but says very little; looks into everything, but sees into nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with these few that are he burns his fingers.

Colton.

SINCERITY.

Sincerity is an excellent instrument for the speedy despatch of business.

Tillotson.

OUR CHIEF BUSINESS WITH REGARD TO OUR

CALLING.

Nous devons travailler à nous rendre très

dignes de quelque emploi: le reste ne nous regarde point, c'est l'affaire des autres.

FORTUNE.

La Bruyère.

Fortune is like a market, where many times

if you wait a little the price will fall.

Bacon.

FAME.

Those who despise fame seldom deserve it. We are apt to undervalue the purchase we cannot reach, to conceal our poverty the better. It is a spark which kindles upon the best fuel, and burns brightest in the bravest breast.

Jeremy Collier.

DESIRE OF FAME.

But further, this desire of fame naturally betrays the ambitious man into such indecencies as are lessening to his reputation. He is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private, lest his deserts should be concealed from the notice of the world, or receive any disadvantage from the reports which others make of them. This often sets him on empty boasts and ostentations of himself, and betrays him into vain fantastic recitals of his own performances: his discourse generally leans one way, and whatever is the subject of it, tends

obliquely either to the detracting from others, or to the extolling of himself. Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.

Addison.

EQUALITY.

Il est faux que l'égalité soit une loi de la nature. La nature n'a rien fait d'égal. Sa loi souveraine est la subordination et la dépendence.

Vauvenargues.

LIBERTY.

Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society.

Bolingbroke.

MEDIOCRITY.

L'art de savoir bien mettre en œuvre de médiocres qualités nous donne souvent plus de réputation que le véritable mérite.

La Rochefoucauld.

PARVENUS.

On oublie l'origine d'un parvenu s'il s'en souvient; on s'en souvient s'il l'oublie.

Petit-Senn.

ARISTOCRACY.

L'aristocracie a trois âges successifs: l'âge des supériorités, l'âge des priviléges, l'âge des vanités; sortie du premier, elle dégénère dans le second et s'éteint dans le dernier.

Chateaubriand.

HONOUR.

L'honneur ressemble à l'œil, qui ne saurait souffrir la moindre impurité sans s'altérer; c'est

une pierre précieuse dont le moindre défaut

diminue le prix.

Bossuet.

SELF-ESTEEM.

Il y a autant de vices qui viennent de ce qu'on ne s'estime pas assez que de ce qu'on s'estime trop.

VANITY.

Montesquieu.

Ce qui nous rend la vanité si insupportable c'est qu'elle blesse la nôtre.

La Rochefoucauld.

APOLOGIZING.

A very desperate habit; one that is rarely. cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out. Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man's companion knows of his short-comings is from his apology.

O. W. Holmes.