PED

PED ANTRY.

EDANTRY, properly speaking, is an overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to...

Pedantry is not confined to fcholars only; a mere courtier, a mere foldier, a mere any thing, is a pedant.

Pedantry is a vice of the mind, not of the profeffion.

A pedant is an unpolifhed man of letters, and makes an impertinent use of the sciences.

A pedant in the general, is one, who has more reading than good fenfe.

A man of learning, without knowledge of the world, is like one who has a deal of gold, but no fmall money in his pocket.

Pride is the characteristick of a pedant; his arrogancy is founded on particular points of distinction, accompanied with the pedantic fcorn of all fortune and pre-eminence, when compared with his knowledge and learning.

See KNOWLEDGE.

PENETRA

PENETRATIO N.

HE greatest fault in penetration is not its

TH falling fhort, but its going beyond the

mark.

Penetration has an appearance of divining, which flatters our vanity more than all the other qualities of the mind.

A

better.

PENSION to a member of parliament is a continual bribe; a place at court not much

They will never value how much they give the king, who are to share it after it is given. in no

The preferments and honours of this world are, generally speaking, either the inheritance of folly, or the recompence of vice.

A place at court, like a place in heaven, is to be got by being much upon one's knees.

It is only true honour, when a perfon honours the place, not the place him.

In corrupted governments, the place is given for the fake of the man; in good ones, the man is chofen for the fake of the place.

Reverĥonary grants of places of profit and honour by princes are the bane and ruin of their own power, as they are of industry. DAY

As

As merit and abilities are not hereditary, places. and penfions fhould not be reverfionary.

Penfions and places, properly beftowed, are the golden fpurs to virtuous and great actions, and redound to the honour of the donor. To reward merit is to produce it.

See COURTS and COURTIERS.

T

PEOPLE, POPULACE.

HEY who carry the liberty of the people highest, generally ferve them as men do trouts, tickle them 'till they catch them.

There is an accumulated cruelty in a number of men, tho' none in particular are ill-natured.

There are as many apt to be angry at being well, as at being ill-governed; for moft men, to be well-governed, must be fcurvily used.

The fimpler fort of the people even when they fee no apparent cause, are yet evermore jealous over the fecret intents and purposes of wifer

men.

The VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, instead of being, as it is too often impiously called, THE VOICE OF Gon, is generally the VOICE OF DELUSION, which is prompted by those who have interests or paffions of their own to gratify.

There are three things very difficult to be conquered, a RUDE MULTITUDE, an IMPETUOUS TORRENT, and a RAGING FLAME.

The

The immoderate favour of the multitude, as it can do a man no good, fo it will undo as many as fhall truft to it.

It was faid of the earl of Effex, that he was grown fo popular, that he was too dangerous for the times, and the times for him.

All popular discontents have fomething of the nature of torrents; give them a little room to run, and they quickly draw off themselves; but if you offer presently to obftruct their courfe, they fwell and spread the more.

Praise from the common people is generally falfe, and rather follows the vain than the vir

tuous,

See LIBERTY and LICENTIOUSNESS.

PERVERSE NE S S.

See OBSTINACY,

PERSEVERANCE.

See PATIENCE.

PHILOSO

PHILOSOPHERS AND PHILOSOPHY.

PH

HILOSOPHY eafily conquers and triumphs over past and future evils; but the present ones triumph over philosophy,

Philofophy with a little, often makes us more happy than an abundance; it being harder to overcome the evils of profperity, than those of adverfity.

The philofophers, and SENECA among the rest, did not remove men's faults by their precepts, but only improved them by the fetting up of pride; fo that their virtues (as a father of the church has it) were but GLITTERING VICES.

Philofophy and religion fhew themselves in no one inftance fo much, as in the preferving our minds firm and fteady.

The contempt of riches was in the philosophers a fecret defire to revenge on Fortune the injuftice she had done to their merit, by defpifing those goods fhe had denied them: It was an art to fecure themselves from the disgrace of poverty; or a by-way to arrive at esteem, which they could not come at by the ordinary one of riches.

True philofophy is the good phyfick of the mind, and the guide of life.

Where is the philofopher who, knowing truth from falfhood, would not prefer the latter, if he conceived it to be adorned with the riches of his own imagination, to the former, if discovered by another?

Or,