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OF FRIENDSHIP.

Without a true friend the world is but a wilderness.

A true friend is a living treasure, a comfort in solitude, and a sanctuary in distress.

One great advantage of true friendship is the opportunity of receiving good advice.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by doubling our joy and dividing our grief.

Those who are friends upon the account of virtue will always have fresh charms to entertain them.

We must not neglect the duty of a friend for fear of encountering the suspicion of being an enemy, for it is better to lose the smiles of men than to lose the souls of men.

Those who look for a friend without imperfections will never find what they seek.

A man may have a thousand acquaintances, and not a real friend amongst them all.

Most men look upon their friends as they do upon their sun-dials; that is, only when the sun shines.

OF TEMPERANCE.

Self-denial is the most excited pleasure, and the conquest of evil habits the most glorious triumph.

A temperate man's pleasures are durable because they are regular, and his whole life is calm and serene because it is innocent.

To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed,

at the hours of meat and sleep, is one of the best receipts for a long and healthy life.

Always rise from the table with an appetite, and you will never sit down without one.

The luxurious live to eat and drink, but the temperate eat and drink to live.

He that liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth; but he who resisteth pleasure prolongeth his days.

They who destroy a healthy constitution by intemperance follow the example of those who hang, poison, shoot, or drown themselves.

The vine bears three kinds of fruit,-the first, pleasure; the second, intoxication; and the third, remorse.

When intemperance spreadeth her delicacies, then let reason be upon her guard.

It is easier to preserve health than to recover it, and to prevent diseases than to cure them.

OF VIRTUE.

The proudest pay respect to virtue, and the profanest stand in awe of her.

Virtue hath so sweet a power, that many will wear her livery, though few will perform her work.

A virtuous man is an honour to his country, and a benefactor to the world.

A virtuous man is more contented in adversity than a wicked man in prosperity.

That calm satisfaction which the vulgar call "melancholy," is the delight of the man of knowledge and virtue.

Happy is the condition of a virtuous man, for he rests under the protection of that powerful arm which made the earth and heaven.

Speak of people's virtues, but conceal their infirmities; if you can speak no good, say no evil of them.

OF RICHES.

The shortest and the surest way to become rich is by contracting our ambitious desires.

Riches should be admitted into our houses, but not into our hearts; they may be taken into our possession, but not into our affections.

A wicked man can never be happy, though he had the wealth of Alexander, for wealth and honours cannot cure a wounded conscience,

A mean freedom is better than a golden servitude, for even golden fetters are but galling fetters.

Money, like dung, does no good until it be spread; there is no real use of riches but in the distribution, the rest is but conceit.

The greatest satisfaction that wealth can afford its possessor is the luxury of doing good with it.

A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune; for the more riches he has, the more fool he is.

"Abram was very rich,”— -was a heavy man, as the word inports; for riches are a burden. There is a burden of labour in getting them, a burden of care in keeping them, a burden of grief in losing them, a burden of temptation in

using them, a burden of guilt in abusing them, and a burden of account respecting them.

OF GENEROSITY.

Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share with them in their happiness.

It is not in the power of a generous man to refuse making others happy, when he has the opportunity of doing so.

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There is more satisfaction in doing good than in getting good; for it is “ to give than to receive."

No object is more pleasing to the eye than the sight of a good man whom you have obliged, nor any music more agreeable to the ear than the voice of one who owns you for his benefactor.

A generous man, by doing good with his money, stamps the image of God upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven.

A generous man, in the treatment of an enemy, resembles the sun, which pours light upon the cloud that tries to dim its lustre.

Good nature is the very air of a good mind, the sign of a large and generous soul, and the peculiar soil in which virtue prospers.

The generous never recount the actions they have done, nor the prudent those they will do.

OF CUSTOM.

Custom is the plague of wise men, but the idol of fools.

Custom has an effect upon our pleasures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and sentiments.

Custom cannot alter the nature of truth, neither can the power of opinion destroy justice. Custom makes no figure during the vivacity of youth; in middle age it gains ground; and in old age it governs without control.

Bad customs are very easily formed, and what to-day seems to be a small affair will soon become fixed, and hold you with the strength of a cable.

Peevishness, obstinacy, and covetousness eat up the aged sinner; but patience, experience, and hope, are the consolations of the aged Christian.

OF THE PASSIONS.

No man is master of himself who is a slave to his passions.

He that overcomes his passions overcomes his greatest enemies.

The tooth of a child is easier drawn than that of a man; so is it with the evil passions. It is the basest of passions to like what we have not, and to slight what we possess.

One perverse disposition will distemper the peace of a whole family, as one jarring instrument will spoil a whole concert.

Meddle not with any man in a passion, for men are not, like iron, to be wrought upon when they are hot.

Hasty words rankle the wound that injury

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