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Character. — Addison.

PEOPLE of gloomy, uncheerful imaginations, or of envious, malignant tempers, whatever kind of life they are engaged in, will discover their natural tincture of mind in all their thoughts, words, and actions. As the finest wines have often the taste of the soil, so even the most religious thoughts often draw something that is particular from the constitution of the mind in which they arise. When folly or superstition strikes in with this natural depravity of temper, it is not in the power even of religion itself to preserve the Character of the person who is possessed with it from appearing highly absurd and ridiculous.

Character. Shakspeare.

THIS man hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as a bear, slow as the elephant a man, into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion : there is no man hath a virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: he hath the joints of every thing; but every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.

Character.

Shakspeare.

SPARE in diet;
Free from gross passion, or of mirth, or anger;
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood;
Garnish'd and deck'd with modest compliment;
Not working with the eye, without the ear,
And, but in purged judgment, trusting neither.
Character. Anon.

MANY persons carry about their Characters in their hands; not

a few under their feet.

Character. Shakspeare.

BEING not propp'd by ancestry, (whose grace
Chalks successors their way,) neither allied

To eminent assistants, but spider-like,

Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way;

A gift that Heaven gives for him.

Character. From the French.

MAN'S Character is like his Shadow, which sometimes follows, and sometimes precedes him, and which is occasionally longer,

occasionally shorter than he is.

Character. Hare.

THERE is a glare about worldly success, which is very apt to dazzle men's eyes. When we see a man rising in the world; thriving in business; successful in his speculations; if he be a man out of our own line, who does not come into competition with us, so as to make us jealous of him, we are too apt to form a foolishly high opinion of his merits. We are apt to say within ourselves, "What a wonderful man this must be, to rise so rapidly?" forgetting that dust and straw, and feathers, things with neither weight nor value in them, rise the soonest and the easiest. In like manner, it is not the truly great and good man, generally speaking, who rises the most rapidly into wealth and notice. A man may be sharp, active, quick, dexterous, cunning; he may be ever on the watch for opportunities to push his fortunes; a man of this kind can hardly fail of getting on in the world: yet with all this, he may not have a grain of real Greatness about him. He may be all I have described, and yet have no Greatness of Mind, no Greatness of Soul. He may be utterly without Sympathy and fellow-feeling for others; he may be utterly devoid of all true Wisdom; he may be without Piety and without Charity; without Love, that is, either for God or Man.

Character. Shakspeare.

THERE can be no kernel in this light nut; the Soul of this Man is his Clothes.

Character. Shakspeare.

He has been bred i' the wars

Since he could draw a sword, and is ill-school'd
In boulted language; meal and bran together
He throws without distinction.

Character. Shakspeare.

TO be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts, that you deem cannon-bullets. There is no slander in an allowed Fool, though he do nothing but rail: nor no railing in a known Discreet Man, though he do nothing but

reprove.

Character. Shakspeare.

HE that trusts you

Where he should find you Lions, finds you Hares:

Where Foxes, Geese.

You are no surer, no,

Than is the Coal of Fire upon the Ice,

Or Hailstone in the Sun.

Character.- Shakspeare.

BEST Men are moulded out of Faults.

Character. Bulwer Lytton.

NEVER get a Reputation for a small perfection, if you are trying for fame in a loftier area. The world can only judge by generals, and it sees that those who pay considerable attention to minutiæ, seldom have their Minds occupied with great things. There are, it is true, exceptions; but to exceptions the world does not attend.

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THE most consistent men are not more unlike to others than they are at times to themselves; therefore, it is ridiculous to see Character-mongers drawing a full-length Likeness of some great man, and perplexing themselves and their readers by making every feature of his Conduct strictly Conform to those lines and lineaments which they have laid down; they generally find or make for him some Ruling Passion the rudder of his course; but with all this pother about Ruling Passions, the fact is, that all men and all women have but one apparent Good. Those, indeed, are the strongest Minds, and are capable of the greatest actions, who possess a telescopic power of intellectual vision, enabling them to ascertain the real magnitude and importance of distant goods, and to despise those which are indebted for all their grandeur solely to their contiguity.

Character. Shakspeare.

THE purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is-spotless Reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is-a bold Spirit in a loyal Breast.

Character. Franklin.

THE most trifling actions that affect a man's Credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a Creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at a Billiard table, or hears your voice at a Tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

Character.- La Rochefoucauld. WHATEVER Disgrace we have merited, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our Reputation.

Character. Shakspeare.

LET me have Men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed Men, and such as sleep o' nights:

Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much such Men are dangerous.

Character.-S. T. Coleridge.

HOW wonderfully beautiful is the delineation of the Characters of the three Patriarchs in Genesis! To be sure, if ever man could, without impropriety, be called, or supposed to be, "the friend of God," Abraham was that man. We are not surprised that Abimelech and Ephron seem to reverence him so profoundly. He was peaceful, because of his conscious relation to God.

Character. Shakspeare.

LOOK, as I blow this feather from my face,
And as the air blows it to me again,
Obeying with my wind when I do blow,
And yielding to another when it blows,
Commanded always by the greater gust;
Such is the Lightness of you Common Men.
Character. — Shakspeare.

IN war was never Lion raged so fierce,
In peace was never gentle Lamb more mild.
Character. Shakspeare.

GOOD Name, in man, and woman,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls.

Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:

But he, that filches from me my Good Name,

Robs me of that, which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.

Character. Pope.

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SELF-LOVE thus push'd to social, to divine,

Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine.
Is this too little for the boundless heart?

Extend it, let thy enemies have part.

Grasp the whole world of Reason, Life, and Sense,

In one close system of benevolence:

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,

And height of Bliss but height of Charity.
Character. Shakspeare.

A HUNGRY lean-fac'd Villain,
A mere Anatomy, a Mountebank,

A thread-bare Juggler, and a Fortune-teller;
A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking Wretch,
A living dead Man; this pernicious Slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a Conjurer;
And gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 'twere, out-facing me.

Character. — Shakspeare.

IN the Reproof of Chance

Lies the true Proof of Men. The sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so

Doth Valour's Show, and Valour's Worth, divide,
In storms of Fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,

The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,

Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind

Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies fled under shade, why, then the Thing of Courage, As roused with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And with an accent tuned in self-same key,

Returns to chiding Fortune.

Character. Shakspeare.

I KNOW him a notorious Liar,

Think him a great way Fool, solely a Coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,

That they take place, when Virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold Wisdom waiting on superfluous Folly.

Character. Shakspeare.

He reads much :

He is a great Observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays;
He hears no music:

Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be mov'd to smile at any thing.

Character. Shakspeare.

E'S truly valiant, that can wisely suffer

HE

The worst that man can breathe; and make his wrongs His outsides; to wear them like his raiment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his Injuries to his Heart,

To bring it into danger.

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