PRACTICE. War has its theory like other sciences; it teaches us how to destroy one another in a methodical manner. In friendship, coldness and indifference are owing to their various caufes. In love, the ceffation of affection has feldom more than one caufe; that of having mutually loved to excess. We are not always of the fame mind upon the fame fubject. Fondness and difguft tread close upon the heels of each other. In the world scarce any thing else is seen, but men laying fnares for one another. The world is literally a ftage; where mankind, in continual masquerade, are playing upon one another. Mankind fhould be mutual affiftants, fhould help one another, and supply each other's wants. The meridians are circles,. which cross one another at the poles of the globe. Each day is fucceeded by another; but every day is not alike. 29. Obferve that many verbs are reflective according to Grammar, which are not fo in their own fignification; fuch are the following, il s'étudie à mal faire, he ftudies mifchief; cela ne fe garde pas pour vous, that is not for you; je m'en vais, I am going away; il fe meurt, he is dying, &c. Obferve alío, that many of thofe laft reflective verbs have a paffive fignification, and are only used in the third perfon; as, in thefe examples; ces livres fe vendent chez un tel, thofe books are fold at fuch a one's fhop; il fe boit de bonne biere à Londres, there is good beer drank in London; cette nouvéle je débité au café, that piece of news is told at the coffee-houfe; les poisons fe prénent à 'hameçon, fish are taken by a hook, &c. PRACTICE. The hypocrite does not believe in, or laughs at God; the most charitable thing we can fay of him is, he does not believe in God. Slanderers are like tygers; they are dreaded even in their fports there is no trufting to them at all. Words are divided into primitive, derivative, fimple, compound, fynonimous, equivocal, univocal, proper, natural, figurative, barbarous, foreign, obfolete, noble, and mean or vulgar. Qualities, fo opposite as vivacity is to folid fenfe, feldom meet in the fame perfon. L'hypocrite ne croit pas en Dieu, ou fe moque de Dieu; parlons-en obligeamment, ne croit pas en Dieu. Les médifans font comme les tigres; on les crait même lorfqu'ils fe jouent: on ne peut jamais fe fier à eux. Les mots fe divifent en primitifs, dérivés, fimples, compofés, fynonimes, équivoques, univoques, propres, naturels, figurés, barbares, étrangers, vieux, nobles, & bas ou populaires. Des qualités auffi opofées que la vivacité & le bon fens, ne fe rencontrent guères enfemble. Of PASSIVE VERB S. 30. When the participle paffive of a verb is put after the verb étre, to be; in all its moods and tenfes, the verb fo form'd, is call'd a verb passive; as, je fuis aimé, I am beloved; j'ai été battu, I have been beaten; vous ferez payé, you shall be paid, &. ing obliged to justify ourselves. A fentence in our favour fhall clear and acquit us; which yet the clamour of the people Thall render of no effect to us. We glide along the stream; are carried upon the furges; and borne away by the waves and billows. What is done freely, is done without force. What is done willingly, is done without pain. What is done chearfully, is done with inclination. And what is done brifkly, is done with pleasure. s'en juftifier. Tels arrêts vous déchargent & vous renvoyent abfous, qui font infirmés par la voix du peuple. On coule fur les ondes: on eft porté fur les flots: on eft entrainé par les vagues. Ce qui eft fait de bon gré, eft fait librement. Ce qui eft fait de bonne volonté, eft fait fans peine. Ce qui eft fait de bon cœur, eft fait avec afection. Ce qui eft fait de bonne grace, eft fait avec politesse. Of IMPERSONAL VERBS. 31. Certain verbs are call'd impersonal, because they are only used in the third perfon fingular, with the pronoun il for their nominative; fome of them are always imperfonal; as, il fauts one muft; il négera, it will fnow, &c. Others, from perfonal become imperfonal, fuch are, il arrive, it happens; il fufit, it is enough; il paroit, it appears, &c. PRACTICE. In the time of the deluge it rain'd forty days and forty nights. It thunders more frequently in hilly countries, than in flat ones. Concifenefs is the life of a ftory, without which it must flag. It is not the part of a wise man to say, I will live; living to-morrow, is living too late: why not live to-day? There is