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fears, there are no blushes. The lewd inflame the lewd; the audacious harden the audacious. Every one fortifies himseif as he can against his own sensibility, and endeavours to practise on others, the arts which are practised on himself, and gains the kindness of his associates by similitude of manners.

Ibid. p. 216.

It is not so dreadful in a high spirit to be imprisoned, as it is desirable in a state of disgrace to be sheltered from the scorn of the gazers.

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Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 6. p. 343

The confinement of any debtor in the sloth and darkness of a prison, is a loss to the nation, and no gain to the creditor; for, of the multitude who are pining in those cells of misery, a very small part is suspected of any fradulent act by which they retain what belongs to others. The rest are imprisoned by the wantonness of pride, the malignity of revenge, or the acrimoof disappointed expectation.

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Idler, vol. 1, p. 127.

Since poverty is punished among us as a crime, it ought, at least, to be treated with the same lenity as other crimes: the offender ought not to languish at the will of him whom he has offended, but to be allowed some appeal to the justice of his country. There can be no reason why any debtor should be imprisoned, but that he may be compelled to payment; and a term should therefore be fixed, in which the creditor should exhibit his accusation of concealed property. If such property can be discovered, let it be given to the creditor; if the charge is not offered, or cannot be proved, let the prisoner be dismissed.

Ibid. p. 123.

Those

Those who made the laws of imprisonment for debt, have apparently supposed, that every deficiency of payment is the crime of the debtor. But the truth is, that the creditor always shares the act, and often more than shares the guilt, of improper trust. It seldom happens that any man imprisons another but for debts which he suffered to be contracted in hope of advantage to himself, and for bargains in, which he proportioned his profit to his own opinion of the ba zard; and there is no reason why one should punish the other for a contract in which both concurred. Ibid. p. 124.

We see nation trade with nation, where no payment can be compelled: mutual convenience produces mutual. confidence; and the merchants continue to satisfy the demands of each other, though they have nothing to dread but the loss of trade.

Ibid. p. 125.

It is in vain, then, to continue an institution, which experience shows to be ineffectual. We. have now imprisoned one generation of debtors after another, but we do not find that their numbers lessen.. We have now learned that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud and avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.

Ibid.

He whose debtor has perished in prison, though he may acquit himself of deliberate murder, must, at least, have his mind clouded with discontent, when he considers how much another has suffered from him; when he thinks of the

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wife bewailing her husband, or the children begging the bread which their father would have earned.

IMPOSITION.

Ibid. p. 217.

There are those who having got the cant of the day, with a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, who very often impose themselves as men of understanding upon wise

men.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 10. p. 401.

IMAGINATION.

It is the great failing of a strong imagination to catch greedily at wonders.

Memoirs of the King of Pruffia, p. 118.

A man who once resolves upon ideal discoveries, seldom searches long in vain.

Life of Sir Thomas Browne, p. 266.

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It is a disposition to feel the force of words, and to combine the ideas annexed to them with quickness, that shows one man's imagination to be better than another's, and distinguishes a fine taste from dulness and stupidity.

Review of the Sublime and Beautiful, p. 57. Imagination is useless without knowledge. Nature gives in vain the power of combination, unless study and observation supply materials to be combined.

Life of Butler.

It is ridiculous to oppose judgment to imagination; for it does not appear, that men have necessarily less of one, as they have more of the other.

Life of Roscommon.

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There are some men of such rapid imagination, that, like the Peruvian torrent, when it brings down gold, mingles it with sand.

Plan of an English Dictionary, p. 53.

INTELLIGENCE.

Without intelligence man is not social, he is. only gregarious; and little intelligence will there: be, where all are constrained to daily labour, and every mind must wait upon the hand.

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Western Islands, p. 317.

FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

Of remote transactions, the first accounts are always confused, and commonly exaggerated; and in domestic affairs, if the power to conceal is less, the interest to misrepresent is often greater; and what is sufficiently vexatious, truth seems to fly from curiosity; and as many enquiries produce many narratives, whatever engages the public attention, is immediately disguised by the embellishments of fiction.

Preliminary Difcourfe to the London Chronicle, p. 154.

IRRESOLUTION..

He that knows not whither to go, is in no haste

to move..

SELF-IMPORTANCE.

Life of Swift.

Every man is of importance to himself, and,. therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and supposing the world already acquainted with his pleasures and his pains, is, perhaps, the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at M 3 which

those that hear him will only laugh; for no man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity.

Life of Pope.

The man who threatens the world is always ridiculous; for the world can easily go on without him, and, in a short time, will cease to miss him.

Ibid.

No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hushed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of disappointing them, and strains his imagination in pursuit of something that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and show that his reputation was not gained by chance. Rambler, vol. 3, P. 319.

INSULT.

There are innumerable modes of insult, and tokens of contempt, for which it is not easy to find a name, which vanish to nothing in an attempt to describe them, and yet may, by continual repetition, make day pass after day in

sorrow and in terror.

Ibid. p. 262.

Whatever be the motive of insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly scarcely can deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect. Ibid. vol. 4, p. 221.

INCREDULITY.

To refuse credit, confers, for a moment, an appearance of superiority, which every little mind is tempted

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