FOP.

FOP-Description of a.

A graver coxcomb we may sometimes see,
Quite as absurd, thơ not so light as he :
A shallow brain behind a serious mask,
An oracle within an empty cask;
The solemn fop; significant and fudge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.
He says but little, and that little said
Owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead.
His wit invites you by his looks to come,

But when you knock it never is at home.

Cowper.

A six-foot suckling, mincing in its gait:
Affected, peevish, prim, and delicate;
Fearful it seemed, thơ' of athletic make,
Lest brutal breezes should too roughly shake
Its tender form, and savage motion spread,
O'er its pale cheeks, the horrid manly red.

Churchill.

In form so delicate, so soft his skin,
So fair in feature, and so smooth his chin,
Quite to unman him nothing wants but this;
Put him in coats, and he's a very miss.

Horace.

Touching dandies, let us consider, with some scientific strictness, what a dandy specially is. A dandy is a clothes-wearing man, -a man whose trade, office, and existence consist in the wearing of clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person, is heroically consecrated to this one object,一 the wearing of clothes wisely and well; so that, as others dress to live, he lives to dress. The all-importance of clothes,

has sprung up in the intellect of the dandy, without effort, like an instinct of genius: he is inspired with cloth, a poet of cloth.

Carlyle.

If the peculiarities of our feelings and faculties be the effect of variety of excitement through a diversity of organization, it should tend to produce in us mutual forbearance and toleration. We should perceive how nearly impossible it is that persons should feel and

think exactly alike upon any subject. We

should not arrogantly pride ourselves upon our virtues and knowledge, nor condemn the errors and weakness of others, since they may depend upon causes which we can neither produce nor easily counteract. No one, judging from his own feelings and powers, can be aware of the kind or degree of temptation or terror, or the seeming incapacity to resist them, which may induce others to deviate.

FORCE-Ineffectiveness of.

Abernethy.

Who overcomes by force,

Milton.

Hath overcome but half his foe.

FORESIGHT.

To fear the worst, oft cures the worst.

To answer their small wants.

To view the graceful deer come tripping by, Then stop and gaze, then turn they know not why,

Like bashful younkers in society.

To mark the structure of a plant or tree,

Lamb.

FORETHOUGHT-Happiness of.

Happy are those,

That knowing, in their births, they are subject to
Uncertain changes, are still prepared and arm'd
For either fortune: a rare principle,
And with much labour learn'd in wisdom's
school.
Massinger.

FORGIVENESS-the Act of the Brave.

The brave only know how to forgive it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions; cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes conquered; but a coward never forgave it is not in his nature; the power of doing it flows only from a strength and greatness of soul conscious of its own force and security, and above all the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness. Sterne.

Richter.

Butler.

Nothing is more moving to man than the spectacle of reconciliation: our weaknesses are thus indemnified, and are not too costly, being the price we pay for the hour of forgiveness; and the archangel, who has never felt anger, has reason to envy the man who subdues it. When thou forgivest, the man who has pierced thy heart stands to thee in the relation of the sea-worm, that perforates the shell of the mussel, which straightway closes the wound with a pearl. Richter.

FORGIVENESS-a Necessary Virtue.

Man has an unfortunate readiness, in the evil hour, after receiving an affront, to draw together all the moon-spots on the other person into an outline of shadow, and a night-i piece, and to transform a single deed into a whole life; and this only in order that he may | thoroughly relish the pleasure of being angry. In love, he has fortunately the opposite faculty of crowding together all the light parts and rays of its object into one focus, by means of the burning glass of imagination, and letting its sun burn without its spots; but he too generally does this only when the beloved and often censured being is already beyond the skies. In order, however, that we should do this sooner and oftener, we ought to act like Wincklemann, but only in another way. As he, namely, set aside a particular half-hour or each day for the purpose of beholding and meditating on his too happy existence in

Formulas, too, as we call them, have a reality in human life. They are real as the very skin and muscular tissue of a man's life, and a most blessed, indispensable thing, so long as they have vitality withal, and are a living skin and tissue to him! No man, or man's life, can go abroad and do business in the world without skin and tissues. No; first of all, these have to fashion themselves, as indeed they spontaneously and inevitably do. Foam itself-and this is worth thinking ofcan harden into oyster-shell: all living objects do by necessity form to themselves a skin. Carlyle.

FORMULAS-Utility of.

What we call formulas are not in their origin bad; they are indispensably good. Formula is method, habitude, found wherever man is found. Formulas fashion themselves as paths do, as beaten highways, leading towards some sacred or high object, whither many men are bent. Consider it. One man, full of heartfelt, earnest impulse, finds out a way of doing somewhat, were it of uttering his soul's reverence for the Highest, were it but of fitly saluting his fellow-man. An inventor was needed to do that, a poet; he has articulated the dim struggling thought that dwelt in his own and many hearts. This is his way of doing that; these are his footsteps, the beginning of "a path." And now see: the second man travels naturally in the footsteps of his foregoer: it is the easiest method. In the footsteps of his foregoer; yet with improvements, changes, where such seem good;

FORTITUDE.

at all events with enlargements, the path ever widening itself as more travel it, till at last there is a broad highway, whereon the whole world may travel and drive. Formulas all begin by being full of substance; you may call them the skin, the articulation into shape, into limbs and skin, of a substance that is already there they had not been there otherwise. Idols, as we said, are not idolatrous till they become doubtful, empty for the worshipper's heart. Much as we talk against formulas, I hope no one of us is ignorant withal of the high significance of true formulas; that they were, and will ever be, the indispensablest furniture of our habitation in this world.

Let him not imagine, who aims at greatness, that all is lost by a single adverse cast of fortune; for if fortune has at one time the better of courage, courage may afterwards recover the advantage. He who is prepossessed with the assurance of overcoming, at least overcomes the fear of failure; whereas, he who is apprehensive of losing, loses, in reality, all hopes of subduing. Boldness and power are such inseparable companions, that they appear to be born together; and, when once divided, they both decay and die at the same

The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience, not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride, and worldly honour. Dryden.

FORTITUDE-in great Exploits.
True fortitude is seen in great exploits,
That justice warrants and that wisdom guides.
Addison.

FORTITUDE-Nobleness of.
Brave spirits are a balsam to themselves;
There is a nobleness of mind that heals
Wounds beyond salves.

Cartwright.