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community, GoD is pleafed now 'to confer upon men a great variety of natural talents; and every one hath his proper gift of God; one after this manner, another after that *. And every one is to take care not to neglect, but to ftir up the gift of God which is in him †; because it was given him to be improved. And not only the abuse, but the neglect of it, must hereafter be accounted for: witness the doom of that unprofitable fervant, who laid up his fingle pound in a napkin ; and of him who went and hid his talent in the earth §.

It is certainly a fign of great felf-ignorance, for a man to venture out of his depth, or attempt any thing he wants opportunity or capacity to accomplish. And therefore a wife man will confider with himself, before he undertakes any thing of consequence, whether he hath abilities to carry him through it, and whether the iffue of it may probably redound to his credit; left he fink under the weight he lays upon himself, and incur the juft cenfure of rafhnefs, prefumption and folly. See Luke xiv. 28,-32. (s).

* 1 Cor. vii. 7. + 1 Tim. iv. 14. Luke xix. 20, 24. § Mat. xxv. 30. (s)

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2 Tim. i. 6..

Nofcenda eft menfura tuæ, fpectandaque rebus In fummis, minimis,

Juv. Sat. 11.

It is no uncommon thing for fome who excel in one thing, to imagine they may excel in every thing. And not content with + that share of merit which every one allows i them, are ftill catching at that which doth not belong to them. Why fhould a good orator wish to be thought a poet? Why must a celebrated divine fet up for a politician? or a statesman affect the philofopher? or a mechanic the scholar? or a wife man labour to be thought a wit? this is a weakness that flows from felf-ignorance, and is incident to the greatest men. Nature feldom forms an univerfal genius; but deals out her favours, in the prefent ftate, with a parfimonious hand. -- Many a man, by this foible, hath weakened a well-established reputation (t).

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verfate diu quid ferre recufant

Quid valeant humeri.

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CHAP.

Hor. de Art. Poet. He that taketh up a burden that is too heavy for him, is in a fair way to break his back,

451

Ανθρωπε, πρώτον επισκεψαι, οποίον εσε το πραγμα είδα και την σεαιζε φυσιν καλαμαθε, ει συνασαι βαςαται. Epit. Enchir. cap. 36. In every bufinefs confider, first, what it is you are about; and then your own ability, whether it be fufficient to carry you through it.

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Virg.

non omnia.poffumus omnes. Cæcilius (a famous rhetorician of Sicily, who lived in the time of Auguftus, and wrote a treatise

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We must be well acquainted with our Inabilities, and thofe Things in which we are narally deficient, as well as thofe in which we excel.

V.

'W'

E muft, in order to a thorough felfacquaintance, not only confider our talents and proper abilities, but have an eye to our frailties and deficiencies, that we may know where our weakness as well as our ftrength lies: -otherwife, like Sampfon, we may run ourfelves into infinite temptations and troubles.

Every man hath a weak fide: every wife man knows where it is, and will be fure to keep a double guard there.

There is fome wisdom in concealing a weakness: this cannot be done, till it be first known, nor can it be known without a good degree of felf-acquaintance.

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on the fublime, which is cenfured by Longinus in the beginning of his) was of a hafty and enterprifing fpirit, and very apt to over-fhoot himself on all occafions; he particularly ventured out of his depth in his Comparison of Demofthenes and Cicero: whereupon Plutarch makes this fage and candid remark. 6 If, (faith he) it was a thing obvious and eafy for every man to know himself, poffibly that faying, goals σeaucu, had not paffed for a divine oracle.' Plut. Liv. vol. vii. pag. 347

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It is ftrange to obferve what pains fome men are at to expose themselves; to signalize their own folly; and to fet out to the most public view thofe things which they ought to be afhamed to think fhould ever enter into their character. But fo it is; fome men seem to be ashamed of those things which would be their glory, whilft others glory in their fhame *.

The greatest weakness in a man is to publifh his weakneffes, and to appear fond to have them known: but vanity will often prompt a man to this; who, unacquainted with the measure of his capacity, attempts things out of his power, and beyond his reach; whereby he makes the world acquainted with two things to his disadvantage, which they were ignorant of before, viz. his deficiency, and his felf-ignorance in appearing fo blind to it.

It is ill-judged, though very common, to be less ashamed of a want of temper than understanding for it is no real difhonour or fault in a man to have but a small ability of mind, provided he have not the vanity to fet up for a genius, (which would be as ridiculous as for a man of small strength and ftature of body, to fet up for a champion)

* Phil, iii. 19.

pion) because this is what he cannot help. But a man may in a good measure correct the fault of his natural temper, if he be well acquainted with it, and duly watchful over it and therefore to betray a prevailing weakness of temper, or an ungoverned paffion, diminishes a man's reputation much more than to discover a weakness of judgment or understanding. -But the most difhonourable of all is, for a man at once to discover a great genius and an ungoverned mind because that strength of reason and understanding, which he is mafter of, gives him a great advantage for the government of his paffions: and therefore his fuffering himself, notwithstanding, to be governed by them, fhows that he hath too much neglected or misapplied his natural talent; and willingly fubmitted to the tyranny of those lufts and paffions, over which nature had furnished him with abilities to have fecured an eafy conqueft.

A wife man hath his foibles as well as a fool but the difference between them is, that the foibles of the one are known to himself, and concealed from the world; the foibles of the other are known to the world, and concealed from himself. The wife man fees those frailties in himself, which

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