a ftupid fimplicity, which believes the most incredible things; as there is a ftupid prefumption, which condemns as fictitious, whatever exceeds Au tems du déluge il plut quarante jours & quarante nuits. Il tonne plus fouvent dans les pays montueux que dans les plaines. La briéveté eft l'ame d'un conte, puifque fans cela il faut néceflairement qu'il languiffe. Il n'eft pas d'un homme fage de dire, je vivrai; c'est vivre trop tard que de vivre de main: vivez aujourd'hui. Il y a une fotte fimplicité qui croit les chofes les plus incroyables; comme il y a une fotte préfomption qui condamns comme faux, ce qui paffe F 2 les exceeds the narrow bounds of les bornes étroites de notre our understanding. They who speak well, ufe proper and natural terms,without the appearance of study or application. The wife man wants nothing to compleat his happinefs; the pleafing confcioufnefs of his own virtue fuffices. efprit. Ceux qui parlent bien, parlent en termes propres & naturels, fans qu'il y paroiffe ni étude, n'y afectation. Il fufit au fage de fa vertu, du témoignage de fa confcience, pour être heureux. CHA P. IV. Of Articles, Adjectives, Pronouns, Participles, Adverbs, Interjections, Prepofitions, and Conjunctions. 32. Т SECT. I. OF ARTICLES. HEY are words ufed to modify or limit the fenfe of the fubftantive, fo as to diftinguish its use, fenfe, gender and number. Subftantives may be put to fix different ufes; they may be employ'd in four different fenfes; may be of two different genders; and in two different numbers. The fix ufes to which fubftantives may be put are call'd by Grammarians cafes, and diftinguifh'd by the different names of nominative, accufative, genitive, ablative, dative, and vocative. The four fenfes, in which fubftantives may be employ'd, are the definite, the indefinite, the partitive, and the numeral. The two genders, of which fubftantives may be, are the mafculine and the feminine; and the two numbers, in which they may be put, are the fingular and the plural. PRACTICE. The article placed in L'article en François mis French before nouns fubftan- devant les noms apellatifs en tive deter tive common, determines and fixes their meaning; takes away all equivocation and ambiguity, and gives perfpicuity and precifion to difcourfe; which makes whatever is faid, and written, immediately underftood, without need of farther reflection. The article ferves alfo to connect the difcourfe; and render it more flowing and harmonious. There is a fort of ignorance very dangerous; which confifts in believing that we know what we really do not. Of all the articles in painting, what gives the painter the greatest opportunity of fhewing all his genius, imagination and art, is certainly invention. Most women have nothing but prattle; trifles engrofs their converfation. Society is, properly speaking, only an exchange of wellbred lies, and falfe compliments; in which men flatter, in order to be flatter'd. There are terms so peculiar to things, and fo adapted to them, that they seem as much to follow the thought, as the fhadow does the body. The regard, which others have for us, is the fuel which keeps alive the regard we have for ourselves. The merit of the ancients is fo extoll❜d to us, that the moderns can't stand their ground at their approach. The determine le fens, le fixe, ôte toute équivoque & toute ambiguité; & donne au difcours une clarté & une précision, qui font qu'on entend d'abord & fans être obligé de réfléchir, ce que veulent dire ceux qui parlent ou qui écrivent. L'article fert auffi à lier le difcours, & à le rendre plus coulant & plus harmonieux. Il y a une maniére d'ignorance très dangereufe, qui confifte à croire favoir ce qu'on ne fait pas. De toutes les parties de la peinture, celle qui fournit au peintre plus d'occafions de faire voir ce qu'il a d'efprit, d'imagination & de prudence, c'eft fans doute l'invention. La plupart des femmes n'ont que du caquet; elles ne parlent que de bagatelles. La fociété n'eft proprement qu'un comerce de menfonges oficieux, & de fauffes louänges; où les hommes flattent pour être flattés. Il y a des termes fi atachés aux chofes, & tellement faits pour elles, qu'ils femblent suivre la penfée, comme l'ombre fuit le corps. L'amour des autres envers nous eft la nourriture de notre amour propre. On nous éleve fi fort les anciens, que les modernes ne fauroient fe foutenir auprès d'eux. Le |