It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.

Some dire misfortune to portend, no enemy can match a friend.

I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.

Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.

So, naturalists observe, a flea; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.

I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life.

The sciences are found, like Hercules's oxen, by tracing them backward; and old sciences are unravelled like old stockings, by beginning at the foot.