Life and Literature

Chapter 112

Poverty is in want of much, but avarice of everything.

--_Publius Syrus._

1548

POVERTY.

A poor man resembles a fiddler, whose music, though liked, is not much praised, because he lives by it; while a gentleman performer, though the most wretched sc.r.a.per alive, throws the audience into raptures.

1549

The love of power is an instinct of the human heart.

--_Tacitus._

1550

Power often goes before talent.

--_From the Danish._

1551

When power puts in its plea, The laws are silent.

--_Ma.s.singer._

1552

A partnership with men in power is never safe.

--_Phaedrus._

1553

And (strange to tell) he practised what he preached.

--_Armstrong._

1554

Praise is the best diet for us after all.

--_Sydney Smith._

1555

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

--_Johnson._

1556

The love of praise, howe"er concealed by art, Reigns more or less and glows in every heart.

--_Dr. E. Young._

1557

Most persons are like Themistocles that never found himself so well contented, as when he heard himself praised.

1558

PRAISE.

How could my tongue Take pleasure, and be lavish in thy praise!

How could I speak thy n.o.bleness of nature!

Thy open, manly heart, thy courage, constancy And inborn truth, unknowing to dissemble!

Thou art the man in whom my soul delights In whom, next heaven, I trust.

1559

_Self-Praise._--It is a sign that your reputation is small and sinking, if your own tongue must praise you.

1560

The sweetest of all sounds is,--praise!

1561

No man ever praised two persons equally--and pleased them both.

1562