to ruin an army; faults, therefore, he pardons none; they that are presidents of disorder or mutiny, repair it by being examples of his justice. Besiege him never so strictly, so long as the air is not cut from him, his heart faints not. He hath learned as well to make use of a victory as to get it; and in pursuing his enemy, like a whirlwind, carries all afore him. being assured, if ever a man will benefit himself upon his foe, then is the time, when they have lost force, wisdom, courage, and reputation. The goodness of his cause is the special motive to his valour; never is he known to slight the weakest enemy that comes armed against him on the hand of justice. Hasty and over much heat he accounts the step-dame to all great actions, that will not suffer them to thrive; if he cannot overcome his enemy by force, he does it by time. If ever he shakes bands with war, he can die more calmly than most courtiers, for his continual dangers have been, as it were, so many meditations of death! he thinks not out of his own calling, when he accounts life a continual warfare, and his prayers then best become him when armed cap-à-pie. He utters them like the great Hebrew general, on horseback. He casts a smiling contempt upon calumny; it meets him as if glass should encounter adamant. He thinks war is never to be given over but on one of these three conditions,-an assured peace, absolute victory, or an honest death. Lastly; when peace folds him up, his silver head should lean near the golden sceptre, and die in the prince's bosom. Sir T. Overbury. COMMANDER-Value of a. It is better to have a lion at the head of an Raised the strong crane; choked up the loaded street With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods ! Possess'd the breezy void; the sooty hulk While deep the various voice of servant toil From bank to bank increased, whence ribb'd with oak, To bear the British thunder black and bold, The roaring vessel rush'd into the main. Thomson. COMMERCE-Civilizing Influence of. which maintain distinction and animosity Commerce tends to wear off those prejudices between nations. It softens and polishes the manners of men. It unites them by one of the strongest of all ties the desire of supIt disposes them plying their mutual wants. to peace, by establishing in every state an order of citizens bound by their interest to be the guardians of public tranquillity. As and begins to gain an ascendant in any society, soon as the commercial spirit acquires vigour, we discern a new genius in its policy, its alliances, its wars, and its negotiations. COMMONALTY-a Depraved. Robertson. A depraved commonalty is the teeming source of all moral and political disorder, and army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of the fearful presage, if not speedily averted by an army of lions. an efficient system of Christian instruction, of a sweeping anarchy and great national overthrow. Chalmers. COMMERCE-Advantages of. De Foe. I am wonderfully delighted to see a body of men thriving in their own fortunes, and at the same time promoting the public stock; or, in other words, raising estates for their own families, by bringing into their country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous. Nature seems to have taken a particular care to disseminate ber blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to their mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, that the nations of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together by their common interest. Addison. Commerce brought into the public walk COMPANIONS-Choice of. In young minds there is commonly a strong propensity to particular intimacies and friendships. Youth, indeed, is the season when friendships are sometimes formed, which not only continue through succeeding life, but which glow to the last, with a tenderness unknown to the connections begun in cooler years. The propensity, therefore, is not to be discouraged, though, at the same time, it must be regulated with much circumspection and care. Too many of the pretended friendships of youth are mere combinations in pleasure. They are often founded on capricious likings, suddenly contracted and as suddenly dis solved. Sometimes they are the effect of in COMPANIONS. terested complaisance and flattery on the one side, and of credulous fondness on the other. Such rash and dangerous connections should be avoided, lest they afterwards load us with dishonour. We should ever have it fixed in our memories, that by the character of those whom we choose for our friends, our own is likely to be formed, and will certainly be judged of by the world. We ought, therefore, to be slow and cautious in contracting intimacy; but when a virtuous friendship is once established, we must ever consider it as a sacred engagement. Blair. COMPASSION. but if they be bad, it is twenty to one but they will infect and corrupt you. Therefore be wary and shy in choosing, and entertaining, or frequenting any company or companions; be not too hasty in committing yourself to them; stand off awhile till you have inquired of some (that you know by experience to be faithful), what they are; observe what company they keep; be not too easy to gain acquaintance, but stand off and keep a distance yet awhile, till you have observed and learnt touching them. Men or women that are greedy of acquaintance, or hasty in it, are oftentimes snared in ill company before they are aware, and entangled so that they cannot easily get loose from it after, when they would. Sir