THE ESSENCE OF WISDOM. A NGER. Anger is uneasiness or discomposure of the mind, upon the receipt of any injury, with a present purpose of revenge. To climb steep hills Locke. Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like Shakespeare. There is not in nature A thing that makes man so deformed, so beastly, As doth intemperate anger. Webster. Anger is the most impotent passion that accompanies the mind of man; it affects nothing it goes about, and hurts the man who is possessed by it, more than any other against whom it is directed. Clarendon. ARTS. Arts that respect the mind, were ever reputed nobler than those which served the body. Ben Jonson. ATHEISM. An atheist, if you will take his word for it, is a very despicable mortal. Let us describe him by the tenet, and copy him a little from his own original. He is, then, no better than a heap of organised dust, a stalking machine, a speaking head without a soul in it. His thoughts are bound by the laws of motion, his actions are all prescribed. He has no more liberty than the current of a stream, or the blast of a tempest; and where there is no choice, there can be no merit. Jeremy Collier. Some fly to atheism as an opiate to still those frightening apprehensions of a future state of rewards and punishments, by inducing a dulness and lethargy of mind, rather than to make use of that nature and salutary medicine, a hearty repentance. Bentley. That man gave the atheist a crushing answer, who told him that the very feather with which he penned the words, "There is no God," refuted the audacious lie! Guthrie. Diagoras, surnamed the atheist, being on shipboard, and in danger of wreck, the sailors were disposed to attribute the storm to the presence of so impious a person, on which he pointed to the other vessels in the same danger, and asked if he were aboard all of them. Anon. This sacred shade and solitude, what is it? Young's Night Thoughts. AMBITION. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good; so find we profit By losing of our prayers. But 'tis a common proof, Shakespeare. That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. Shakespeare. The hind that would be mated by the lion, must die for love. Shakespeare. And he that strives to touch a starre, Spencer. "We must not attempt an eagle's flight, with the wings of a wren." Ambition is an idol, on whose wings Great minds are carried only to extremes; In all our quest of greatness, Like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, We follow after bubbles blown in th' air. Webster. Ambition is at a distance A goodly prospect, tempting to the view; Otway. Ambition is the mind's immodesty. Davenant. |