Virtue is undoubtedly most laudable in that state which makes it most difficult.

Ibid.

Virtue is the surest foundation both of reputation and fortune, and the first step to greatness is to be honest.

Life of Drake, p. 160.

He that would govern his actions by the laws of virtue, must regulate his thoughts by the laws of reason; he must keep guilt from the recesses of his heart, and remember that the pleasures of fancy and the emotion of desire, are more dangerous as they are more hidden, since they escape the awe of observation, and operate equally in every situation, without the concurrence of external opportunities.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 48.

To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue, is the great prerogative of innocence; an exemption granted only to invariable virtue. But guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those to whom nothing could give influence or weight, but their power of betraying.

Thid. vol. 2, p. 85.

Virtue may owe her panegyrics to morality, but must derive her authority from religion.

Preface to the Preceptor, p. 76.

Virtue is too often merely local. In some situations, the air diseases the body; and in others, poisons the mind.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 2.

There

There are some who, though easy to commit small crimes, are quickened and alarmed at atrocious villainies. Of these, virtue may be said to sit loosely, but not cast off.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 10, p. 629,

Where there is yet shame, there may in time. Western Islands, p. 10.

be virtue.

There are some interior and secret virtues which a man may sometimes have, without the knowledge of others; and may sometimes assume to himself, without sufficient reasons for his opinion. Life of Sir T. Browne, p. 280.

ROMANTIC VIRTUE.

Narrations of romantic and impracticable vir tue, will be read with wonder; but that which is unattainable is recommended in vain. That good may be endeavoured, it must be shown to be pos sible. Life of Pope.

INTENTIONAL VIRTUE.

Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy, him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practise; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory; as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 83.

EXCESS OF VIRTUE.

It may be laid down as an axiom, that it is more easy to take away superfluities, than to supply de fects; and therefore he that is culpable, because he has passed the middle point of virtue, is always accounted a fairer object of hope, than he who, fails by falling short; as rashness is more pardon able than cowardice, profusion than avarice.

Ibid. p. 151.

t

VICE.

Vices, like diseases, are often hereditary. The property of the one is to infect the manners, as the other poisons the springs of life.

BLANK VERSE. T

Idler, vol. 1, p. 238.*

The exemption which blank verse affords from the necessity of closing the sense with the couplet, betrays luxurious and active minds into such in dulgence, that they pile image upon image, ornament upon ornament, and are not easily persuaded to close the sense at all. Blank verse will, it is to be feared, be too often found in description, exuberant in argument, loquacious; and in narra tion, tiresome,

Life of Akenside.

Blank verse makes some approach to that which is called "the lepidary style." It has neither the easiness of prose, nor the melody of numbers.

Life of Milton.

Blank verse, said an ingenious critic, seems to be verse only to the eye.

Ibid. 1

He

He that thinks himself capable of astonishing, may write blank verse; but those that hope only to please, must condescend to rhyme.

VAUNTING.

Ibid.

Large offers, and sturdy rejections are among the most common topics of falsehood.

Ibid.

U.

UNIVERSALITY.

WHAT is fit for every thing, can fit nothing

well.

UNDERSTANDING.

Life of Cowley.

As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society, the man of intelligence must direct the man of labour.

Western Inlands, p. 201.

GREAT UNDERTAKINGS.

A large work is difficult, because it is large, even though all its parts might singly be performed with facility. Where there are many things to be done, each must be allowed its share of time and labour, in the proportion only which it bears to the whole; nor can it be expected that the stones which form the dome of the temple, should be squared and polished like the diamond of a ring. Preface to Dictionary, fol. p. 9.

UTILITY.

The value of a work must be estimated by its use: it is not enough that a dictionary delights

the

the critic, unless at the same time it instructs the learner. It is to little purpose that an en gine amuses the philosopher by the subtlety of its mechanism, if it requires so much knowledge in its application, as to be of no advantage to the common workman.

Plan of an English Dictionary, p. 33.

UNITIES OF TIME AND PLACE.

The time required by a dramatic fable elapses, for the most part, between the acts; for of so much of the action as is represented, the real and poetical duration is the same. If, therefore, in the first act, preparations for war against Mithridates, are represented to be made at Rome, the event of the war may, without absurdity, be represented in the catastrophe as happening in Pontus. We know that we are neither in Rome, nor Pontus; that neither Mithridates, nor Lucullus, are before us. The drama exhibits successive imitations of successive actions; and why may not the second imitation represent an action that happened years after the first, if it be so connected with it, that nothing but time can be supposed to intervenę?

The lines, likewise, of a play, relate to some action, and an action must be in some place; but the different actions that complete a story may be in places very remote from each other: and where is the absurdity of allowing that space to represent first Athens, and then Sicily, which was always known to be neither Sicily nor Athens, but a modern theatre?

Yet he that, without diminution of any other excellence, shall preserve all the unities unbroken, deserves the like applause with the architect who shall display all the orders of an architect in a

citadel,