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Title: Desultory thoughts and reflections
Author: Countess of Marguerite Blessington
Release date: March 28, 2025 [eBook #75737]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1839
Credits: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DESULTORY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ***
DESULTORY THOUGHTS
AND
REFLECTIONS.
Vivere cogitare est.
Life is measured but by thoughts and affections. They are the sun that
shadows the dial.
NEW-YORK:
Printed by J. P. WRIGHT,
18 New Street.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS
AND
REFLECTIONS.
BY
THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY WILEY AND PUTNAM,
No. 161 Broadway.
1839.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS.
KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE.
A profound knowledge of life is the least enviable of all species of
knowledge, because it can only be acquired by trials that make us regret
the loss of our ignorance.
BEING UNDERSTOOD.
When we find that we are not liked, we assert that we are not
understood; when probably the dislike we have excited proceeds from our
being too fully comprehended.
SACRIFICES.
Some persons are capable of making great sacrifices, but few are capable
of concealing how much the effort has cost them; and it is this
concealment that constitutes their value.
MUSIC.
Music often awakens long sleeping echoes in the soul; and, though never
heard before, seems familiar to the ear, as some voice, loved in
childhood, remembered in a dream.
MINDS.
Some minds may be said to resemble musical instruments: they possess
powers, and if judiciously touched, give forth sweet sounds.
LOVERS.
Ninon de L’Enclos observes, that “if a man gives a woman wealth, it is
only a proof of his generosity; but that if he gives her his time, it is
a proof of his love.” This, however, cannot be considered as a
conclusive proof, for, in giving their time, many men bestow that which
is of no value to themselves or others.
LOVE AND ENTHUSIASM.
Love and enthusiasm are always ridiculous, when not reciprocated by
their objects.
PATH OF LIFE.
Spontaneously, we render the path of life a weary one, and plant all the
thorns that obstruct it: while the few stray flowers that cheer us,
arise in some extraneous and contingent agency.
MINDS.
The minds of the young resemble new wine in a state of fermentation and
effervescence; but the minds of the mature resemble old wine, which has
lost its fiery particles, and retains only its strength and raciness.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.
The knowledge of the world that enables us to escape from errors, can
only be acquired by an experience which costs us many of our most
cherished illusions.
CHARACTER OF MAN.
As storm following storm, and wave succeeding wave, give additional
hardness to the shell that encloses the pearl, so do the storms and
waves of life add force to the character of man.
PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.
Precocious wisdom is not desirable for youth, lest, like the rash
blossom which ventures forth too early, it should be nipped ere it has
strength to resist adversity.
STRENGTH OF MIND.
By relying on our own resources, we acquire mental strength; but, when
we lean on others for support, we are like an invalid, who, having
accustomed himself to a crutch, finds it difficult to walk without one.
CONTEMPLATION.
Contemplation displays to us the past events of our lives, which, during
their occurrence, we saw not; as a calm clear day shows us the rocks and
wrecks of the sea, which we discovered not while tossed on the turbulent
surface of the waters.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
Philosophy was a boon bestowed by Reason to console mankind for the
inevitable misfortunes of life, but being found insufficient for the
task, she granted the blessing of Religion, a younger, a more gentle,
and infallible consoler.
POLITENESS.
A substitute for goodness of heart.
CONSCIENCE.
A starving man, who committed theft, was asked by a pious person if his
conscience had not cried out to him to forbear. “Alas!” replied he, “if
it did, the cries of my stomach were so much louder, that they prevented
me from hearing those of conscience.”
PRESENTIMENTS.
Presentiments are the heart’s prophecies; for the heart is a sibyl
deeply skilled in all the mysteries of her own realm.
YOUTH AND AGE.
Youth resembles a Claude Lorraine glass, which imparts to all objects
its own beautiful tints; but age is like a magnifying lens, which leaves
no defect unseen.
CONFIDENCES.
Confidences are more frequently reposed in persons through a want of
discretion, than from excess of friendship, and are oftener betrayed
through incontinency of speech than from motives of treachery.
COMMON MISTAKES.
The common herd of mankind mistake anarchy for liberty, ostentation for
generosity, passion for love, and vanity for pride; yet how widely
different are they all!
JUDGMENT OF WOMEN ON MEN.
Women are prone to judge their lovers’ hearts
But by their own, which little semblance hath
With man’s rough nature. Hence they love them for
The qualities they give them—not for those
They have, which rarely merit to be loved.
LOVE.
Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera
seria; and in Germany a melodrame.
GRATITUDE.
Gratitude was fancifully said to be the memory of the heart; but, alas!
for poor human nature, hearts are more than suspected to have wondrous
short memories.
MEN AND WOMEN.
A woman’s head is always influenced by her heart; but a man’s heart is
generally influenced by his head.
LIFE.
Life would be as insupportable without the prospect of death, as it
would be without sleep.
MATURITY.
It is in maturity, when the passions are calmed, and Reason exerts her
influence, that the attachments we form possess the most stability. We
expect less, and pardon more. The disappointments we have experienced
teach us to value what we have attained, even while regretting what we
have lost.
THE POETRY OF LIFE.
The poetry of our lives is, like our religion, kept apart from our
every-day thoughts; neither influence us as they ought. We should be
wiser and happier, if, instead of secluding them in some secret shrine
in our hearts, we suffered their humanising qualities to temper our
habitual words and actions.
HONOUR AND CHASTITY.
Honour is the peculiar and essential virtue of men, and chastity that of
women; both are lost, if these qualities are impeached.
SOCIETY.
Society punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection; like
the Spartans, who punished the discovery of theft, and not the crime.
IDEAS.
A man with a vast number of ideas, without strong power of reasoning,
resembles a general incapable of directing his troops.
SELFISH MEN.
The selfish man believes that by closing his heart against his fellows,
and centering in self every thought and feeling, he escapes much
suffering. But his egotistical calculations are invariably defeated; for
his contracted sympathies being all directed to one focus, he so
aggravates the ills he endures, that he expends on self alone more
painful pity than the most enthusiastic philanthropist devotes to
mankind.
ILLUSIONS.
Each illusion that dies gives birth to a posthumous one, which we
believe to be less perishable than its predecessor, until we see it
similarly fade and expire.
HAPPINESS.
Happiness, like youth and health, is rarely appreciated until it is
past.
SOLITUDE.
In solitude we retain our own faults; but in society we superadd those
of others.
SEVERITY TO OTHERS.
Some people seem to consider the severity of their censures on the
errors of others as an atonement for their own.
YOUTH.
When youth has fled the furrowed brow,
And we no more can trace it now
Beaming in every outward part;
Where is its refuge?—in the heart;
Yes, there it dwells more glowing—warm,
Than when it lent exterior charm,
Keeping alive affection’s fire,
Though it no more can love inspire.
