{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_75737/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_75737","id":"gutenberg_75737","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75737","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Maxims"],"text":"DESULTORY THOUGHTS\n\n AND\n\n REFLECTIONS.\n\n\n\n\n Vivere cogitare est.\n\n Life is measured but by thoughts and affections. They are the sun that\n shadows the dial.\n\n\n NEW-YORK:\n Printed by J. P. WRIGHT,\n 18 New Street.\n\n\n\n\n DESULTORY THOUGHTS\n AND\n REFLECTIONS.\n\n\n BY\n\n THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.\n\n\n NEW-YORK:\n\n PUBLISHED BY WILEY AND PUTNAM,\n\n No. 161 Broadway.\n\n 1839.\n\n\n\n\n DESULTORY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS.\n\n\n\n\n KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE.\n\n\nA profound knowledge of life is the least enviable of all species of\nknowledge, because it can only be acquired by trials that make us regret\nthe loss of our ignorance.\n\n\n\n\n BEING UNDERSTOOD.\n\n\nWhen we find that we are not liked, we assert that we are not\nunderstood; when probably the dislike we have excited proceeds from our\nbeing too fully comprehended.\n\n\n\n\n SACRIFICES.\n\n\nSome persons are capable of making great sacrifices, but few are capable\nof concealing how much the effort has cost them; and it is this\nconcealment that constitutes their value.\n\n\n\n\n MUSIC.\n\n\nMusic often awakens long sleeping echoes in the soul; and, though never\nheard before, seems familiar to the ear, as some voice, loved in\nchildhood, remembered in a dream.\n\n\n\n\n MINDS.\n\n\nSome minds may be said to resemble musical instruments: they possess\npowers, and if judiciously touched, give forth sweet sounds.\n\n\n\n\n LOVERS.\n\n\nNinon de L\u2019Enclos observes, that \u201cif a man gives a woman wealth, it is\nonly a proof of his generosity; but that if he gives her his time, it is\na proof of his love.\u201d This, however, cannot be considered as a\nconclusive proof, for, in giving their time, many men bestow that which\nis of no value to themselves or others.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE AND ENTHUSIASM.\n\n\nLove and enthusiasm are always ridiculous, when not reciprocated by\ntheir objects.\n\n\n\n\n PATH OF LIFE.\n\n\nSpontaneously, we render the path of life a weary one, and plant all the\nthorns that obstruct it: while the few stray flowers that cheer us,\narise in some extraneous and contingent agency.\n\n\n\n\n MINDS.\n\n\nThe minds of the young resemble new wine in a state of fermentation and\neffervescence; but the minds of the mature resemble old wine, which has\nlost its fiery particles, and retains only its strength and raciness.\n\n\n\n\n KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.\n\n\nThe knowledge of the world that enables us to escape from errors, can\nonly be acquired by an experience which costs us many of our most\ncherished illusions.\n\n\n\n\n CHARACTER OF MAN.\n\n\nAs storm following storm, and wave succeeding wave, give additional\nhardness to the shell that encloses the pearl, so do the storms and\nwaves of life add force to the character of man.\n\n\n\n\n PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.\n\n\nPrecocious wisdom is not desirable for youth, lest, like the rash\nblossom which ventures forth too early, it should be nipped ere it has\nstrength to resist adversity.\n\n\n\n\n STRENGTH OF MIND.\n\n\nBy relying on our own resources, we acquire mental strength; but, when\nwe lean on others for support, we are like an invalid, who, having\naccustomed himself to a crutch, finds it difficult to walk without one.\n\n\n\n\n CONTEMPLATION.\n\n\nContemplation displays to us the past events of our lives, which, during\ntheir occurrence, we saw not; as a calm clear day shows us the rocks and\nwrecks of the sea, which we discovered not while tossed on the turbulent\nsurface of the waters.\n\n\n\n\n PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.\n\n\nPhilosophy was a boon bestowed by Reason to console mankind for the\ninevitable misfortunes of life, but being found insufficient for the\ntask, she granted the blessing of Religion, a younger, a more gentle,\nand infallible consoler.\n\n\n\n\n POLITENESS.\n\n\nA substitute for goodness of heart.\n\n\n\n\n CONSCIENCE.\n\n\nA starving man, who committed theft, was asked by a pious person if his\nconscience had not cried out to him to forbear. \u201cAlas!\u201d replied he, \u201cif\nit did, the cries of my stomach were so much louder, that they prevented\nme from hearing those of conscience.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n PRESENTIMENTS.\n\n\nPresentiments are the heart\u2019s prophecies; for the heart is a sibyl\ndeeply skilled in all the mysteries of her own realm.\n\n\n\n\n YOUTH AND AGE.\n\n\nYouth resembles a Claude Lorraine glass, which imparts to all objects\nits own beautiful tints; but age is like a magnifying lens, which leaves\nno defect unseen.\n\n\n\n\n CONFIDENCES.\n\n\nConfidences are more frequently reposed in persons through a want of\ndiscretion, than from excess of friendship, and are oftener betrayed\nthrough incontinency of speech than from motives of treachery.\n\n\n\n\n COMMON MISTAKES.\n\n\nThe common herd of mankind mistake anarchy for liberty, ostentation for\ngenerosity, passion for love, and vanity for pride; yet how widely\ndifferent are they all!\n\n\n\n\n JUDGMENT OF WOMEN ON MEN.\n\n\n Women are prone to judge their lovers\u2019 hearts\n But by their own, which little semblance hath\n With man\u2019s rough nature. Hence they love them for\n The qualities they give them\u2014not for those\n They have, which rarely merit to be loved.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE.\n\n\nLove in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera\nseria; and in Germany a melodrame.\n\n\n\n\n GRATITUDE.\n\n\nGratitude was fancifully said to be the memory of the heart; but, alas!\nfor poor human nature, hearts are more than suspected to have wondrous\nshort memories.\n\n\n\n\n MEN AND WOMEN.\n\n\nA woman\u2019s head is always influenced by her heart; but a man\u2019s heart is\ngenerally influenced by his head.\n\n\n\n\n LIFE.\n\n\nLife would be as insupportable without the prospect of death, as it\nwould be without sleep.\n\n\n\n\n MATURITY.\n\n\nIt is in maturity, when the passions are calmed, and Reason exerts her\ninfluence, that the attachments we form possess the most stability. We\nexpect less, and pardon more. The disappointments we have experienced\nteach us to value what we have attained, even while regretting what we\nhave lost.\n\n\n\n\n THE POETRY OF LIFE.\n\n\nThe poetry of our lives is, like our religion, kept apart from our\nevery-day thoughts; neither influence us as they ought. We should be\nwiser and happier, if, instead of secluding them in some secret shrine\nin our hearts, we suffered their humanising qualities to temper our\nhabitual words and actions.\n\n\n\n\n HONOUR AND CHASTITY.\n\n\nHonour is the peculiar and essential virtue of men, and chastity that of\nwomen; both are lost, if these qualities are impeached.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nSociety punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection; like\nthe Spartans, who punished the discovery of theft, and not the crime.\n\n\n\n\n IDEAS.\n\n\nA man with a vast number of ideas, without strong power of reasoning,\nresembles a general incapable of directing his troops.\n\n\n\n\n SELFISH MEN.\n\n\nThe selfish man believes that by closing his heart against his fellows,\nand centering in self every thought and feeling, he escapes much\nsuffering. But his egotistical calculations are invariably defeated; for\nhis contracted sympathies being all directed to one focus, he so\naggravates the ills he endures, that he expends on self alone more\npainful pity than the most enthusiastic philanthropist devotes to\nmankind.\n\n\n\n\n ILLUSIONS.\n\n\nEach illusion that dies gives birth to a posthumous one, which we\nbelieve to be less perishable than its predecessor, until we see it\nsimilarly fade and expire.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nHappiness, like youth and health, is rarely appreciated until it is\npast.\n\n\n\n\n SOLITUDE.\n\n\nIn solitude we retain our own faults; but in society we superadd those\nof others.\n\n\n\n\n SEVERITY TO OTHERS.\n\n\nSome people seem to consider the severity of their censures on the\nerrors of others as an atonement for their own.\n\n\n\n\n YOUTH.\n\n\n When youth has fled the furrowed brow,\n And we no more can trace it now\n Beaming in every outward part;\n Where is its refuge?