pulfe of paffion be filent, till you can be foft. Labour even to get the command of your countenance fo well, that those emotions may not be read in it: a most unfpeakable advantage in bufinefs! On the other hand, let no complaifance, no gentleness of temper, no weak defire of pleafing on your part, no wheedling, coaxing, nor flattery, on other people's, make you recede one jot from any point that reafon and prudence have bid you purfue; but return to the charge, perfift, perfevere, and you will find moft things attainable that are poffible. A yielding, timid meeknefs is always abufed and infulted by the unjuft and the unfeeling; but meeknefs when fuftained by the fortitèr in re, is always refpected, commonly fuccefsful. In your friendships and connections, as well as in your enmities, this rule is particularly ufeful; let your firmnefs and vigour, preferve and invite attachments > to you; ; but, at the fame time, let your manner hinder the enemies of your friends and dependents from becoming yours: let your enemies be difarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but let them feel at the fame time, the fteadinefs of your juft refentment; for there is a great difference between bearing malice, which is always ungenerous, and a refolute felf-defence, which is always prudent and juftifia-. ble. uneralew ylitsood tongen

I CONCLUDE with this obfervation, That gentleness of manners, with firmnefs of mind, is a fhort, but full defcription of human perfection, on this fide of religious and moral duties.

LORD CHESTERFIELD. do viungohdatɔng to súdilma) fola Novoboda dhow virist

Jutely fomed boshal ang ballaf

CHA P.

ERE I to explain what I understand by good fenfe,

WERE

I fhould call it right reafon; but right reafon that arifes not from formal and logical deductions, but from a fort of intuitive faculty in the foul, which diftinguishes by immediate perception: a kind of innate fagacity, that in many of its properties feems very much to refemble inftinct. It would be improper, therefore, to fay, that Sir Ifaac Newton fhewed his good fenfe, by thofe amazing difcoveries which he made in natural philofophy: the operations of this gift of heaven are rather inftantaneous, . than the refult of any tedious procefs. Like Diomed, after Minerva had endued him with the power of difcerning gods from mortals, the man of good fenfe difcovers at once the truth of thofe objects he is moft concerned to diftinguish; and conducts himfelf with fuitable caution and fecurity.

In is for this reafon, poffibly, that this quality of the mind is not fo often found united with learning as one could wish : for good fenfe being accustomed to receive her difcoveries without labour or ftudy, the cannot fo eafily wait for these truths, which being placed at a distance, and lying concealed under numberless covers, require much pains and application to unfold.

Bur though good fenfe is not in the number, nor always, it must be owned, in the company of the fciences; yet is it (as the moft fenfible of poets has juftly obferved)

fairly worth the feven.

Rectitude of understanding is indeed the most useful, as well as the moft noble of human endowments, as it is the fove

reign guide and director in every branch of civil and focial intercourfe.

UPON whatever occafion this enlightening faculty is exerted, it is always fure to act with diftinguished eminence; but its chief and peculiar province feems to lie in the commerce of the world. Accordingly we may obferve, that those who have converfed more with men than with books; whofe wifdom is derived rather from experience than contemplation; generally poffefs this happy talent with fuperior perfection. For good fenfe, though it cannot be acquired, may be improved; and the world, I believe, will ever be found to afford the most kindly foil for its cultivation.

MELMOTH.

ت

TUDIES ferve for delight, for ornament, and for abili

STUDIES

ty. The chief ufe for delight is in privatenefs and retiring; for ornament, is in difcourfe; and for ability, is in the judgment and difpofition of bufinefs. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars one by one;

of

but the general counfels, and the plots, and marshall he;

affairs come beft from thofe that are learned. To fpend too much time in ftudies is floth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make rules is the humour of a fcholar. are perfected by experience; for

judgment wholly by their They perfect nature, and natural abilities are like natural abilities are

by duty, and ftudies

natural plants, that need pruning themselves to give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn ftudies, fimple men admire them, and wife men ufe them:

for

for they teach not their own ufe, but that is a wifdom without them, and above them, won by obfervation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take før granted, nor to find talk and difcourfe, but to weigh and confider. Some books are to o be tafted, others to be swallowed, and fome few to be chewed and digefted; that is, fome books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curioufly; and fome few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books alfo may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that should be only in the lefs important arguments, and the meaner fort diftilled books are like common diftilled waof books; elfe din. ters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a prefent wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to feem to know, that he doth not.

BACON.

C.H A P.

X.

ON SATIRICAL WIT.

TR RUST me, this unwary pleafantry of thine will

ofooner or later bring thee into into fcrapes and difficulties, wh s, which no after wit can extricate thee out of. In thefe fallies, too oft I fee, it happens, that the perfon laughed -at, confiders himself in the light of a perfon injured, with all the rights of fuch a fituation belonging to him; and when thou vieweft him in that light too, and reckon'ft upon his friends, his family, his kindred and allies, and muftereft up with them the many recruits which will lift under him

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