HAPPINESS.
Happiness consists, not in having much, but in being content with
little.
HATRED.
We injure ourselves more than our enemies, by indulging hatred towards
them.
MEMORY.
From out the grave of every friend we loved
Springs up a flower (as fabulists relate
Arose from the red stream of Ajax’ wound,)
Memory ’tis named, and watered by our tears,
It lives and grows, until its fibres strike
Into the heart, nor leave it until death.
AMUSING MEN.
We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic
powers. A considerable distinction exists between the amusing and the
entertaining man: we laugh with one, but reflect with the other.
TRUTH.
Monarchs seldom hear truth until too late to derive profit from its
knowledge.
COURAGE.
Courage defends the honour of man,—modesty guards that of woman.
BORES.
People who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself.
SYMPATHY.
Each thought of mine an echo found in his:
Our minds were like two mirrors placed on walls
Fronting each other, and reflecting back
The self-same objects,—such is sympathy.
PLEASURE.
Pleasure is like a cordial—a little of it is not injurious, but too much
destroys.
FRIENDS.
Friends are the thermometers by which we may judge the temperature of
our fortunes.
IDEA.
Ideas are the seeds of thought, but they do not produce flowers unless
the soil where they are sown is fertile.
ARISTOCRACY.
The aristocracy are prone to ridicule the elevation of men of the middle
class to high official situations, not reflecting that it is easier to
transmute men of talents into gentlemen than it is to convert mere
gentlemen into men of talents.
WANT OF THOUGHT.
“J’écrirais assez bien si je savais penser,” was the confession of a
French writer; one which might with truth be repeated by the greater
part of modern authors, in whose works we find a superfluity of words,
and a paucity of ideas. It is as though they wrote to avoid thought,
instead of revealing and engendering it. Their works resemble certain
trees, on which is found an abundance of leaves, but little fruit.
WISDOM.
Wisdom is e’er the harbinger of death.
It comes not till it long has been invoked,
To wean us gently from the world’s vain joys
And show the yawning grave that waits for us.
ADMIRATION.
Those who are formed to win general admiration, are seldom calculated to
bestow individual happiness.
VIRTUE.
Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.
FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness of injuries is apt to draw on the forgiver a repetition of
wrongs, as people reason thus: “If he has forgiven so much, he can
forgive more.”
TRIALS.
The spirit in which we receive trials either increases or diminishes
their bitterness: fortitude and resignation disarm them of their
sharpest darts; while anger and vindictiveness only augment their
poignancy.
PRINCIPLES.
A man without principles is like a ship without a compass.
TRUTH.
Mendaciloquens respects truth so much, that he seldom approaches it.
Nay, you are wrong, for he is known to take great liberties with it.
AN UNPOPULAR MAN.
An unpopular man is he who forms few friendships in life; but, _en
revanche_, cultivates many enmities.
TIME.
Time, fell destroyer of all earthly good,
Sworn foe to beauty, innocence, and joy,
Thou leav’st us nought but dull and sad experience,
Whichever comes when we no longer need it,
And keeps aloof when we require its aid.
KNOWLEDGE.
Knowledge should be acquired gradually, and by study; for the
superficial knowledge which is the result of the promiscuous and
unregulated adoption of the discoveries of others, affects the mind, as
the sudden removal of a person with weak eyes from a darkened room into
a blaze of light, does the sight,—it overpowers and confuses.
LOVE.
Love cannot exist in the heart of woman unless modesty is its companion,
nor in that of man unless honour is its associate.
VICES.
The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for errors; and those of
the poor and lowly, for crimes.
VIRTUE.
Virtue should virtuous seem, nor wear a mask
Of levity, as giddy maids put on
At carnivals, showing unchaste exterior,
Though innocence doth still reside within.
INGRATITUDE.
So inherent is ingratitude in man, that it is chiefly in affliction that
he lifts his soul to his Creator; in joy and prosperity, he is prone to
forget _Him_.
BALM FOR MISFORTUNES.
To sleep by night and dream by day is the balm of misfortune.
SOCIETY.
Those can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated
to adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental
resources; for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like
beggars, they are too poor to stay at home.
COURAGE.
Many people mistake audacity for courage, yet they are dissimilar.
Catiline was audacious, and Cæsar courageous.
SUPERSTITION.
As darkness encourages the growth of reptiles, so, in an inverse manner,
do the creatures of superstition promote the growth of darkness.
SELF-EXAMINATION.
Let us call back our long departed years,
And ask if we employed them as we ought.
Will they not tell a most reproachful tale,
Of wasted hours, of blessings never prized
Till lost, and then ungratefully resigned,
With murmurs, and not thanks, that they were lent.
SOCIETY.
Those who suffer their happiness to depend on the futile pleasures of
society, instead of the resources of their own minds, resemble birds,
who, with the power of soaring into the pure regions of the sky,
descend, and loiter amid the dust of the earth, at the risk of being
snared or destroyed by every vagrant urchin.
IMAGINATION.
The heart is often made answerable for the follies of the imagination.
FLOWERS.
Some flowers absorb the rays of the sun so strongly, that in the evening
they yield slight phosphoric flashes. May we not compare the minds of
poets to these flowers, which, imbibing light, emit it again in a
different form and aspect?
SORROW.
Sorrow and time can teach what nought else teaches,
More than philosopher or priest e’er preaches.
TRUTH AND PHYSIC.
Truth and physic, two unpalatable things, never well received, though
administered with a good intention.
CUNNING AND VANITY.
Cunning is a substitute for wisdom, adopted by the weak of intellect, as
vanity is for pride.
PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.
Precocious wisdom is almost as much to be deprecated for youth as the
premature maladies of age. Neither should arrive before the proper
season, as their presence indicates constitutional debility.
SCEPTICS.
Sceptics, like dolphins, change when dying.
SCANDAL.
Scandal is the offspring of envy and malice—nursed by society, and
cultivated by disappointment.
THE SELFISH MAN.
The selfish man may be compared to those antediluvian forests in the
wilds of America which are nourished by their own dead leaves; in like
manner does he feed on those feelings which ought to be devoted to the
promotion of the general good.
FEMALE EDUCATION.
The whole system of female education tends more to instruct women to
allure, than to repel; yet how infinitely more essential is the latter
art! As rationally might the military disciplinarian limit his tuition
to the mode of assault, leaving his soldiery in entire ignorance of the
tactics of defence.
SUPERSTITION.
Superstition is but the fear of belief: religion is the confidence.
SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.
In society we learn to know others, but in solitude we acquire a
knowledge of self.
HAPPINESS.
We are so little formed for happiness, that, if the present offers
nothing to mar it, we look back to the past, or forward to the future,
for some subject of chagrin.
AUTHORS.