\u2014in the heart;\n Yes, there it dwells more glowing\u2014warm,\n Than when it lent exterior charm,\n Keeping alive affection\u2019s fire,\n Though it no more can love inspire.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nHappiness consists, not in having much, but in being content with\nlittle.\n\n\n\n\n HATRED.\n\n\nWe injure ourselves more than our enemies, by indulging hatred towards\nthem.\n\n\n\n\n MEMORY.\n\n\n From out the grave of every friend we loved\n Springs up a flower (as fabulists relate\n Arose from the red stream of Ajax\u2019 wound,)\n Memory \u2019tis named, and watered by our tears,\n It lives and grows, until its fibres strike\n Into the heart, nor leave it until death.\n\n\n\n\n AMUSING MEN.\n\n\nWe never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic\npowers. A considerable distinction exists between the amusing and the\nentertaining man: we laugh with one, but reflect with the other.\n\n\n\n\n TRUTH.\n\n\nMonarchs seldom hear truth until too late to derive profit from its\nknowledge.\n\n\n\n\n COURAGE.\n\n\nCourage defends the honour of man,\u2014modesty guards that of woman.\n\n\n\n\n BORES.\n\n\nPeople who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself.\n\n\n\n\n SYMPATHY.\n\n\n Each thought of mine an echo found in his:\n Our minds were like two mirrors placed on walls\n Fronting each other, and reflecting back\n The self-same objects,\u2014such is sympathy.\n\n\n\n\n PLEASURE.\n\n\nPleasure is like a cordial\u2014a little of it is not injurious, but too much\ndestroys.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nFriends are the thermometers by which we may judge the temperature of\nour fortunes.\n\n\n\n\n IDEA.\n\n\nIdeas are the seeds of thought, but they do not produce flowers unless\nthe soil where they are sown is fertile.\n\n\n\n\n ARISTOCRACY.\n\n\nThe aristocracy are prone to ridicule the elevation of men of the middle\nclass to high official situations, not reflecting that it is easier to\ntransmute men of talents into gentlemen than it is to convert mere\ngentlemen into men of talents.\n\n\n\n\n WANT OF THOUGHT.\n\n\n\u201cJ\u2019\u00e9crirais assez bien si je savais penser,\u201d was the confession of a\nFrench writer; one which might with truth be repeated by the greater\npart of modern authors, in whose works we find a superfluity of words,\nand a paucity of ideas. It is as though they wrote to avoid thought,\ninstead of revealing and engendering it. Their works resemble certain\ntrees, on which is found an abundance of leaves, but little fruit.\n\n\n\n\n WISDOM.\n\n\n Wisdom is e\u2019er the harbinger of death.\n It comes not till it long has been invoked,\n To wean us gently from the world\u2019s vain joys\n And show the yawning grave that waits for us.\n\n\n\n\n ADMIRATION.\n\n\nThose who are formed to win general admiration, are seldom calculated to\nbestow individual happiness.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nVirtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.\n\n\n\n\n FORGIVENESS.\n\n\nForgiveness of injuries is apt to draw on the forgiver a repetition of\nwrongs, as people reason thus: \u201cIf he has forgiven so much, he can\nforgive more.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n TRIALS.\n\n\nThe spirit in which we receive trials either increases or diminishes\ntheir bitterness: fortitude and resignation disarm them of their\nsharpest darts; while anger and vindictiveness only augment their\npoignancy.\n\n\n\n\n PRINCIPLES.\n\n\nA man without principles is like a ship without a compass.\n\n\n\n\n TRUTH.\n\n\nMendaciloquens respects truth so much, that he seldom approaches it.\nNay, you are wrong, for he is known to take great liberties with it.\n\n\n\n\n AN UNPOPULAR MAN.\n\n\nAn unpopular man is he who forms few friendships in life; but, _en\nrevanche_, cultivates many enmities.\n\n\n\n\n TIME.\n\n\n Time, fell destroyer of all earthly good,\n Sworn foe to beauty, innocence, and joy,\n Thou leav\u2019st us nought but dull and sad experience,\n Whichever comes when we no longer need it,\n And keeps aloof when we require its aid.\n\n\n\n\n KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nKnowledge should be acquired gradually, and by study; for the\nsuperficial knowledge which is the result of the promiscuous and\nunregulated adoption of the discoveries of others, affects the mind, as\nthe sudden removal of a person with weak eyes from a darkened room into\na blaze of light, does the sight,\u2014it overpowers and confuses.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE.\n\n\nLove cannot exist in the heart of woman unless modesty is its companion,\nnor in that of man unless honour is its associate.\n\n\n\n\n VICES.\n\n\nThe vices of the rich and great are mistaken for errors; and those of\nthe poor and lowly, for crimes.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\n Virtue should virtuous seem, nor wear a mask\n Of levity, as giddy maids put on\n At carnivals, showing unchaste exterior,\n Though innocence doth still reside within.\n\n\n\n\n INGRATITUDE.\n\n\nSo inherent is ingratitude in man, that it is chiefly in affliction that\nhe lifts his soul to his Creator; in joy and prosperity, he is prone to\nforget _Him_.\n\n\n\n\n BALM FOR MISFORTUNES.\n\n\nTo sleep by night and dream by day is the balm of misfortune.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nThose can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated\nto adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental\nresources; for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like\nbeggars, they are too poor to stay at home.\n\n\n\n\n COURAGE.\n\n\nMany people mistake audacity for courage, yet they are dissimilar.\nCatiline was audacious, and C\u00e6sar courageous.\n\n\n\n\n SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nAs darkness encourages the growth of reptiles, so, in an inverse manner,\ndo the creatures of superstition promote the growth of darkness.\n\n\n\n\n SELF-EXAMINATION.\n\n\n Let us call back our long departed years,\n And ask if we employed them as we ought.\n Will they not tell a most reproachful tale,\n Of wasted hours, of blessings never prized\n Till lost, and then ungratefully resigned,\n With murmurs, and not thanks, that they were lent.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nThose who suffer their happiness to depend on the futile pleasures of\nsociety, instead of the resources of their own minds, resemble birds,\nwho, with the power of soaring into the pure regions of the sky,\ndescend, and loiter amid the dust of the earth, at the risk of being\nsnared or destroyed by every vagrant urchin.\n\n\n\n\n IMAGINATION.\n\n\nThe heart is often made answerable for the follies of the imagination.\n\n\n\n\n FLOWERS.\n\n\nSome flowers absorb the rays of the sun so strongly, that in the evening\nthey yield slight phosphoric flashes. May we not compare the minds of\npoets to these flowers, which, imbibing light, emit it again in a\ndifferent form and aspect?\n\n\n\n\n SORROW.\n\n\n Sorrow and time can teach what nought else teaches,\n More than philosopher or priest e\u2019er preaches.\n\n\n\n\n TRUTH AND PHYSIC.\n\n\nTruth and physic, two unpalatable things, never well received, though\nadministered with a good intention.\n\n\n\n\n CUNNING AND VANITY.\n\n\nCunning is a substitute for wisdom, adopted by the weak of intellect, as\nvanity is for pride.\n\n\n\n\n PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.\n\n\nPrecocious wisdom is almost as much to be deprecated for youth as the\npremature maladies of age. Neither should arrive before the proper\nseason, as their presence indicates constitutional debility.\n\n\n\n\n SCEPTICS.\n\n\nSceptics, like dolphins, change when dying.\n\n\n\n\n SCANDAL.\n\n\nScandal is the offspring of envy and malice\u2014nursed by society, and\ncultivated by disappointment.\n\n\n\n\n THE SELFISH MAN.\n\n\nThe selfish man may be compared to those antediluvian forests in the\nwilds of America which are nourished by their own dead leaves; in like\nmanner does he feed on those feelings which ought to be devoted to the\npromotion of the general good.\n\n\n\n\n FEMALE EDUCATION.\n\n\nThe whole system of female education tends more to instruct women to\nallure, than to repel; yet how infinitely more essential is the latter\nart! As rationally might the military disciplinarian limit his tuition\nto the mode of assault, leaving his soldiery in entire ignorance of the\ntactics of defence.\n\n\n\n\n SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nSuperstition is but the fear of belief: religion is the confidence.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.