Roger L'Estrange

“ If the Nearest Friead a Covetous Man has in the World, had really a Mine in his Guts, he'd Rip him up to Find it: For his Bus’ness is to make the Most of what he has, and of what he can get, without any regard to the Course of Providence, or of Nature: And what's the End of All These Unreasonable Desires, but Loss, Sorrow, and Disappointment? ”

“ It is in the Bus'ness of Life as it is in a Storm, or a Calm at Sea: The Blast may be Impetuous; but seldom lasts long; and though the Vessel be Press'd never so Hard, a Skilful Steers-man will yet bear up against it: But in a Dead Calm, a Man loses his Spirits, and lies in a Manner Expos’d, as the Scorn and Spectacle of Ill Fortune. ”

“ But the Lord may send me such Another Husband; I shall never have such Another Dog. Every Trivial Cross makes us think we are Weary of the World; but our Tongues run quite to Another Tune when we come once to parting with it in Earnest. ”

“ These are Things, I say, that the Better we Know them, the More we Dread them: So that though we have Apprehensions, as well where there is No Peril, as where there Is: Yet Time teaches us to Distinguith the One from the Other. The Allusion would much better have held in the case of a Battle, where the Soldier grows Every day less apprehensive of the Hazzard, by seeing so many People Scape; and by Computing upon the Disproportion of Those that Outlive it, to Those that Fall in’t. We may however Learn from hence, that people may be Frighted as well Without Reason as With it. ”

“ People that are not Allow'd to be Sharers with their Companions in Good Fortune, will hardly ever agree to be Sharers in Bad, An Open, and an Honest Candor of Mind carries a Body Safe and Dry through all Ways and Weathers; Whereas in shifting and shuffling, a Man puts himself off his Guard; and the same Rule that serves him at One time, will not serve him at Another, Men are willing enough to have Partners in Loss, but not in Profit; and 'tis not the Traveller alone that cries [I] have found a Purse of Gold, and then Changes his Note upon the Hue and Cry, and says [WE] shall be Hang'd for't ”

“ And yet for all this, Citt, I have no minde in the World to be taken.
Citt. And that's because th' art an arrant buzzard; the Lord deliver me from a fellow that has neither Mony, nor Friends, and yet's afraid of being Taken. Why 'tis the very making of many a mans Fortune to be Taken. How many men are there that give mony to be Taken, and make a Trade on't; Nay happy is the man that can but get any body to Take him. Why I tell ye, there are people that will quarrel for't, and make Friends to be Taken. ”

“ Nothing so sharp sighted in Other Matters, but it throws a Mist before the Eyes on't. It puts the Philosopher beside his Latin; and to summ up All in a Little, where This Passion Domineers, neither Honour, nor Vir-tue, is able to stand before it. The Lyon's Parting with his Teeth, and his Clawes, in a Complement to his New Mistress, is no more then what we see Every Day Exemplify’d in the case of making over Eslates and Joyntures, with the Malice Prepense all this While, of holding their Noses to the Grindstone, and with the Girles Father here, of Jilting them at last. ”

“ Neither is it possible that there should be any, without a Violence to the Order of the Universe, and to the Dictates of Reasonable Nature: For All men Living are in Some sort or Other, and upon some Penalty or Other, Subjected to a Superior Power; That is to say, the Laws of Morality are Above them: But the Case wherein All men are upon the Behaviour is not here the Question, To Wind up the Moral, in short; Liberty is a Jewel, and a Blessing. The Wolfe was well enough pleas’d here with the State of the Dogs Body, but he had no fancy to his Collar. ”

“ He that takes an Ungrateful Man into his Bosom, is well nigh sure to be Betray'd; and it is no longer Charity, but Folly, to think of Obliging the Common Enemies of Mankind. But 'tis no New Thing for good Natur'd Men to meet with Ungrateful Returns. Wherefore Friendships, Charities, and Kindnesses, mould be well Weigh'd and Examin'd, as to the Circumstances of Time, Place, Manner, Person, and Proportion, before we Sign and Seal. A Man had much better take a Tyger into his Grounds, than a Snake into his Bosom. ”

