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A collection of short meditations and aphorisms offering compact observations on human character, feeling, and conduct. It treats topics such as love, youth and age, society and politeness, conscience, gratitude, music, contemplation, and the hardening effects of experience. The tone is epigrammatic and reflective, often paradoxical, combining moral insight with personal impression rather than systematic argument. Entries are brief, titled reflections that shift between practical maxims and lyrical observation, inviting readers to reconsider familiar sentiments from fresh angles.
A substitute for goodness of heart.
A starving man, who committed theft, was asked by a pious person if his conscience had not cried out to him to forbear. “Alas!” replied he, “if it did, the cries of my stomach were so much louder, that they prevented me from hearing those of conscience.”