INSIGNIFICANCY OF MAN. When I reflect upon it, what creatures are we men! how insignificant! FREEMEN RATHER THAN SLAVES. Doubtless we all are freemen more willingly than we live the life of slaves. GOOD. Then at length we come to know our good, when we have lost it. GREAT GENIUSES. How greatest geniuses oft lie conceal'd! FORTITUDE. Our best support and succor in distress is fortitude of mind. STRATAGEM. A stratagem is no stratagem if it be not artfully planned. DECEITFULNESS OF MEN. This is too oft the way with most men;-while they are suing for a favor, they are gracious; but when once they have got it, from gracious they become surly and ready to take every advantage over you. THE CAUTIOUS ARE OFTEN TRICKED. And the most cautious, even when he thinks He's most upon his guard, is often trick'd. FORTUNE. Fortune moulds and fashions human beings as she chooses. GOD. There is indeed a God, that hears and sees whate'er we do. So Hebrews iv. 13: "All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." LOSS AT TIMES TO BE PREFERRED TO GAIN. I do not regard every kind of gain as serviceable to man. I know that gain has raised many to high eminence. There are times, however, when loss should be preferred to gain. KINDNESS TO THE GOOD. The kindnesses that are done to the good, thanks for the same, are pregnant with blessings. HIS OWN DEAR TO EVERY ONE. Mine to me is dear; Dear is his own to every one. THE WRETCHED. Wretched is the man who is in search of something to eat and finds that with difficulty, but more wretched is he who both seeks with diffi he who, when he desires to eat, has not that which he may eat. THE POOR. 'Tis the nature of the poor to hate and envy men of property. Thomson says: "Base envy withers at another's joy, And hates that excellence it cannot reach." THE PEASANT. For countrymen always harrow before they weed. DEATH. Death I esteem a trifle, when not merited by evil actions. VIRTUE. He who dies for virtue's sake, does not perish. SURE AS DEATH. To die is not more certain. DEATH. There is no evil I need dread in death when death is over. Though I were to survive to the utmost age of man, yet the space of time to bear the hardships, with which you threaten me, would be short. FATTED LAMB. And bid them bring forthwith a fatted lamb. TOO LATE. Go, fool, you come too late. MAN REGARDLESS OF THOSE FROM WHOM NO It is the usual way with men not to remember or know the man whose favor is worth nothing. NO RUMOR IS WITHOUT FOUNDATION. Flame follows very close on smoke. "Where fire is made, smoke arises." LABOR ATTENDS EVERY PURSUIT. He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell. LOVE. It is good to love in a moderate degree; to distraction, it is not good. BLESSINGS. No blessing lasts forever. A REASONABLE LOVER. Find me a reasonable lover against his weight in gold. THE PROVIDENT. The man who has got rich speedily, must speed culty and finds nothing at all; most wretched is ily be provident or speedily will starve. If there be any misery for which a man ought to be pitied, it is when the malady is in his mind. This I experience when many shapes of ill assail me: many forms of sorrow, poverty, fear, alarm Upon my word, this day certainly has turned my innocent mind. out both perverse and adverse for me. SAIL SHIFTED ACCORDING TO THE WIND. SMELL. Puppies have one smell, pigs quite another.. TO REAP EVIL FOR GOOD. How hard it is, when you reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done. COAXING IS MERE BIRD-LIME. Your coaxing is mere bird-lime. MAN PROPOSES. Man proposes, God disposes. A FRIEND. A man, your friend, who is a friend such as the name imports-except the gods-nothing does excel him. THE UNGRATEFUL. For, by Pollux! nothing is, in my opinion, more base than an ungrateful man. It is better that a thief should escape, than that a generous friend Whichever way the wind blows at sea, in that should be forsaken. It is better to be extravagant, direction the sail is shifted. WISDOM. 'Tis better for one to know more than he utters. A FRIEND IN NEED. The man that comforts a desponding friend With words alone, does nothing. He's a friend Indeed, who proves himself a friend in need. USELESS TO BE BOUNTEOUS IN WORDS. than to be called ungrateful. Good men will praise that, even bad men will condemn the latter. MODESTY. For him I reckon lost, who's lost to shame. Diphilus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 1093, M.) says:— "There is no creature more bold than the shameless." FALSE FRIENDS. There are many of such life and manners, who, when you think them friends, are found most What does it signify your being bounteous in false, profuse in promises, sparing in deeds, of in TROUBLES. Know this, that troubles come on us swifter much than things we wish. TRUTH. WOMAN FULL OF WILES. She has a lying tongue, a wit that is ripe for mischief, an undaunted assurance; she has at home within herself a mind fraught with false words, false actions, and false oaths. For a I love truth, and wish to have it always spoken woman, if she is-bent on ill, never goes begging to to me: I hate a liar. THINGS UNHOPED FOR. Things we hope not for oftener come to pass than things we wish for. "TO WHITEN A BLACKAMOOR." It is the same as if you were to try to whiten ivory with ink, This is applied to those whose design is good, but marred in the execution, WOMAN'S BEST SMELL. A woman's best smell is to smell of nothing. For these your anointed hags, who still new vamp themselves, and hide their wrinkles with paint, when once the sweat and perfume mix, will stink worse than the greasy compound, when a cook pours all his broths together. MISCONDUCT. Ill conduct soils the finest ornaments worse than dirt. PROCRASTINATION IS BAD. It is a miserable thing to be digging a well at the moment when thirst has seized your throat. STEADINESS. It does not matter a feather whether a man be supported by patron or client, if he himself wants steadiness and courage. GUILTY CONSCIENCE. Nothing so wretched as a guilty conscience. A LIE. By Hercules! I have often heard that your piping-hot lie is the best of lies: what the gods dictate, that is right. MASTERS AND SERVANTS. As servants wish their masters to be, such is he wont to be. Masters are good to the good, severe to him who is bad. DANGEROUS TO GO TO LAW. You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law. ADVICE FROM SACRED TEMPLES. Counsels are of higher sanction when taken in sacred places. A HANDSOME MAN. 