WIT.

against them; when it adorns truth; when it follows great examples; when it is not used upon subjects improper for it, or in a manner unbecoming, in measure intemperate, at an undue season, or to a dangerous end.-Barrow.

Less judgment than wit, is more sail than ballast. Yet it must be confessed, that wit gives an edge to sense, and recommends it extremely.-Penn.

Let your wit rather serve you for a buckler to defend yourself, by a handsome reply, than the sword to wound others, though with never so facetious a reproach, remembering that a word cuts deeper than a sharper weapon, and the wound it makes is longer curing.-Osborn.

Be rather wise than witty, for much wit hath commonly much froth, and it is hard • to jest and not sometimes jeer too, which many times sinks deeper than was intended or expected, and what was designed for mirth ends in sadness.-C. Trenchild.

Where judgment has wit to express it, there is the best orator.-Penn.

Some people seem born with a head in which the thin partition that divides great wit from folly is wanting.-Southey.

Wit loses its respect with the good, when seen in company with malice; and to smile at the jest which places a thorn in another's breast, is to become a principal in the mischief.-Sheridan.

To place wit above sense is to place superfluity above utility.—Mad. de Mainte

non.

Punning is a conceit arising from the use of two words that agree in the sound, but differ in the sense. The only way, therefore, to try a piece of wit, is to translate it into a different language; if it bears the test, you may pronounce it true; but if it vanishes in the experiment, you may conclude it to have been a pun.-Addison.

Wit should be used as a shield for defence rather than as a sword to wound others.—Fuller.

Witticisms are never agreeable when they are injurious to others.

Wit is the most rascally, contemptible, beggarly thing on the face of the earth.Murphy.

When wit transgresses decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety.Tillotson.

Great wits to madness sure are near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.-Dryden.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to

WOMAN.

say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.-Rochefoucauld.

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.-Hazlitt.

The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.--Molière.

Genuine and innocent wit is surely the flavor of the mind. Man could not direct his way by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavor, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumes, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps over the burning marl.—Sydney Smith.

It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon.-Chesterfield.

Perpetual aiming at wit is a very bad part of conversation. It is done to support a character; it generally fails; it is a sort of insult to the company, and a restraint upon the speaker.-Swift.

Though wit be very useful, yet unless a wise man has the keeping of it, that knows when, where, and how to apply it, it is like wild-fire, that runs hissing about, and blows up everything that comes in its way. -Walter Scott.

I like that wit whose fittest symbol is the playful pinch which a father gives to the cheek of his roguish boy or the pretended bite which a mother prints upon the tempting, snowy shoulder of her babe. -D. G. Mitchell.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.Johnson.

There are heads sometimes so little, that there is no room for wit, sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.Fuller.

WOMAN.-A beautiful and chaste woman is the perfect workmanship of God, the true glory of angels, the rare miracle of earth, and the sole wonder of the world.-Hermes.

The finest compliment that can be paid to a woman of sense is to address her as such.

Next to God we are indebted to women. first for life itself, and then for making it worth having.—Bovee.

Contact with a high-minded woman is good for the life of any man.-Henry Vin

cent.

Women have more strength in their looks,

WOMAN.

than we have in our laws; and more power by their tears, than we have by our arguments.-Saville.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.-Shakespeare.

O woman! in our hours of ease, uncertain, coy, and hard to please, and variable as the shade, by the light quivering aspen made; when pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou.- Walter Scott.

There is nothing by which I have through life more profited, than by the just observations, the good opinions, and sincere and gentle encouragement of amiable and sensible women.-Sir S. Romilly.

He is no true man who ever treats women with anything but the profoundest respect. She is no true woman who cannot inspire and does not take care to enforce this. Any real rivalry of the sexes is the sheerest folly and most unnatural

nonsense.

God has placed the genius of women in their hearts; because the works of this genius are always works of love.-Lamartine.

There is one in the world who feels for him who is sad a keener pang than he feels for himself; there is one to whom reflected joy is better than that which comes direct there is one who rejoices in another's honor, more than in any which is one's own; there is one on whom another's transcendent excellence sheds no beam but that of delight; there is one who hides another's infirmities more faithfully than one's own; there is one who loses all sense of self in the sentiment of kindness, tenderness, and devotion to another; that one is woman. - Washington Irving.

There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.-Lamartine.

There is something still more to be dreaded than a Jesuit and that is a Jesuitess.-Eugène Sue.

Women never truly command, till they have given their promise to obey; and they are never in more danger of being made slaves,_than__ when the men are at their feet.-Farquhar.

Men at most differ as heaven and earth but women, worst and best, as heaveu and hell.-Tennyson.

To the disgrace of men it is seen, that there are women both more wise to judge what evil is expected, and more constant to bear it when it is happened.-Sir P. Sidney.

WOMAN.

The buckling on of the knight's armor by his lady's hand was not a mere caprice of romantic fashion. It is the type of an eternal truth that the soul's armor is never well set to the heart unless a woman's hand has braced it, and it is only when she braces it loosely that the honor of manhood fails.—Ruskin.

