He who is too much afraid of being duped has lost the power of being magnanimous.
—Amiel.
1196
A MAIDEN'S LAMENT.
Full oft he sware with accents true and tender,
"Though years roll by, my love shall ne'er wax old!"
And so to him my heart I did surrender,
Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold;
And from that day, unlike the seawood bending
To every wave raised by the autumn gust,
Firm stood my heart, on him alone depending,
As the bold seaman in his ship doth trust.
Is it some cruel evil one that hath bereft me?
Or hath some mortal stolen away his heart?
No word, no letter since the day he left me;
Nor more he cometh, ne'er again to part!
In vain I weep, in helpless, hopeless sorrow,
From earliest morn until the close of day;
In vain, till radiant dawn brings back the morrow,
I sigh the weary, weary nights away.
No need to tell how young I am, and slender—
A little maid that in thy palm could lie:
Still for some message comforting and tender
I pace the room in sad expectancy.
1197
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
—Shakespeare.
1198
A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of the child.
—Chinese.
1199
He who does not advance, goes backward; recedes.
—From the Latin.
1200
A man who is amiable will make almost as many friends as he does acquaintances.
1201
An angry man is often angry with himself when he returns to reason.
—Publius Syrus.
1202
AN OLD MAN OF ACUTE PHYSIOGNOMY.
An old man answering to the name of Joseph Wilmot, was brought before the police court. His clothes looked as if they had been bought second hand in his youthful prime.
"What business?"
"A vagabond, perhaps?"
"You are not far wrong: the difference between the two, is, that the latter travel without money, and the former without brains."
"Where have you traveled?"
"All over the continent."
"For what purpose?"
"What have you observed?"
"A little to commend, much to censure, and very much to laugh at."
"Humph! What do you commend?"
"A handsome women that will stay at home, an eloquent divine that will preach short sermons, a good writer that will not write too much, and a fool that has seen enough to hold his tongue."
"What do you censure?"
"A man who marries a girl for fine clothing, a youth who studies law while he has the use of his hands, and the people who elect a drunkard to office."
"What do you laugh at?"
"At a man who expects his position to command the respect which his personal qualities and qualifications do not merit."
He was dismissed.
1203
Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him.
—W. E. Channing.
1204
As no man is born without faults, the best is he who has the fewest.
1205
Burns, the poet, when in Edinburgh one day, recognized an old farmer friend, and courteously saluted him, and crossed the street to have a chat; some of his new Edinburgh friends gave him a gentle rebuke, to which he replied:—"It was not the old great-coat, the scone bonnet, that I spoke to, but the man that was in them."
1206
MAN.
Man has been thrown naked into the world, feeble, incapable of flying like the bird, running like the stag, or creeping like the serpent; without means of defense, in the midst of terrible enemies armed with claws and stings; without means to brave the inclemency of the seasons, in the midst of animals protected by fleece, by scales, by furs; without shelter, when all others have their den, their hole, their shell; without arms, when all about him are armed against him. And yet he has demanded of the lion his cave for a lodging and the lion retires before his eyes; he has despoiled the bear of his skin, and of it made his first clothing; he has plucked the horn from the bull, and this is his first drinking-cup; then he has dug even into the bowels of the earth, to seek there the instruments of his future strength; from a rib, a sinew, and a reed, he has made arms; and the eagle, who, seeing him at first in his weakness and nakedness, prepares to seize him as his prey, struck in mid-air, falls dead at his feet, only to furnish a feather to adorn his head. Among animals, is there one, who under such conditions could have preserved life? Let us for a moment separate the workman from his work, God from nature. Nature has done all for this insect,—of which they had been discoursing,—nothing for man. It is that man should be the product of intelligence rather than of matter; and God, in granting him this celestial gift, this ray of light from the divine fire, created him feeble and unprotected, that he might make use of it, that he might be constrained to find in himself the elements of his greatness.
—By X. B. Saintine, in Picciola; or,
The Prison Flower.
1207
Wherever a man goes to dwell his character goes with him.
1208
Our acts make or mar us,—we are the children of our own deeds.
—Victor Hugo.
1209
MAN—ASSUMPTIONS OF.
O, but man, proud man!
Dress'd in a little brief authority;
Most ignorant of what he's most assured.
—Shakespeare.
1210
I've learned to judge of men by their own deeds,
I do not make the accident of birth
The standard of their merit.
1211
MAN.
What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties!
In form and moving how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel!
In appearance how like a god!
The beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!
—Shakespeare.
1212
Direct not him, whose way himself will choose.
1213
He that can please nobody, is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please.
—Colton.
1214
To quarrel with a drunken man is harming the absent.
1215
Goethe said that there is no man so commonplace that a wise man may not learn something from him. Sir Walter Scott could not travel in a coach without gleaning some information or discovering some new trait of character in his companions.
1216
LIFE AND DEATH.
I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself, like a green bay-tree;
Yet he passed away, and, lo! he was not;
Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Mark the perfect man,
And behold the upright,
For the end of that man is peace.
—Psalms xxxvii, 35-37v.
1217
He who stands high is seen from afar.
—From the Danish.
1218
I confess that increasing years bring with them an increasing respect for men who do not succeed in life, as those words are commonly used.
—G. S. Hillard.
1219
Beauty is good for women, firmness for men.
—Bion.
1220
A man who is always forgetting his best intentions may be said to be a thoroughfare of good resolutions.
1221
It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated, but by his equal or superior.
—Ruskin.
1222
It takes a great man to make a good listener.
—Sir Arthur Helps.
1223
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall. A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor is a man perfected without trials.
