rdice than death to true courage.--_Sir
P. Sidney._

Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt.--_George Sewell._

Fear invites danger; concealed cowards insult known
ones.--_Chesterfield._

~Felicity.~--The world produces for every pint of honey a gallon of gall;
for every dram of pleasure a pound of pain; for every inch of mirth an
ell of moan; and as the ivy twines around the oak, so does misery and
misfortune encompass the happy man. Felicity, pure and unalloyed
felicity, is not a plant of earthly growth; her gardens are the
skies.--_Burton._

~Fickleness.~--Everything by starts, and nothing long.--_Dryden._

It will be found that they are the weakest-minded and the
hardest-hearted men that most love change.--_Ruskin._

~Fiction.~--Truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.--_Gray._

Every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity,
contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which
taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed,
utility.--_Sir J. Mackintosh._

I have often maintained that fiction may be much more instructive than
real history.--_Rev. John Foster._

Fiction is of the essence of poetry as well as of painting: there is a
resemblance in one of human bodies, things, and actions which are not
real, and in the other of a true story by fiction.--_Dryden._

Fiction is no longer a mere amusement; but transcendent genius,
accommodating itself to the character of the age, has seized upon this
province of literature, and turned fiction from a toy into a mighty
engine.--_Channing._

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of
caricature; and we are not aware that the best histories are not those
in which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative is
judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy; but much is gained
in effect. The fainter lines are neglected; but the great characteristic
features are imprinted on the mind forever.--_Macaulay._

Those who delight in the study of human nature may improve in the
knowledge of it, and in the profitable application of that knowledge, by
the perusal of such fictions as those before us [Jane Austen's
Novels].--_Archbishop Whately._

~Firmness.~--The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.--_Longfellow._

Stand firm and immovable as an anvil when it is beaten upon.--_St.
Ignatius._

~Flattery.~--The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles o