PREFACE. THE title which I have selected for this little book may best be described in the words of Swift: 'Abstracts, abridgements, summaries, &c., have the same use with burning glasses-to collect the diffused rays of wit and learning in authors, and make them point with warmth and quickness upon the reader's imagination." I felt somewhat of a difficulty in arranging the selection, on account of the number of authors I have had to consult; the labour consisted not in-what to insert, but-what to reject. I could have presented my readers with a large nosegay made of many flowers, gay and bright, tied together without any regard to form or colour; but my aim would not have been attained. I have, therefore, presented them with a small bouquet of sweet flowers, gathered from many a parterre, that may be carried, laid down, or taken up at leisure. One thing I may modestly say, that I have made my extracts as accurately and as judiciously as I could; and whatever may be the fate of my little venture, I have been already repaid for my labours by the pleasure they have afforded me. 1875. WILLIAM TEGG. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. My little venture having proved so successful as to call forth a Third Edition,-which is most flattering to me,-I have carefully gone through the work, and added the dates of the births and deaths respectively of the various Authors quoted, as far as I have been able to trace them. 1876. WILLIAM TEGG. LACONICS, &c. ABILITIES. The abilities of man must fall short on one side or other, like too scanty a blanket when you are a-bed; if you pull it upon your shoulders, you leave your feet bare; if you thrust it down upon your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.-Sir W. Temple.* ABSENCE OF MIND. Absence of mind may be defined to be a slowness of mind in speaking or action: the absent man is one who, when he is casting up accounts, and hath collected the items, will ask a bystander what the amouut is: when he is engaged in a lawsuit, and the day of trial is come, he forgets it and goes into the country: he visits the theatre to see the play, and is left behind asleep on the benches. He takes any article and puts it away himself, then begins to look for it, and is never able to find it. If any one tell him of the death of a dear friend, and ask him to the funeral, with a sorrowful countenance and tears in his eyes, he exclaims, Good luck, good luck! It is his custom, when he receives, not when he pays, a debt, to call for witnesses. In winter, he quarrels with his servant for not purchasing cucumbers: he compels his children to wrestle and run till they faint with fatigue. In the country, when he is dressing his dinner of herbs, he throws in salt to season them till they are unfit to eat. If any one inquire of him, how many dead have been carried out through the sacred gate to burial? Would to God, he replies, you and I had so many!-Theophrastus. *Born 1628, died 1700. |