thrown by the evils of life, so temperance permitteth it not to be drawn aside from the path of rectitude, by the allurements of its false pleasures.

Nothing would better fortify the soul against all vicissitudes, than the conviction that we can never be materially injured but by ourselves. If our understandings be well informed, and our actions be conformed to their dictates, we are invulnerable.

While charity teaches not to mistrust others without reason, prudence warns us not to trust, heedlessly, those whose characters we have had no opportunity of knowing.

A man of virtue is a glory to human nature, an honour to his country, a satisfaction to himself, and a benefactor to the whole world. He is rich without dishonesty or oppression, charitable without ostentation, courteous without deceit, and brave without arrogance.

Anger may glance into the breast of a wise man, but rests only in the bosom of fools.

At all times, and in all places, discord is a troublesome companion; but when she takes up her abode in the domestic circle, and rages among relatives, then are her wounds most grievous and painful.

He who watches for an opportunity of gratifying revenge, watches to inflict an injury on

himself.

To be able to bear provocation is a proof of great wisdom, and to forgive it is the indication of a great mind.

There cannot possibly be a greater absurdity

than for a man to run the hazard of losing his own life, or of taking away the life of another, in revenge for a supposed insult, or to wipe away an imaginary disgrace. When, after the battle of Actium, Antony, urged by despair, challenged Octavius Cesar to single combat, the latter noticed it only by sending this answer; "That if Antony were weary of life, there were other means of laying down the burden, than by fighting him; and that he had no inclination to take the trouble of being his executioner."

Our passions resemble waves agitated by the wind; and as God hath set bounds to the latter, so should we to the former, saying, Thus far shall ye come, and no farther. A passionate, fiery, temper renders a man incapable of receiving good advice; depriveth him of his reason; robbeth him of all that is great and generous in his nature; renders him unfit for conversation; destroys friendship; changes justice into cruelty and turns order into confusion.

Pride disappointeth her own ends, for aiming at honour and reputation she reapeth contempt. and derision.

To be proud of knowledge is to be blind in the light. To be proud of virtue is to change the antidote into poison. To be proud of authority is to convert elevation into downfall.

How deplorable is the blindness of human pride. It causes the dead to be laid in state. It seeks pompous funerals, and superb monuments It turns the most solemn warnings, which the Lord of providence giveth unto men to

humble them, into the most dangerous delusions. It endeavours to fix upon brass or marble that transitory grandeur, which passeth away with passing time. It strives to secure to itself a portion of a worldly life, in the very empire of death itself.

He who envieth, maketh the virtue of others his vice, and the happiness of others his torment. He who rejoiceth in the prosperity of others, maketh their prosperity his own.

Our most exact and minute enquiry should be exercised upon ourselves. We shall then find such numerous and various agitations of soul, and so many failures of duty, that to reform them would require so much time and attention, as to leave us no leisure for officious enquiry into the affairs or faults of others.

The apprehension of evil is frequently worse than the evil itself; and the ills which we fear that we shall suffer, we suffer in the very fear of them. A firm trust in the assistance of an Almighty Being, naturally produces patience, cheerfulness, and all other dispositions of mind which alleviate the calamities we cannot avert. No man is master of himself as long as he is a slave to any thing else.

Nothing more alleviates grief than the liberty of complaining, and the delight of expressing it makes joyful more joyful.

Passion makes fools of those who otherwise are not so, and shows them to be fools who

are so.

The good government of the appetites and inclinations, renders the mind cheerful and easy.

Contentment can give charms to the lowest situation, and patience can lighten the severest affliction.

Ostentation takes from the merit of any action, however good. He who is vain enough to praise himself, deserves to be punished by the silence of those from whom he expected applause.

The wise man endeavours to shine inwardly; the fool to outshine others outwardly. The former is humble under a sense of his own infirmities; the latter is elevated by the discovery of those which he observes in others. The wise man feels and considers his own deficiences, the fool glories in imaginary possessions and qualities. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he gains the approbation of those around him.

Rectitude of intention is a more precious ornament than brightness of understanding; and to be truly good is more valuable than all other wisdom.

The whole creation is one great library; every volume in which, and every page in each volume, is impressed with radiant characters of infinite wisdom; and all the wonders of the universe are collected with such inimitable art, in man, that he needs no other book but himself to make him a complete philosopher.

A certain philosopher declared of himself, that the first year he entered upon the study of the sciences, he knew all things; the second year he knew something; but the third year nothing; that the more he studied, the lower

grew his opinion of his own knowledge, and the more he saw of the weakness of his own understanding.

Let us study principally that science which treats of self-knowledge, and instructs us how to live, and to die well.

Useful knowledge can have no enemies except the ignorant. It brightens the morning of youth, cheers the evening of old age, is the ornament of prosperity, and the comfort of adversity.

Prosperity is not without its troubles, nor adversity without its comforts.

It may safely be affirmed that good men generally derive more substantial benefit from affliction, than bad men do from prosperity; for what the former lose in wealth, pleasure, or honour, they gain, with vast advantage, in wisdom, goodness, and tranquillity.

The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill, but time and chance happen unto all.

When losses befall us, we cannot but experience uneasiness of mind, but when we consider how little we deserve those blessings which are left us, well may our murmurs be changed into thankfulness.

Humility, the most precious of moral virtues, is to have a low esteem of ourselves; which is attended with this peculiar advantage, that it excites not envy in others.