An author should be judged of by his works, rather than by his
conversation; for the latter takes its colour from those with whom he
converses; whereas his writings, being the fruit of solitude, bear the
tint only of his own mind.
AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.
There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to
rise in the world.
ICONOCLAST.
Darus was a matter-of-fact man,—a moral iconoclast, who waged war
against every image the fancy presented.
PATIENCE.
Patience is a plant of slow growth, but it bears precious fruit, and is
the only palliation in affliction.
ENVY.
It is easier to pardon the faults than the virtues of our friends;
because the first excite in us a self-complacency always agreeable; and
the second, a sense of humiliation, which makes us dislike the
inflictor.
VICE AND VIRTUE.
Vice is sometimes more courageous than virtue, because it has less to
lose.
FORGIVENESS OF ENEMIES.
We more frequently pardon injuries from forgetfulness of them than from
generosity; and many enemies are reconciled more through weakness of
memory than goodness of heart.
FAITH.
It is when we most suffer that we most believe the existence of _that
Power_ which can wound or heal.
INFIRMITIES OF GENIUS.
The infirmities of genius are often mistaken for its privileges.
INDULGENCE TOWARDS OTHERS.
If we examined our own faults attentively, we should have less time to
detect, and more inclination to pardon, those of others.
AFFECTIONS.
The affections of some hearts resemble the sacred Indian tree, whose
pendant branches make themselves a root and a tie to the earth.
APPETITE.
The rich suffer from want of appetite, the poor from excess.
PARDON.
Great injuries pardoned preclude the enjoyment of happiness between the
pardoner and pardoned; for the one is vested with a superiority that
wounds the self-love of the other, who, though he may admire the
generosity of him who forgives, can love him no more.
SOCIETY.
People use in society a set of commonplace subjects and thoughts, which
they exchange, as they expend the small coin with which they have
provided their purses for the day; reserving deep feeling, and elevated
sentiments, for home consumption, as they reserve their wealth for
themselves, rather than for their friends.
FAME.
High fame’s a target, at which all let fly
The darts of envy. Who can miss a mark
That seems but rear’d to tempt a practised hand,
Off’ring the aim that most allures mankind?
FORTITUDE AND RESIGNATION.
Fortitude enables us to encounter trials, and resignation to bear them.
The brave man possesses fortitude, but the Christian only has
resignation.
FAULTS.
We are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to
lament them.
FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness is a salve for the wounds inflicted by unkindness; while
rancour but serves to keep them unhealed.
POLISHED MEN.
The society of polished men, like smooth, even roads, renders the
journey of life more easy and agreeable, but that of unpolished men,
like rough roads, makes all its ruts and inequalities painfully felt.
RESIGNATION.
Resignation is sometimes mistaken for happiness, though never found
until its death.
ANGER.
Anger banishes reflection, but its consequences recall it.
SOCIETY.
“Be prosperous and happy, never require our services, and we will remain
your friends.” This is not what society says, but it is the principle on
which it acts.
LIFE.
Life is to the unhappy as a prison, from whose gloom they cannot escape:
while to the happy, it resembles a vast palace filled with all that can
delight. The prison may be rendered endurable by resignation; but the
palace loses some of its bright colouring and gilding every day, until
nought but faded remnants of its pristine beauty remain.
FUTURITY.
One of the best gifts of Providence is the veil that conceals futurity.
DUST.
No dust affects the eyes so much as gold dust.
FALSE WIT.
False wit, like false money, only passes current with those who have no
means of comparison.
POLITICS.
Such is the tergiversation in politics at present, that politicians
should say with regard to them, what Voltaire said of systems: “Il faut
toujours se reserver le droit de rire le lendemain de ses idées de la
veille.”
FAME.
Fame is like truth—still questioned and denied,
The more ’tis obvious, yet survives its foes.
LOVE AND JEALOUSY.
Love often re-illumes his extinguished flame in the torch of jealousy.
LUXURIES.
Our luxuries and pleasures are the chains that civilization throws
around us to attach us to earth. The coarse-minded submit to wear them,
forgetting that man was formed for nobler ends, but the elevated and
refined cast them off, and aspire to a purer existence.
LOVE.
Humboldt notices that the streams in America run languidly in the night,
and await the rising of the sun to quicken their flight. Love is to the
heart what the sun is to the American streams—it moves languidly in its
absence.
SHORT MEMORIES.
There are no memories so short as those of the parvenu, and the
ungrateful man; the first forgets himself, and the second his friends.
DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY.
Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.
DEMORALISATION.
One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect
of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.
SOCIETY.
Society rarely pardons those who have discovered the emptiness of its
pleasures, and who can live independent of it and them.
ASSOCIATES.
We herd with the gay in our days of happiness, but turn to the
sympathising when misfortune overtakes us: as we seek the festive hall
in our hours of mirth, and fly to the solitude of our chamber in those
of sorrow.
RESPECT.
We are never so jealous of the respect of others as when we have
forfeited our own.
SATIRE.
Satire often proceeds less from ill-nature than from the desire of
displaying wit.
STYLE.
To praise the style of an author more than his thoughts, is like
commending a woman for her dress more than for her person. Style, like
dress, should be appropriate, and not detract attention from what it was
meant to adorn.
DECLAIMERS AGAINST THE WORLD.
They declaim most against the world who have most sinned against it; as
people generally abuse those whom they have injured.
ROUGH MEN.
Rough men have all their seams on the outside; and they rub against and
incommode those who come in contact with them.
FAITH.
We are more prone to persecute others for their faith than to make
sacrifices to prove our own.
REASON.
Reason dissipates the illusions of life, but does not console us for
their departure.
SORROW.
Sorrow is to youth what experience is to maturity.
REVOLUTIONS.
Revolutions are like earthquakes: if they overturn much that is faulty,
they destroy also much that is good.
DESTINY.
Destiny is a phantom of our own creation, like the monsters children
first imagine, and then fear.
PHILOSOPHY.
Socrates termed philosophy the preparation for death; but should it not
rather be styled the patient endurance of life?
BON MOTS.
It was said of ——, that his conversation was a tissue of bon mots:
“Yes,” said ——, “but remember, it has nothing but bon mots, and though a
few spangles may ornament a dress, a garment wholly covered with them is
fatiguing to the eye.”
VIRTUE.
The virtue that repels by its severity, makes few converts; but that
which attracts by its charity, incites all to esteem, if not to follow
its precepts.
KINGS AND BEAUTIES.
Kings never hear the voice of truth until they are dethroned; nor
beauties, until they have abdicated their charms.
FLOWERS.
Flowers are the bright remembrancers of youth:
They waft back with their bland and odorous breath
The joyous hours that only young life knows,
Ere we have learned that this fair earth hides graves.