\n\n\nIn society we learn to know others, but in solitude we acquire a\nknowledge of self.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nWe are so little formed for happiness, that, if the present offers\nnothing to mar it, we look back to the past, or forward to the future,\nfor some subject of chagrin.\n\n\n\n\n AUTHORS.\n\n\nAn author should be judged of by his works, rather than by his\nconversation; for the latter takes its colour from those with whom he\nconverses; whereas his writings, being the fruit of solitude, bear the\ntint only of his own mind.\n\n\n\n\n AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.\n\n\nThere are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to\nrise in the world.\n\n\n\n\n ICONOCLAST.\n\n\nDarus was a matter-of-fact man,\u2014a moral iconoclast, who waged war\nagainst every image the fancy presented.\n\n\n\n\n PATIENCE.\n\n\nPatience is a plant of slow growth, but it bears precious fruit, and is\nthe only palliation in affliction.\n\n\n\n\n ENVY.\n\n\nIt is easier to pardon the faults than the virtues of our friends;\nbecause the first excite in us a self-complacency always agreeable; and\nthe second, a sense of humiliation, which makes us dislike the\ninflictor.\n\n\n\n\n VICE AND VIRTUE.\n\n\nVice is sometimes more courageous than virtue, because it has less to\nlose.\n\n\n\n\n FORGIVENESS OF ENEMIES.\n\n\nWe more frequently pardon injuries from forgetfulness of them than from\ngenerosity; and many enemies are reconciled more through weakness of\nmemory than goodness of heart.\n\n\n\n\n FAITH.\n\n\nIt is when we most suffer that we most believe the existence of _that\nPower_ which can wound or heal.\n\n\n\n\n INFIRMITIES OF GENIUS.\n\n\nThe infirmities of genius are often mistaken for its privileges.\n\n\n\n\n INDULGENCE TOWARDS OTHERS.\n\n\nIf we examined our own faults attentively, we should have less time to\ndetect, and more inclination to pardon, those of others.\n\n\n\n\n AFFECTIONS.\n\n\nThe affections of some hearts resemble the sacred Indian tree, whose\npendant branches make themselves a root and a tie to the earth.\n\n\n\n\n APPETITE.\n\n\nThe rich suffer from want of appetite, the poor from excess.\n\n\n\n\n PARDON.\n\n\nGreat injuries pardoned preclude the enjoyment of happiness between the\npardoner and pardoned; for the one is vested with a superiority that\nwounds the self-love of the other, who, though he may admire the\ngenerosity of him who forgives, can love him no more.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nPeople use in society a set of commonplace subjects and thoughts, which\nthey exchange, as they expend the small coin with which they have\nprovided their purses for the day; reserving deep feeling, and elevated\nsentiments, for home consumption, as they reserve their wealth for\nthemselves, rather than for their friends.\n\n\n\n\n FAME.\n\n\n High fame\u2019s a target, at which all let fly\n The darts of envy. Who can miss a mark\n That seems but rear\u2019d to tempt a practised hand,\n Off\u2019ring the aim that most allures mankind?\n\n\n\n\n FORTITUDE AND RESIGNATION.\n\n\nFortitude enables us to encounter trials, and resignation to bear them.\nThe brave man possesses fortitude, but the Christian only has\nresignation.\n\n\n\n\n FAULTS.\n\n\nWe are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to\nlament them.\n\n\n\n\n FORGIVENESS.\n\n\nForgiveness is a salve for the wounds inflicted by unkindness; while\nrancour but serves to keep them unhealed.\n\n\n\n\n POLISHED MEN.\n\n\nThe society of polished men, like smooth, even roads, renders the\njourney of life more easy and agreeable, but that of unpolished men,\nlike rough roads, makes all its ruts and inequalities painfully felt.\n\n\n\n\n RESIGNATION.\n\n\nResignation is sometimes mistaken for happiness, though never found\nuntil its death.\n\n\n\n\n ANGER.\n\n\nAnger banishes reflection, but its consequences recall it.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\n\u201cBe prosperous and happy, never require our services, and we will remain\nyour friends.\u201d This is not what society says, but it is the principle on\nwhich it acts.\n\n\n\n\n LIFE.\n\n\nLife is to the unhappy as a prison, from whose gloom they cannot escape:\nwhile to the happy, it resembles a vast palace filled with all that can\ndelight. The prison may be rendered endurable by resignation; but the\npalace loses some of its bright colouring and gilding every day, until\nnought but faded remnants of its pristine beauty remain.\n\n\n\n\n FUTURITY.\n\n\nOne of the best gifts of Providence is the veil that conceals futurity.\n\n\n\n\n DUST.\n\n\nNo dust affects the eyes so much as gold dust.\n\n\n\n\n FALSE WIT.\n\n\nFalse wit, like false money, only passes current with those who have no\nmeans of comparison.\n\n\n\n\n POLITICS.\n\n\nSuch is the tergiversation in politics at present, that politicians\nshould say with regard to them, what Voltaire said of systems: \u201cIl faut\ntoujours se reserver le droit de rire le lendemain de ses id\u00e9es de la\nveille.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n FAME.\n\n\n Fame is like truth\u2014still questioned and denied,\n The more \u2019tis obvious, yet survives its foes.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE AND JEALOUSY.\n\n\nLove often re-illumes his extinguished flame in the torch of jealousy.\n\n\n\n\n LUXURIES.\n\n\nOur luxuries and pleasures are the chains that civilization throws\naround us to attach us to earth. The coarse-minded submit to wear them,\nforgetting that man was formed for nobler ends, but the elevated and\nrefined cast them off, and aspire to a purer existence.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE.\n\n\nHumboldt notices that the streams in America run languidly in the night,\nand await the rising of the sun to quicken their flight. Love is to the\nheart what the sun is to the American streams\u2014it moves languidly in its\nabsence.\n\n\n\n\n SHORT MEMORIES.\n\n\nThere are no memories so short as those of the parvenu, and the\nungrateful man; the first forgets himself, and the second his friends.\n\n\n\n\n DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY.\n\n\nDespotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.\n\n\n\n\n DEMORALISATION.\n\n\nOne of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect\nof principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nSociety rarely pardons those who have discovered the emptiness of its\npleasures, and who can live independent of it and them.\n\n\n\n\n ASSOCIATES.\n\n\nWe herd with the gay in our days of happiness, but turn to the\nsympathising when misfortune overtakes us: as we seek the festive hall\nin our hours of mirth, and fly to the solitude of our chamber in those\nof sorrow.\n\n\n\n\n RESPECT.\n\n\nWe are never so jealous of the respect of others as when we have\nforfeited our own.\n\n\n\n\n SATIRE.\n\n\nSatire often proceeds less from ill-nature than from the desire of\ndisplaying wit.\n\n\n\n\n STYLE.\n\n\nTo praise the style of an author more than his thoughts, is like\ncommending a woman for her dress more than for her person. Style, like\ndress, should be appropriate, and not detract attention from what it was\nmeant to adorn.\n\n\n\n\n DECLAIMERS AGAINST THE WORLD.\n\n\nThey declaim most against the world who have most sinned against it; as\npeople generally abuse those whom they have injured.\n\n\n\n\n ROUGH MEN.\n\n\nRough men have all their seams on the outside; and they rub against and\nincommode those who come in contact with them.\n\n\n\n\n FAITH.\n\n\nWe are more prone to persecute others for their faith than to make\nsacrifices to prove our own.\n\n\n\n\n REASON.\n\n\nReason dissipates the illusions of life, but does not console us for\ntheir departure.\n\n\n\n\n SORROW.\n\n\nSorrow is to youth what experience is to maturity.\n\n\n\n\n REVOLUTIONS.\n\n\nRevolutions are like earthquakes: if they overturn much that is faulty,\nthey destroy also much that is good.\n\n\n\n\n DESTINY.\n\n\nDestiny is a phantom of our own creation, like the monsters children\nfirst imagine, and then fear.\n\n\n\n\n PHILOSOPHY.\n\n\nSocrates termed philosophy the preparation for death; but should it not\nrather be styled the patient endurance of life?\n\n\n\n\n BON MOTS.\n\n\nIt was said of \u2014\u2014, that his conversation was a tissue of bon mots:\n\u201cYes,\u201d said \u2014\u2014, \u201cbut remember, it has nothing but bon mots, and though a\nfew spangles may ornament a dress, a garment wholly covered with them is\nfatiguing to the eye.