Reputation by the Pageantry of an inconfolable Sorrow. There is ftill another fort of Tears,which flowing from fhallow Springs, will run and dry up very eafily Men Weep fometimes to gain the Reputation of Good-Nature-and Tenderness, fometimes to be pitied and lamented by others, and fometimes to avoid the fhame of being accounted infenfible.

Some Men are more mifs'd than lamented; and others again are very much lamented, and very little mifs'd.

Our Affliction for a dead Friend, is great or fmall, not according to his Merit, but the Opinion we think he had of our Deferts.

A pretty Houfe, a fine Horfe, a Dog, a Watch, any thing that comes to our fhare, is enough fometimes to foften a great Grief, and leffen the fenfe of a great Lofs.

The Duties of Interment are juftly called the laft Duties; for beyond the Funeral,all that is given to the Dead, is taken away from the Living. Lamentations that are too long, not only prejudice Nature, but Society likewife; they render us incapable of the Duties of a Civil Life; and one may fay, that out of Complaifance to thofe Friends we have loft, they make us wanting to thofe we ftill enjoy.

A skilful Comforter muft begin by the Aggravation of Evils, to obtain a free admittance to the mind of the Afflicted, and to furprize their Belief.

*To Mourn without meafure is Folly; not to mourn at all Infenfibility: The beft Temper is betwixt Piety and Reafon; to be fenfible, but neither to be tranfported nor caft down.

* Moft

* Moft People fhew in their Afflictions more Ambition than Piety; for when any body is within hearing, what Groans and Outcries do they make? but when they are alone and in private all is hufh and quiet: So foon as any body comes in, they are at it again, but their Sorrow goes off with the Company.

*The most desperate Mourners are they who care leaft for their Friends; for they think to redeem their Credit for want of Kindness to the Living, by extravagant Ravings after the Dead.

To weep exceffively for the Dead, is a kind of an Affront to the Living.

Our

The manners

Ages of Life.

of the Age

Ur Life being nothing elfe but a perpetual Change and Revolution, we come altogether fresh and raw into the feveral Stages of it, and want often Experieuce in fpite of Gray-Hairs.

Toung People change their Taste and Inclinations, by the Mettle and heat of Blood, and Old ones keep theirs by the Sullennefs of Habit and Custom.

Touth is a perpetual Debauchery, and the very Fever of Reason.

The Lukewarmness of Old Age is as great a Foil to a Man's Salvation, as the Heat and Paffions of Touth.

Toung Men that come firft upon the Stage of the World, ought to be either very Modeft or very Brisk; for a fober, grave and compofed Temper commonly turns to Impertinence.

Old People love mightily to give good Advice, to

F 2

comfort

comfort themselves of their Incapacity of fetting ill Examples.

Both Wisdom and Folly grow ftill proportionally with Age.

Moft Men fhew upon the turning of their Age, where their Mind and Body will begin to decay.

Nothing is more ridiculous in Old People that have been Hand fom formerly, than to forget that they are fo no more.

'Tis a hard Leffon to learn how to be Old.

Old Age is a Tyrant, that forbids us all the Pleafures of Youth, upon the feverest Penalties.

There is no part of our Life wherein we ought to study our own Humour with more Application than in Old Age, for it is never fo difficult to be difcover'd as then. An impetuous Young Fellow has a hundred returns when he is diffatisfied with his Extravagances; but Old People devote themfelves to their Humour, as if it were a Vertue, and take Pleasure in their own Defects, because they carry a falfe Refemblance of Commendable Qualities: They are perpetually crying up the Time-paft, and envioully condemning the Prefent: They rail at Pleasures when they are paft them, or cenfure Diverfions, whofe only Fault is their own Incapacity: A ferious Air paffes with them for Fudgment, Phlegm for Wisdom, and hence proceeds that impérious Authority they allow themselves to cenfure every thing.

We fee nothing more ordinary for Old Men, than to defire a Retirement, and nothing fo rare with them, as not to repent of it when they are once retired: Their Souls that are in too great a Subjection to their Humours, are difgufted with the World for being tirefome; but fcarce can

they

they quit this falfe Object of their Misfortune, but they are as angry with Solitude, as they were with the World, difquieting themselves, where nothing but themfelvés can give them any dif quiet.

Scarce do we begin to grow Old, but but we begin to be difpleafed with fome distaste, which we fecretly frame in our felves. Then our Souls free from Self-love, is eafily fill'd with that which is fuggefted to us, and what would have pleas'd us before but indifferently, charms us at prefent, and enflaves us to our own Weakness. By this, Miftreffes difpofe of their old Lovers to their own fancy, and Wives of their old Husbands.

'Tis with our Lives as with our Eftates, a good Husband makes a little go a great way: Whereas, let the Revenue of a Prince fall into the Hands ofa Prodigal, 'tis vanifh'd in a Moment. So that the Time allotted us, if it were well employ'd, were abundantly enough, to answer all the Ends and purposes of Mankind.

A neglected Drefs in Old People, multiplies their Wrinkles, and expofes their Infirmities: An affeted Curiofity of Apparel has the fame Effect.

Fortune, Riches, Avarice.

Rich Man may have variety of Dishes, fine A Pictures, a magnificent Palace in the Town for the Winter, a delicate Country Seat for the Summer, and a great Equipage and Retinue He may make his Son a Lord, and Marry his Daughter

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Daughter into a Duke's Family : All this is as it fhould be, and properly belongs to him, but perhaps it belongs to others only to live Content and Happy.

That which excufes an infolent Coxcomb for his Pride and Ambition, is the trouble we generally are at, as foon as he has made a confiderable Fortune, to find in him a Merit he never had, and as great perhaps as he himself fancies he has.

If we did not fee it daily with our own Eyes, how could we imagine the ftrange difproportion which more or lefs Pelf puts betwixt Men; 'tis that which determines a Man either to the Sword, the Bar, the Church, or the Exchange, there's no other Vocation now-a-days.

Two Merchants were Neighbours, and dealt in the fame Commodities, tho' with a very different fuccefs of Fortune; they had each of them an only Daughter, who were both brought up toge ther in that Familiarity which is ufual betwixt Perfons of the fame Age and Degree Some time after, one of thefe forc'd by the pincli of preffing Neceffity, betakes her felf to the Ser vice of one of the greateft Ladies at Court-Her old Companion.

If a Merchant mifcarry, Courtiers will fay of him, he is a pitiful Cit, a fneaking Trader, a Coxcomb If he profper, they'll court him for his Daughter.

Chance brought me into the fame Company with a Man fo- very Deformed and Ridiculous both in Mind and Body, that I had much ado to keep my felf from Laughing In this interim, one of my Acquaintance whilpers me in the Ear, This

Man