Matthew Hale. No man can be provident of his time, who is not prudent in the choice of his company. Jeremy Taylor. The freer you feel yourself in the presence Lavater. of another, the more free is he. COMPARISONS. Be cautious with whom you associate, and never give your company or your confidence to persons of whose good principles you are not certain. No person that is an enemy to God can be a friend to man. He that has already proved himself ungrateful to the Author of every blessing, will not scruple, when it will COMPANY-Freedom in. serve his turn, to shake off a fellow-worm like himself. He may render you instrumental to his own purposes, but he will never benefit you. A bad man is a curse to others; as he is secretly, notwithstanding all his boasting and affected gaiety, a burden to himself. Shun him as you would a serpent in your path. Be not seduced by his rank, his wealth, his wit, or his influence. Think of him as already in the grave; think of him as standing before the everlasting God in judgment. This awful reality will instantly strip off all that is now so imposing, and present him in his true light, the object rather of your compassion, and of your prayers-than of your wonder or imitation. Bishop Coleridge. When the moon shone, we did not see the So doth the greater glory dim the less; Shakspeare. The eagle of one house is the fool in another. That mysterious guide, Who over sands and seas directs the stray, Compassion is an emotion of which we ought never to be ashamed. Graceful, par ticularly in youth, is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe. We should not permit ease and indulgence to contract our affections, and wrap us up in a selfish enjoyment; but we should accustom ourselves to think of the distresses of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan. Nor ought we ever to sport with pain and distress in any of our amusements, or treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty. Blair. The man who is fond of complaining, likes to remain amidst the objects of his vexation; it is at the moment that he declares them insupportable, that he will most strongly revolt against every means which could be proposed for his deliverance. Indecision is in his character, and the misfortune of having to decide would be to him the greatest of all; for a choice always supposes a preference for some advantage, or an inconvenience to be shunned; and this man would not wish it to be supposed. or to suppose himself, that there is a single circumstance in his life in which he is able to follow his inclinations, or meet with an advantage: that there is even one in which he is not obliged to have the greatest possible inconvenience. He therefore increases misfortune, he wishes for mishaps; the fatal influence of his destiny is his favourite topic. A power against which no act can set him free, which I compels him to suffer, without being able to protect himself, and permits him to complain without the fear of obtaining justice,-this is what suits him; he asks nothing better than to sigh over his position, and to remain in it. Fickleness of conduct ought to be the consequence of impetuosity alone; but in frivolous characters, it is the inclination that becomes exhausted, and which, incapable of any long effort, lazily lets falls that which it had at first seized with avidity. In the zeal of steady characters, it is the object alone which eludes the vigour of their grasp; it is the soap bubble that vanishes, not their ardour in the pursuit of it. Show them an object capable of supporting the opinion they have attached to it, and then they are fixed. Guizot. COMPLAINING. We lose the right of complaining sometimes by forbearing it; but we often treble the force. Sterne. COMPLAINING-Habit of. Every one must see daily instances of people who complain from a mere habit of complaining. Graves. COMPLAINING-Self. I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of head-ache; and the night in drinking the wine that gives the head-ache. Goethe. COMPREHENSIVENESS. He only sees well who sees the whole in the parts, and the parts in the whole. I know but three classes of men: those who see the whole, those who see but a part, and those who see both together. Lavater. COMPULSION-used by Ignorance only. Force is the agent which Ignorance uses for making his followers do the actions to which they are disinclined by nature; and (like an attempt to make water ascend above its level) the moment the agent ceases to act, the same instant does the operation cease. Persuasion, on the other hand, is like a cut made for the stream, which has only to be introduced, and it then continues to run of its own accord, without further attention. There are only two ways of directing the operations of human nature. The one to secure the inclinations, by convincing the judgment; and the other, to force or drive the individual against his judgment or inclinations. The one method is recommended by experience, and followed by success; the other is recommended by ignorance, and attended by disappointment. When a child cries for a rattle, it is with a view of obtaining it by force. When parents beat their children, it is to make them behave well by force. When a drunken husband strikes his wife, it is with the view of improving her by force. When a criminal is punished, it is with a view of improving the world by force. When an individual sues another at law, it is with the view of making him do justice by force. When a minister of religion dwells upon the horrors