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nThe virtue that repels by its severity, makes few converts; but that\nwhich attracts by its charity, incites all to esteem, if not to follow\nits precepts.\n\n\n\n\n KINGS AND BEAUTIES.\n\n\nKings never hear the voice of truth until they are dethroned; nor\nbeauties, until they have abdicated their charms.\n\n\n\n\n FLOWERS.\n\n\n Flowers are the bright remembrancers of youth:\n They waft back with their bland and odorous breath\n The joyous hours that only young life knows,\n Ere we have learned that this fair earth hides graves.\n They bring the cheek that\u2019s mouldering in the dust\n Again before us, tinged with health\u2019s own rose;\n They bring the voices we shall hear no more,\n Whose tones were sweetest music to our ears;\n They bring the hopes that faded one by one,\n Till nought was left to light our path but faith,\n That we too, like the flowers, should spring to life,\n But not, like them again, e\u2019er fade or die.\n\n\n\n\n AGE.\n\n\nIt is strange that when youth gives us the prospect of a long life, we\nseldom think of rationally providing for its enjoyment; but when the\nterm of it has been abridged by the flight of its best years, we become\nanxious to secure the comforts of the brief portion that remains to us.\n\n\n\n\n POETS.\n\n\nPoets, it has been said, form the aristocracy of intelligence; they are\nalso the chemists of sentiment, who analyse and purify it.\n\n\n\n\n PASSION.\n\n\n Some minds are formed to mount, with eagle wing,\n Above the common herd\u2014content to dwell\n Without a wish beyond the joys of sense,\n Till love, resistless love, assails their hearts,\n And now no longer soaring o\u2019er the crowd,\n Lark-like, they build their nests upon the earth.\n \u2019Tis thus that passion ever brings us down,\n Making our minds\u2019 wings\u2014thoughts\u2014of no avail.\n\n\n\n\n REVOLUTIONS.\n\n\nSober-minded people prefer enduring the evils of a despotism which they\nknow, to risking those of a subversion on whose consequences they cannot\ncalculate. Despotism pursues her course orderly and systematically,\nwhile Sedition hurries along, sweeping away with much that is bad still\nmore that is estimable.\n\n\n\n\n MODESTY.\n\n\nModesty, the attendant of virtue, is frequently mistaken for shame,\nwhich is one of the attributes of vice.\n\n\n\n\n CUNNING.\n\n\nCunning is the poor substitute for wisdom which weak minds adopt; but it\nis like the counterfeit which the forger strives to pass for the pure\ncoin.\n\n\n\n\n POLITENESS.\n\n\nNothing is more dissimilar than natural and acquired politeness. The\nfirst consists in a willing abnegation of self; the second, in a\ncompelled recollection of others.\n\n\n\n\n GREAT MEN.\n\n\nMountains appear more lofty, the nearer they are approached; but great\nmen, to retain their altitude, must only be viewed from a distance.\n\n\n\n\n MOURNERS.\n\n\nIt is surprising that a regulation has not been made to exclude persons\nin the garb of mourning from scenes of gaiety, lest the sombre hue of\ntheir dress give rise to sadness; but probably the omission has\nproceeded from a consciousness, that the spectators are as little moved\nby the trappings of grief as the wearers by the sentiment.\n\n\n\n\n FORTUNE.\n\n\nThe wheel of fortune being guided by a blind goddess, often runs into\ndeep ruts, and thus casts up what is impure.\n\n\n\n\n MEN OF GENIUS.\n\n\nMen of genius, who hold out lights to mankind, are used by them as are\nthe Moccoli bearers at the Roman carnival by the populace; each of whom\nstrives first to illume his torch in theirs, and then to extinguish it.\n\n\n\n\n GENEROUS AND SELFISH MINDS.\n\n\nA generous mind identifies itself with all around; but a selfish one\nidentifies all things with self.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nOur friends always wish us to be something which we are not; it is only\nour enemies that wish us to remain as we are.\n\n\n\n\n PREJUDICES.\n\n\nPrejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.\n\n\n\n\n APPEARANCES.\n\n\nWe are judged not by the virtues we possess, but by the indications of\nthem which we assume. Like the style adopted for epistolary usage, in\nwhich we sign ourselves the obedient servants of persons we have no\nvalue for, so the semblance of virtue imposes on many, and satisfies\nall.\n\n\n\n\n PLEASURES.\n\n\nPleasures are like those mountains which charm us when beheld from a\ndistance; but lose all the beauty of their deceitful hue when approached\nnear.\n\n\n\n\n CONCEIT.\n\n\nIt is usually the most conceited people who take offence at the\naffectation of others.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nFriends, like wine, require to be kept before use.\n\n\n\n\n GRATITUDE.\n\n\nGratitude is a prospective, rather than a retrospective virtue.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nWe seldom attain virtue until we have been purified by affliction\u2014as\nonly martyrs become saints.\n\n\n\n\n JUDGMENT OF WORKS.\n\n\nThe frame of mind in which we read a work, often influences our judgment\nof it. The predominant feeling of the moment colours all that we read;\nand we are often surprised on a second perusal, to find no longer either\nthe merits or defects which we supposed it to contain.\n\n\n\n\n AMBITION.\n\n\nAs the pearl, which is the object of universal admiration, is produced\nby the disease of the oyster, so do many of the most illustrious actions\noriginate in that mental disease,\u2014an overweening ambition.\n\n\n\n\n GENIUS.\n\n\nMen of genius may be said to reside in an illuminated and unapproachable\npalace of crystal, which, while it displays their brightness, reveals\nalso certain small blemishes, which are rendered disproportionally\nconspicuous by the contrast of light; while ordinary mortals dwell in\nopaque residences, in which no ray discloses the grave faults of\nmediocrity.\n\n\n\n\n KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.\n\n\nWe betray a profound knowledge of the world, by withdrawing from it when\nmisfortune assails us.\n\n\n\n\n WEAK MEN.\n\n\nA weak man will sustain afflictions that destroy a strong one, as the\nwillow which yields its pliant branches to the blast escapes the\ndestruction of the oak that resists it.\n\n\n\n\n WIT.\n\n\nWit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection\nthe moonlight; for as the bright orb of the night owes its lustre to the\nsun, so does reflection owe its existence to reason.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nIt is more difficult to convince the vicious that virtue exists, than to\npersuade the good that it is rare.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS.\n\n\nThe works of Vapidus might be said not to be the overflowing of a full\nmind, but the dregs of an exhausted one.\n\n\n\n\n PUBLIC.\n\n\nWe have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. _When_ shall we have\na _thinking_?\n\n\n\n\n CIVILIZATION.\n\n\nCivilization begets vices, but the want of it occasions crimes.\n\n\n\n\n AFFLICTION.\n\n\nThe first heavy affliction rends the veil of illusion, and lets us\nbehold the dark side of life.\n\n\n\n\n PASSIONS.\n\n\nThe passions which have stimulated us to crime, ultimately die of\nsatiety, leaving us when too late with a sense of our transgressions,\nunmitigated by the artful palliations and delusions which originally\nconduced to them.\n\n\n\n\n GENIUS.\n\n\nGenius is like the eagle which doth make abode in solitude, and, perched\non high, looks down forgetful of all meaner birds.\n\n\n\n\n MEDIOCRITY.\n\n\nMediocrity is only offensive when accompanied by pretension; because it\nthen wounds our vanity by implying that it thought itself capable of\ndeceiving us.\n\n\n\n\n PHILOSOPHY.\n\n\nThe philosophy which has not been acquired in society will rarely enable\nus to resist its injustice; as a person theoretically taught to swim,\nwill find his knowledge of little avail if he fall into a river.\n\n\n\n\n GOOD TALKERS.\n\n\nTo be listened to with attention, and to acquire the reputation of a\ngood talker, never speak of yourself, but always in implied praise of\nthose you address, or in pungent satire of their contemporaries.\n\n\n\n\n PREMATURE WISDOM.\n\n\nThe premature wisdom of youth resembles the forced fruit of our\nhot-houses: it looks like the natural production, but has not its\nflavour or raciness.\n\n\n\n\n MEN OF GENIUS.\n\n\nHow must a neglected man of genius, conscious of his own powers, pity\nthose who cannot appreciate him, and who bestow what is _his_ due on\nmere pretenders.\n\n\n\n\n POPULARITY.\n\n\nThose who have been the idols of the populace, generally end by becoming\nits victims; for the multitude resemble children who build castles of\ncards, only for the pleasure of destroying them with a breath.