Covetousness is both the beginning and end of the devil's alphabet-the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies. - South.

Why are we so blind? -That which we improve, we have; that which we hoard, is not for ourselves. Mad. Deluzy.

The covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy, but to have them; he starves himself in the midst of plenty; cheats and robs himself of that which is his own, and makes a hard shift to be as poor and miserable with a great estate as any man can be without it.-Tillot

son.

Refrain from covetousness, and thy estate shall prosper.-Plato.

The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty.-T. Adams.

After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly only to die magnificently and rich. They serve the devil without receiving his wages, and for the empty foolery of dying rich, pay down their health, happiness, and integrity.Colton.

COWARDICE. - The craven's fear is but selfishness, like his merriment.Whittier.

Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor. Hazlitt.

It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so.Junius.

Cowards falter, but danger is often overcome by those who nobly dare.Queen Elizabeth.

Peace and plenty breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is the mother.Shakespeare.

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. - Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.-E. H. Chapin.

Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant never taste of death but once. Shakespeare.

COXCOMB. - (See "FOPPERY.")

A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first in his profession. Colton.

Nature has sometimes made a fool; but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making.-Addison.

Foppery is never cured. It is the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, are never rectified. Once a coxcomb, always a coxcomb. Johnson.

None are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves.-Colton.

A coxcomb is ugly all over with the affectation of the fine gentleman.-John

son.

CREDIT. - Credit is like a lookingglass, which, when once sullied by a breath, may be wiped clear again; but if once cracked can never be repaired.Walter Scott.

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easier six months longer; but if he sees you at a billiard table, or hears your voice at a tavern when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day. Franklin.

Too large a credit has made many a bankrupt; taking even less than a man can answer with ease, is a sure fund for extending it whenever his occasions require. The Guardian.

Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another. Cicero.

CREDITOR. - Creditors have better memories than debtors; they are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times. Franklin.

The creditor whose appearance gladdens the heart of a debtor may hold his head in sunbeams, and his foot on storms. Lavater.

CREDULITY.- O credulity, thou hast as many ears as fame has tongues, open to every sound of truth, as falsehood.Harvard.

Credulity is belief on slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence. In this sense it is the infidel, not the be

believe in good upon reflection.-Is not this sad? - Mad. Deluzy.

The more gross the fraud, the more glibly will it go down and the more greedily will it be swallowed, since folly will always find faith wherever impostors will find impudence. Bovee.

The only disadvantage of an honest heart is credulity. Sir P. Sidney.

Credulity is the common failing of inexperienced virtue; and he who is spontaneously suspicious may justly be charged with radical corruption.-John

son.

Credulity is perhaps a weakness, almost inseparable from eminently truthful characters. -Tuckerman.

As credulity is a more peaceful possession of the mind than curiosity, so preferable is that wisdom which converses about the surface, to that pretended philosophy which enters into the depth of things, and then comes back gravely with the informations and discoveries that in the inside they are good for nothing.-Swift.

I cannot spare the luxury of believing that all things beautiful are what they seem. Halleck.

The general goodness which is nourished in noble hearts, makes every one think that strength of virtue to be in another whereof they find assured foundation in themselves. Sir P. Sidney.

It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness, will be our credulity as to the mysterious powers assumed by others. -Colton.

You believe easily that which you hope for earnestly. -Tcrence.

The most positive men are the most credulous, since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer and worst enemy, their own self-love.-Pope.

Generous souls are still most subject to credulity.-Davenant.

by believing too much.-P. T. Barnum. Your noblest natures are most credulous. Chapтап.

To take for granted as truth all that is alleged against the fame of others, is a species of credulity that men would blush at on any other subject.-Jane Porter.

Beyond all credulity is the credulousness of atheists, who believe that chance could make the world, when it cannot build a house. Clarke.

The remedy for the present threatened decay of faith is not a more stalwart creed or a more unflinching acceptance of it, but a profoundly spiritual life. Lyman Abbott.

Charles the Second, hearing Vossius, a celebrated free-thinker, repeating some incredible stories about the Chinese, said, "This is a very strange man. believes everything but the Bible!" CREED.-(See "BELIEF.")

He

A good creed is a gate to the city that hath foundations; a misleading creed may be a road to destruction, or if both misleading and alluring it may become what Shakespeare calls a primrose path to the eternal bonfire. Jospeh Cook.

In politics, as in religion, we have less charity for those who believe the half of our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it. - Colton.

If you have a Bible creed, it is well; but is it filled out and inspired by Christian love?-J. F. Brodie.

Though I do not like creeds in religious matters, I verily believe that creeds had something to do with our Revolution. In their religious controversies the people of New England had always been accustomed to stand on points; and when Lord North undertook to tax them, then they stood on points also. It so happened, fortunately, that their opposition to Lord North was a point on which they were all united.Daniel Webster.

The weakest part of a man's creed is that which he holds for himself alone;

CRIME. (See "CONCEALMENT.")

Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.

capable of being incendiaries.-Burke. Crime is not punished as an offence against God, but as prejudicial to society. Froude.

Those who are themselves incapable of great crimes, are ever backward to suspect others.--Rochefoucauld.

It is supposable that in the eyes of angels, a struggle down a dark lane and a battle of Leipsic differ in nothing but in degree of wickedness.-Willmott.

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. - Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.-Emerson.

If poverty is the mother of crimes, want of sense is the father of them.Bruyère.

Man's crimes are his worst enemies, following him like shadows, till they drive his steps into the pit he dug. Creon.

We easily forget crimes that are known only to ourselves.-Rochefou

could.

Crimes lead into one another. They

For the credit of virtue it must be admitted that the greatest evils which befall mankind are caused by their crimes. Rochefoucauld.

