Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns

Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.

A ridiculous passion which hath no being but in play-books and romances.

If they would, for Example, praise the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they describe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms, Ellipses, and other geometrical terms.

It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.

Vanity is a natural object of temptation to a woman.