They bring the cheek that’s mouldering in the dust
Again before us, tinged with health’s own rose;
They bring the voices we shall hear no more,
Whose tones were sweetest music to our ears;
They bring the hopes that faded one by one,
Till nought was left to light our path but faith,
That we too, like the flowers, should spring to life,
But not, like them again, e’er fade or die.
AGE.
It is strange that when youth gives us the prospect of a long life, we
seldom think of rationally providing for its enjoyment; but when the
term of it has been abridged by the flight of its best years, we become
anxious to secure the comforts of the brief portion that remains to us.
POETS.
Poets, it has been said, form the aristocracy of intelligence; they are
also the chemists of sentiment, who analyse and purify it.
PASSION.
Some minds are formed to mount, with eagle wing,
Above the common herd—content to dwell
Without a wish beyond the joys of sense,
Till love, resistless love, assails their hearts,
And now no longer soaring o’er the crowd,
Lark-like, they build their nests upon the earth.
’Tis thus that passion ever brings us down,
Making our minds’ wings—thoughts—of no avail.
REVOLUTIONS.
Sober-minded people prefer enduring the evils of a despotism which they
know, to risking those of a subversion on whose consequences they cannot
calculate. Despotism pursues her course orderly and systematically,
while Sedition hurries along, sweeping away with much that is bad still
more that is estimable.
MODESTY.
Modesty, the attendant of virtue, is frequently mistaken for shame,
which is one of the attributes of vice.
CUNNING.
Cunning is the poor substitute for wisdom which weak minds adopt; but it
is like the counterfeit which the forger strives to pass for the pure
coin.
POLITENESS.
Nothing is more dissimilar than natural and acquired politeness. The
first consists in a willing abnegation of self; the second, in a
compelled recollection of others.
GREAT MEN.
Mountains appear more lofty, the nearer they are approached; but great
men, to retain their altitude, must only be viewed from a distance.
MOURNERS.
It is surprising that a regulation has not been made to exclude persons
in the garb of mourning from scenes of gaiety, lest the sombre hue of
their dress give rise to sadness; but probably the omission has
proceeded from a consciousness, that the spectators are as little moved
by the trappings of grief as the wearers by the sentiment.
FORTUNE.
The wheel of fortune being guided by a blind goddess, often runs into
deep ruts, and thus casts up what is impure.
MEN OF GENIUS.
Men of genius, who hold out lights to mankind, are used by them as are
the Moccoli bearers at the Roman carnival by the populace; each of whom
strives first to illume his torch in theirs, and then to extinguish it.
GENEROUS AND SELFISH MINDS.
A generous mind identifies itself with all around; but a selfish one
identifies all things with self.
FRIENDS.
Our friends always wish us to be something which we are not; it is only
our enemies that wish us to remain as we are.
PREJUDICES.
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.
APPEARANCES.
We are judged not by the virtues we possess, but by the indications of
them which we assume. Like the style adopted for epistolary usage, in
which we sign ourselves the obedient servants of persons we have no
value for, so the semblance of virtue imposes on many, and satisfies
all.
PLEASURES.
Pleasures are like those mountains which charm us when beheld from a
distance; but lose all the beauty of their deceitful hue when approached
near.
CONCEIT.
It is usually the most conceited people who take offence at the
affectation of others.
FRIENDS.
Friends, like wine, require to be kept before use.
GRATITUDE.
Gratitude is a prospective, rather than a retrospective virtue.
VIRTUE.
We seldom attain virtue until we have been purified by affliction—as
only martyrs become saints.
JUDGMENT OF WORKS.
The frame of mind in which we read a work, often influences our judgment
of it. The predominant feeling of the moment colours all that we read;
and we are often surprised on a second perusal, to find no longer either
the merits or defects which we supposed it to contain.
AMBITION.
As the pearl, which is the object of universal admiration, is produced
by the disease of the oyster, so do many of the most illustrious actions
originate in that mental disease,—an overweening ambition.
GENIUS.
Men of genius may be said to reside in an illuminated and unapproachable
palace of crystal, which, while it displays their brightness, reveals
also certain small blemishes, which are rendered disproportionally
conspicuous by the contrast of light; while ordinary mortals dwell in
opaque residences, in which no ray discloses the grave faults of
mediocrity.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.
We betray a profound knowledge of the world, by withdrawing from it when
misfortune assails us.
WEAK MEN.
A weak man will sustain afflictions that destroy a strong one, as the
willow which yields its pliant branches to the blast escapes the
destruction of the oak that resists it.
WIT.
Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection
the moonlight; for as the bright orb of the night owes its lustre to the
sun, so does reflection owe its existence to reason.
VIRTUE.
It is more difficult to convince the vicious that virtue exists, than to
persuade the good that it is rare.
WORKS.
The works of Vapidus might be said not to be the overflowing of a full
mind, but the dregs of an exhausted one.
PUBLIC.
We have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. _When_ shall we have
a _thinking_?
CIVILIZATION.
Civilization begets vices, but the want of it occasions crimes.
AFFLICTION.
The first heavy affliction rends the veil of illusion, and lets us
behold the dark side of life.
PASSIONS.
The passions which have stimulated us to crime, ultimately die of
satiety, leaving us when too late with a sense of our transgressions,
unmitigated by the artful palliations and delusions which originally
conduced to them.
GENIUS.
Genius is like the eagle which doth make abode in solitude, and, perched
on high, looks down forgetful of all meaner birds.
MEDIOCRITY.
Mediocrity is only offensive when accompanied by pretension; because it
then wounds our vanity by implying that it thought itself capable of
deceiving us.
PHILOSOPHY.
The philosophy which has not been acquired in society will rarely enable
us to resist its injustice; as a person theoretically taught to swim,
will find his knowledge of little avail if he fall into a river.
GOOD TALKERS.
To be listened to with attention, and to acquire the reputation of a
good talker, never speak of yourself, but always in implied praise of
those you address, or in pungent satire of their contemporaries.
PREMATURE WISDOM.
The premature wisdom of youth resembles the forced fruit of our
hot-houses: it looks like the natural production, but has not its
flavour or raciness.
MEN OF GENIUS.
How must a neglected man of genius, conscious of his own powers, pity
those who cannot appreciate him, and who bestow what is _his_ due on
mere pretenders.
POPULARITY.
Those who have been the idols of the populace, generally end by becoming
its victims; for the multitude resemble children who build castles of
cards, only for the pleasure of destroying them with a breath.
POOR.
A term of reproach in England, and of pity in most other countries.
METAPHYSICS.
Metaphysics, a science, the study of which _proves_ that to be
incomprehensible which was before only suspected of being so.
PROSPERITY.
As the fabled cup of the poet was said to be productive of good or evil,
according to the lip that pressed it, so is prosperity productive of
virtue or vice, according to the nature of him who possesses it.
