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"BUT such is the perverseness of our nature,
That if we once but fancy levity,
How antic and ridiculous soe'er
It suit with us, yet will our muffled thought
Choose rather not to see it, than avoid it:
And if we can but banish our own sense,
We act our mimic tricks with that free
license,

That lust, that pleasure, that security,
As if we practised in a paste-board case,
And no one saw the motion, but the motion."
Ibid.
p. 252.

"MEN speak ill of thee: so they be ill men, If they spake worse, 'twere better; for of such

To be dispraised, is the most perfect praise. What can his censure hurt me, whom the world

Hath censured vile before me!"

Ibid. p. 281.

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"Arts, Arrantius?

"YEARS are beneath the spheres; and time None but the plain and passive fortitude,

makes weak

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To suffer and be silent; never stretch These arms against the torrent; live at

home

With my own thoughts, and innocence about

me,

Not tempting the wolves' jaws: these are my arts."-BEN JONSON. Sejanus, p. 104.

out

"WHAT a wild muster's here of attributes | Handsome and neat; but then as they grew T'express a worm,-a snake."-Ibid. p. 115. Said of the serpent which came out of his statue, but applicable to adulatory epithets of dignity.

"It is a note

Of upstart greatness, to observe and watch For these poor trifles, which the noble mind Neglects and scorns.

— Aye, and they think themselves Deeply dishonoured where they are omitted, (As if they were necessities that helped To the perfection of their dignities,) And hate the men that but refrain them." Ibid. p. 137. "BEAUTY, wit, and grace,

The elements of active delicacy,
Those all-eye-pleasing harmonies of sight
Which do enchant men's fancies, and stir up

The life blood of dull earth."

MACHIN'S Dumb Knight.

Old Play, vol. 4, p. 383. "AYE! well done! Promises are no fetters: with that tongue Thy promise past, unpromise it again. Wherefore has man a tongue of power to speak,

But to speak still to his own private purpose? Beasts utter but one sound; but men have

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Of speech, and reason, even by nature given
Now to say one thing, and another now,
As best may serve their profitable ends."
CHAPMAN. All Fools.
Old Play, vol. 4. p. 129.
"BELIEVE it, sir,
That clothes do much upon the wit, as
weather

Does on the brain: and thence, sir, comes
your proverb,
[perience
The tailor makes the man. I speak by ex-
Of my own customers. I have had gallants
Both court and country, would have fool'd
you up

In a new suit, with the best wits in being, And kept their speed as long as their clothes lasted

At the elbows again, or had a stain or spot, They have sunk most wretchedly."

“I WONDER gentlemen

And men of means will not maintain themselves [highest: Fresher in wit, I mean in clothes, to the For he that's out of clothes is out of fashion, And out of fashion is out of countenance, And out of countenance is out of wit." BEN JONSON. Staple of News, vol. 5, pp. 177-8.

A RICH piece of French eloquence. The night after the battle of Toulouse.—“ Le silence, muet de sa nature, n'y parlait pas, mais il poussait des gemissemens confus qui perçaient l'âme."— Precis Historique de la Battaile, part 3, p. 156.

"GOOD Master Picklock, with your worming brain

And wriggling engine-head of maintenance, Which I shall see you hole with very shortly. A fine round head, when those two lugs To trundle through a pillory." [are off, BEN JONSON. Staple of News, vol. 5, p. 298.

"A POOR affrighted

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TRUE Valour.

"It is the greatest virtue, and the safety
Of all mankind; the object of it is danger.
A certain mean 'twixt fear and confidence.
No inconsiderate rashness, or vain appetite
of false encountering formidable things,
But a true science of distinguishing
What's good or evil. It springs out of reason
And tends to perfect honesty; the scope
Is always honour, and the public good,
It is no valour for a private cause."
Ibid. p. 412.
"FEAR to do base unworthy things is valour;
If they be done to us, to suffer them
Is valour too."

Ibid.

"I NEVER thought an angry person valiant.
Virtue is never aided by a vice.
What need is there of anger and of tumult,
When reason can do the same things, and
more."
Ibid. p. 413.

"THE things true valour's exercised about
Are poverty, restraint, captivity,
Banishment, loss of children, long disease;
The least is death. Here valour is beheld,
Properly seen; about these it is present;
Not trivial things which but require our
confidence."
Ibid. p. 414.

"AND as all knowledge when it is removed
And separate from justice, is called craft,
Rather than wisdom; so a mind affecting
Or undertaking dangers for ambition,
Or any self-pretext, not for the public,
Deserves the name of daring, not of valour.
And over-daring is as great a vice
As over-fearing.

Yes, and often greater."
Ibid. p. 415.
"How most ridiculous quarrels are all these!
Notes of a queasy and sick stomach, labouring
With want of a true injury.”—Ibid. p. 417.

"BE watchful; have as many eyes as
Heaven,
And ears as harvest."

Albumazar. Old Play,
vol. 7, p. 111.

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"EL sol cayendo vaya

A sepultarse en las ondas,

Que entre obscuras nubes pardas
Al gran cadaver de oro

Son monumentos de plata."—Ibid.

"C'ÉTAIT l'heure où l'incertitude de la lumière rend à l'imagination son vague empire, l'heure où la réverie la remet en possession de tout ce que lui ôtait la réalité; où le présent disparaît, où l'avenir et le passé semblent sortir des ténébres."-CusTINE, vol. 2, p. 338.

"THE voice so sweet, the words so fair,
As some soft chime had stroked' the air;
And though the sound were parted thence,
Still left an echo in the sense."

BEN JONSON, vol. 9, p. 70.

“ ALL nobility

But pride, that schism of incivility, She had, and it became her."

Ibid. p. 78.

OLYMPIA says of Bireno, "Io credea e credo, e creder credo il vero, Ch' amasse ed ami me con cor sincera." ARIOSTO, c. 9, st. 23.

"For my life,

My sorrow is I have kept it so long well,
With bringing it up unto so ill an end.
I might have gently lost it in my cradle,
Before my nerves and ligaments grew strong
To bind it faster to me."

MASSINGER, Old Law, p. 472.

In what an execrable feeling was this written by Montrevil.

"Quand je seray tout prest d'avoir les yeux

couvers

De l'ombre et de l'horreur d'une nuit eternelle,

Plût aux dieux devant moy voir perir l'univers!

Que ma mort me sembleroit belle! J'aurois en expirant un plaisir sans pareil;

Southey has here inserted with two queries

-charm?-struck ?-J. W. W.

Et comme en me couchant je souffle ma

chandelle,

Je voudrois en mourant éteindre le soleil." RECUEIL, &c. vol. 4, p. 271.

"MAL est gardé ce que garde la crainte." PASSERAT, &c. vol. 2, p. 111.

"O THOU Soft natural death, that art joint twin [comet

To sweetest slumber! no rough-bearded Stares on thy mild departure; the dull owl Beats not against thy casement; the hoarse wolf

Scents not thy carrion! Pity winds thy corse, Whilst horror waits on princes."

WEBSTER, vol. 1, p. 129.

"I Do love these ancient ruins ; We never tread upon them, but we set Our foot upon some reverend history, And questionless. Here in this open court, Which now lies naked to the injuries Of stormy weather, some men lie interr'd Who loved the church so well, and gave so largely to it: [bones They thought it should have canopied their Till doomsday. But all things have their end, [like to men, Churches and cities, which have diseases Must have like death that we have." Ibid. vol. 1, p. 306.

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