\n\n\n\n\n POOR.\n\n\nA term of reproach in England, and of pity in most other countries.\n\n\n\n\n METAPHYSICS.\n\n\nMetaphysics, a science, the study of which _proves_ that to be\nincomprehensible which was before only suspected of being so.\n\n\n\n\n PROSPERITY.\n\n\nAs the fabled cup of the poet was said to be productive of good or evil,\naccording to the lip that pressed it, so is prosperity productive of\nvirtue or vice, according to the nature of him who possesses it.\n\n\n\n\n FLATTERY.\n\n\nStrabo asserts that a species of honey was produced at Pontus, which,\nowing to the bees having fed on aconite and hemlock, was poisonous. May\nwe not liken flattery to this poison\u2014sweet, but destructive?\n\n\n\n\n FAULTS.\n\n\nNo human being is exempt from faults nor destitute of virtues. The\nwicked, who are many, will quickly detect the first, and the good, who\nare but few, will alone discern the second. Hence men\u2019s faults will\nalways be more known than their virtues.\n\n\n\n\n BELIEF IN GOODNESS.\n\n\nWe give credit to others for just as much goodness as we ourselves\npossess.\n\n\n\n\n MERE MORTALS.\n\n\nThere are some mortals whose bodies are but as the sepulchres of their\ndead hearts.\n\n\n\n\n POETS AND ASTRONOMERS.\n\n\nPoets view nature as a book, in which they read a language unknown to\ncommon minds, as astronomers regard the heavens and therein discover\nobjects that escape the vulgar ken.\n\n\n\n\n GRIEF.\n\n\n Grief is our natural state, and joy but comes\n Like gleams of sunshine in a wint\u2019ry day,\n Showing the darkness of the low\u2019ring clouds\n That threaten to obscure its waning lustre.\n Grief shares our pillow, colours even our dreams,\n Awakens when we wake, and through the day\n Sits by us, calling Mem\u2019ry to her aid,\n That she, by whisp\u2019ring of the happy past,\n May make the gloomy present still more dark.\n\n\n\n\n PHILOSOPHERS.\n\n\nMen who expect little enjoyment in life, and who are therefore not\ndisappointed.\n\n\n\n\n MONEY.\n\n\nMoney is the direct or indirect cause of nearly all crimes: by the\npossession of it the rich are enabled to commit them, and through the\nwant of it the poor are excited into the adoption of a similar course.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nHorne Tooke said of intellectual philosophy, that he had become better\nacquainted with it, as with the country, though having sometimes lost\nhis way. May not the same be said of virtue? for never is it so truly\nknown or appreciated as by those who, having strayed from its path, have\nat length regained it.\n\n\n\n\n QUALITIES.\n\n\nThose who are poor in good qualities, assume their appearance; as\npersons who are not sufficiently rich to buy jewels, procure false ones.\n\n\n\n\n PEACE OF MIND.\n\n\nThough peace of mind does not constitute happiness, happiness cannot\nexist without it; our serenity being the result of our own exertions,\nwhile our happiness is dependent on others: hence the reason why it is\nso rare; for, on how few can we count? Our wisdom, therefore, is best\nshown in cultivating all that leads to the preservation of this negative\nblessing, which, while we possess it, will prevent us from ever becoming\nwholly wretched.\n\n\n\n\n ARITHMETIC.\n\n\nA science differently studied by fathers and sons: the first generally\nconfining themselves to addition, and the second to subtraction.\n\n\n\n\n SACRIFICES.\n\n\nMore sacrifices originate in ostentation than generosity.\n\n\n\n\n ADVERSITY.\n\n\nAs bees can breed no poison, though they suck the deadliest juices, so\nthe noble mind, though forced to drain the cup of misery, can yield but\ngenerous thoughts and noble deeds.\n\n\n\n\n GRIEF.\n\n\nDesperate is the grief of him whom prosperity having elated and\nhardened, feels the first arrow of affliction strike at his heart,\nthrough the life of the object dearest to him on earth.\n\n\n\n\n SOLITUDE.\n\n\n Hail, solitude! the nurse of high-born thought\u2014\n The strength\u2019ner of our virtues\u2014the best friend\n To shield us from temptations which await\n Where thou art not, and lead us far from peace.\n\n\n\n\n REFLECTION.\n\n\nIf we could bring ourselves to consider self but as a subordinate atom\nin the great mass that forms the world, we should perhaps bear our\ntroubles with more equanimity: but such is our vanity, that each\nconsiders himself the centre of a little world of his own.\n\n\n\n\n MELANCHOLY.\n\n\nThere are certain hearts in which the germ of melancholy is implanted\neven in their earliest youth, and maturity only strengthens it. On such\npersons, the inevitable ills of life fall with a weight, that, if it\ncrush them not wholly, leaves them eternally bruised in spirit.\n\n\n\n\n AGE.\n\n\nIf age deprives us of our pleasures, it also deadens our sense of\nmisfortunes, by subduing the acuteness of our sensibility.\n\n\n\n\n POLITENESS.\n\n\nPoliteness may prevent the want of wit and talents from being observed;\nbut wit and talents cannot prevent the discovery of the want of\npoliteness.\n\n\n\n\n AGE.\n\n\n Oh! reverence grey hairs\u2014they tell a tale\n Of heavy trials, sore afflictions borne:\n For none e\u2019er wore these harbingers of death\n Without being schooled in all life\u2019s bitter truths.\n\n\n\n\n FATALITY.\n\n\nFatality is another name for misconduct.\n\n\n\n\n QUALITIES.\n\n\nThere are some qualities in our natures rendered noxious or innoxious by\ntheir encounter with others,\u2014just as various medicines lose or receive\npower by an intermixture.\n\n\n\n\n STORMS.\n\n\nStorms in the heart generally make a wreck of peace.\n\n\n\n\n QUALITIES.\n\n\nThere are as many ruined by their good qualities as enriched by their\nbad.\n\n\n\n\n SATIRE.\n\n\nSatire, like conscience, reminds us of what we often wish to forget.\n\n\n\n\n FAULTS.\n\n\n Our faults are lessons writ for other men,\n Who, reading them, are taught at our expense,\n Nor thank us for the knowledge they attain.\n Though bought at heavy cost of woe to us.\n\n\n\n\n WISDOM.\n\n\nWisdom is lulled to sleep by pleasure, but awakens at the touch of\nsorrow.\n\n\n\n\n WIT.\n\n\nThose who have no wit are prone to doubt that of others.\n\n\n\n\n SELF-KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nIt is by self-knowledge that we prevent the seeds of evil from arising\nin our minds, and making that a wilderness of weeds which might have\nbecome a garden of precious flowers.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nIt requires sunshine to see our friends, for they become invisible when\nour horizon is clouded.\n\n\n\n\n FRIEND AND WIFE.\n\n\n Give me a friend, within whose well-poised mind\n Experience holds her seat. But let my bride\n Be innocent as flowers that fragrance shed,\n Yet know not they are sweet.\n\n\n\n\n ADVICE.\n\n\nMost people seem to imagine that advice, like physic, to do good must be\ndisagreeable.\n\n\n\n\n THE FUTURE.\n\n\nA consolation for those who have no other.\n\n\n\n\n TIME.\n\n\nTime is a stream in which there is no mooring the barks of life, because\nthere is no casting anchor in it.\n\n\n\n\n WRITER.\n\n\nWhen Inanis writes history, he draws on his imagination; and when he\ngives us poetry, trusts only to his memory.\n\n\n\n\n FALSE APPEARANCES.\n\n\nWe cover our actions with a sort of veil, which, like the varnish on\npictures, gives them an artificial lustre that serves to soften their\ndefects.\n\n\n\n\n PREJUDICES.\n\n\nFew people look on any object as it really is; but regard it through\nsome fantastic prism presented by their own prejudices, which invest it\nwith a false colour.\n\n\n\n\n PRIDE.\n\n\nPride has seldom a just medium; men have either too much or too little\nof it. An excess, though most offensive to the spectator, is the least\ninjurious to its possessor, for it saves him from the commission of all\nactions that beget humiliation, while a deficiency continually entails\nit upon him.\n\n\n\n\n PRAISE.\n\n\nPraise is the only gift for which people are really grateful.\n\n\n\n\n TIME.\n\n\nTime is the true Lethe, in which is engulphed the recollection of our\nsorrows.\n\n\n\n\n GUARDIANS.\n\n\nThe best guardian for a woman\u2019s happiness is her husband\u2019s love, and for\nher honour her own affection.\n\n\n\n\n PASSION.\n\n\nPassion is a tyrant strong only through the weakness of his slaves.\n\n\n\n\n THE ART OF PLEASING.\n\n\nThe most certain art of pleasing people with us, is to make them pleased\nwith themselves.\n\n\n\n\n GRIEF.\n\n\nGrief lengthens our nights, but shortens our days.\n\n\n\n\n PLAGIARISMS.\n\n\nBorrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only reveal the poverty that\ncompelled the loan.