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tempted to assume, when it may be gained so cheaply, as by withdrawing attention from evidence, and declining the fatigue of comparing probabilities.

Adler, vol. 2, p. 195.

The most pertinacious and vehement demonstrator may be wearied in time, by continual negation and incredulity, which an old poet, in his address to Raleigh, calls "the wit of fools," obtunds the arguments which it cannot answer, as woolsacks deaden arrows, though they cannot repel them.

INDULGENCE.

Ibid. p. 196.

The man who commits common faults, should not be precluded from common indulgence. Preliminary Discourse to the London Chronicle, p. 155.

INCLINATION.

It may reasonably be asserted, that he who finds himself strongly attracted to any particular study, though it may happen to be out of his proposed scheme, if it is not trifling or vicious, had better continue his application to it, since it is likely that he will with much more case and expedition attain that which a warm inclination stimulates him to pursue, than that at which a prescribed law compels him to toil.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 85.

RURAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Whether to plant a walk in undulating curves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object to catch the view; to make water

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run where it will be heard, and to stagnate where it will be seen; to leave intervals where the eye will be pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to be hidden, demands any great powers of mind, we will not enquire. Perhaps a surly and sullen speculator may think such performances rather the sport, than the business, of human reason. But it must be at least confessed, that to embellish the form of nature is an innocent amusement, and some praise must be allowed, by the most supercilious observer, to him who does best, what such multitudes are contending to do well.

INNOCENCE.

Life of Shenstone.

There are some reasoners who frequently confound innocence with the mere incapacity of guilt; but he that never saw, or heard, or thought of strong liquors, cannot be proposed as a pattern of sobriety.

INCONSTANCY.

Life of Drake, p. 224.

Inconstancy is in every case a mark of weakness.

Plan of an English Dictionary, p. 37

INTEREST.

Most men are animated with greater ardour by interest than by fidelity..

Life of Drake, p. 186.

INTEREST AND PRIDE.

Interest and pride harden the heart; and it is vain to dispute against avarice and power.

Introduction to the World Displayed, p. 177.

KNOWLEDGE,

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MAN is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force..

Prince of Aby fina, p. 99.

As knowledge advances, pleasure passes from the eye to the ear; but returns, as it declines, from the ear to the eye.

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Preface to Shakspeare, p. 34-- !

Other things may be seized by might, or pur chased with money; but knowledge is to bę gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement.

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Rambler, vol. 1, P: 37

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No degree of knowledge, attainable by man, is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender officiousness; and, there-fore, no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained.. Kindness is preserved by a constant reciprocation of benefits or interchange of pleasures; but such benefits only can be bestowed as others are ca-pable to receive, and such pleasures only imparted as others are qualified to enjoy. By this. descent from the pinnacles of art, no honour will be lost; for the condescensions of learning are always overpaid by gratitude. An elevated genius employed in little things, appears, to use the simile of Longinus, "like the sun in its evening declination; he remits his splendour,, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more: though he dazzles less."

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Ibid. vol. 5, P. 19
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The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public. Ibid. vol. 4, p. 48.

In all parts of human knowledge, whether terminating in science merely speculative, or operating upon life, private or civil, are admitted some fundamental principles, or common axioms, which, being generally received, are little doubted, and being little doubted, have been rarely proved.

Taxation no Tyranny, p. I.

One man may be often ignorant, but never ridiculous; another may be full of knowledge, whilst his variety often distracts his judgment, and his learning frequently is disgraced by his absurdities. Preface to Dict. fol. p. 3.

It is to be lamented, that those who are most capable of improving mankind, very frequently neglect to communicate their knowledge, either because it is more pleasing to gather ideas than to impart them, or because, to minds naturally great, few things appear of so much importance as to deserve the notice of the public.

Life of Sir Thomas Browne, p. 256.

Acquisitions of knowledge, like blazes of genius, are often fortuitous. Those who had proposed to themselves a methodical course of reading, light by accident on a new book, which seizes their thoughts, and kindles their curiosity, and opens an unexpected prospect, to which the way which they had prescribed to themselves, would never have conducted them.

Adler, vol. 2, p. 79.

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All foreigners remark, that the knowledge of the common people of England is greater than that of any other vulgar. Ibid. vol. I, p. 35.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

Pontanus, a man celebrated among the early restorers of literature, thought the study of our own hearts of so much importance, that he has recommended it from his tomb.:

Sum JOANNES JOVIANUS PONTANUS, quem amaverunt bonæ musa, suspexerunt vire probi, honestaverant reges domini. Jam scis qui sim, vel qui potius fuerim: ego vero te, hospes, noscere in tenebris nequeo, sed teipsum ut noscas rogo.

"I am PONTANUS, beloved by the powers of literature, admired by men of worth, and dignified by the monarchs of the world. Thou knowest, now, who I am, or, more properly, who I was: for thee, stranger, I, who am in darkness, cannot know thee; but i entre at thee to KNOW THYSELE."

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 174.

Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it

KINGS.

Weitern Islands, p. 31.

The studies of princes seldom produce great effects; for princes draw, with meaner mortals, the lot of understanding; and since of many students not more than one can be hoped to advance to perfection, it is scarce to be expected to find that one a prince.

Memoirs of the K. of Prussia, P. 99.

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