Kings, without sometimes passing their time without pomp, and without acquaintance with the various forms of life, and with the genuine passions, interests, desires, and distresses of mankind, see the world in a mist, and bound their views to a narrow compass. It was, perhaps, to the private condition in which Cromwell first entered the world, that he owed the superiority of understanding he had over most of our kings. In that state, he learned the art of secret transaction, and the knowledge by which he was able to oppose zeal to zeal, and make one enthusiast destroy another..

Ibid. p. 100.

It is a position long received amongst politicians, that the loss of a king's power is soon. followed by the loss of life.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 6, p. 440.

The riches of a king ought not to be seen in his own coffers, but in the opulence of his sub-jects.

Memoirs of the King of Prussia, P. 97

To enlarge dominions, has been the boast of many princes; to diffuse happiness and security through wide regions has been granted to few. Ibid. p. 1112

Monarchs are always surrounded with refined! spirits, so penetrating, that they frequently discover in their masters great qualities, invisible to vulgar eyes, and which, did not they publish them to mankind, would be unobserved for ever.. Marmor Norfelciente, p. 17.

L.

LIFE.

LIFE is not to be counted by the ignorance of infancy or the imbecility of age. We are long before we are able to think, and we soon cease from the power of acting.

Prince of Abyssinia, p. 26.

Human life is every where a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed. Ibid. p. 78..

Life may be lengthened by care, though death. cannot ultimately be defeated.

Preface to Dictionary, fol. p. 10.

The great art of life is to play for much and stake little..

Differtation on Authors, p. 29.

It has always been lamented that of the little time allotted to man, much must be spent upon superfluities. Every prospect has its obstructions, which we must break to enlarge our view. Every step of our progress finds impediments, which, however eager to go forward, we must stop to remove.

Preliminary Discourse to the London Chronicle, p. 153.

An even and unvaried tenor of life always hides from our apprehension the approach of its end. Succession is not perceived but by variation. He that lives to-day as he lived yesterday, and expects that as the present day, such will be

to-morrow,

to-morrow, easily conceives time as running in a circle, and returning to itself. The uncertainty of our situation is impressed commonly by dissimilitude of condition, and it is only by finding life changeable, that we are reminded of its shortness.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 282.

He that embarks in the voyage, of life, will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind, than the strokes of the oar; and many founder in their passage while they lie waiting for the gale.

Ibid, vol. 1, p. 7.

A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry; and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 2, p. 73.

In the different degrees of life, there will be often found much meanness among the great, and much greatness among the mean,

Ibid. vol. 3, P. 181.

Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean; particularly of those who commend them without conviction or discernment,

Ibid. vol. 4, p. 21.

When

When we see by so many examples, how few are the necessaries of life, we should learn what madness there is in so much superfluity.

Ibid. vol. 8, p. 345.

The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences, of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence; of insect vexations, which sting us and fly away; and impertinences which buzz a while about us, and are heard no more. Thus a few pains and a few pleasures are all the materials of human life; and of these the proportions are partly allotted by Providence and partly left to the arrangement of reason and choice.

Rambler, vol. 2, p. 82.

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition in life, that all have their cares either from nature or from folly; whoever, therefore, that finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain, that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

Ibid. vol. 3, p. 140.

No man past the middle point of life, can sit down to feast upon the pleasures of youth, without finding the banquet embittered by the cup of sorrow.

A few years make such havoc in human generations, that we soon see ourselves deprived of those with whom we entered the world, and whom the participation of pleasures or fatigues had endeared to our remembrance. The man of en,

terprise

terprise recounts his adventures and expedients, but is forced, at the close of the relation, to pay a sigh to the names of those that contributed to his success. He that passes his life among the gayer part of mankind, has his remembrance stored with remarks and repartees of wits; whose sprightliness and merriment are now lost in perpetual silence. The trader, whose industry has supplied the want of inheritance, repines in solitary plenty at the absence of companions, with whom he had planned out amusements for his latter years; and the scholar, whose merit, after a long series of efforts, raises him from ob-scurity, looks round in vain from his exaltation. for his old friends or enemies, whose applause or mortification would heighten his triumph. Ibid. vol. 4, p. 234.

Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time; and its progress towards happiness, though naturally slow, is yet retarded by unnecessary labour..

Idler, vol. 2, p. 217. ·

Life, consists not of a series of illustrious ac-tions or elegant enjoyments; the greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption. In short, the true state of every nation is the state of common life.

Western Islands, p. 44.