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nHappiness resembles the bird of paradise, which is said never to be seen\nbut at a distance.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS AND ENEMIES.\n\n\nWhile we value the praise of our friends, we should not despise the\ncensures of our enemies; as, from the malice of the latter, we\nfrequently learn our faults, which the partiality of the former led them\nto overlook.\n\n\n\n\n SORROW.\n\n\nSorrow sets her seal on the brows of those she has stricken; and, like\nfreemasons, they know each other by a sign, unintelligible to the\nuninitiated, even when pleasure spreads her fascinations around them.\n\n\n\n\n SELF-KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\n\u201cRentrez en vous-m\u00eame, vous y trouverez les Dieux,\u201d was the advice of an\nancient philosopher. How few have ever entered into the depth of their\nown minds, which are to them as undiscovered springs in the abysses of\nthe earth! Enter into your own mind, and if you find not the gods there,\nyou may, by constant examination and correction, render it worthy of\nbecoming their residence.\n\n\n\n\n CONVERSATION.\n\n\nConversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings\nby which it flies.\n\n\n\n\n MISFORTUNE.\n\n\nMisfortune, though difficult to be borne, has some advantages: it\nprecludes us from fear of the future, proves the sincerity of friends,\nand even reconciles us to the approach of death; while happiness,\nhowever grateful during its brief tenure, is too frequently poisoned by\nthe dread of its interruption.\n\n\n\n\n HOME.\n\n\nThe heart turns to home, even as the tortoise, wherever it may be\nplaced, turns its head towards its native element, and tries to regain\nit.\n\n\n\n\n POLITICS.\n\n\nPolitics is a science, which no one believes those who differ with him\nto understand.\n\n\n\n\n PASSION.\n\n\nPassion conducts to vice, and sentiment leads to virtue.\n\n\n\n\n MISTAKES.\n\n\nHardness of heart is frequently mistaken for firmness of soul; a want of\nimagination, for reason; and obstinacy, for strength of character; yet\nhow utterly unlike are they all!\n\n\n\n\n OSTENTATION.\n\n\nTo appear rich, we become poor.\n\n\n\n\n MEN AND WOMEN.\n\n\nMen resemble the trees of earth, sturdy and full of strength; but women\nresemble the flowers, fair and fragile, and cherished the more because\nthey are delicate.\n\n\n\n\n OSTENTATION.\n\n\nOstentation produces more sacrifices than generosity.\n\n\n\n\n CONVERSATION.\n\n\nThe conversation of some persons resembles occasional gleams of\nsunshine, piercing an opaque cloud; the light is only sufficient to make\nthe general darkness visible.\n\n\n\n\n OPINION.\n\n\nAll desire, but few are willing to pay the price of, the good opinion of\nthe world.\n\n\n\n\n FEAR.\n\n\nHe who fears not, is to be feared.\n\n\n\n\n MIDDLE AGE.\n\n\nMiddle age is an isthmus between youth and death.\n\n\n\n\n MORAL COURAGE.\n\n\nThose only can explore the profoundest depths of suffering who have\nmoral courage sufficient to resist it; as that physical force which\naugments the violence of fever, enables the patient to survive it. The\nintenseness of maladies, mental and bodily, is proportioned to the\nrobustness of those condemned to sustain them; and the weak escape, or\nonly slightly experience, the ills which the strong surmount or sink\nbeneath.\n\n\n\n\n THOUGHT.\n\n\n\u201cLes grandes pens\u00e9es viennent du c\u0153ur,\u201d was the observation of a\nreflecting mind: all that touches the heart, gives rise to thoughts more\nelevated than those that originate only in the head.\n\n\n\n\n CELEBRITY AND NOTORIETY.\n\n\nCelebrity and notoriety are frequently mistaken for each other, yet\nnothing can be more distinct: a great man becomes celebrated; a bad one,\nnotorious.\n\n\n\n\n MEMORIES.\n\n\nSome memories are powerfully retentive of injuries, but totally\noblivious of benefits.\n\n\n\n\n TRIALS.\n\n\nGreat trials demand, and are generally met by courage; for we summon all\nour energies to support them. But it is the every-day minor cares of\nlife that weary the temper and irritate the health; because singly, and\nin detail, they do not appear sufficiently important to induce us to\nrally our force to encounter them. As the sailor, who, having ploughed\nthe ocean in its fiercest moods, returns to perish in the stream that\nwantons before his cottage home, so many a mind that has withstood the\nmost severe trials, has been broken down by a succession of ignoble\nvexations.\n\n\n\n\n COURAGE.\n\n\nCourage is often but the effect of despair, for we cease to fear when we\nhave ceased to hope.\n\n\n\n\n BEAUTY.\n\n\nBeauty without religion is the most dangerous gift that nature can\nbestow on woman; and talents without principles, the most pernicious to\nman.\n\n\n\n\n THOUGHT.\n\n\n Thought rarely dwells in the robust of frame,\n But chooses those whose nerves less stubborn are,\n And who, unknowing sensual impulses,\n Abstracted keep\u2014freed from th\u2019 ignoble thrall\n Of pleasures, that debase men into brutes.\n\n\n\n\n COQUETTES.\n\n\nCoquettes when old, like Penelope with her web, pass half the night in\nundoing the labours of the day.\n\n\n\n\n MALICE.\n\n\nMalice is the spur of wit, good nature the bridle.\n\n\n\n\n MEDIOCRITY.\n\n\nIf mediocrity precludes men from attaining distinction, it does not\nprevent their acquiring popularity, because the mass of mankind are\ndisposed to like those who can excite neither rivalry nor attention, and\nwho consequently leave their own pretensions undisputed.\n\n\n\n\n MODERN REFINEMENT.\n\n\nModern refinement consists in a delicacy in words, and indelicacy of\nthoughts and actions.\n\n\n\n\n THOUGHT.\n\n\nThought sleeps, until awakened by the senses.\n\n\n\n\n COMMON SENSE.\n\n\nIs the most uncommon of all senses.\n\n\n\n\n TALENTS.\n\n\nTalents, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be unostentatious.\n\n\n\n\n FEELINGS.\n\n\nFeelings are always made the excuse of temper; whereas temper much more\nfrequently influences feelings.\n\n\n\n\n NATURE.\n\n\nEvery production of the vegetable, animal, and moral world, has its\nnatural enemy. See how certain flowers, fruits, and plants, are injured\nby certain insects; certain animals tormented by certain flies; and\ncertain men, by corresponding beings of their own species, who,\ndiscovering in them certain qualities, prey on them quite as mortally as\ndo the flies and insects on the objects of their voracity.\n\n\n\n\n DEATH.\n\n\n We mourn the dead, as though _we_ could not die,\n Nor think that ere the grass grows on their graves,\n Nay, ere our tears are dried, we may be call\u2019d\n To quit this life, while counting on long years.\n\n\n\n\n FORGIVENESS.\n\n\nIt is difficult not to hate those whom we have injured, because the\nconsciousness that we have behaved unworthily, humiliates us too much in\nour own estimation, not to impel us to avenge it on them.\n\n\n\n\n NECESSITY.\n\n\nNecessity has been called the mother of invention; but should she not\nrather be named the step-mother, for to her are invariably attributed\nmany inexcusable actions?\n\n\n\n\n ESPRIT FORT.\n\n\nAn _esprit fort_ might frequently, with more justice, be styled _une\nt\u00eate foible_.\n\n\n\n\n EXPERIENCE.\n\n\nExperience has taught us little, if it has not instructed us to pity the\nerrors of others, and to amend our own.\n\n\n\n\n ERRORS.\n\n\nThey who weep over errors, were not formed for crimes.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDSHIP.\n\n\nThose who would preserve a faith in friendship, should never require its\naid.\n\n\n\n\n DUTIES.\n\n\nThose who fulfil their duties, without feeling them to be irksome, are\nhappy; but those who discharge them from a consciousness of their\nimportance, are praiseworthy.\n\n\n\n\n FASHION.\n\n\nPeople who fall into the stream of fashion, like those who tumble into\nthe Mississippi river, are seldom saved from its vortex.\n\n\n\n\n FLATTERY.\n\n\nFlattery, if judiciously administered, is always acceptable, however\nmuch we may despise the flatterer.\n\n\n\n\n DEATH.\n\n\n To reconcile us to Cimmerian death,\n Th\u2019 approach of which strikes terror to all hearts,\n The God of mercy takes what most we love;\n And we no longer dread to follow them.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nGuard, if it be possible, your friends from injuring you, lest they, by\nso doing, become your bitterest enemies, never forgiving the wrongs they\nhave themselves inflicted.\n\n\n\n\n PASSION.\n\n\nThe hurricane of passion withers the milder feelings, even as the blast\nof the simoom dries up and consumes all that it passes over.