CRITICISM. - Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well. Johnson.

Criticism is the child and handmaid of reflection. It works by censure, and standard.R.

censure implies

White.

a

G.

It is ridiculous for any man to criticise the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances.-Addison.

Criticism is as often a trade as a science; requiring more health than wit, more labor than capacity, more practice than genius.-Bruyère.

Criticism often takes from the tree

caterpillars and blossoms together.

Richter.

It is easy to criticise an author, but difficult to appreciate him.-Vauvenargues.

Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.-Pope.

Silence is sometimes the severest criticism. Charles Buxton.

Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism.-Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award-these are the true aims and duties of criticism.Simms.

It is a maxim with me, that no man was ever written out of a reputation but by himself.-Bentley.

Of all the cants in this canting world, deliver me from the cant of criticism.Sterne.

Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather than its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as the bad heart of Procrustes turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.-Longfellow.

The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.Disraeli.

It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back. Moore.

Get your enemies to read your works in order to mend them; for your friend is so much your second self that he will judge too much like you.-Pope.

Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? -The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.-Burke.

The pleasure of criticism takes from us that of being deeply moved by very beautiful things. Bruyère.

It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.-R. W. Griswold.

The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave, and the imperfect may safely be left to that final neglect from which no amount of present undeserved popularity can rescue it. -Bovee.

The opinion of the great body of the reading public, is very materially influenced even by the unsupported assertions of those who assume a right to criticise. Macaulay.

The strength of criticism lies only in the weakness of the thing criticised.Longfellow.

CRITICS. Critics are sentinels in the grand army of letters, stationed at the corners of newspapers and reviews, to challenge every new author.-Longfellow.

There is scarcely a good critic of books born in our age, and yet every fool thinks himself justified in criticising persons. Bulwer.

Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning themShenstone.

The eyes of critics, whether in commending or carping, are both on one

side, like those of a turbot.-Landor. A spirit of criticism, if indulged in. leads to a censoriousness of disposition that is destructive of all nobler feeling. The man who lives to find faults has a miserable mission.

Some critics are like chimney-sweepers; they put out the fire below, and frighten the swallows from their nests above; they scrape a long time in the chimney, cover themselves with soot, and bring nothing away but a bag of cinders, and then sing out from the top of the house, as if they had built it.Longfellow.

The critical faculty has its value in correcting errors, reforming abuses, and demolishing superstitions. But the constructive faculty is much nobler in itself, and immeasurably more valuable in its results, for the obvious reason that it is a much nobler and better thing to build up than to pull down. It requires skill and labor to erect a building, but any idle tramp can burn it down. Only God can form and paint a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.J. M. Gibson.

It behooves the minor critic, who hunts for blemishes, to be a little distrustful of his own sagacity. Junius.

To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling, is what no man without genius could be if he would.-Colton.

Critics are a kind of freebooters in the republic of letters, who, like deer, goats, and diverse other graminivorous animals, gain subsistence by gorging upon buds and leaves of the young shrubs of the forest, thereby robbing them of their verdure and retarding their progress to maturity.-Washington Irv

ing.

He, whose first emotion on the view of an excellent production is to undervalue it, will never have one of his own to show. Aikin.

The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition. -Hazlitt.

Of all mortals a critic is the silliest; for, inuring himself to examine all things, whether they are of consequence or not, he never looks upon anything but with a design of passing sentence upon it; by which means he is never a companion, but always a censor.-Steele.

There are some critics who change everything that comes under their hands to gold; but to this privilege of Midas they join sometimes his ears.-J. P. Senn.

CROSS.-The cross is the only ladder high enough to touch Heaven's threshold.-G. D. Boardman.

The greatest of all crosses is self._ If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. - These little daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.-Fenelon.

Carry the cross patiently, and with perfect submission; and in the end it shall carry you. Thomas à Kempis.

While to the reluctant the cross is too heavy to be borne, it grows light to the heart of willing trust.

The cross of Christ, on which he was extended, points, in the length of it, to heaven and earth, reconciling them together; and in the breadth of it, to former and following ages, as being equally salvation to both.

The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor.-Rutherford.

CRUELTY.- All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness. - Seneca.

I would not enter on my list of friends the man who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. Cowper.

Cruelty and fear shake hands together. -Balzac.

Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn.-Burns.

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.-George Eliot.

One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the by-standers cruel.-Buxton.

Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of the lowest and basest of the people. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness.-Jones of Nayland.

Detested sport, that owes its pleasures to another's pain. -Cowper.

CULTIVATION. - The highest pur

pose of intellectual cultivation is, to give a man a perfect knowledge and mastery of his own inner self.-Novalis.

Virtue and talents, though allowed their due consideration, yet are not enough to procure a man a welcome wherever he comes. Nobody contents himself with rough diamonds, or wears them so. When polished and set, then they give a lustre.-Locke.

It matters little whether a man be mathematically, or philologically, or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated. Goethe.

Partial culture runs to the ornate; extreme culture to simplicity. Bovee.

It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing. If it is not covered with flowers, fruit trees, and grains, it produces briars and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious. Bruyère.

Cultivation to the mind, is as necessary as food to the body. Cicero.

That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of human life, and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement. Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.H. W. Beecher.

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without culture, so the mind, without cultivation, can never produce good fruit. Seneca.

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself whatever he pleases, except a great poet.Chesterfield.

Whatever expands the affections, or enlarges the sphere of our sympathieswhatever makes us feel our relation to the universe and all that it inherits in time and in eternity, and to the great and beneficent cause of all, must unquestionably refine our nature, and elevate us in the scale of being. Channing.