of the infernal regions, it is with the view of sending his hearers to heaven by force. When one nation goes to war with another, it is with a view of gaining some favourite point by force. Though every human being wishes for success, yet ignorance has been completely successful, hitherto, in leading the world to follow the course which leads to disappointment. Combe. CONCEIT-Natural to Humanity. Little localised powers, and little narrow streaks of specialised knowledge, are things men are very apt to be conceited about. Nature is very wise; but for this encouraging principle how many small talents and little accomplishments would be neglected! Talk about conceit as much as you like, it is to human character what salt is to the ocean; it keeps it sweet and renders it endurable. Say rather it is like the natural unguent of the seafowl's plumage, which enables him to shed the rain that falls on him and the wave in which he dips. When one has had all his conceit taken out of him, when he has lost all his illusions, his feathers will soon soak through, and he will fly no more. I say that conceit is just as natural a thing to human minds as a centre is to a circle. But little-minded people's thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes' conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve. An arc in the movement of a large intellect does not differ sensibly from a straight line. Holmes. CONCEIT-Impotency of. He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence. Lavater. CONCEIT-Poisonous. Dangerous conceits are in their nature poisons, CONFIDENCE-Three Epochs of. People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. him to be everything that is good, and they In the first they believe are lavish with their friendship and confidence. has smitten down their confidence, and they In the next, they have had experience, which then have to be careful not to mistrust every one, everything. Later in life, they learn that the and to put the worst construction upon greater number of men have much more good in them than bad, and that, even when there is cause to blame, there is more reason to pity than condemn; and then a spirit of confidence again awakens within them. CONFIDENCE-Mutual. Miss Bremer. It is unjust and absurd of persons advancing in years, to expect of the young that confidence should come all and only on their side; the human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return. Miss Edgeworth. CONFIDENCE-Self. Confidence in oneself is the chief nurse of magnanimity; which confidence, notwithstanding, doth not leave the care of necessary furniture for it; and therefore, of all the Grecians, Homer doth ever make Achilles the best armed. Sir Philip Sidney. CONFIDENCE-Withholding of. Trust him with little, who, without proofs, trusts you with everything, or, when he has proved you, with nothing. Lavater. CONFIDER-Injuring a. CONQUEROR-The. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble; that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof? Isaiah. CONQUEST-the Reward of Merit. Let not the quietness of any man's temper, much less the confidence he has in thy honesty and goodness, tempt thee to contrive any mischief against him; for the more securely he relies on thy virtue, and the less mistrust he has of any harm from thee, the CONQUEST-Right of. greater wickedness will it be to entertain even the thought of doing him an injury. Conquest is not given by chance, But, bound by fatal and resistless merit, Waits on his arms! Bishop Patrick. CONFOUNDERS-Woe unto. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah. CONJECTURES-Uncertainty of. Although some conjectures may have a considerable degree of probability, yet it is evidently in the nature of conjecture to be uncertain. In every case the assent ought to be proportioned to the evidence; for to believe firmly what has but a small degree of probability is a manifest abuse of our understanding. Now, though we may, in many cases, form very probable conjectures concerning the works of men, every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of a man. Chalmers. I claim by right Rowe. Of conquest; for when kings make war, CONSCIENCE. What exile from himself can flee? Dryden. Byron. The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. Calvin. CONSCIENCE-Checks of. Colonel Gardiner was habitually so immersed in intrigues, that if not the whole business, at least, the whole happiness of his life consisted in them; and he had too much leisure for one who was so prone to abuse it. His fine constitution, than which, perhaps, there was hardly ever a better, gave him great opportunities of indulging himself in these excesses; and his good spirits enabled him to pursue his pleasures of every kind, in so alert and sprightly a manner, that multitudes envied him, and called him, by a dreadful kind of compliment, "The happy rake." Yet still the checks of conscience, and some remaining principles of so good an education, would break in upon his most licentious hours; and I particularly remember he told me, that when some of his dissolute companions were once congratulating him on his distinguished felicity, a dog happening at that time to come into the room, he could not forbear groaning inwardly, and saying to himself, Oh that I were that dog! Such was then his happiness, and such, perhaps, is that of hundreds more, who bear themselves highest in the contempt of religion, and glory in that infamous servitude which they affect to call liberty. Doddridge. |