OR THE BEST WORDS OF THE BEST AUTHORS. use with "Abstracts, abridgments, summaries, &c., have the same IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. SEVENTH EDITION. LONDON: CHARLES TILT, FLEET STREET. MDCCCXL. Laconics. Huge volumes, like the ox roasted at Bartholomew Fair, may proclaim plenty of labour and invention, but afford less of what is delicate, savory, and well concocted, than smaller pieces. F. Osborn. I. WEIGH not so much what men say, as what they prove; remembering that truth is simple and naked, and needs not invective to apparel her comeliness.— Sidney. II. Scholars are men of peace; they bear no arms, but their tongues are sharper than Actius' razor, their pens carry further, and give a louder report than thunder. I had rather stand in the shock of a basilisk, than in the fury of a merciless pen.-Sir T. Brown. III. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; IV. Pope. There is something in the genius of poetry too libertine to be confined to many rules; and whoever goes about to subject it to such constraints, loses both its |