APPLICATION.
One good discreet expedient made use of upon an emergency, will do a man more real service, and make others think better of him, than to have passed all his life for a shrewd crafty fellow, full of his stratagems and expedients, and valuing himself upon his having a deeper knowledge of the world than his neighbours. Plain good sense, and a downright honest meaning, are a better guide through life, and more trusty security against danger, than the low shifts of cunning, and the refinements of artifice. Cunning is of a deep entangling nature, and is a sign of a small genius; though when it happens to be successful, it often makes an ostentatious pretension to wisdom; but simplicity of manners is the ally of integrity, and plain common sense is the main requisite of wisdom.
