Part 16 (1/2)

408.--The most dangerous folly of old persons who have been loveable is to forget that they are no longer so.

[”Every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome. The suspicion of age no woman, let her be ever so old, forgives.”--Lord Chesterfield, Letter 129.]

409.--We should often be ashamed of our very best actions if the world only saw the motives which caused them.

410.--The greatest effort of friends.h.i.+p is not to show our faults to a friend, but to show him his own.

4ll.--We have few faults which are not far more excusable than the means we adopt to hide them.

412.--Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character.

[”This is hardly a period at which the most irregular character may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one sin find a retreat in patriotism, those of the other in devotion.” --Junius, Letter To The King.]

413.--A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.

[According to Segrais this maxim was a hit at Racine and Boileau, who, despising ordinary conversation, talked incessantly of literature; but there is some doubt as to Segrais' statement.--Aime Martin.]

414.--Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.

415.--Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity.

416.--The vivacity which increases in old age is not far removed from folly.

[”How ill {white} hairs become {a} fool and jester.”-- Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II, Act. V, Scene V, King}.

”Can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can grey hairs make folly venerable, and is there no period to be reserved for meditation or retirement.”-- Junius, To The Duke Of Bedford, 19th Sept. 1769.]

417.--In love the quickest is always the best cure.

418.--Young women who do not want to appear flirts, and old men who do not want to appear ridiculous, should not talk of love as a matter wherein they can have any interest.

419.--We may seem great in a post beneath our capacity, but we oftener seem little in a post above it.

420.--We often believe we have constancy in misfortune when we have nothing but debas.e.m.e.nt, and we suffer misfortunes without regarding them as cowards who let themselves be killed from fear of defending themselves.

421.--Conceit causes more conversation than wit.