“ Society is so Necessary and Agreeable to Mankind in All Cases, that Death is Certainly the More Uneasy for a Man’s going alone into Another World: But the Consolation Pointed at in This Fable, is That which an Envious Man takes in the Ruine of his Enemy. There is a Memorable Instance to This Purpose, of a Gentleman that had an Estate for Lives, and Two of his Tenants in the Lease: One of them dyes, and the Other desires his Landlord to lay Both Farms into One, and Accept of Him for his Tenant. The Gentleman fairly Excus’d Himself, and away goes the Man in a Rage to his Wife ”

“ But Men must not think to Walk upon These Stilts, if they come to set up in Publick once; The One, for an Italian Capon, the Other, for an English Beauty: Where-fore it will become All People to Weigh and Measire Themselves, before they Venture upon any Undertking that may bring their Lives, Honour, or Fortune in Question. Some Songsters can no more Sing in any Chamber but their Own ”

“ The same Quantity of Wine that makes One Man Drunk, will not Quench Another Man's Thirst. The same Expence that breaks One Man's Back is not a Flea-biting to Another: Wherefore, Men should sort themselves with their Equals; for a Rich Man that Converses upon the Square with a Poor Man, shall as certainly Undoe him, as a Brass Pot shall break an Earthen One, if they Meet and Knock together. ”

“ Covetousness is enough to make the Master of the World as Poor as He that has just Nothing; for a Man may be brought to a Morsel of Bread, by Griping, as well as by Profusion. 'Tis a Madness for a Body that has enough already, to Hazard All for the Getting of More, and then upon the Miscarriage to leave himself Nothing. This was the Woman’s Case and Fault here. In Few Words, there’s a Just Medium betwixt Eating too much, and too Little; and this Dame had Undoubredly Hit upon’t, when the Matter was so Order'd, that the Hen brought her Every Day an Egg. ”

“ Wickedness comes on by Degrees, as well as Virtue; and Sudden Leaps from One Extreme to Another, are Unnatural Motions in the Course of our Lives and Humours. Here's first a Rash, and a Knavish Promise; for the Promiser knew he was notable to make it Good. When he has broken the Ice, he Advances, from Cozening of God, to making Sport with him, and pays him with Past for Flesh: But Vengeance Overtook him in the Conclusion, and gave him to Understand, that God will not be Mocked. The Moral of This Sick Man is the Case of Every Soul of us in the Making, and the Breaking of our Vows. ”

“ We find it to be much the same Case in the Government of our Affections and Appetites, that it is in These Bodyly Frailties of Temperament and Complexion. Providence has Arm'd us with Powers and Faculties, sufficient for the Confounding of All the Enemies we have to Encounter. We have Life and Death before us: That is to say, Good and Evil ”

“ When a Battle is Lost, This or That, we say, might have Prevented it. When a Tumult is Emprov‘d into a Rebellion, and a Government Oyer-turn'd by't, 'tis just to as much purpose to say, This or That might have Sav'd All; As for our Dr. here to say, when his Patient was Dead, that it was for want of going such or such a way to Work. We have abundance of These Wise-Men in the World that are still looking backward without seeing One Inch of the way before them. ”

“ THERE is Nothing either so Great, or so Little, as not to be Lyable to the Vicissitudes of Fortune, whether for Good or for Evil, A Miserable Fly is sufficient we see, to take down the Stomach of a Lyon: And then to Correct the Insulting Vanity of That Fly, it falls the next Moment into the Toyl of a Spider. 'Tis Highly Improvident not to Obviate small Things; and as Ridiculous to be Baffled by them; and it is not the Force neither, but the Importumty that is so Vexatious and Troublesom to us. The very Teizing of the Lyon Gall'd him more then an Arrow at his Heart would have done. ”

“ If we Confound Higher and Lower, the World is a Chaos again, and a Level. Is not a Labourer as much a Tool of Providence as the Master-Builder? Are not the Meanest Artisans, of the same Institution with Ministers of Counsel and State: The Head can no more be without the Body, then the Body without the Head ”

“ One while perchance the Master is not Aware of what is done, and then in Other Cases, it may fall out Effectually to be his Own Act, even against his Own Will: That is to say, when the Passions of Imperious, and Ill Natur'd Servants are Cover'd with the Name and Authority of their Patrons, in the Abuse of a Trust that was Plac'd in 'em for Honester, and for Nobler Ends. ”