FLATTERY.
Strabo asserts that a species of honey was produced at Pontus, which,
owing to the bees having fed on aconite and hemlock, was poisonous. May
we not liken flattery to this poison—sweet, but destructive?
FAULTS.
No human being is exempt from faults nor destitute of virtues. The
wicked, who are many, will quickly detect the first, and the good, who
are but few, will alone discern the second. Hence men’s faults will
always be more known than their virtues.
BELIEF IN GOODNESS.
We give credit to others for just as much goodness as we ourselves
possess.
MERE MORTALS.
There are some mortals whose bodies are but as the sepulchres of their
dead hearts.
POETS AND ASTRONOMERS.
Poets view nature as a book, in which they read a language unknown to
common minds, as astronomers regard the heavens and therein discover
objects that escape the vulgar ken.
GRIEF.
Grief is our natural state, and joy but comes
Like gleams of sunshine in a wint’ry day,
Showing the darkness of the low’ring clouds
That threaten to obscure its waning lustre.
Grief shares our pillow, colours even our dreams,
Awakens when we wake, and through the day
Sits by us, calling Mem’ry to her aid,
That she, by whisp’ring of the happy past,
May make the gloomy present still more dark.
PHILOSOPHERS.
Men who expect little enjoyment in life, and who are therefore not
disappointed.
MONEY.
Money is the direct or indirect cause of nearly all crimes: by the
possession of it the rich are enabled to commit them, and through the
want of it the poor are excited into the adoption of a similar course.
VIRTUE.
Horne Tooke said of intellectual philosophy, that he had become better
acquainted with it, as with the country, though having sometimes lost
his way. May not the same be said of virtue? for never is it so truly
known or appreciated as by those who, having strayed from its path, have
at length regained it.
QUALITIES.
Those who are poor in good qualities, assume their appearance; as
persons who are not sufficiently rich to buy jewels, procure false ones.
PEACE OF MIND.
Though peace of mind does not constitute happiness, happiness cannot
exist without it; our serenity being the result of our own exertions,
while our happiness is dependent on others: hence the reason why it is
so rare; for, on how few can we count? Our wisdom, therefore, is best
shown in cultivating all that leads to the preservation of this negative
blessing, which, while we possess it, will prevent us from ever becoming
wholly wretched.
ARITHMETIC.
A science differently studied by fathers and sons: the first generally
confining themselves to addition, and the second to subtraction.
SACRIFICES.
More sacrifices originate in ostentation than generosity.
ADVERSITY.
As bees can breed no poison, though they suck the deadliest juices, so
the noble mind, though forced to drain the cup of misery, can yield but
generous thoughts and noble deeds.
GRIEF.
Desperate is the grief of him whom prosperity having elated and
hardened, feels the first arrow of affliction strike at his heart,
through the life of the object dearest to him on earth.
SOLITUDE.
Hail, solitude! the nurse of high-born thought—
The strength’ner of our virtues—the best friend
To shield us from temptations which await
Where thou art not, and lead us far from peace.
REFLECTION.
If we could bring ourselves to consider self but as a subordinate atom
in the great mass that forms the world, we should perhaps bear our
troubles with more equanimity: but such is our vanity, that each
considers himself the centre of a little world of his own.
MELANCHOLY.
There are certain hearts in which the germ of melancholy is implanted
even in their earliest youth, and maturity only strengthens it. On such
persons, the inevitable ills of life fall with a weight, that, if it
crush them not wholly, leaves them eternally bruised in spirit.
AGE.
If age deprives us of our pleasures, it also deadens our sense of
misfortunes, by subduing the acuteness of our sensibility.
POLITENESS.
Politeness may prevent the want of wit and talents from being observed;
but wit and talents cannot prevent the discovery of the want of
politeness.
AGE.
Oh! reverence grey hairs—they tell a tale
Of heavy trials, sore afflictions borne:
For none e’er wore these harbingers of death
Without being schooled in all life’s bitter truths.
FATALITY.
Fatality is another name for misconduct.
QUALITIES.
There are some qualities in our natures rendered noxious or innoxious by
their encounter with others,—just as various medicines lose or receive
power by an intermixture.
STORMS.
Storms in the heart generally make a wreck of peace.
QUALITIES.
There are as many ruined by their good qualities as enriched by their
bad.
SATIRE.
Satire, like conscience, reminds us of what we often wish to forget.
FAULTS.
Our faults are lessons writ for other men,
Who, reading them, are taught at our expense,
Nor thank us for the knowledge they attain.
Though bought at heavy cost of woe to us.
WISDOM.
Wisdom is lulled to sleep by pleasure, but awakens at the touch of
sorrow.
WIT.
Those who have no wit are prone to doubt that of others.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
It is by self-knowledge that we prevent the seeds of evil from arising
in our minds, and making that a wilderness of weeds which might have
become a garden of precious flowers.
FRIENDS.
It requires sunshine to see our friends, for they become invisible when
our horizon is clouded.
FRIEND AND WIFE.
Give me a friend, within whose well-poised mind
Experience holds her seat. But let my bride
Be innocent as flowers that fragrance shed,
Yet know not they are sweet.
ADVICE.
Most people seem to imagine that advice, like physic, to do good must be
disagreeable.
THE FUTURE.
A consolation for those who have no other.
TIME.
Time is a stream in which there is no mooring the barks of life, because
there is no casting anchor in it.
WRITER.
When Inanis writes history, he draws on his imagination; and when he
gives us poetry, trusts only to his memory.
FALSE APPEARANCES.
We cover our actions with a sort of veil, which, like the varnish on
pictures, gives them an artificial lustre that serves to soften their
defects.
PREJUDICES.
Few people look on any object as it really is; but regard it through
some fantastic prism presented by their own prejudices, which invest it
with a false colour.
PRIDE.
Pride has seldom a just medium; men have either too much or too little
of it. An excess, though most offensive to the spectator, is the least
injurious to its possessor, for it saves him from the commission of all
actions that beget humiliation, while a deficiency continually entails
it upon him.
PRAISE.
Praise is the only gift for which people are really grateful.
TIME.
Time is the true Lethe, in which is engulphed the recollection of our
sorrows.
GUARDIANS.
The best guardian for a woman’s happiness is her husband’s love, and for
her honour her own affection.
PASSION.
Passion is a tyrant strong only through the weakness of his slaves.
THE ART OF PLEASING.
The most certain art of pleasing people with us, is to make them pleased
with themselves.
GRIEF.
Grief lengthens our nights, but shortens our days.
PLAGIARISMS.
Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only reveal the poverty that
compelled the loan.
HAPPINESS.
Happiness resembles the bird of paradise, which is said never to be seen
but at a distance.
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES.
While we value the praise of our friends, we should not despise the
censures of our enemies; as, from the malice of the latter, we
frequently learn our faults, which the partiality of the former led them
to overlook.