A good and true woman is said to resemble a Cremona fiddle-age but increases its worth and sweetens its tone.-0. W. Holmes.

The single woman's part in life may be a noble one; she may elevate herself and help others, but her's must always be a second place.-She is never fulfilling the part nature intended her to fulfil; but the wife and mother is the crowned queen.Mrs. H. R. Haweis.

The most dangerous acquaintance a married woman can make is the female confidante.-Mad. Deluzy.

Contact with a high-minded woman is good for the life of any man.-Henry Vincent.

A handsome woman is a jewel; a good woman is a treasure.-Saadi.

Nearly every folly committed by woman is born of the stupidity or evil influence of man.-Michelet.

The dignity of woman consists in being unknown to the world.-Her glory is the esteem of her husband; her pleasure the happiness of her family.-Rousseau.

Christianity has lifted woman to a new place in the world. And just in proportion as Christianity has sway, will she rise to a higher dignity in human life.-What she has now, and all she shall have of privileges and true honor, she owes to that gospel which took those qualities which had been counted weak and unworthy, and gave them a divine glory in Christ.-Herrick Johnson.

There are three classes into which all old women are divided: first, that dear old soul; second, that old woman; and third, that old witch.- Coleridge.

"Woman!" With that word, life's dearest hopes and memories come. Truth, beauty, love, in her adored, and earth's lost paradise restored, in the green bower of home.-Halleck.

The greater part of what women write about women is mere sycophancy to man. -Mad. de Staël.

The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more

WOMAN.

commonly acquired by observation than by reading.-Rousseau.

A woman's greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.-Pericles.

A woman's heart, like the moon, is always changing, but there is always a man in it.-Punch.

Woman is quick to recognize genius, and to listen when wisdom speaks.-She may chatter in the presence of fools, but knows and appreciates the value of earnest, sensible men.-C. H. Dall.

The intuitions of women are better and readier than those of men; her quick decisions without conscious reasons, are frequently far superior to a man's most careful deductions.-W. Aikman.

The deepest tenderness a woman can show to a man, is to help him to do his duty.-Mulock.

It is only the nature of their education that puts a woman at such disadvantage, and keeps up the notion that they are our inferiors in ability.-The best sources of knowledge are shut off from them, and the surprise is that they manage to keep so abreast of us as they do.-Story.

All men who avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or else have gross tastes, and revolt against what is pure.-Thackeray.

No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep. - Victor Hugo.

There can be no higher ambition for a Christian woman than to be a faithful wife and a happy and influential mother. It is the place which God has given woman, and she who fills it well, is as honorable and honored as the most illustrious man can be.-C. A. Stoddard.

A woman has this quality in common with the angels, that those who suffer belong to her.-Balzac.

Women famed for their valor, their skill in politics, or their learning, leave the duties of their own sex, in order to invade the privileges of ours. I can no more pardon a fair one for endeavoring to wield the club of Hercules, than I could a man for endeavoring to twirl her distaff.-Goldsmith.

Women for the most part do not love us. They do not choose a man because they love him, but because it pleases them to be loved by him. They love love of all things in the world, but there are very few men

whom they love personally.-Alphonse Karr.

Women are the poetry of the world in the same sense as the stars are the poetry of heaven. Clear, light-giving, harmonious, they are the terrestrial planets that rule the destinies of mankind.Hargrave.

Women are ever in extremes; they are either better or worse than men.-Bruyère.

One reason why women are forbidden to preach the gospel, is, that they would persuade without argument and reprove without giving offence.-J. Newton.

O, what makes women lovely? Virtue, faith, and gentleness in suffering; an endurance through scorn or trial; these call beauty forth, give it the stamp celestial, and admit it to sisterhood with angels.Brent.

Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest. -Whately.

Woman was taken out of man; not out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled underfoot; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.-M. Henry.

Women are the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain, and nourish all the world.-Shakespeare,

I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man and prostrate him in the dust seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity.- Washington Irving.

'Tis beauty, that doth oft make women proud; 'tis virtue, that doth make them most admired; 'tis modesty, that makes them seem divine.-Shakespeare.

Women govern us; let us try to render them more perfect. The more they are enlightened, so much the more we shall be. On the cultivation of the minds of women, depends the wisdom of man.Sheridan.

Virtue, modesty, and truth are the guardian angels of woman. .

Women that are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest ; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often

WOMAN.

arises from a total ignorance of vice.-Colton.

Men are women's playthings; woman is the devil's.- Victor Hugo.

For silence and a chaste reserve is woman's genuine praise, and to remain quiet within the house.-Euripides.

There is not on earth a more merciless exacter of love from others than a thoroughly selfish woman; and the more unlovely she grows, the more jealously and scrupulously she exacts love to the uttermost farthing.-Mrs. Stowe.

The best woman has always somewhat of a man's strength; and the noblest man of a woman's gentleness.-Miss Mulock.

Woman is the Sunday of man; not his repose only, but his joy; the salt of his life.-Michelet.

Women see through and through each other; and often we most admire her whom they most scorn.-Charles Buxton.

