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yet there are certain Specifick Properties and Impreffions, that are never to be alter'd or defac'd.

Elevation, Dignities, Greatness, Authority.

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I.Here is a kind of Elevation independent upon Fortune: 'Tis a certain Air of Authority, that feems to lay us out for great Things; 'tis a value we infenfibly fet upon our felves, an imperious Challenger of the Refpects of other People; and a prevailing Quality that raises us more above them, then either Birth or Honours, or even Defert it felf.

II. There is Worth fometimes without Elevation or Preferment, But very few Men arrive to Honours and Dignities without fome Merit or other.

III. Dignities and Honours fet off Merit, as good Dreffing does handfom Perfons.

IV. The generality of Men feem fitter for those Employments they have not, than for those they stand already poffeft of.

V. When a Man leaps into a great Preferment to which he is neither advanced by Degrees, nor raised before by his own Hopes, it is fcarce poffible for him to maintain his Poft with Honour, and make the World think he deferves his Character.

VI. We may feem great in an Employment below our defert; but we generally look very little in one above it.

VII. Good Fortune aimoft always alters the Proceeedings and the Air of a Man, and makes him quite another thing in all his Behaviour and Converfation. This is a great Weakness to trick and fet

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one's felf off with what is not our own. If Virtue were esteem'd above all other things, no Favour, no Advancement, would be able to change Men either in their Temper or Countenance.

VIII. It is a common thing to imagine we love a Man of great Intereft and Fortune,with a very fincere Paffion; But this is what we cannot be fure of till he be ftripp'd of all the Advantages of Power and Greatnefs Then one quickly difcerns what it was that engag'd our Affection; if Intereft were at the bottom of it, Honour may keep it up for fome time, yet it quickly grows weary, and lets it fall to the ground.

IX. Falfe Greatnefs is wild and untractable; for knowing her own weak fide, fhe either hides her felf, or never fhews her felf more than fhe thinks neceffary to impose upon the World, and prevent being taken for what she really is, I mean, true Littleness. True Greatness, on the contrary, is free, courteous, and popular; fhe is contented to be feen and handled, and lofes nothing by being examin'd at clofe view. The more a Man knows her, the more he admires her; She bends out of Humanity to her Inferiours, and returns back to her natural Size without ftraining her felf; fometimes the neglects her felf, and remits fome of her Prerogatives, becaufe, fhe knows, the can refume them again at pleasure. She laughs, fhe plays, but ftill with Dignity. A Man ap

proaches her with no lefs freedom than CircumIpection; her Character is to be Noble and Eafy; the infpires Men with Refpect and Confidence, and and makes fome Princes appcar great, without making us fenfible that we are little.

X. Of all the Methods of making one's Fortune in the World, the readiest and most effectual, is to

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make other People find their Intereft in doing us good.

XI. There are but two general Methods whereby Men raise themfelves in the World, that is, either by a Man's own Industry, or the Imbecillity of o thers.

XII. We make a good Compofition with our Friends, if being preferr'd to a confiderable Poft, they will count us among their Acquaintance.

XIII. It is not fo difficult to raise one's felf to a Place of great Truft, as to maintain one's felf in it. XIV. We fee oftentimes Men fall from a high Fortune, by the fame defaults that had raised them to it.

XV. To fcorn the Pomp and Greatness of the World before a Man knows them, does proceed ra ther from ill Manners, than Magnanimity.

* XVI. Might and Right are infeparable in the Opinion of the World; and he that has the longer Sword, fhall never want either Lawyers or Divines to defend his Claim.

* XVII. People fhould have Care how they engage themselves in Partnerships with Men, that are too mighty for them, whether it be in Money, Pleafure, or Business for in unequal Alliances, the Poor and the Weak lie at the Mercy of the Rich and the Powerful, and no remedy but Patience and Refignation. Men in Power plunge their Clients into the Mud, with a Ring about their Necks; fo that let them bring up what they will, nothing goes down with them that they fhall be ever the better for: And when they come in conclufion to caft up the Profit and Lofs of the Purchase, or the Project'; what betwixt Force, Intereft, and good Manners the Adventurer fcapes well if he can but get off at laft with his Labour for his Pains.

XVIII.

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** XVIII. There are fome malicious, fpiteful People, that take so much Pleasure in the defign of hurting others, as not to feel and understand that they only hurt themselves. This is the Cafe of thofe that will be trying Masteries with their Superiours, and biting of that which is too hard for their Teeth; but this is no better than downright Madness, to ftrike where we have no Power to hurt, and to contend where we are fure to be worsted.

XIX. Men in great Place are thrice Servants; Servants of the Sovereign or State; Servants of Fame, and Servants of Bufinefs. So as they have no Freedom either in their Perfons, in their Actions, or in their Times.

XX It is a strange defire to feek Power and to lofe Liberty; or to feek Power over others, and to lofe Power over a Man's own felf.

XXI. The Advantages of the Great Ones over over other People are in fome respects extraordinary. I can yield them their Choice Dishes, their Rich Furniture, their fine Liveries, their Dogs, Horses, Jefters and Flatterers; but I cannot but envy their Happiness, of having in their Service thofe that are Equal, nay fometimes Superiour to them in Wit and Noble Inclinations.

XXII. It costs the Great Ones fo little to be generous in Words; and their Quality fo much dif penfes with them, for not performing what they Promife; that I look upon it as a great piece of Modefty, their not being more free of their Promises.

XXIII. We get a great deal more by forfaking the great Ones, than by complaining of them.

XXIV. A Coldness in thofe that are above us, a neglect in not returning a Civility, makes us perfectly hate them, but a Salute or a Smile, brings 'em back to our Reconciliation.

XXX.

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XXV. There are a fort of haughty proud Men, that are humbl'd and tam'd, if I may use the Expreffion, by the Preferment of their Competitors. This Misfortune fometimes prevails upon them fo far, as to make them return you a Salute: ''But Time, the great Wafter of all Things, infenfibly foftens their Grief, and puts them at last into their natural byafs.

XXVI. 'Tis mere Hypocrify for a Man in an Eminent Station, not to take at firft the place which is due to his Quality, and which no body difputes with him: It is an eafie matter for him to be Modeft; for if he throws himself into a Crow'd, every body presently fhrinks back to make way for him; or if he fits below his Rank, all the rest of the Company prefently force him to fit higher. Modesty is of much harder digeftion to Men of an inferiour Condition; for if they chance to be in a Crowd, they run the hazard of being fqueez'd to death; or if they chufe to fit in an uneafie Place, they are fure to be left to the free Enjoyment of it.

XXVII. The Great Ones have no reafon to love the First Times; they are not favourable to them in the leaft: 'Tis a kind of Mortification for them to fee that we all come from Brothers and Sifters, and that all Men compofe but one Family, whofe feveral Members only differ as to the degrees of Kindred.

XXVIII. If the Great Ones have the Opportunities of doing us good, they have feldom the good will to do it; and if they have a mind to do us harm, they do not always find the Occafions; fo that a Man may be extreamly miltaken in the kind and degree of Worfhip he pays them, upon the Good and Ill he expects from them: We ought to honour and refpect them, because they are great and

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