SORROW.
Sorrow sets her seal on the brows of those she has stricken; and, like
freemasons, they know each other by a sign, unintelligible to the
uninitiated, even when pleasure spreads her fascinations around them.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
“Rentrez en vous-même, vous y trouverez les Dieux,” was the advice of an
ancient philosopher. How few have ever entered into the depth of their
own minds, which are to them as undiscovered springs in the abysses of
the earth! Enter into your own mind, and if you find not the gods there,
you may, by constant examination and correction, render it worthy of
becoming their residence.
CONVERSATION.
Conversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings
by which it flies.
MISFORTUNE.
Misfortune, though difficult to be borne, has some advantages: it
precludes us from fear of the future, proves the sincerity of friends,
and even reconciles us to the approach of death; while happiness,
however grateful during its brief tenure, is too frequently poisoned by
the dread of its interruption.
HOME.
The heart turns to home, even as the tortoise, wherever it may be
placed, turns its head towards its native element, and tries to regain
it.
POLITICS.
Politics is a science, which no one believes those who differ with him
to understand.
PASSION.
Passion conducts to vice, and sentiment leads to virtue.
MISTAKES.
Hardness of heart is frequently mistaken for firmness of soul; a want of
imagination, for reason; and obstinacy, for strength of character; yet
how utterly unlike are they all!
OSTENTATION.
To appear rich, we become poor.
MEN AND WOMEN.
Men resemble the trees of earth, sturdy and full of strength; but women
resemble the flowers, fair and fragile, and cherished the more because
they are delicate.
OSTENTATION.
Ostentation produces more sacrifices than generosity.
CONVERSATION.
The conversation of some persons resembles occasional gleams of
sunshine, piercing an opaque cloud; the light is only sufficient to make
the general darkness visible.
OPINION.
All desire, but few are willing to pay the price of, the good opinion of
the world.
FEAR.
He who fears not, is to be feared.
MIDDLE AGE.
Middle age is an isthmus between youth and death.
MORAL COURAGE.
Those only can explore the profoundest depths of suffering who have
moral courage sufficient to resist it; as that physical force which
augments the violence of fever, enables the patient to survive it. The
intenseness of maladies, mental and bodily, is proportioned to the
robustness of those condemned to sustain them; and the weak escape, or
only slightly experience, the ills which the strong surmount or sink
beneath.
THOUGHT.
“Les grandes pensées viennent du cœur,” was the observation of a
reflecting mind: all that touches the heart, gives rise to thoughts more
elevated than those that originate only in the head.
CELEBRITY AND NOTORIETY.
Celebrity and notoriety are frequently mistaken for each other, yet
nothing can be more distinct: a great man becomes celebrated; a bad one,
notorious.
MEMORIES.
Some memories are powerfully retentive of injuries, but totally
oblivious of benefits.
TRIALS.
Great trials demand, and are generally met by courage; for we summon all
our energies to support them. But it is the every-day minor cares of
life that weary the temper and irritate the health; because singly, and
in detail, they do not appear sufficiently important to induce us to
rally our force to encounter them. As the sailor, who, having ploughed
the ocean in its fiercest moods, returns to perish in the stream that
wantons before his cottage home, so many a mind that has withstood the
most severe trials, has been broken down by a succession of ignoble
vexations.
COURAGE.
Courage is often but the effect of despair, for we cease to fear when we
have ceased to hope.
BEAUTY.
Beauty without religion is the most dangerous gift that nature can
bestow on woman; and talents without principles, the most pernicious to
man.
THOUGHT.
Thought rarely dwells in the robust of frame,
But chooses those whose nerves less stubborn are,
And who, unknowing sensual impulses,
Abstracted keep—freed from th’ ignoble thrall
Of pleasures, that debase men into brutes.
COQUETTES.
Coquettes when old, like Penelope with her web, pass half the night in
undoing the labours of the day.
MALICE.
Malice is the spur of wit, good nature the bridle.
MEDIOCRITY.
If mediocrity precludes men from attaining distinction, it does not
prevent their acquiring popularity, because the mass of mankind are
disposed to like those who can excite neither rivalry nor attention, and
who consequently leave their own pretensions undisputed.
MODERN REFINEMENT.
Modern refinement consists in a delicacy in words, and indelicacy of
thoughts and actions.
THOUGHT.
Thought sleeps, until awakened by the senses.
COMMON SENSE.
Is the most uncommon of all senses.
TALENTS.
Talents, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be unostentatious.
FEELINGS.
Feelings are always made the excuse of temper; whereas temper much more
frequently influences feelings.
NATURE.
Every production of the vegetable, animal, and moral world, has its
natural enemy. See how certain flowers, fruits, and plants, are injured
by certain insects; certain animals tormented by certain flies; and
certain men, by corresponding beings of their own species, who,
discovering in them certain qualities, prey on them quite as mortally as
do the flies and insects on the objects of their voracity.
DEATH.
We mourn the dead, as though _we_ could not die,
Nor think that ere the grass grows on their graves,
Nay, ere our tears are dried, we may be call’d
To quit this life, while counting on long years.
FORGIVENESS.
It is difficult not to hate those whom we have injured, because the
consciousness that we have behaved unworthily, humiliates us too much in
our own estimation, not to impel us to avenge it on them.
NECESSITY.
Necessity has been called the mother of invention; but should she not
rather be named the step-mother, for to her are invariably attributed
many inexcusable actions?
ESPRIT FORT.
An _esprit fort_ might frequently, with more justice, be styled _une
tête foible_.
EXPERIENCE.
Experience has taught us little, if it has not instructed us to pity the
errors of others, and to amend our own.
ERRORS.
They who weep over errors, were not formed for crimes.
FRIENDSHIP.
Those who would preserve a faith in friendship, should never require its
aid.
DUTIES.
Those who fulfil their duties, without feeling them to be irksome, are
happy; but those who discharge them from a consciousness of their
importance, are praiseworthy.
FASHION.
People who fall into the stream of fashion, like those who tumble into
the Mississippi river, are seldom saved from its vortex.
FLATTERY.
Flattery, if judiciously administered, is always acceptable, however
much we may despise the flatterer.
DEATH.
To reconcile us to Cimmerian death,
Th’ approach of which strikes terror to all hearts,
The God of mercy takes what most we love;
And we no longer dread to follow them.
FRIENDS.
Guard, if it be possible, your friends from injuring you, lest they, by
so doing, become your bitterest enemies, never forgiving the wrongs they
have themselves inflicted.
PASSION.
The hurricane of passion withers the milder feelings, even as the blast
of the simoom dries up and consumes all that it passes over.
SORROW.
The fountain of true poetry is sealed,
And sorrow’s touch alone can bid it flow:
Then only are its waters all reveal’d,
For inspiration’s ever bought with woe.