The modest virgin, the prudent wife, or the careful matron are much more serviceable in life than petticotted philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.-Goldsmith.

The honor of woman is badly guarded when it is guarded by keys and spies. No woman is honest who does not wish to be. -A. Dupuy.

Pretty women without religion are like flowers without perfume.-H. Heine.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.-George Eliot.

A fair test and measure of civilization, is the influence of good women.-Emerson.

'Tis thine to curb the passions madd'ning sway, and wipe the mourner's bitter tear away: 'tis thine to soothe, when hope itself has fled, and cheer with angel's smile the sufferer's bed: to give to earth its charm, to life its zest, one only task-to bless, and to be blest. Grahame.

I have found that the men who are really the most fond of the ladies-who cherish for them the highest respect-are seldom the most popular with the sex. Men of great assurance, whose tongues are lightly hung-who make words supply the places of ideas, and place compliment in the room of sentiment—are their favorites. A due respect for women leads to respectful

action toward them, and respect is mistaken by them for neglect or want of love. -Addison,

I have observed among all nations that the women ornament themselves more than the men; that wherever found, they are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. They do not hesitate, like man, to perform an hospitable or generous action; not haughty or arrogant, nor supercilious, but full of courtesy and fond of society; industrious, economical, ingenuous, more liable in general to err than man, but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions, than he. I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship to a woman, whether civilized or savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and, to add to this virtue, so worthy of the appellation of benevolence, these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with a double relish.-Ledyard.

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world; it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her ambition seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies. on adventure; she embarks her whole soul in the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked-her case is hopeless-for it is bankruptcy of the heart. Washington Irving.

To a gentleman every woman is a lady in right of her sex.—Bulwer.

The woman's cause is man's; they rise or fall together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.

Whatever may be the laws and customs of a country, the women of it decide the morals.-Free or subjugated they reign because they hold possession of our passions.

-And their influence is more or less salutary according to the degree of esteem which is granted them.-It is the law of eternal justice that man cannot degrade women without himself falling into degradation; and he cannot raise them without himself becoming better.-A. Marten.

Discretion and good-nature have been always looked upon as the distinguishing ornaments of female conversation. The woman whose price is above rubies, has no particular in the character given of her by the wise man, more endearing than that

WOMAN.

"she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness." Freeholder.

Most females will forgive a liberty, rather than a slight; and if any woman were to hang a man for stealing her picture, although it were set in gold, it would be a new case in law; but if he carried off the setting, and left the portrait, I would not answer for his safety.—Colton.

A woman too often reasons from her heart; hence two-thirds of her mistakes and her troubles.-Bulwer.

Recreation or pleasure is to a woman what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates, and destroys. But the duties of domestic life, exercised, as they must be, in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female, are, perhaps, as necessary to the full development of her charms, as the shades and shadows are to the rose; confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance.-Colton.

The society of women is the element of good manners.-Goethe.

As the vine which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head and binding up the broken heart.- Washington Irving.

The foundation of domestic happiness is faith in the virtue of woman.-Landor.

Oh, if the loving, closed heart of a good woman should open before a man, how much controlled tenderness, how many veiled sacrifices and dumb virtues, would he see reposing therein !-Richter.

All a woman has to do in this world is contained within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother.-Steele.

The brain women never interest us like the heart women; white roses please less than red.-O. W. Holmes.

When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.Julia Ward Howe.

How many women are born too finely or

ganized in sense and soul for the highway they must walk with feet unshod! Life is adjusted to the wants of the stronger sex. There are plenty of torrents to be crossed in its journey; but their stepping-stones are measured by the strides of men, and not of women.-O. W. Holmes.

O woman! in ordinary cases so mere a mortal, how in the great and rare events of life dost thou swell into the angel!-Bul

wer.

Woman's honor is nice as ermine, will not bear a soil.—Dryden.

No amount of preaching, exhortation, sympathy, benevolence, will render the condition of our working-women what it should be so long as the kitchen and the needle are substantially their only resources.-Horace Greeley.

To feel, to love, to suffer, to devote herself will always be the text of the life of a woman.-Balzac,

Most men like in women what is most opposite their own characters.-Fielding.

I have often thought that the nature of women was inferior to that of men in general, but superior in particular.-Lord Greville.

Let a woman once give you a task, and you are hers, heart and soul; all your care and trouble lend new charms to her, for whose sake they were taken. To rescue, to revenge, to instruct or protect a woman is all the same as to love her.-Richter.

If thou wouldst please the ladies, thou must endeavor to make them pleased with themselves.-Fuller.

Women do act their part when they do make their ordered houses know them. Sheridan Knowles.

Woman-last at the cross, and earliest at the grave.-E. S. Barrett.

Women have more heart and more imagination than men.-Lamartine.

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee to temper man; we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair, to look like you; there is in you all that we believe of heaven-amazing brightness, purity, and truth, eternal joy, and everlasting love.-Otway.

She is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.—Burke.

Even the most refined and polished of men seldom conceal any of the sacrifices they make, or what it costs to make them. This is reserved for women, and is one of the many proofs they give of their supe