'Tis really a very great plague to be too hand some a man. WOMAN. If a woman has any malicious mischief to do, in that case her memory is immortal in remembering it forever; if any good or honorable deed is to be done, it will fall out that those same women become oblivious that instant and cannot remember. TO DROWN HIS VOICE BY TALKING. You drown his voice by your talking. WHAT WE ARE ASHAMED OF. We bear with more ease what we are ashamed of, than what we are vexed at. COMPLAIN TO YOUR STEPMOTHER. Complain to your stepmother. This is a hard hit at stepmothers. TO DO GOOD TO THE BAD. To do good to the bad is a danger just as great. Do you never look back at yourself, when you as to do bad to the good. If thou doest good to abuse another person? the bad, the benefit is lost. FORTUNE. It is the goddess Fortune alone that gets the better of a hundred wise heads; and there is truth in this, that according as each takes advantage of her, he advances in life, and hence we all declare that such an one is a man of sense: when we hear of a man being successful, that, in our eyes, is a proof of wisdom; when he fails, he is a fool. Fools that we are, when we pray the gods to grant us what we wish, we know not, or if we do, it is in vain, what will be to our advantage. We lose a certainty and grasp a shadow. What follows, but that in the midst of labors and sorrows, death creeps upon us in the interim. WINE TRIPS US UP. This is the great fault in wine: it first trips up the feet, it is a cunning wrestler. WOMAN. The man, who wants to be fully employed, should procure a woman and a ship; for no two things produce more trouble-if perchance you begin to rig them, these two things can never be rigged enough. GOLDEN MEAN. In everything the golden mean is best: all things in excess are a plague. EXCESSIVE OUTLAY. For no profits can arise, if the outlay exceeds them. A GOOD DISPOSITION. A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate. EVIL HABITS. Evil habits soil a fine dress more than mud; good manners, by their deeds, easily set off a lowly garb. For worthless is the man, who knows how to WHEN A WOMAN'S GOOD DISPOSITIONS ARE DISreceive a kindness, and knows not how to return it. REGISTER OF GOOD AND EVIL DEEDS. Jove, supreme sovereign of gods and men, scatters us among nations to mark the people's actions, manners, piety, and faith, that each may find reward according to his virtues; those who suborn false witnesses to gain a villanous suit in law, who shuffle off due payments by false swearing, their names written down, we return to Jove: each day he is informed of those that call for vengeance. Euripides (Fr. Melan. 12) says: "A. Do you think that the wicked deeds of men fly on wings up to the gods, there to be written down in the portfolio of Jove, and that Jove looks at them assigning punishment for each? Why, the whole of heaven would not be able to contain the sins of mankind, so numerous are they, nor would he be able to read and affix the penalty to each; but vengeance dwells very close to us, if we will only look. B. O woman, the gods inflict punishment on those whom they hate, since wickedness is not agreeable to them." WICKED MEN. Wicked men fondly imagine that they can appease Jove with gifts and sacrifice, losing both their labor and their money: this is so; because no petition of the perjured is acceptable to him. The good will sooner find pardon from above, in praying to the gods, than he that is wicked. OTHERS' MISFORTUNES. The storied miseries of men's mishaps UNEXPECTED GOOD. For I know good oft befalls us when we least expect it and true it is, that when we trust in hope, we are often disappointed. EQUANIMITY. COVERED. When is it best discerned a woman has good dispositions? When she, who has the power of doing ill, refrains from doing it. THE BUSY-BODY. For the busy-body is ever ill-natured. PRIDE. High airs befit prosperous fortune. PROSPERITY. According as men thrive, their friends are true: if their affairs go to wreck, their friends sink with them. Fortune finds friends. EVIL MANNERS. Evil manners, like well-watered plants, have shot up in abundance. EVIL KNOWN IS BEST. Keep what you've got: the evil that we know is best. Euripides (Fr. Antiop. 7) says:— feel that you are ill has some pleasure: ignorance of misfortunes has some advantage." "I feel what I suffer, and that is no small evil: for not to THE GOOD OUGHT TO KEEP SUSPICION FROM THEMSELVES. It becomes all good men and women to be on their guard, and keep even the suspicion of guilt away. FRIENDS. There are, I know are friends; there are, I think so; there are, whose dispositions and minds I cannot know, or whether to enrol them among my friends or foes. But you I hold of all my fast friends the most steadfast. BUSY-BODIES. In truth there is nothing more foolish or more A well-balanced mind is the best remedy against stupid, nothing more lying, or indeed more tataffliction. THE GODS MAKE SPORT OF MEN. In wondrous ways the gods make sport of men, and in wondrous fashions they send dreams in sleep. UNEXPECTED GOOD. tling, more self-conceited, or more forsworn, than those men of the city everlastingly gossiping about, whom they call busy-bodies.. And I too should rank with them, who have been the swallower of the false tales of those who pretend that they know everything, and yet know nothing. They know, forsooth, your thoughts present and future. They know what the king whispered in For I know that much good befalls many con- the ear of the queen: that which neither is, nor is trary to expectation. likely to be, do these fellows know. |
