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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 37

Gleanings

page 56

Gleanings.

Major Cartwright said that the abominable stupidity and waste of time in teadrinking is enough to give one a surfeit of town life.

Sir Gervase Clifton, of Allwoodby, Yorkshire, who died in 1666, outdid "bluff Hall" in the number of his wives; for whereas the king had wedded three Kates, two Nans, and one dear Jane, this baronet had three honorables, three right-worshipfuls, and one well-beloved wife.

The Earl of Morion introduced the gibbetaxe into Scotland, and suffered by it himself in 1581. From this machine the French guillotine seems to have been copied.

Many selfrighteous people have no ostensible enjoyments; their pleasures are private, comfortable, and gross,

The celebrated Duke of Marlborough could not write English; but he was outdone by another famous general but wretched scholar, Sir Robert Shirley, who confessed in a letter that he had "not the pen of Sissero" (Cicero).

A dinner was served to James the First by the East India Company 1609-10, in "fine china dishes, which were freely permitted to be carried away by all persons."

For the clergy to be popular, they have only to be eloquent in their sermons, correct in their morals, philanthropic in sentiments, meek in their manners, and charitable in their actions.

Contrary to what you now do, purify your hearts, rectify your dispositions, make clean all within; give alms from right motives; and behold, take notice, all things are clean unto you.

Piety is only beneficial when it is rational; rational piety is the only mode of professing genuine Christianity.

Temporal enjoyments are not prohibited, if they are accompanied with innocence and charity.

The same qualifications nowadays (said Burke, 1773) make a good member of parliament that formerly made a good monk—Praise the Minister, read the lesson he sets you, taliter qualiter, and let the State take care of itself.

I know the weight of public opinion in England (said a Russian ambassador), and I have seen it change in a few days.