CHAP. III.] 



EXAMPLES OF ANTITHETA. 



259 



For. 



REVENGE. 



Against. 



Private revenge is a kind of 

 wild justice. 



He who returns injury for 

 injury violates the law, not the 

 person. 



The fear of private revenge is 

 useiul, for laws are often asleep. 



He who does the wrong is the 

 aggressor, but he who returns it 

 the protractor. 



The more prone men are to re 

 venge, the more it should be weeded 

 out. 



A revengeful man may be slow 

 in time, though not in will. 



Far. 



RICHES. 



They despise riches who despair 

 of them. 



Envy at riches has made virtue 

 a goddess. 



Whilst philosophers dispute 

 whether all things should be re 

 ferred to virtue or pleasure, let us 

 be collecting the instruments of 

 both. 



Riches turn virtue into a com 

 mon good. 



The command of other advan 

 tages are particular, but that of 

 riches universal. 



Against. 



Great riches are attended either 

 with care, trouble, or fame, but no 

 use. 



What an imaginary value is set 

 upon stones and other curiosities, 

 that riches may seem to be of some 

 service. 



Many who imagine all things 

 may be bought by their riches, 

 forget they have sold them 

 selves. 



Riches are the baggage of vir 

 tue, necessary though cumber- 

 uome. 



Riches are a good servant but a 

 bad master. 



For. 



SUPERSTITION. 



Ayainst. 



They who err out of zeal, though 

 they are not to be approved, should 

 yet be pitied. 



Mediocrity belongs to morality, 

 extremes to divinity. 



A superstitious man is a reli 

 gious formalist. 



I should sooner believe all the 

 fables and absurdities of any reli 

 gion than that the universal frame 

 L&amp;gt; without a deity. 



As an ape appears the more 

 deformed for his resemblance to 

 man, so the similitude of supersti 

 tion to religion makes it the more 

 odious. 



What affectation is in civil mat 

 ters such is superstition in divine.i 1 



It were better to have no belief 

 of a God than such an one as dis 

 honours him. 



It was not the school of Epi 

 curus, but the Stoics, that dis 

 turbed the states of old. 



The real atheists are hypocrites, 

 who deal continually in holy things 

 without feeling. 



f Superstition is anything but affectation. They are hypocrites who 

 dissemble : those who believe too much are generally over earnest. Ed. 



