If to have all that riches can purchase is to be rich, if to do all that can be done in a long time is to live long, he is equally a benefactor to mankind, who teaches them to protract the duration, or shorten the business of life.

Life of Barretier, p. 141.

LEARNING.

It is not by comparing line with line that the merit of great works is to be estimated; but by their general effects and ultimate result.

Life of Dryden.

When learning was first rising on the world, in the fifteenth century, ages so long accustomed to darkness were too much dazzled with its light to see any thing distinctly. The first race of scholars, hence, for the most part, were learning to speak rather than to think, and were therefore more studions of elegance than truth. The contemporaries of Boethius thought it sufficient to know what the ancients had delivered; the examination of tenets and facts was reserved for another generation.

Western Islands, p.' .28.

In nations where there is hardly the use of letters, what is once oùt of sight, is lost for ever. They think but little, and of their few thoughts. none are wasted on the part in which they are neither interested by fear nor hope. Their only registers are stated observances and practical representations; for this reason an age of ignorance is an age of ceremony. Pageants and processiops, and commemorations, gradually shrink a

way

way as better methods come into use, of recording events and preserving rights.

Ibid. p. 145.

False hopes and false terrors are equally to be avoided. Every man who proposes to grow eminent by learning, should carry in his mind at once the difficulty of excellence, and the force of industry; and remember, that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of labour; and that labour, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 155.

Literature is a kind of intellectual light, which, like the light of the sun, may sometimes enable us, to see what we do not like; but who would wish to escape unpleasing objects, by condemning himself to perpetual darkness?

Dissertation on Authors, p. 22.

It is the great excellence of learning, that it borrows very little from time or place. It is not confined to season or to climate; to cities or the country; but may be cultivated and enjoyed where no other pleasure can be obtained.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 234.

In respect to the loss and gain of literature, if letters were considered only as a means of pleasure, it might well be doubted in what degree of estimation they should be held; but when they are referred to necessity, the controversy is at an end. It soon appears, that though they may sometimes incommode us, yet human life would scarcely rise, without them, above the common existence of animal nature. We might, indeed, breathe and

eat,

eat, in universal ignorance, but must want all that gives pleasure or security, all the embellishments and delights, and most of the conveniences and comforts of our present condition.

Differtation on Authors, p. 21,

LOVE.

bi

It is not hard to love those from whom nothing can be feared.

Life of Addifon.

In love it has been held a maxim, that suc-. cess is most easily obtained by indirect and unperceived approaches; he who too soon professes himself a lover, raises obstacles to his own wishes; and those whom disappointments have taught experience, endeavour to conceal their passion, till they believe their mistress wishes for the discovery.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 3.

Love being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol, 10, p 366,

SELF-LOVE.

Partiality to ourselves is seen in a variety of instances. The liberty of the press is a blessing, when we are inclined to write against others: and a calamity, when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants; as the power of the c own is always thought too great by those who suffer through its influence, and too little by those in whose favour it is exerted. A standing army is generally accounted necessary by those who command, and dange rous and oppressive by those who support it.

Life of Savage.

To

To charge those favourable representations which every man gives of himself, with the guilt of hypocritical falsehood, would show more severity than knowledge, The writer commonly believes himself. Almost every man's thoughts, whilst they are general, are right; and most hearts are pure, whilst temptation is away. It is easy to awaken generous sentiments in privacy; to despise death where there is no danger; to glow with benevolence where there is nothing. to be given. Whilst such ideas are formed, they are felt, and self-love does not suspect the gleam of virtue to be the meteor of fancy.

Life of Pope.

LANGUAGE.

When the matter is low and scanty, a dead language, in which nothing is mean, because nothing is familiar, affords great convenience.

Life of Addifon.

Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.

Preface to Dictionary, fol. p. 2.

However academies have been instituted to guard the avenues of their languages; to retain fugitives and repulse intruders; their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain. Sounds are too volatile and subtle for legal restraints: to enchain syllables and lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength. Among a people polished by art, and classed by surbordination, those who have much leisure to think, will al ways be enlarging the stock of ideas; and eveincrease of knowledge, whether real, or fan

cied, will produce new words, or combinations of words. When the mind is unchained from necessity, it will range after convenience; when it is left at large in the fields of speculation,, it will shift opinions. As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate. speech in the same proportion as it alters prac,

tice.

Ibid. p. 9.

It is incident to words, as to their authors, to degenerate from their ancestors, and to change their manners when they change their country.

Ibid. p. 3.

No nation can trace their language beyond the second period; and even of that it does not often happen that many monuments remain.

Idler, vol, 2, p. 62.

Commerce, however necessary, however lucrative, as it depraves the manners, corrupts the language. They that have frequent intercourse with strangers, to whom they endeavour to accommodate themselves, must in time learn a mingled dialect, like the jargon which serves the traffickers on the Mediterranean and Indian coasts. This will not always be confined to the exchange, warehouse, or the port, but will be communicated by degrees to other ranks of the people, and be at last incorporated with the current speech.

Preface to Johnson's Dictionary, p. 81.

Every language has its anomalies, which, though inconvenient, and in themselves once unnecessary, must be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require

only