PRIDE.
Pride prevents not the commission of unworthy actions, though it forbids
the avowal of them.
HAPPINESS.
In seeking happiness we overlook content, which is always attainable,
while happiness, though sometimes in view, is never within reach.
GENIUS.
Genius is the gold in the mine—education the miner who elicits it.
GREAT MEN.
Intrepidus was a naturally, and Diplomaticus an artificially great man.
The first reposing a just confidence in his own powers, required no
extraneous aid; while the latter solely depended on his implements for
success or failure.
SOCIETY.
We must learn to bear with society, or to live without it. The latter
appears the least difficult task to pursue.
BOYS AND MEN.
Mark well the boy; in him you see the man
Of future years: their instincts, tastes, the same.
Time but developes that which was in him
Even from his cradle; it but gives more art
To hide the evil, counterfeit the good,
And cheat the world by seeming what he’s not.
HERMITS.
People are seldom tired of the world until the world is tired of them.
BLIGHTED HOPES.
Like a bird with wearied pinions flying over the sea, and painfully
sensible of the approach of exhaustion while yet in the midst of his
career, is he who, tired of life ere half its course is past, gazes with
dismay upon the gloomy waste he has still to traverse.
HAPPINESS.
Such is our pride and weakness, that we consider happiness as our right,
and misfortune as an injustice. A wise man, on the contrary, will
consider a happy condition as a prize drawn in a lottery, which he had
no right to expect, but which his good fortune secured for him.
PECULIARITIES OF MINDS.
As some insects are said to derive their colour from the leaf upon which
they feed, so do the minds of men assume their hue from the studies
which they select for it.
THE HEART.
The heart, like the cement of the ancient Romans, acquires hardness by
time.
CONSOLATION.
The truest consolation for the ills of life, is the recollection of its
brevity.
EXPERIENCE.
Experience is a torch lighted in the ashes of our illusions.
DIFFICULTIES.
Difficulties vanquish the weak, but are vanquished by the strong.
CHARACTERS.
We never injure our own characters so much, as when we attack those of
others.
LOVE.
When one link in the chain of love is broken, its strength and security
are gone.
DEATH.
When we have outlived our youth, we have little to regret in the death
of our old age; it is but the release of a superannuated friend, who has
outlived every other.
DEATH-BED.
We value time but on the bed of death,
When its brief sands are running to an end;
O! how we then remember with dismay
Our wasted hours, which, like reproachful ghosts
Of murder’d friends, rise up and pass before us!
How quickly flee the moments,—precious then
As moments ne’er were dear to us before,
Each counted with an agonising pang
As they recede, and with them—ebbing life,
Leaving the shrinking soul in terror dire,
To meet, as best it may, the conqueror Death.
CONTACT WITH SUPERIOR MINDS.
It is doubtful whether advantage is derived from a constant intercourse
with superior minds. If our own be possessed of power, the collision is
likely to excite it into action, and original thoughts are consequently
elicited. But, if a great inequality exists, the inferior mind is
quelled by the strong, or loses whatever features of idiosyncracy it
might once have possessed, in an unconscious subserviency to its more
vigorous opponent.
CONFESSION.
How many errors do we confess to our Creator, that we dare not reveal to
his fallible creatures.
LOVE.
Some natures, like trees of the torrid zone,
Yield fruit but once, and prematurely die;
No second love such hearts are form’d to own,
They palpitate but once with passion’s sigh.
LOVE-MATCHES.
Love-matches are formed by people who pay for a month of honey with a
life of vinegar.
WOMEN.
Women, with their bright imaginations, tender hearts, and pure minds,
create for themselves idols, on which they lavish their worship, making
their hearts temples, in which the false god is adored. But, alas! the
object of their best and fondest feelings generally too soon proves to
be of base clay, instead of pure gold; and though pity would fain
intervene to veil its defects, or even to cherish it in despite of them,
virtue, reason, and justice combine finally to destroy it; but, in the
deed, too often injure the fane in which it was enshrined.
LIFE.
Life resembles a river flowing rapidly to the ocean of eternity, and in
its flight passing by brilliant, as well as sombre objects, without the
power of doing aught more than for a few brief moments receiving our hue
from them.
COURAGE.
A higher degree of courage is required to pardon an injury than to
avenge it. In the first, the triumph is over self, the most difficult of
all; but in the second, it is over another, which is always more easily
achieved.
LIGHT LITERATURE.
Works of light literature often have a vogue that more solid ones fail
to acquire; as paper kites mount in the air, when a more consistent
substance cannot ascend.
DECEIVERS.
We are born to deceive, or to be deceived. In one of these classes we
must be numbered; but our self-respect is dependent upon our selection.
The practice of deception generally secures its own punishment; for
callous indeed must be that mind which is insensible to its ignominy!
But he who has been duped, is conscious, even in the very moment that he
detects the imposition, of his proud superiority to one who can stoop to
the adoption of so foul and sorry a course. The really good and
high-minded, therefore, are seldom provoked by the discovery of
deception; though the cunning and artful resent it, as a humiliating
triumph obtained over them in their own vocations.
CONCEALED GRIEF.
Concealed griefs are the most consuming, as secret maladies are the most
fatal.
WOMEN.
Women should not paint love, until they have ceased to inspire it.
EMINENT MEN.
As high mountains attract clouds and vapours, so do eminent men attract
censure. They act like the conductors placed on lofty buildings to draw
the lightning from less elevated objects.
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.
Love is a flower, with which we adorn our youth; but friendship is a
fruit with which we solace our maturity.
PEDANTS.
Pedants are often mistaken for savants, yet the difference between them
is great; one affects, the other possesses science. The pedant is to the
savant, what the apothecary is to the physician: one understands the
means, the other both the means and the end.
WIT.
Wit lives in the present, but genius survives in the future.
EXPERIENCE.
Experience enables us to detect the errors of the past, but it seldom
guards us against those of the future.
ENVY.
The vain and pretending are ever the most prone to envy; for they covet
that which they would fain make people believe they possess.
THE PAST.
The past shows us but the tombs of our buried illusions and hopes.
PITY.
All that we bestow in pity to the unfortunate, we take away in respect;
hence, he that would be respected must never allow himself to become an
object of pity.
PRIDE AND VANITY.
Vanity lives on the commendations of others, but pride is supported by
self-respect. Hence the vain pine in solitude, while the proud retain
their self-reverence and are satisfied.
WEAKNESSES.
Our weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our
strength is the forced fruit.
PRODIGALS.
Persons who never learn the difference between a shilling and a
sixpence, until they want the latter.
EXISTENCE.
Existence is only felt to be valuable while it is necessary to some one
dear to us. The moment we become aware that our death would leave no
aching void in a human heart, the charm of life is gone.
