202 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS

Above all things, tell no untruth, no, not in trifles ; the custom of

it is naughty. And let it not satisfy you that, for a time, the hearers
take it for truth, for after it will be known as it is, to your shame
for there cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman than to be
accounted a liar. Study and endeavour yourself to be virtuously
occupied ; so shall you make such a habit of well-doing in you that
you shall not know how to do evil.
Remember, my son, the noble blood you are descended of by
your mother's side ; and think that only by virtuous life and good
action you may be an ornament to that illustrious family ; otherwise,
through vice and sloth, you shall be counted one of the greatest curses
that can happen to man.
Well, my little Philip, this is enough for me, and too much, I fear
for you. But if I shall find that this light meal of digestion nourish
anything in the weak stomach of your capacity I will, as I find the
same grow stronger, feed it with tougher food.
Your loving father, so long as you live in the fear of God,
H. Sidney
What Shadows We Are, and What Shadows We Pursue
Edmund Burke, realising in the midst of a contest at Bristol that he would
not be elected, declined the election in this famous short speech, one phrase of which
(referring to the death of a candidate) has become a familiar quotation.
/"-GENTLEMEN, I decline the election. It has ever been my rule
\J through life to observe a proportion between my efforts and my
objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and
sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.
I have not canvassed the whole of this city in form j but I have
taken such a view of it as satisfies my own mind that your choice
will not ultimately fall upon me. Your city, gentlemen, is in a state
of miserable distraction ; and I am resolved to withdraw whatever
share my pretensions may have had in its unhappy divisions. I
have not been in haste. I have tried all prudent means. I have
waited for the effect of all contingencies. If I were fond of a contest,
by the partiality of my numerous friends (whom you know to be
among the most weighty and respectable people of the city) I have
the means of a sharp one in my hands ; but I thought it far better,
with my strength unspent and my reputation unimpaired, to do early
an<J from foresight that which I might be obliged to do from neces-
sity at last.
I am not in the least surprised, nor in the least angry, at this view
of things. I have read the book of life for a long time, and I have
read other books a little. Nothing has happened to me but what has
happened to men much better than me, and in times and in nations
full as good as the age and country that we live in. To say that I
am no way concerned would be neither decent nor true . . . but,