Angelica. It is an unreasonable accusation that you lay upon our sex. You tax us with injustice, only to cover your own want of merit. You would all have the reward of love; but few have the constancy to stay till it becomes your due. How few would persevere even to martyrdom, and sacrifice their interest to their constancy? In admiring me, you misplace the novelty. The miracle to-day is, that we find A lover true; not that a woman's kind. Congreve-Love for Love. DCCCCXXXII. Talkers and futile persons, are commonly vain and credulous withal; for he that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not; therefore set it down, that a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral: and in this part it is good, that a man's face gives his tongue leave to speak; for the discovery of a man's self, by the tracts of his countenance, is a great weakness and betraying, by how much it is many times more marked and believed than a man's words.-Lord Bacon. DCCCCXXXIII. Romeo. I dreamt a dream to night. Mercutio. And so did I. Rom. Well, what was yours? Mer. That dreamers often lie. Rom. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O, then, I see, queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love : Shakspeare. DCCCCXXXIV. If I should grant that in the ebullitions of a violent passion, one may love another better than himself, who should I most oblige, the lovers or the mistresses ?— Bruyere. DCCCCXXXV. Good men, like the sea, should still maintain DCCCCXXXVI. Notwithstanding man's essential perfection is bu very little, his comparative perfection may be very considerable. If he looks upon himself in an abstracted light, he has not much to boast of; but if he considers" himself with regard to others, he may find occasion of glorying, if not in his own virtues, at least in the absence of another's imperfections. This gives a different turn to the reflections of the wise man and the fool. The first endeavours to shine in himself, and the last to outshine others. The first is humbled by the sense of his own infirmities, the last is lifted up by the discovery of those which he observes in other men. The wise man considers what he wants, and the fool what he abounds in. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation, and the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him. Addison. DCCCCXXXVII. A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled, Shakspeare. DCCCCXXXVIII. There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly, and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally rises in them betwixt their condition and yours, is excruciating. — Bruyere. DCCCCXXXIX. There is some good in public envy, whereas in private there is none; for public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great; and therefore it is a bridle also to great ones to keep within bounds.— Lord Bacon. DCCCCXL. He that truly loves Burns out the day in idle fantasies; And when the lamb bleating, doth bid good night To keep quick time unto the owl, whose voice DCCCCXLI. T. Middleton. Indolence of body and mind, when we aim at no more, is very frequently enjoyed; but the very inquiry after happiness has something restless in it, which a man who lives in a series of temperate meals, friendly conversations, and easy slumbers, gives himself no trouble about. While men of refinement are talking of tranquillity, he possesses it.—Steele. DCCCCXLII. Fainwood. Sir Wilful Witwould comes to town, in order to equip himself for travel. Mirabel. For travel! Why, the man that I mean, is above forty. Fainwood. No matter for that; 'tis for the honour of England, that all Europe should know we have blockheads of all ages. Mirabel. I wonder there is not an act of parliament to save the credit of the nation, and prohibit the exportation of fools. Fainwood. By no means, 'tis better as it is; 'tis better to trade with a little loss, than to be quite eaten up with being overstocked.-Congreve-Way of the World. DCCCCXLIII. Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination. This I once said to my Lord Bolingbroke, and desired he would observe, that the clerk in his office used a sort of ivory knife with a blunt edge to divide a sheet of paper, which never failed to cut it even, only requiring a steady hand; whereas if they should make use of a sharp penknife, the sharpness would make it go often out of the crease, and disfigure the paper.Swift. DCCCCXLIV. Vain honour! Thou art but disguise, Court her own image in the heart, Carew. |