WOMEN.
There is a vast difference between a feminine, and an effeminate woman;
the first has all the gentleness of her sex,—the second, all the
weakness.
PLEASURE.
Pleasure is like a cordial; a little of it is not injurious, but too
much destroys.
POETRY.
The gleams in the poetry of some writers are like straw fires, bright,
vivid, but transitory.
COSMETICS.
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
COURTIERS.
The two principal requisites in a courtier are, a flexible conscience,
and an inflexible politeness.
MISFORTUNES.
There are some misfortunes, the recollection of which floats ever
uppermost in our minds, like oil thrown on water.
WOMEN.
Young women ought, like angels, to pardon the faults they cannot
comprehend; and old women, like saints, should compassionate, because
they have endured temptations, and experienced the difficulty of
resisting them.
MEDIOCRITY.
In the society of persons of mediocrity, he who has the most wit will
please the least, for each person will either misunderstand, or be
jealous of him.
COSMETICS.
Cosmetics are to the face, what affectation is to the manners; they
impose on none, and disgust many.
MEN.
A vicious man is governed by his appetites, a weak man by his
affections, but a wise man is governed by his principles.
MORALISTS.
To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as
he ought to be.
WOMEN.
Those women who are most loved by their own sex, are precisely such as
are least sought by the other.
CONSCIENCE.
He who takes conscience for his guide, will not easily lose his way.
MINDS.
A sensible mind applies patience to misfortunes; a frivolous one,
forgetfulness.
CONSCIENCE.
Conscience oft slumbers, but has fearful dreams,
And wakes as painfully as mourners do
From the first sleep that follows the dread shock
Of losing one that dearer was than life.
MISFORTUNES.
They only can thoroughly compassionate misfortune who have drunk from
its bitter cup; for, how can the prosperous freely sympathize in that
which they have never experienced, and consequently cannot understand?
YOUTH AND MATURITY.
Youth is pliant and elastic; if it receives impressions easily, they are
as easily effaced: but maturity is rigid, and, admitting them slowly,
retains them with a proportionate tenacity.
CONSCIENCE.
The rewarder of virtue, and avenger of crime.
CATHERINE OF RUSSIA.
Catherine I. of Russia was called the mother of her people; but
Catherine II. might, with nearly equal justice, be named the _wife_.
MOURNERS.
They only truly mourn the dead, who endeavour so to live as to ensure a
re-union with them in heaven.
MEMORIES.
Some persons are so tenacious of memory, that they forget nothing but
the services they have received, and the errors they have committed.
COURAGE AND VIRTUE.
A man should never boast of his courage, nor a woman of her virtue, lest
their doing so should be the cause of calling their possession of them
into question.
CUSTOM.
Custom is a tyrant that holds us in chains, which we do not break,
because so many others support them patiently.
LIFE.
Life, like the diamond in a mine, is sometimes valueless to its owner
until it becomes estimated by another.
YOUTHFUL LOVERS.
Youthful lovers, like the painter Arellius, always paint the objects of
their affection as goddesses.
SPRING AND AUTUMN.
Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.
TRUE AND FALSE FRIENDS.
False friends will seek you in a happy home,
But true friends only to a prison come.
VIRTUE.
The virtues of others often render us sensible of the want of them in
ourselves, as the riches of our acquaintance make us more conscious of
our poverty.
MARRIAGE.
How many in the married state we find
Wedded in person, but divorced in mind!
Unnatural union! fraught with as much dread
As when the living chain’d were to the dead
By stern Mezentius; yet less cruel he,—
As many slaves of Hymen will agree,—
For but one victim suffer’d from the chain,
While wedlock gives the _two_ an equal pain.
FÊTES.
A fête is one of the many palliatives for that common malady _ennui_,
and, like most palliatives, gives but a temporary relief, generally
followed by a return of the disease.
LEVELLERS.
Men who cannot rise, are ever prone to pull down those who do, hoping to
mount by their ruin.
EXPERIENCE.
Those are fortunate who borrow experience, instead of buying it.
ADVERSITY.
Adversity, ’t is thine to prove
The truth of friendship or of love;
Thy frown can drive the false away,
But makes the faithful nearer stay;
Thy chilling breath illusion rends,
And is too cold for summer friends.
MISFORTUNES.
Misfortunes which have not been caused by our own misconduct, and which
we may lay open to sympathy, are but as superficial wounds, which are
easily healed; but those which guilt has produced, and shame conceals,
like the stolen fox of the Spartan boy, prey on the vitals, and the
pangs must be concealed, while hiding their inflictor in the breast he
feeds on.
LIBERTY.
O liberty! the purest gift from heaven
That ever was to erring mortals given;
The heart that Heaven has form’d to worship thee,
Must be from every grovelling passion free;
The patriot would thy noble precepts use,
While demagogues but know thee to abuse.
AGE.
When age is seen moving through scenes of gaiety and pleasure, its
wrinkles concealed beneath a mask of paint, and its wig wreathed with
flowers, it reminds one of the death’s heads which the ancients
introduced at their festivals, to recall to their memories the brevity
of life, and make them enjoy the present with more zest.
CONTENT.
We miss content in our search for happiness.
FRIENDSHIP.
I lost my spirits and my health.
But kept my friends, so did not wince
Until one day I lost my wealth,
And never heard of friendship since.
TRIALS.
It is when we most suffer, that we least doubt the existence of that
Power which can afflict or heal.
LIFE.
We pass our lives in regretting the past, complaining of the present,
and indulging false hopes of the future.
LOVE AND VANITY.
Half the errors attributed to love have their source in vanity; and many
a person has made sacrifices to this unworthy passion, who would have
successfully resisted the pleadings of affection.
ON SEEING PRINCE TALLEYRAND SUFFERING UNDER A SEVERE COLD.
Why looks prince Talleyrand so cold—
Why trembles he in every part?
It is as doctors long foretold,
His body’s caught cold from his heart.
FRIENDS.
We are often ashamed of our friends, when it is they who have cause to
be ashamed of us.
PRIDE AND POVERTY.
Pride and poverty are the most ill-assorted companions that can meet.
They live in a state of continual warfare, and the sacrifices they exact
from each other, like those claimed by enemies to establish a hollow
peace, only serve to increase their discord.
LIBERTY.
Liberty, according to the acceptation of the term among its modern
votaries, consists in the right of doing every thing agreeable to
themselves, and of precluding others from enjoying the same privilege.
MANNERS.
In aping the manners of foreign countries, we lose what is best in our
own, and only expose ourselves to the ridicule of those we imitate.
THE END.
NEW·YORK:
Printed by J. P. WRIGHT,
18 New Street.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Page Changed from Changed to
67 Politics, a science, which no Politics is a science, which no
one believes one believes
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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