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My thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back.

Liberty

Heaven has bestowed upon mankind.

Part ii. Chap. lvii.

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Chap. lviii.

Ibid.

I think it a very happy accident.2

Ibid.

As they use to say, spick and span new.1

I shall be as secret as the grave.

Chap. lxii.

Now, blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even.3

Rome was not built in a day.

Chap. lxviii.

Chap. lxxi.

The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.

Ibid.

Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.5 Chap. lxxiv. Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted. The Little Gypsy (La Gitanilla).

My heart is wax moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain."

1 See Middleton, page 172.

2 See Middleton, page 174.

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Ibid.

3 Blessing on him who invented sleep, -the mantle that covers all human thoughts, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, and, lastly, the general coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shep herd with the king, and the simple with the wise. - Jarvis's translation. 4 See Heywood, page 15.

5 See Longfellow, page 613.

See Byron, page 554

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JOHN SIRMOND. 1589 (?) −1649.

If on my theme I rightly think,
There are five reasons why men drink, -
Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry,
Or lest I should be by and by,

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Causa Bibendi.

FRIEDRICH VON LOGAU. 1604-1655.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;"

Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness Retribution. (Sinngedichte.)

grinds He all.

Man-like is it to fall into sin,
Fiend-like is it to dwell therein;
Christ-like is it for sin to grieve,
God-like is it all sin to leave.

1 Goethe adopted this motto for his "Travels in Italy."

Sin. (Ibid.)

2 These lines are a translation of a Latin epigram (erroneously ascribed to Henry Aldrich in the "Biographia Britannica," second edition, vol. i. p. 131), which Menage and De la Monnoye attribute to Père Sirmond: Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi:

Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis atque futura;

Et vini bonitas, et quælibet altera causa.

8 See Herbert, page 206.

Menagiana, vol. i. p. 172.

Ὀψὲ θεοῦ μύλοι ἀλέουσι τὸ λεπτὸν ἄλευρον.—Oracula Sibylliana, liber viii. line 14.

Οψὲ θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά. —LEUTSCH AND SCHNEIDEWIN: Corpus Parœmiographorum Græcorum, vol. i. p. 444.

Sextus Empiricus is the first writer who has presented the whole of the adage cited by Plutarch in his treatise "Concerning such whom God is slow to punish."

ISAAC DE BENSERADE. 1612-1691.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry ;
And, born in bed, in bed we die.
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.1

FRANCIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 1613-1680.

(Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims.)

Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.2 We have all sufficient strength to endure the misfor tunes of others.

Maxim 19.

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.3

Maxim 22.

We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.

Maxim 25.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.

Maxim 26.

Interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of parts, even that of disinterestedness.

Maxim 39.

We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.

Maxim 49.

There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.

1 Translated by Samuel Johnson.

Maxim 71.

2 This epigraph, which is the key to the system of La Rochefoucauld, is found in another form as No. 179 of the Maxims of the first edition, 1665; it is omitted from the second and third, and reappears for the first time in the fourth edition at the head of the Reflections. - AIME MARTIN.

8 See Goldsmith, page 401.

True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.

Maxim 76.

The love of justice is simply, in the majority of men, the fear of suffering injustice.

Maxim 78.

Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself.

Maxim 79.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

Maxim 83.

A man who is ungrateful is often less to blame than his benefactor.

Maxim 96.

The understanding is always the dupe of the heart.

Maxim 102.

Nothing is given so profusely as advice.

Maxim 110.

The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.

Usually we praise only to be praised.

Maxim 127.

Maxim 146.

Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence. Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

Maxim 180.

Maxim 212.

Maxim 218.

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

Maxim 226.

There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.

Maxim 245.

The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.1

1 See Shelley, page 566.

Maxim 259

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

Maxim 294.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.1

Maxim 298.

Lovers are never tired of each other, though they always speak of themselves.

We pardon in the degree that we love.

Maxim 312.

Maxim 330.

We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.2

Maxim 347.

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond

the mark.

Maxim 377.

We may give advice, but we cannot inspire the conduct.

Maxim 378.

The veracity which increases with old age is not far from folly.

Maxim 416.

In their first passion women love their lovers, in all the others they love love.3

Maxim 471.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

Maxim 496.

In the adversity of our best friends we often find something that is not exactly displeasing.*

1 See Walpole, page 304.

2 "That was excellently observed," say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken. - SWIFT: Thoughts on Various Subjects. 3 See Byron, page 557.

4 This reflection, No. 99 in the edition of 1665, the author suppressed in the third edition.

In all distresses of our friends

We first consult our private ends;

While Nature, kindly bent to ease us,

Points out some circumstance to please us.

DEAN SWIFT: A Paraphrase of Rochefoucauld's
Maxim.

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