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"Oracles.

"Oracles ceased presently after Christ, as soon as nobody believed them; just as we have no fortune-tellers, nor wise men, when nobody cares for them. Sometimes you have a season for them, when people believe them; and neither of them, I conceive, wrought by the devil.”

"Evil speaking.

"Speak not ill of a great enemy, but rather give him good words, that he may use you the better if you chance to fall into his hands. The Spaniard did this when he was dying; his confessor told him, to work him to repentance, how the devil tormented the wicked that went to hell; the Spaniard replying, called the devil 'my lord'—'I hope my lord the devil is not so cruel.' His confessor reproved him. 'Excuse me,' said the Don, 'for calling him so; I know not into what hands I may fall; and if I happen into his, I hope he will use me the better for giving him good words.'"

"Ill Words.

"A gallant man is above ill words. An example we have in the old Lord of Salisbury, who was a great wise man. Stone had called some lord about court 'fool;' the lord complains, and has Stone whipped; Stone cries, 'I might have called my Lord of Salisbury fool often enough, before he would have had me whipped.'

"He that speaks ill of another, commonly before he is aware, makes himself such a one as he speaks against; for if he had civility or breeding, he would forbear such kind of language."

"Humility.

"There is humilitas quâdam in vitio [a humility pushed to an excess, until it becomes a vice]. If a man does not take notice of that excellency and perfection that is in himself, how can he be thankful to God, who is the author of all excellency and perfection? Nay, if a man hath too mean an opinion of himself, it will render him unserviceable both to God and man.”

"Pride.

"Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity. In gluttons there must be eating, in drunkenness there must be drinking; it is not the eating, nor it is not the drinking that is to blame, but the excess. in pride."

"Gentlemen.

So

"What a gentleman is, 'tis hard with us to define; in other countries he is known by his privileges; in Westminster Hall he is one that is reputed one; in the Court of Honour, he that hath arms. The king cannot make a gentleman of blood, nor God Almighty, but he can make a gentleman by creation. If you ask which is the better of these two-civilly, the gentleman of blood; morally, the gentleman by creation may be the better, for the other may be a debauched man, this a person of worth."

"Patience.

"Patience is the chiefest fruit of study. A man that strives to make himself a different thing from other men by much reading, gains this chiefest good, that in all future he hath something to entertain and comfort himself withal."

"Money.

"Money makes a man laugh. A blind fiddler playing to a company, and playing but saucily, the company laughed at him; his boy that led him perceiving it, said, 'Father let us begone, they do nothing but laugh at you.' 'Hold thy peace, boy,' said the fiddler, 'we shall have their money presently, and then we will laugh at them.'

"Difference of Men.

"The difference of men is very great; you would scarce think them to be of the same species; and yet it consists more in the affection than in the intellect. For as in the strength of body, two men shall be of an equal strength, yet one shall appear stronger than the other, because he exercises and puts out his strength,

the other will not stir nor strain himself. So 'tis in the strength of the brain; the one endeavours, and strains, and labours, and studies, the other sits still and is idle, and takes no pains, and therefore he appears so much the inferior.

"Marriage.

"1. Of all actions of a man's life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all actions of our life 'tis most meddled with by other people.

"2. Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in Æsop were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well because they could not get out again."

"Measure of Things.

"1. We measure from ourselves, and as things are for our use and purpose, so we approve them; bring a pear to the table that is rotten, we cry it down, 'tis naught; but bring a medlar to the table that is rotten, and 'tis a fine thing, and yet I'll warrant you the pear thinks as well of itself as the medlar does.

"2. Nay, we measure the goodness of God from ourselves; we measure his goodness, his justice, his wisdom, by something we call just, good, or wise in ourselves; and in so doing we judge proportionally to the country fellow in the play, who said if he were a king he would live like a lord, and have peas and bacon every day, and a whip that cried 'slash.'"

"Friends.

"Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet."

"Self-Denial.

""Tis much the doctrine of the times that men should not please themselves, but deny themselves everything they take delight in; not look upon beauty, wear no good clothes, eat no good meat, &c., which seems the greatest accusation that can be upon

the Maker of all good things. If they be not to be used, why did God make them? The truth is, they that preach against them cannot make use of them their selves, and then again they get esteem by seeming to contemn them. But mark it while you live, if they do not please themselves as much as they can."

"Proverbs.

"The proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews, and the reason he gave was, because by them he knew the minds of several nations, which is a brave thing; as we count him a wise man that knows the minds and insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them. Proverbs are habitual to a nation, being transmitted from father to son."

"Reverence.

""Tis sometimes unreasonable to look after respect and reverence, either from a man's own servant or other inferiors. A great lord and a gentleman talking together, there came a boy by leading a calf with both his hands. Says the lord to the gentleman, 'You shall see me make the boy let go his calf.' With that he came towards him, thinking the boy would have put off his hat, but the boy took no notice of him. The lord seeing that, 'Sirrah,' says he, 'do you not know me that you are no reverence.' Yes,' says the boy, 'if your lordship will hold my calf, I will put off my hat.""

"Prayer.

"We take care what we speak to men, but to God we may

say any thing."

John, Earl Somers.

1650-1716.

I

HE greatest lawyer of his generation, one of the most distinguished men of his age, and foremost in the ranks of our great English statesmen, upon the career and character of John, Earl Somers, it is possible to look with almost unalloyed satisfaction.

I shall begin my sketch of this illustrious man—who may almost be called the founder of our constitutional monarchy; who at any rate laid, broad and firm, the substructure on which that admirable edifice has been raised -by bringing together the worthiest and most notable of the eulogiums that have been heaped upon his memory. For the convenience of space, I shall sometimes have to condense them, but, so far as possible, I shall give them in their original form.

Sir James Mackintosh will be regarded as a competent critic, and in his opinion, Lord Somers nearly realised the perfect model of a wise statesman in a free community. "His wish was public liberty; he employed every talent and resource which was necessary for his end, and not prohibited by the rules of morality. His

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