A Character of King Charles the Second Part 14

The Pride of Compa.s.sing may more than compare with the Pleasure of Enjoying.

[Sidenote: _Dissembling._]

Nothing so ridiculous as a false Philosopher, and nothing so rare as a true one.

Men take more pains to hide than to mend themselves.

[Sidenote: _Dreams._]

Mens Pride, as well as their Weakness, disposeth them to rely upon Dreams, from their thinking themselves of such Importance as to have Warning of what is to befal them.

The Enquiry into a Dream is another Dream.

[Sidenote: _Drunkenness._]

It is a piece of Arrogance to dare to be drunk, because a Man sheweth himself without a Vail.

[Sidenote: _Experience._]

The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.

The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory.

Experience maketh more Prophets than Revelation.

The Knowledge that is got without Pains, is kept without Pleasure.

The Struggling for Knowledge hath a Pleasure in it like that of Wrestling with a fine Woman.

[Sidenote: _Extremes._]

Extremity is always ill, that which is good cannot live a Moment with it.

Any body that is Fool enough will be safe in the World, and any body that can be Knave enough will be rich in it.

The generality of the World falleth into an insufficient _Mean_ that exposeth them more than an _Extreme_ on either Side.

[Sidenote: _Faculties of the Mind._]

Though Memory and Invention are not upon good Terms, yet when the first is loaded, the other is stifled.

The Memory hath Claws by which it holdeth fast; but it hath no Wings, like the Invention, to enable it to fly.

Some Mens Memory is like a Box, where a Man should mingle his Jewels with his old Shoes.

There ought to be a great Difference between the Memory and the Stomach; the last is to admit every thing, the former should have the Faculty of Rejecting.

It is a nice Mean between letting the Thought languish for want of Exercise, and tiring it by giving it too much.

A Man may dwell so long upon a Thought, that it may take him Prisoner.

The hardest thing in the World is to give the Thoughts due Liberty, and yet retain them in due Discipline.

They are Libertines that are apt to abuse Freedom, and do not well know how to bear Restraint.

A Man that excels in any one thing has a kind of arbitrary Power over all that hear him upon that Subject, and no Man's Life is too short to know any one thing perfectly.

The modern Wit is rather to set Men out, than to make them of any Use.

Some Men have acted Courage who had it not; but no Man can act Wit, if Nature doth not teach him his Part. True Wit is always revenged upon any false Pretender that meddleth with it.

Wit is the only thing that Men are willing to think they can ever have enough of.

There is a happy Pitch of Ignorance that a Man of Sense might pray for.

A Man that hath true Wit will have Honour too, not only to adorn, but to support it.

[Sidenote: _Families._]

The building up a Family is a Manufacture very little above the building a House of Cards.

Time and Accidents are sure to furnish a Blast to blow it down.

No House wanteth new Tiling so often as a Family wants Repairing.

The Desire of having Children is as much the Effect of Vanity as of Good-nature.

We think our Children a Part of ourselves, though as they grow up they might very well undeceive us.

Men love their Children, not because they are promising Plants, but because they are theirs.

They cannot discredit the Plant, without disparaging the Soil out of which it came.

Pride in this, as in many other things, is often mistaken for Love.

As Children make a Man poor in one Sense, so in another they inforce Care, and that begetteth Riches.

Love is presently out of Breath when it is to go up Hill, from the Children to the Parents.

[Sidenote: _Fear._]

'Tis good to have Men in Awe, but dangerous to have them afraid of us.

The Mean is so nice, that the hitting upon it is oftner the Effect of Chance than of Skill.

A Degree of Fear sharpeneth, the Excess of it stupifieth.

It is as scandalous not to fear at some times, as it can be to be afraid at others.