lid attachment to virtue and philofophy is our only field.

The man whom no body pleases, is more unhappy than he whom no body is pleased with.

The moft unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

Education.

Men commonly owe their virtue or their 57 vice to education as much as to nature.

Plato reproving a young man for playing at fome childish game; You chide me, fays the youth, for a trifling fault. Cuftom, replied the philofopher, is no trifle. And, adds Montaigne, he was in the right; for our vices begin in infancy.

There is no fuch fop as my young mafter of his lady-mother's making. She blows him up with felf-conceit, and there he ftops. She makes a man of him at twelve, and a boy all his life after.

To women that have been converfant in the world, a gardener is a gardener, and a mafon a mason. To thofe who have been

bred

58

59

bred in a retired way, a gardener is a man, and a mafon is a man. And then every thing proves a temptation to those who are afraid.

To enure young perfons to bear patiently fmall injuries, is a capital branch of educa tion: Nothing tends more effectually to secure men against great injuries.

Good education is a choice bleffing: But innate virtue fometimes makes vigorous ef forts under all disadvantages.

An infallible way to make your child miferable, is to fatisfy all his demands. Paffion fwells by gratification; and the impoffibility of fatisfying every one of his demands, will oblige you to ftop short at laft, after he has become a little headstrong.

Government.

However defirable authority may appear, yet, confidering the weakness of man, and the intricacies of government, it is more agreeable to the nature of moft men to follow than to lead. It gives great eafe to have our road traced out, in which we may walk at

leifure,

leifure, not burdened with the concerns of others.

As the councils of a commonwealth are generally more public than thofe of a monarchy, fo generally they are more fair and honeft.

The conviction of being free, makes the people easy in a republic, even where they are more burdened than under an arbitrary monarch.

A difinterested love for one's country can only fubfift in fmall republics. This affection leffens as it is extended, and in a great ftate vanifheth.

Cruel laws may depopulate a city, but will fcarce reform it.

It is an obfervation of Thucydides, that men are more enraged at an unjust decree, than at a private act of violence.

Our imaginary wants, which, in number, far exceed the real, arife from viewing others in a better condition than ourselves. Hence, in a state where all are equally oppreffed, without any respect of perfons, we find less discontent and heart-burnings, than

in a milder government, where the subjects are unequally burdened.

Courtier.

All the skill of a court is, to follow the Prince's prefent humour, talk the prefent language, ferve the present turn, and make ufe of the present interest for advancement.

There is no other ftudy in the court of Princes, but how to please; because there a man makes his fortune by making himself agreeable. Hence it comes, that courtiers are fo polished. But, in towns and repu blics, where men advance their fortune by labour and industry, the last of their cares is to be agreeable; and it is that which keeps them fo clownish.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

Prejudices and Biaffes founded on Human Nature.

W

E efteem things according to their intrinfic merit: It is ftrange man fhould be an exception. We prize a horse for his strength and courage, not for his furniture. We prize a man for his fumptuous palace, his great train, his vaft revenue; yet thefe are his furniture, not his mind.

The riches, nay the drefs, of the speaker, will recommend the moft trifling thoughts: His motions and grimaces appear of impor tance. It cannot be, we think, but that the man who enjoys fo many posts and preferments, who is fo haughty and high-spirited, muft know more than the common people.

Let a man of the moft moderate parts be raised to an exalted ftation, and our heart comes to be infenfibly filled with awe, diftance, and refpect. Let him fink down a