“ There's Nothing, in short, but Resolution, to carry a Man through All Difficulties: And since it is so Absolutely Necessary, the sooner it is Taken up, the Better it succeeds. 'Tis a Matter of very Evil Consequence, to let the Rabble offer Publique Afftonts Gratis. A seditious Word leads to a Broyl, and a Ryot Unpunish'd, is but next door to a Tumult: So that the Bearing of One Indignity draws on Another. Bite the First Man that Affronts ye, and y'are safe for ever after. ”

“ He lives to Himself as well as to the World, without Brawles or Quarrels, of any sort whatsoever. He sees No Bloody Murders; He hears No Blasphemous Execrations; He lives free from the Plagues of Jealousie and Envy: And This is the Life in fine, that the Greatest, and the Wisest Men in the World, Have, or would have made Choice of, if Cares and Business had not Hinder'd them from so Great a Blessing.
'Tis against Common Justice to pass Sentence without hearing Both sides: And the Only way to come to a True Estimate upon the Odds betwixt a Publick and a Private Life, is to Try Both. ”

“ When a Reasonable Soul descends to keep Company in the Dirt with Ants, and Beetles, and to Abandon the Whole Man to the Sensuality of Brutal Satisfactions he forfeits his Peerage, and the very Privilege of his Character and Creation; for he's no longer a Man that gives himself wholly up to the Works of a Beast. Only one Word more now, upon the Judgment that Befell the Husband-man, which bids us have a Care of Avarice, Rapine and Oppression ”

“ We see Thing at hand, as they really are, but at a Distance, only as they seem to be Patience and Consideration will set us Right in our Judgments and in our Measures. It is much thereabouts with the Common People too, in the Matter of Remote Grievances. They Represent, and Fancy to Themselves, Hell, Slavery and Damnation, at a Distance, in many a Case, which at hand signifies not so much as a Flea-biting. ”

“ It is a way to Confound the Good and the Bad, where Knaves have Credit enough to be Believ'd, to the Wrong of Honest Men, and the Innocent left without Means of Defence.
Hee that would live Cleare of the Envy and Hatred, of Potent Calumniators, must lay his Finger upon his Mouth, and keep his Hand out of the Ink-Pot; for to do a Good Office upon the Point of Opinion, Intelligence, Brains, or Conscience, where This Wolvish Humour prevayles, is little better then a Scandala Magnatum, or a Libel upon his Superiors: But where it happens, that there's a Fox and a Wolfe in the Case ”

“ Secondly, The Crane's Good Fortune can hardly Excuse his Facility. And then the Crane did Ill again to Insist upon a Reward; for a Good Office pays it self; neither was he reasonably to Expect that so Perfidious a Creature should keep Touch with him. Thirdly, Though the Wolf was to blame for not making Good his Promise, there is yet in Equity a kind of a Reward, in not Chopping off his Head when he had it at Mercy.
The Case of the Crane here, is a Case of Conscience; for 'tis a Nice Business to Determine, how far Wicked Men in their Distresses May be Reliev'd ”

“ Thirdly, The Affront of the Refusal, as it was accompanied with Raillery and Scorn. ‘Twere well if we had not too many of these Brutal Mockeries in our Daily Conversation for we have Banterers in Religion, in Point of Honour, and upon all the Distesses of Human Life. He that has no Pity or Compassion for the Miserable, is not in Truth of a Reasonable Make; for Tenderness of Nature is but a kind of Lay-Charity; and a Body can be no more a Good Man without the One, then a Good Christian without the Other. ”

“ It is also to be Expected that Men in Ditsress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can, When a Knave, and an Honest Man happen to be Embarqu’d together in the same Common Interest, the Sharper will be sure, if ever it comes to a Pinch, to shift for Himself; and leave T'other in the Lurch. It is the way of the World for Men to Abandon their Benefactors, and to make sport with Those that Rais'd them. This was the Trick, that the Fox serv’d the Goat here in the Well ”

“ So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to Deliberate, we play Booty against our selves: And while our Judgments and our Consciences direct us One Way, our Corruptions Hurry us Another. This Stag, in fine, is a Thorough Emblem of the State, and Infirmity of Mankind, We are both of us Arm'd and Provided, either for the Combat, or for Flight. We see the Danger; we Ponder upon it; and now and then by Fits, take up some Faint Resolutions to Outbrave and break thorough it: But in the Conclusion, we shrink upon the Tryal; We betake our selves from our Heads to our Heels ”