\n\n\n\n\n SORROW.\n\n\n The fountain of true poetry is sealed,\n And sorrow\u2019s touch alone can bid it flow:\n Then only are its waters all reveal\u2019d,\n For inspiration\u2019s ever bought with woe.\n\n\n\n\n PRIDE.\n\n\nPride prevents not the commission of unworthy actions, though it forbids\nthe avowal of them.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nIn seeking happiness we overlook content, which is always attainable,\nwhile happiness, though sometimes in view, is never within reach.\n\n\n\n\n GENIUS.\n\n\nGenius is the gold in the mine\u2014education the miner who elicits it.\n\n\n\n\n GREAT MEN.\n\n\nIntrepidus was a naturally, and Diplomaticus an artificially great man.\nThe first reposing a just confidence in his own powers, required no\nextraneous aid; while the latter solely depended on his implements for\nsuccess or failure.\n\n\n\n\n SOCIETY.\n\n\nWe must learn to bear with society, or to live without it. The latter\nappears the least difficult task to pursue.\n\n\n\n\n BOYS AND MEN.\n\n\n Mark well the boy; in him you see the man\n Of future years: their instincts, tastes, the same.\n Time but developes that which was in him\n Even from his cradle; it but gives more art\n To hide the evil, counterfeit the good,\n And cheat the world by seeming what he\u2019s not.\n\n\n\n\n HERMITS.\n\n\nPeople are seldom tired of the world until the world is tired of them.\n\n\n\n\n BLIGHTED HOPES.\n\n\nLike a bird with wearied pinions flying over the sea, and painfully\nsensible of the approach of exhaustion while yet in the midst of his\ncareer, is he who, tired of life ere half its course is past, gazes with\ndismay upon the gloomy waste he has still to traverse.\n\n\n\n\n HAPPINESS.\n\n\nSuch is our pride and weakness, that we consider happiness as our right,\nand misfortune as an injustice. A wise man, on the contrary, will\nconsider a happy condition as a prize drawn in a lottery, which he had\nno right to expect, but which his good fortune secured for him.\n\n\n\n\n PECULIARITIES OF MINDS.\n\n\nAs some insects are said to derive their colour from the leaf upon which\nthey feed, so do the minds of men assume their hue from the studies\nwhich they select for it.\n\n\n\n\n THE HEART.\n\n\nThe heart, like the cement of the ancient Romans, acquires hardness by\ntime.\n\n\n\n\n CONSOLATION.\n\n\nThe truest consolation for the ills of life, is the recollection of its\nbrevity.\n\n\n\n\n EXPERIENCE.\n\n\nExperience is a torch lighted in the ashes of our illusions.\n\n\n\n\n DIFFICULTIES.\n\n\nDifficulties vanquish the weak, but are vanquished by the strong.\n\n\n\n\n CHARACTERS.\n\n\nWe never injure our own characters so much, as when we attack those of\nothers.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE.\n\n\nWhen one link in the chain of love is broken, its strength and security\nare gone.\n\n\n\n\n DEATH.\n\n\nWhen we have outlived our youth, we have little to regret in the death\nof our old age; it is but the release of a superannuated friend, who has\noutlived every other.\n\n\n\n\n DEATH-BED.\n\n\n We value time but on the bed of death,\n When its brief sands are running to an end;\n O! how we then remember with dismay\n Our wasted hours, which, like reproachful ghosts\n Of murder\u2019d friends, rise up and pass before us!\n How quickly flee the moments,\u2014precious then\n As moments ne\u2019er were dear to us before,\n Each counted with an agonising pang\n As they recede, and with them\u2014ebbing life,\n Leaving the shrinking soul in terror dire,\n To meet, as best it may, the conqueror Death.\n\n\n\n\n CONTACT WITH SUPERIOR MINDS.\n\n\nIt is doubtful whether advantage is derived from a constant intercourse\nwith superior minds. If our own be possessed of power, the collision is\nlikely to excite it into action, and original thoughts are consequently\nelicited. But, if a great inequality exists, the inferior mind is\nquelled by the strong, or loses whatever features of idiosyncracy it\nmight once have possessed, in an unconscious subserviency to its more\nvigorous opponent.\n\n\n\n\n CONFESSION.\n\n\nHow many errors do we confess to our Creator, that we dare not reveal to\nhis fallible creatures.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE.\n\n\n Some natures, like trees of the torrid zone,\n Yield fruit but once, and prematurely die;\n No second love such hearts are form\u2019d to own,\n They palpitate but once with passion\u2019s sigh.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE-MATCHES.\n\n\nLove-matches are formed by people who pay for a month of honey with a\nlife of vinegar.\n\n\n\n\n WOMEN.\n\n\nWomen, with their bright imaginations, tender hearts, and pure minds,\ncreate for themselves idols, on which they lavish their worship, making\ntheir hearts temples, in which the false god is adored. But, alas! the\nobject of their best and fondest feelings generally too soon proves to\nbe of base clay, instead of pure gold; and though pity would fain\nintervene to veil its defects, or even to cherish it in despite of them,\nvirtue, reason, and justice combine finally to destroy it; but, in the\ndeed, too often injure the fane in which it was enshrined.\n\n\n\n\n LIFE.\n\n\nLife resembles a river flowing rapidly to the ocean of eternity, and in\nits flight passing by brilliant, as well as sombre objects, without the\npower of doing aught more than for a few brief moments receiving our hue\nfrom them.\n\n\n\n\n COURAGE.\n\n\nA higher degree of courage is required to pardon an injury than to\navenge it. In the first, the triumph is over self, the most difficult of\nall; but in the second, it is over another, which is always more easily\nachieved.\n\n\n\n\n LIGHT LITERATURE.\n\n\nWorks of light literature often have a vogue that more solid ones fail\nto acquire; as paper kites mount in the air, when a more consistent\nsubstance cannot ascend.\n\n\n\n\n DECEIVERS.\n\n\nWe are born to deceive, or to be deceived. In one of these classes we\nmust be numbered; but our self-respect is dependent upon our selection.\nThe practice of deception generally secures its own punishment; for\ncallous indeed must be that mind which is insensible to its ignominy!\nBut he who has been duped, is conscious, even in the very moment that he\ndetects the imposition, of his proud superiority to one who can stoop to\nthe adoption of so foul and sorry a course. The really good and\nhigh-minded, therefore, are seldom provoked by the discovery of\ndeception; though the cunning and artful resent it, as a humiliating\ntriumph obtained over them in their own vocations.\n\n\n\n\n CONCEALED GRIEF.\n\n\nConcealed griefs are the most consuming, as secret maladies are the most\nfatal.\n\n\n\n\n WOMEN.\n\n\nWomen should not paint love, until they have ceased to inspire it.\n\n\n\n\n EMINENT MEN.\n\n\nAs high mountains attract clouds and vapours, so do eminent men attract\ncensure. They act like the conductors placed on lofty buildings to draw\nthe lightning from less elevated objects.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.\n\n\nLove is a flower, with which we adorn our youth; but friendship is a\nfruit with which we solace our maturity.\n\n\n\n\n PEDANTS.\n\n\nPedants are often mistaken for savants, yet the difference between them\nis great; one affects, the other possesses science. The pedant is to the\nsavant, what the apothecary is to the physician: one understands the\nmeans, the other both the means and the end.\n\n\n\n\n WIT.\n\n\nWit lives in the present, but genius survives in the future.\n\n\n\n\n EXPERIENCE.\n\n\nExperience enables us to detect the errors of the past, but it seldom\nguards us against those of the future.\n\n\n\n\n ENVY.\n\n\nThe vain and pretending are ever the most prone to envy; for they covet\nthat which they would fain make people believe they possess.\n\n\n\n\n THE PAST.\n\n\nThe past shows us but the tombs of our buried illusions and hopes.\n\n\n\n\n PITY.\n\n\nAll that we bestow in pity to the unfortunate, we take away in respect;\nhence, he that would be respected must never allow himself to become an\nobject of pity.\n\n\n\n\n PRIDE AND VANITY.\n\n\nVanity lives on the commendations of others, but pride is supported by\nself-respect. Hence the vain pine in solitude, while the proud retain\ntheir self-reverence and are satisfied.\n\n\n\n\n WEAKNESSES.\n\n\nOur weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our\nstrength is the forced fruit.\n\n\n\n\n PRODIGALS.\n\n\nPersons who never learn the difference between a shilling and a\nsixpence, until they want the latter.\n\n\n\n\n EXISTENCE.