FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Essay viii. Of Marriage and Single Life. He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises. either of virtue or mischief. Essay 1. Of Studies. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. Histories make men wise, poets witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep, moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. THOMAS FULLER. 1608-1661. Holy State. Book ii. Ch. 20. The Good Sea-captain. But our captain counts the image of God, nevertheless his image cut in ebony, as if done in ivory. Book iii. Ch. 12. Of Natural Fools. Their heads sometimes so little, that there is no more room for wit; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room. Book iii. Ch. 22. Of Marriage. They that marry ancient people merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter. Book iv. Ch. 13. To smell a turf of fresh earth, is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality, cordial to the soul. Andronicus. Ad. fin. 1. Often the cockloft is empty, in those which Nature hath built many stories high. ANDREW FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. 1653-1716. From a Letter to the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Rothes, etc. I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation. HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 1672-1751. On the Study and Use of History. Letter 2. I have read somewhere or other, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think, that History is Philosophy teaching by examples. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1706-1790. Poor Richard. God helps them that help themselves. Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Three removes are as bad as a fire. Vessels large may venture more, You pay too much for your whistle. From a Letter to Miss Georgiana Shipley, on the Loss of her American Squirrel. Here Skugg Lies snug, As a bug In a rug. LAURENCE STERNE. 1713-1768. Tristram Shandy. Vol. ii. Chapter xii. Go, poor devil, get thee gone; why should I hurt This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee? thee and me. Vol. iii. Chapter ix. Great wits jump.* Vol. iii. Chapter xi. Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, cried my uncle Toby, but nothing to this. Vol. vi. Chapter viii. The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out for ever. SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. Page 1. "They order," said I, "this matter better in France." * "Good witts will jumpe." Dr. Cougham, Camden Soc. Pub., p. 20. I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'T is all barren. The Passport. The Hotel at Paris. Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery, said I, still thou art a bitter draught. Maria. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.* EDMUND BURKE. 1730-1797. On the French Revolution. It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. ; I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy. . . . . . Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of *"Dieu mesure le vent à la brebis tondue.". Henri Estienne Prémices, etc., p. 47, a collection of Proverbs, published in 1594. To a close shorn sheep God gives wind by measure. Jacula Prudentum. GEORGE HERBERT |