GAMING.

GAMING is a kind of tacit confession, that the company engaged therein do, in general, exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes, and therefore they cast lots to determine upon whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.

DENOUNCE revenge, as if they heard,
And rightly understood and feared,
And would take heed another time
How to commit so bold a crime;
When the poor bones are innocent
Of all he did, or said, or meant,

And have as little sense almost,

BLACKSTONE.

And he that damns them when h' has lost;
As if he had relied upon

Their judgment, rather than his own;
And that it were their fault, not his,
That managed them himself amiss,
And gave them ill instructions, how
To run as he would have them do,
And then condemns them sillily
For having no more wit than he.

Prince Henry.

REPAYMENT.

BUTLER. Upon Gaming.

THE money is paid back again. Falstaff. O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labour.

QUOTATION.

Henry IV., First Part.

QUOTATION, sir, is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it: classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

To Anthea.

BID me to live, and I will live

Thy Protestant to be:

Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free

DR. JOHNSON.

As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I'll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree :

Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet will I keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that cypress-tree:
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me,

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.

HERRICK.

QUAINTNESSES-Fuller.
Pyramids.

THE Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.

Elder Brother.

Is one who made haste to come into the world to bring his parents the first news of male posterity, and is well rewarded for his tidings.

Naturals.

THEIR heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.

Horses.

THESE are men's wings, wherewith they make such speed. A generous creature a horse is, sensible in some sort of honour; and made most handsome by that which deforms men mostpride.

Hospitality.

SOME hold, when hospitality died in England, she gave her last groan among the yeomen of Kent. And still at our yeomen's

tables, you shall have as many joints as dishes. No meat disguised with strange sauces; no straggling joint of a sheep in the midst of a pasture of grass, beset with salads on every side, but more solid substantial food: no serviters (more nimble with their hands than the guests with their teeth) take away meat before stomachs are taken away. Here you have, that which in itself is good, made better by the store of it, and best by the welcome to it.*

THE NEW YEAR.

HARK! the cock crows, and yon bright star,

Tells us the day himself's not far;

And see where, breaking from the night,

He gilds the western hills with light.
With him old Janus doth appear
Peeping into the future year
With such a look as seems to say,
The prospect is not good that way,
Thus do we rise ill sights to see,
And 'gainst ourselves to prophesy;'
When the prophetic fear of things
A more tormenting mischief brings; †
More full of soul-tormenting gall
Than direst mischiefs can befall :
But stay! But stay! methinks my sight
Better inform'd by clearer light,
Discerns sereneness in that brow,
That all contracted seem'd but now;
His revers'd face may show distaste,
And frown upon the ills are past;
But that which this way looks is clear
And smiles upon the new-born year.

AND when ye sit about your embers,
Call not to mind those fled Decembers;
But think on these that are t' appear,
As daughters to the instant year.

HERRICK

SPEECH.

It was justly said by Themistocles, that speech is like tapestry unfolded where the imagery appears distinct, but thoughts, like tapestry in the bale, where the figures are rolled up together. BACON. Essays.

I HAVE often learnt a good deal from my own talk. Often when I have been advising a man or funnin of him, new reasons or new illustrations have sprung up of their own accord that I never thought of before. It has made my opinions stronger, or given me cause to change them in some particulars. I am not certain whether a man if he could be sure not to be overheard, was to think aloud, but that it would be beneficial to him. It would take off the dreaminess of thinking and castle building, and give reality to his reasons and life to his humour.

SAM SLICK.

BEAUTIFUL SPEECH.

AND when she spake

Wise Saws.

Sweete wordes like dropping honey she did shed,
And 'twixt the perles and rubins* softly brake
A silver sound, that heavenly musicke seem'd to make.
Faery Queen, Book II., Canto III.

DEAR coral lip which beauty beautifies,

That trembling stood before her words were borne;
And you her words; words? no, but golden chains,
Which did inslave my ears, ensnare my soul,

Wise image of her mind, mind that contains

A

power all power of senses to controul:

So sweetly you from love dissuade do me,
That I love more, if more my love can be.

DRUMMOND.

Her grace did beauty, voice yet grace did pass,
Which thus through pearls and rubies broken was.

DRUMMOND.

THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he awhile

Thought him still speaking,* still stood fix'd to hear;
Then, as new-waked, thus gratefully replied.

Paradise Lost, Book VIII.

WORDS.

WORDS are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.

HOBBES.

THE greater are the alterations and improvements which happen in the manners of a people, the less can be expected in their language.

HUME. Essay 21.

SIR JOHN HERSCHELL mentioning the incomplete sense of words-for instance-iron by the vulgar regarded as incombustible; by the chemist as one of the most combustible of bodies; to the poet an emblem of rigidity; to the smith most plastic, &c., illustrates by a beautiful simile. The meaning of such a term is like a rainbow, everybody sees a different one, and all maintain it to be the same.

Discourse on Natural Philosophy.

MELANCHOLY.

WITH eyes uprais'd, as one inspired,
Pale Melancholy sat retired;

And from her wild sequester'd seat,

In notes by distance made more sweet,

Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul:

And dashing soft from rocks around

Bubbling runnels join'd the sound ;

Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,
Or, o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay,
Round an holy calm diffusing,

Love of peace, and lonely musing,
In hollow murmurs died away.

COLLINS. Ode to the Passions.

ONCE on my attempting to cheer him, when I perceived him over thoughtful, he replied to me in these words :-"Do not

*He ceas'd; but left so pleasing on their ear

His voice, that list'ning still they seem'd to hear.

POPE. Odyssey, Book XII.