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SHAKESPERIAN

APHORISMS.

BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT

In small room great heart enclos'd:

HAMLET.

These are his substance, sinews, and his strength.

How charming is divine Philosophy !

Not barsh and crabbed, as dull Fools suppose,
But musical as is APOLLO's Lute,

And a perpetual Feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude Surfeit reigns.

I. HEN. VI.

COMUS OF MILTON.

B

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Tho' all the Earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

2. DEATH.

All that live, must die;

Passing through Nature to Eternity.
3. GRIEF, OBSTINATE.
To persevere

In obstinate lamenting is a course

Of impious stubbornness :-unmanly grief:
It shews a will most uncorrect to Heaven;
A heart unfortified; or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd.
For what we know must be, and is as common
As any the most, vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
So take to heart?-It is a fault to Heaven:
A fault against the Dead; a fault to Nature.
4. SUICIDE.

The Everlasting fixes

His canon* 'gainst self-slaughter.

Rule, Law.

C. L.

[The same is to be understood as the signature of the other Noter.]

5. CALUMNY.

Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes.

6. CAUTION.

Best safety lies in fear.

7.

Give every man thine ear; but few thy voice.

8.

Take each man's censure; but reserve thy judgment, 9. YOUTH.

Youth to itself rebels though none else near.

10.

The canker gnaws the infants of the Spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd:
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagion's blastments are most perilous.

11. LET EXAMPLE ACCOMPANY PRECEPT, § Do not, as some ungracious Pastors do, Shew us the steep and thorny way to Heaven: While like a puft and reckless libertine, Thyself the primrose path of dalliance tread'st, And reck'st not thine own reed.

12. DISCRETION. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

13. MODERATION.

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Give to no unproportion'd thought his act,

14. MANNERS,

Be thou familiar; but by no means vulgar.

15. PRUDENCE WITH RESOLUTION.

Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.
16. FRIENDS.

The Friends thou hast and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel,

17. DRESS.

The apparel oft proclaims the man.

18. SELF-ESTEEM.

To thine own self be true:

Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
19. COURTESY.

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave *.

20. BORROWING.

Loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

21. vows.

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.

22. vows OF LOVERS.

Vows in love are brokers,

The mere implorers of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile.

23. CUSTOMS.

There are customs

More honour'd in the breach than in the obser

24. DEBASEMENT.

There are men

Who carrying the stamp of one defect,

[vance.

Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as Man may undergo,

Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault.

25. The dram of base

Doth all the noble substance of worth out,
To his own scandal.

That is, it is then time to be gone.

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