of them into question.
CUSTOM.
Custom is a tyrant that holds us in chains, which we do not break, because so many others support them patiently.
LIFE.
Life, like the diamond in a mine, is sometimes valueless to its owner until it becomes estimated by another.
YOUTHFUL LOVERS.
Youthful lovers, like the painter Arellius, always paint the objects of their affection as goddesses.
SPRING AND AUTUMN.
Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.
TRUE AND FALSE FRIENDS.
False friends will seek you in a happy home, But true friends only to a prison come.
VIRTUE.
The virtues of others often render us sensible of the want of them in ourselves, as the riches of our acquaintance make us more conscious of our poverty.
MARRIAGE.
How many in the married state we find Wedded in person, but divorced in mind! Unnatural union! fraught with as much dread As when the living chain’d were to the dead By stern Mezentius; yet less cruel he,— As many slaves of Hymen will agree,— For but one victim suffer’d from the chain, While wedlock gives the _two_ an equal pain.
FÊTES.
A fête is one of the many palliatives for that common malady _ennui_, and, like most palliatives, gives but a temporary relief, generally followed by a return of the disease.
LEVELLERS.
Men who cannot rise, are ever prone to pull down those who do, hoping to mount by their ruin.
EXPERIENCE.
Those are fortunate who borrow experience, instead of buying it.
ADVERSITY.
Adversity, ’t is thine to prove The truth of friendship or of love; Thy frown can drive the false away, But makes the faithful nearer stay; Thy chilling breath illusion rends, And is too cold for summer friends.
MISFORTUNES.
Misfortunes which have not been caused by our own misconduct, and which we may lay open to sympathy, are but as superficial wounds, which are easily healed; but those which guilt has produced, and shame conceals, like the stolen fox of the Spartan boy, prey on the vitals, and the pangs must be concealed, while hiding their inflictor in the breast he feeds on.
LIBERTY.
O liberty! the purest gift from heaven That ever was to erring mortals given; The heart that Heaven has form’d to worship thee, Must be from every grovelling passion free; The patriot would thy noble precepts use, While demagogues but know thee to abuse.
AGE.
When age is seen moving through scenes of gaiety and pleasure, its wrinkles concealed beneath a mask of paint, and its wig wreathed with flowers, it reminds one of the death’s heads which the ancients introduced at their festivals, to recall to their memories the brevity of life, and make them enjoy the present with more zest.
CONTENT.
We miss content in our search for happiness.
FRIENDSHIP.
I lost my spirits and my health. But kept my friends, so did not wince Until one day I lost my wealth, And never heard of friendship since.
TRIALS.
It is when we most suffer, that we least doubt the existence of that Power which can afflict or heal.
LIFE.
We pass our lives in regretting the past, complaining of the present, and indulging false hopes of the future.
LOVE AND VANITY.
Half the errors attributed to love have their source in vanity; and many a person has made sacrifices to this unworthy passion, who would have successfully resisted the pleadings of affection.
ON SEEING PRINCE TALLEYRAND SUFFERING UNDER A SEVERE COLD.
Why looks prince Talleyrand so cold— Why trembles he in every part? It is as doctors long foretold, His body’s caught cold from his heart.
FRIENDS.
We are often ashamed of our friends, when it is they who have cause to be ashamed of us.
PRIDE AND POVERTY.
Pride and poverty are the most ill-assorted companions that can meet. They live in a state of continual warfare, and the sacrifices they exact from each other, like those claimed by enemies to establish a hollow peace, only serve to increase their discord.
LIBERTY.
Liberty, according to the acceptation of the term among its modern votaries, consists in the right of doing every thing agreeable to themselves, and of precluding others from enjoying the same privilege.
MANNERS.
In aping the manners of foreign countries, we lose what is best in our own, and only expose ourselves to the ridicule of those we imitate.
THE END.
NEW·YORK: Printed by J. P. WRIGHT, 18 New Street.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Page Changed from Changed to
67 Politics, a science, which no Politics is a science, which no one believes one believes
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.