ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



197 



For 



JESTS 



Against 



A jest is the orator's altar. 



Humor in conversation pre- 

 serves freedom. 



It is highly politic to pass 

 smoothly from jest to earnest, and 

 vice versa. 



Witty conceits are vehicles to 

 truths that could not be otherwise 

 agreeably conveyed 



Hunters after deformities and 

 comparisons are despicable creat- 

 ures. 



To divert important business 

 with a jest is a base trick. 



Judge of a jest when the laugh 

 is over. 



Wit commonly plays on the sur- 

 face of things, for surface is the 

 seat of a jest 



For 



INGRATITUDE 



Ingratitude is but perceiving 

 the cause of a benefit. 



The desire of being grateful 

 neither does justice to others nor 

 leaves one's self at liberty. 



A benefit of an uncertain value 

 merits the less thanks. 



Against 



The sin of ingratitude is not 

 made penal here, but left to the 

 furies. 



The obligations for benefits ex- 

 ceed the obligation of duties; 

 whence ingratitude is also unjust. 



No public fortune can exclude 

 private favor. 



For 



INNOVATION 



Against 



Every remedy is an innovation. 



He who will not apply new rem- 

 edies must expect new diseases. 



Time is the greatest innovator: 

 and why may we not imitate time? 



Ancient precedents are unsuit- 

 able, and late ones corrupt and 

 degenerate. 



Let the ignorant square their 

 actions by example. 



As they who first derive honor 

 to their family are commonly 

 more worthy than those who suc- 

 ceed them, so innovations gener- 

 ally excel imitations. 



An obstinate adherence to cus- 

 toms is as turbulent a thing as in- 

 novation. 



Since things of their own course 

 change for the worse, if they are 

 not by prudence altered for the 

 better, what end can there be of 

 the ill? 



The slaves of custom are the 

 sport of time. 



New births are deformed things. 



No author is accepted till time 

 has authorized him. 



All novelty is injury, for it de- 

 faces the present state of things. 



Things authorized by custom, if 

 not excellent, are yet comfortable 

 and sort well together. 



What innovator follows the ex- 

 ample of time, which brings about 

 new things so quietly as to be al- 

 most imperceptible? 



Things that happen unexpected 

 are less agreeable to those they 

 benefit and more afflicting to 

 those they injure. 