\n\n\nExistence is only felt to be valuable while it is necessary to some one\ndear to us. The moment we become aware that our death would leave no\naching void in a human heart, the charm of life is gone.\n\n\n\n\n WOMEN.\n\n\nThere is a vast difference between a feminine, and an effeminate woman;\nthe first has all the gentleness of her sex,\u2014the second, all the\nweakness.\n\n\n\n\n PLEASURE.\n\n\nPleasure is like a cordial; a little of it is not injurious, but too\nmuch destroys.\n\n\n\n\n POETRY.\n\n\nThe gleams in the poetry of some writers are like straw fires, bright,\nvivid, but transitory.\n\n\n\n\n COSMETICS.\n\n\nThere is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.\n\n\n\n\n COURTIERS.\n\n\nThe two principal requisites in a courtier are, a flexible conscience,\nand an inflexible politeness.\n\n\n\n\n MISFORTUNES.\n\n\nThere are some misfortunes, the recollection of which floats ever\nuppermost in our minds, like oil thrown on water.\n\n\n\n\n WOMEN.\n\n\nYoung women ought, like angels, to pardon the faults they cannot\ncomprehend; and old women, like saints, should compassionate, because\nthey have endured temptations, and experienced the difficulty of\nresisting them.\n\n\n\n\n MEDIOCRITY.\n\n\nIn the society of persons of mediocrity, he who has the most wit will\nplease the least, for each person will either misunderstand, or be\njealous of him.\n\n\n\n\n COSMETICS.\n\n\nCosmetics are to the face, what affectation is to the manners; they\nimpose on none, and disgust many.\n\n\n\n\n MEN.\n\n\nA vicious man is governed by his appetites, a weak man by his\naffections, but a wise man is governed by his principles.\n\n\n\n\n MORALISTS.\n\n\nTo amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as\nhe ought to be.\n\n\n\n\n WOMEN.\n\n\nThose women who are most loved by their own sex, are precisely such as\nare least sought by the other.\n\n\n\n\n CONSCIENCE.\n\n\nHe who takes conscience for his guide, will not easily lose his way.\n\n\n\n\n MINDS.\n\n\nA sensible mind applies patience to misfortunes; a frivolous one,\nforgetfulness.\n\n\n\n\n CONSCIENCE.\n\n\n Conscience oft slumbers, but has fearful dreams,\n And wakes as painfully as mourners do\n From the first sleep that follows the dread shock\n Of losing one that dearer was than life.\n\n\n\n\n MISFORTUNES.\n\n\nThey only can thoroughly compassionate misfortune who have drunk from\nits bitter cup; for, how can the prosperous freely sympathize in that\nwhich they have never experienced, and consequently cannot understand?\n\n\n\n\n YOUTH AND MATURITY.\n\n\nYouth is pliant and elastic; if it receives impressions easily, they are\nas easily effaced: but maturity is rigid, and, admitting them slowly,\nretains them with a proportionate tenacity.\n\n\n\n\n CONSCIENCE.\n\n\nThe rewarder of virtue, and avenger of crime.\n\n\n\n\n CATHERINE OF RUSSIA.\n\n\nCatherine I. of Russia was called the mother of her people; but\nCatherine II. might, with nearly equal justice, be named the _wife_.\n\n\n\n\n MOURNERS.\n\n\nThey only truly mourn the dead, who endeavour so to live as to ensure a\nre-union with them in heaven.\n\n\n\n\n MEMORIES.\n\n\nSome persons are so tenacious of memory, that they forget nothing but\nthe services they have received, and the errors they have committed.\n\n\n\n\n COURAGE AND VIRTUE.\n\n\nA man should never boast of his courage, nor a woman of her virtue, lest\ntheir doing so should be the cause of calling their possession of them\ninto question.\n\n\n\n\n CUSTOM.\n\n\nCustom is a tyrant that holds us in chains, which we do not break,\nbecause so many others support them patiently.\n\n\n\n\n LIFE.\n\n\nLife, like the diamond in a mine, is sometimes valueless to its owner\nuntil it becomes estimated by another.\n\n\n\n\n YOUTHFUL LOVERS.\n\n\nYouthful lovers, like the painter Arellius, always paint the objects of\ntheir affection as goddesses.\n\n\n\n\n SPRING AND AUTUMN.\n\n\nSpring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.\n\n\n\n\n TRUE AND FALSE FRIENDS.\n\n\n False friends will seek you in a happy home,\n But true friends only to a prison come.\n\n\n\n\n VIRTUE.\n\n\nThe virtues of others often render us sensible of the want of them in\nourselves, as the riches of our acquaintance make us more conscious of\nour poverty.\n\n\n\n\n MARRIAGE.\n\n\n How many in the married state we find\n Wedded in person, but divorced in mind!\n Unnatural union! fraught with as much dread\n As when the living chain\u2019d were to the dead\n By stern Mezentius; yet less cruel he,\u2014\n As many slaves of Hymen will agree,\u2014\n For but one victim suffer\u2019d from the chain,\n While wedlock gives the _two_ an equal pain.\n\n\n\n\n F\u00caTES.\n\n\nA f\u00eate is one of the many palliatives for that common malady _ennui_,\nand, like most palliatives, gives but a temporary relief, generally\nfollowed by a return of the disease.\n\n\n\n\n LEVELLERS.\n\n\nMen who cannot rise, are ever prone to pull down those who do, hoping to\nmount by their ruin.\n\n\n\n\n EXPERIENCE.\n\n\nThose are fortunate who borrow experience, instead of buying it.\n\n\n\n\n ADVERSITY.\n\n\n Adversity, \u2019t is thine to prove\n The truth of friendship or of love;\n Thy frown can drive the false away,\n But makes the faithful nearer stay;\n Thy chilling breath illusion rends,\n And is too cold for summer friends.\n\n\n\n\n MISFORTUNES.\n\n\nMisfortunes which have not been caused by our own misconduct, and which\nwe may lay open to sympathy, are but as superficial wounds, which are\neasily healed; but those which guilt has produced, and shame conceals,\nlike the stolen fox of the Spartan boy, prey on the vitals, and the\npangs must be concealed, while hiding their inflictor in the breast he\nfeeds on.\n\n\n\n\n LIBERTY.\n\n\n O liberty! the purest gift from heaven\n That ever was to erring mortals given;\n The heart that Heaven has form\u2019d to worship thee,\n Must be from every grovelling passion free;\n The patriot would thy noble precepts use,\n While demagogues but know thee to abuse.\n\n\n\n\n AGE.\n\n\nWhen age is seen moving through scenes of gaiety and pleasure, its\nwrinkles concealed beneath a mask of paint, and its wig wreathed with\nflowers, it reminds one of the death\u2019s heads which the ancients\nintroduced at their festivals, to recall to their memories the brevity\nof life, and make them enjoy the present with more zest.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENT.\n\n\nWe miss content in our search for happiness.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDSHIP.\n\n\n I lost my spirits and my health.\n But kept my friends, so did not wince\n Until one day I lost my wealth,\n And never heard of friendship since.\n\n\n\n\n TRIALS.\n\n\nIt is when we most suffer, that we least doubt the existence of that\nPower which can afflict or heal.\n\n\n\n\n LIFE.\n\n\nWe pass our lives in regretting the past, complaining of the present,\nand indulging false hopes of the future.\n\n\n\n\n LOVE AND VANITY.\n\n\nHalf the errors attributed to love have their source in vanity; and many\na person has made sacrifices to this unworthy passion, who would have\nsuccessfully resisted the pleadings of affection.\n\n\n\n\n ON SEEING PRINCE TALLEYRAND SUFFERING UNDER A SEVERE COLD.\n\n\n Why looks prince Talleyrand so cold\u2014\n Why trembles he in every part?\n It is as doctors long foretold,\n His body\u2019s caught cold from his heart.\n\n\n\n\n FRIENDS.\n\n\nWe are often ashamed of our friends, when it is they who have cause to\nbe ashamed of us.\n\n\n\n\n PRIDE AND POVERTY.\n\n\nPride and poverty are the most ill-assorted companions that can meet.\nThey live in a state of continual warfare, and the sacrifices they exact\nfrom each other, like those claimed by enemies to establish a hollow\npeace, only serve to increase their discord.\n\n\n\n\n LIBERTY.\n\n\nLiberty, according to the acceptation of the term among its modern\nvotaries, consists in the right of doing every thing agreeable to\nthemselves, and of precluding others from enjoying the same privilege.\n\n\n\n\n MANNERS.\n\n\nIn aping the manners of foreign countries, we lose what is best in our\nown, and only expose ourselves to the ridicule of those we imitate.\n\n\n THE END.\n\n\n NEW\u00b7YORK:\n Printed by J. P. WRIGHT,\n 18 New Street.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\n Page Changed from Changed to\n\n 67 Politics, a science, which no Politics is a science, which no\n one believes one believes\n\n \u25cf Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.\n \u25cf Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"Desultory thoughts and reflections","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":10270}