FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   >>  
ghter of James I. The next was in 1641, when Charles I. returned from his imprudent and inefficacious journey into Scotland. But our ancestors far surpassed these feasts. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III. had, at his marriage feast, (as is recorded,) 30,000 dishes of meat. Nevil, archbishop of York, had, at his consecration, a feast sufficient for 10,000 people. One of the abbots of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, invited 5,000 guests to his installation dinner. And King Richard II., at a Christmas feast, had daily 26 oxen, 300 sheep, besides fowls, and all other provisions proportionably. So anciently, at a call of sergeants-at-law, each sergeant (says Fortescue) spent 1,600 crowns in feasting. P.T.W. * * * * * MAXIMS TO LIVE BY. (_For the Mirror_.) To have too much forethought is the part of a wretch; to have too little is the part of a fool. Self-will is so ardent and active that it will break a world to pieces to make a stool to sit on. Remember always to mix good sense with good things, or they will become disgusting. If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak. Irritability urges us to take a step as much too soon, as sloth does too late. Say the strongest things you can with candour and kindness to a man's face, and make the best excuse you can for him with truth and justice, behind his back. Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin; but still it is silver. Some men's characters are excellent, yet not without alloy. Others base, yet tend to great ends. Bad men are made the same use of as scaffolds; they are employed as means to erect a building, and then are taken down and destroyed. If a man has a quarrelsome temper, let him alone; the world will soon find him employment. He will soon meet with some one stronger than himself, who will repay him better than you can. A man may fight duels all his life if he is disposed to quarrel. A person who objects to tell a friend of his faults, because he has faults of his own, acts as a surgeon would, who should refuse to dress another's wound because he had a dangerous one himself. Some evils are irremediable, they are best neither seen nor heard; by seeing and hearing things that you cannot remov
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   >>  



Top keywords:

silver

 

person

 
things
 
Richard
 
faults
 

excellent

 

character

 

characters

 

strongest

 

justice


candour

 

kindness

 

excuse

 

estimated

 

Johnson

 
scaffolds
 

friend

 
surgeon
 

objects

 
quarrel

disposed

 

refuse

 
hearing
 

dangerous

 

irremediable

 

employed

 

Others

 

building

 

employment

 

stronger


destroyed

 
quarrelsome
 

temper

 

sufficient

 

people

 

abbots

 

consecration

 

dishes

 

archbishop

 

Augustine


Canterbury

 

Christmas

 

invited

 

guests

 

installation

 

dinner

 
recorded
 
marriage
 
returned
 

Charles