A Character of King Charles the Second Part 7

It is hard to produce an Instance where a Party did ever succeed against a Government, except they had a good handle given them.

No original Party ever prevailed in a turn; it brought up _something else_, but the first Projectors were thrown off.

If there are two Parties, a Man ought to adhere to that which he disliketh least, though in the whole he doth not approve it: For whilst he doth not list himself in one or the other Party, he is looked upon as such a Straggler, that he is fallen upon by both. Therefore a Man under such a Misfortune of Singularity, is neither to provoke the World, nor disquiet himself, by taking any particular Station.

It becometh him to live in the Shade, and keep his Mistakes from giving Offence; but if they are his Opinions, he cannot put them off as he doth his Cloaths. Happy those who are convinced so as to be of the general Opinions.

Ignorance maketh most Men go into a Party, and Shame keepeth them from getting out of it.

More Men hurt others, they do not know why, than for any reason.

If there was any Party entirely composed of honest Men, it would certainly prevail; but both the honest Men and the Knaves resolve to turn one another off when the Business is done.

They by turns defame all _England_, so n.o.body can be employed that hath not been branded: There are few Things so criminal as a Place.

_Of_ COURTS.

The Court may be said to be a Company of well-bred fashionable Beggars.

At Court, if a Man hath too much Pride to be a Creature, he had better stay at home: A Man who will rise at Court must begin, by creeping upon All-four: A Place at Court, like a Place in Heaven, is to be got by being much upon _one's Knees_.

There are hardly two Creatures of a more differing Species than the same Man, when he is pretending to a Place, and when he is in Possession of it.

Mens Industry is spent in receiving the Rents of a Place, there is little left for discharging the Duty of it.

Some Places have such a corrupting Influence upon the Man, that it is a supernatural thing to resist it.

Some Places lye so fair to entertain Corruption, that it looketh like renouncing a due Perquisite, not to go into it.

If a getting Fool would keep out of Business, he would grow richer in a Court than a Man of Sense.

One would wonder that in a Court where there is so little Kindness, there should be so much _whispering_.

Men must brag of kind Letters from Court, at the same time that they do not believe one Word of them.

Men at Court think so much of their own Cunning, that they forget other Mens.

After a Revolution, You see the _same Men_ in the Drawing-room, and within a Week the same _Flatterers_.

_Of_ PUNISHMENT.

Wherever a Government knows _when_ to _show_ the Rod, it will not often be put to _use_ it. But between the want of Skill, and the want of Honesty, Faults generally either escape Punishment, or are mended to no Purpose.

Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.

Wherever a Knave is not punished, an honest Man is laugh'd at.

A Cheat to the Publick is thought infamous, and yet to accuse him is not thought an honourable part. What a Parodox! 'Tis an ill Method, to make the Aggravation of the Crime a Security against the Punishment; so that the Danger is not to _rob_, but not to _rob enough_.

Treason must not be _inlayed Work_ of _several Pieces_, it must be an entire Piece of itself. _Acc.u.mulative_ in that case is a murdering Word, that carrieth Injustice, and no Sense in it.

An _Inference_, though never so rational, should go no farther than to justify a _Suspicion_, not so far as to inflict a _Punishment_. Nothing is so apt to break with Stretching, as an _Inference_; and nothing so ridiculous, as to see how Fools will abuse one.

MORAL THOUGHTS, AND REFLECTIONS.

_Of the_ WORLD.

It is from the Shortness of Thought, that Men imagine there is any great Variety in the World.

Time hath thrown a Vail upon the Faults of former Ages, or else we should see the same Deformities we condemn in the present Times.

When a Man looketh upon the Rules that are made, he will think there can be no Faults in the World; and when he looketh upon the Faults, there are so many he will be tempted to think there are no Rules.

They are not to be reconciled, otherwise than by concluding that which is called _Frailty_ is the incurable _Nature_ of Mankind.

A Man that understandeth the World must be weary of it; and a Man who doth not, for that Reason ought not to be pleased with it.

The Uncertainty of what is to come, is suck a dark Cloud, that neither Reason nor Religion can quite break through it; and the Condition of Mankind is to be weary of what we do know, and afraid of what we do not.

The World is beholden to _generous Mistakes_ for the greatest Part of the Good that is done in it.

Our _Vices_ and _Virtues_ couple with one another, and get Children that resemble both their Parents.

If a Man can hardly inquire into a Thing he undervalueth, how can a Man of good Sense take pains to understand the World?

To understand the World, and to like it, are two things not easily to be reconciled.

That which is called an _Able Man_ is a great Over-valuer of the World, and all that belongeth to it.

All that can be said of him is, that he maketh the best of the General Mistake.

It is the Fools and the Knaves that make the Wheels of the World turn.

_They_ are _the World_; those few who have Sense or Honesty sneak up and down single, but never go in Herds.

To be too much _troubled_ is a worse way of over-valuing the World than the being too much _pleased_.

A Man that steps aside from the World, and hath leisure to observe it without Interest or Design, thinks all Mankind as mad as they think him, for not agreeing with them in their Mistakes.

_Of_ AMBITION.

The serious Folly of wise Men in _over-valuing the World_, is as contemptible as any thing they think fit to censure.