Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

1

Wisdom comprehends at once the end and the means, estimates easiness or difficulty, and is cautious or confident in due proportion.

WORLD.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 223.

The world is generally willing to support those who solicit favour, against those who command reverence. He is easily praised, whom no man

can envy.

Preface to Shakspeare, p. 51.

Of things that terminate in human life, the world is the proper judge. To despise its sentence, if it were possible, is not just; and if it were just, is not possible.

Life of Pope.

To know the world, is necessary, since we were born for the help of one another; and to know it early, is convenient, if it be only that we may learn early to despise it.

WOMEN.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 159.

Women are always most observed, when they seem themselves least to observe, or to lay out for observation.

Rambler, vol. 2, p. 254.

It is observed, that the unvaried complaisance which women have a right of exacting, keeps them generally unskilled in human, nature,

Jbid. vol. 3, p. 266.

Our best poet seems to have given this charac ter to women: "That they think ill of nothing

S2

that

that raises the credit of their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act which they think excited by their own charms."

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 2, p. 156.

It is said of a woman who accepts' a worse match than those which she had refused, that she has passed through the wood, and at last has taken a crooked stick.

Ibid. p. 286.

Nothing is more common than for the younger part of the sex, upon certain occasions, to say in a pet what they do not think, or to think for a time on what they do not finally resolve. Ibid. vol. 4, p. 105.

As the faculty of writing has been chiefly a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has been always thrown upon the WOMEN; and the grave and the merry have equally thought themselves at liberty to conclude either with declamatory complaints, or satirical censures, of female folly or fickleness.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 108.

Of women it has been always known, that no censure wounds so deeply, or rankles so long, as that which charges them with want of beauty.

Ibid. p. 242.

It may be particularly observed of women, that they are for the most part good or bad, as they fall among those who practise vice or virtue; and that neither education nor reason gives them much security against the influence of example. Whether it be, that they have less

courage

courage to stand against opposition, or that their desire of admiration makes them sacrifice their principles to the poor pleasure of worthless praise, it is certain, whatever be the cause, that female goodness seldom keeps its ground against laughter, flattery, or fashion.

Ibid. vol. 2, p. 59.

The wisdom of those by whom our female education was instituted, should always be admired for having contrived that every woman, of whatever condition, should be taught some arts of manufacture, by which the vacuities of recluse and domestic leisure may be filled up. Those arts are more necessary, as the weakness. of their sex, and the general system of life, debar ladies from many employments, which, by diversifying the circumstances of men, preserve them from being cankered by the rust of their own thoughts.

Ibid. p. 180.

Women, by whatever fate, always judge absurdly of the intellects of boys. The vivacity and confidence which attract female admiration, are seldom produced in the early part of life, but by ignorance, at least, if not by stupidity; for they proceed not from confidence of right, but fearlessness of wrong. Whoever has a clear apprehension, must have quick sensibility; and where he has no sufficient reason to trust his own judgment, will proceed with doubt and caution, because he perpetually dreads the disgrace of error.

Ibid. vol. 4, p. 186.

FEMALE WEAKNESS.

The weakness they lament, themselves create;
Instructed from their infant years to court,
With counterfeited fears, the aid of man,
They seep to shudder at the rustling breeze,

[blocks in formation]

Start at the light, and tremble in the dark;
Till affectation, ripening to belief,

And folly, frighted at her own chimeras,
Habitual cowardice usurps the soul.

Irene, p. 28.

WEALTH.

Some light might be given to those who shall endeavour to calculate the increase of English awealth, by observing that Latymer, in the time of Edward VI. mentions it, as a proof of his father's prosperity-That though but a yeoman, he gave his daughters five pounds each for her portion. At the latter end of Elizabeth, seven hundred pounds were such a temptation to courtship as made all other motives suspected.-Congreve makes twelve thousand pounds more than a counterbalance to the affectation of Belinda.No poet would now fly his favourite character at less than fifty thousand.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 1, p. 317.

WICKEDNESS.

There is always danger lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation.

WINE.

Ibid. vol. 10, p. 628.

In the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence; but who ever asked succour from Bacchus, that was able to preserve himself from being enslaved by his auxiliary?

-Life of Addison.

WRONGS

WRONGS.

Men are wrong for want of sense, but they are wrong by halves for want of spirit.

Taxation no Tyranny, p. 42.

Men easily forgive wrongs which are not committed against themselves.

Notes upon Shakfspeare, vol. 4, p. 158.

The power of doing wrong with impunity, seldom waits long for the will.

Obfervation on the State of Affairs, 1756, p. 22.

LETTER-WRITING.

The importance of writing letters with propriety, justly claims to be considered with care, since, next to the power of pleasing with his presence, every man should wish to be able to give delight at a distance.

Preface to the Preceptor p. 68.

MECHANICAL WRITING.

The mechanical art of writing began to be cultivated amongst us in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was at that time so highly valued, that it contributed much to the fame and fortune of him who wrote his pages with neatness, and embellished them with elegant draughts and illuminations; it was partly, perhaps, to this encouragement, that we now surpass all other nations in this art.

Life of Roger Ascham, p. 238.

NEWS-WRITER.

In Sir Henry Wotton's jocular definition," ant ambassador is said to be a man of virtue, sent abroad to tell lies for the advantage of his

country."

« PoprzedniaDalej »