—Goldsmith.
1224
Be content with the day as it is; look for the good in everything.
1225
An honest man is believed without an oath, for his reputation swears for him.
1226
A thread will tie an honest man better than a rope will do a rogue.
1227
Would you make men trustworthy? Trust them.
Would you make them true? Believe them.
We win by tenderness.
We conquer by forgiveness.
—Robertson.
1228
If there is any person to whom you unfortunately feel a dislike that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.
—Richard Cecil.
1229
He is not yet born who can please everybody.
1230
Fenimore Cooper asserts, in one of his books, that there is "an instinctive tendency in men to look at any man who has become distinguished." Said Carlyle: "True, surely, and moreover, an instinctive desire in men to become distinguished and be looked at, too!"
1231
It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.
—Amiel.
1232
Man is not allowed to know what will happen—tomorrow.
—Statius.
1233
A horse is not known by his furniture, but by his qualities; so men should be esteemed for virtue, not wealth.
1234
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies.
—Dryden's Ovid.
1235
The best club for a married man is an armchair in front of a big fire-place at home.
1236
Men take each other's measure when they meet for the first time.
1237
Does one see wolves taking to the road in order to plunder other wolves, as does inhuman man?
1238
No man can end with being superior, who will not begin with being inferior.
—Sydney Smith.
1239
Never speak of a man in his own presence.
It is always indelicate, and may be offensive.
—Dr. Johnson.
1240
No man is always wise.
—Pliny.
1241
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.
1242
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them.
—Shakespeare.
1243
Men possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.
—Froude.
1244
The life of an old man is like a lighted candle in a draft.
—Japanese.
1245
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
—From the Chinese.
1246
Some men remain poor because they haven't enough friends, and some because they have too many.
1248
A poor man, though living in the crowded mart, no one will notice; a rich man, though dwelling amid the remote hills, his distant relative will visit.
1249
Art may make a suit of clothes, but nature must produce the man.
—Hume.
1250
The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never for himself.
1251
It is not good that man should be alone.
—Genesis 2, 18v.
1252
Silent men, like still waters, are sometimes deep and dangerous.
1253
Man is a social creature, and we are made to be helpful to each other; we are like the wheels of a watch, that none of them can do their work alone, without the concurrence of the rest.
1254
Strive not too anxiously for thy support, thy Maker will provide. No sooner is a man born, than milk for his support streams from the breast.
—Chinese.
1255
He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
—Colton.
1256
The difference, he, Johnson, observed between a well-bred and an ill-bred man is this: One immediately attracts your liking, the other your aversion. You love the one till you find reason to dislike him; you dislike the other till you find reason to love him.
—Boswell's Life of Johnson.
1257
THE UNPUNCTUAL MAN.
He is a general disturber of other's peace and serenity. Everybody with whom he has to do is thrown from time to time into a state of fever; he is systematically late; regular only in his irregularity.
—Smiles.
1258
NO.
No is a surly, honest fellow, speaks his mind rough and round at once.
1259
A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.
1260
He had nothing and was content. He became rich and is discontented.
1261
Thou canst mould him into any shape like soft clay.
—Horace.
1262
None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in error.
1263
A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.
—Montaigne.
1264
"HOW MUCH DID HE LEAVE?"
The question is asked concerning the property of every rich man who dies; and it was answered very happily by Cloots, who was executor upon the estate of the late Mr. Snodgrass. His neighbor, Mr. Nailroad, was an exceedingly inquisitive man. The day after the funeral, Nailroad visited Cloots, and, with an inspecting face, began to question him. "Mr. Cloots," says he, "if it is not improper, will you inform me how much my particular friend Snodgrass left?" "Certainly," said Cloots:—"He left every cent he was worth in the world, and didn't take a copper with him."
1265
Who does the best his circumstances allow,
Does well, acts nobly; angels could do no more.
—Young.
1266
If you would know a man truly, know him off duty, when the duties of the day are over and he has left his post.
—Observer.
1267
Men who want to do everything their own way must make a world to suit them, for it can not be done in this.
1268
The man whom I call deserving the name, is one whose thoughts and exertions are for others, rather than himself.
—Blanchard.
1269
If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the wilderness, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
—Emerson.
1270
He who doth not speak an unkind word to his fellow-creatures is master of the whole world.
1271
Those who think must govern those who toil.
1272
The wise man shapes himself according to his environments, as water to the shape of the vessel into which it is poured.
—Japanese.
1273
At the working-man's house hunger may look in, but dare not enter.
1274
I am almost frozen by the distance you are from me.
1275
Manners carry the world for the moment; character, for all time.
—Alcott.
1276
Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his image.
—Goethe.
1277
MANNERS.
The distinguishing trait of people accustomed to good society is a calm, imperturbable quiet, which pervades all their actions and habits, from the greatest to the least. They eat in quiet, move in quiet, live in quiet, and lose their wife, or even their money in quiet; while others cannot take up either a spoon, or an affront, without making such an amazing noise about it.
—Bulwer-Lytton.
1278
Manners are the shadows of virtue.
—Sydney Smith.
1279
Vulgar people can't be still.
—O. W. Holmes.
1280
In society want of sense is not so unpardonable as want of manners.
—Lavater.
1281
The wealthy and the noble when they expend large sums in decorating their houses with the rare and costly efforts of genius, with busts, and with cartoons from the pencil of a Raphael, are to be commended, if they do not stand still here, but go on to bestow some pains and cost, that the master himself be not inferior to the mansion, and that the owner be not the only thing that is little, amidst everything else that is great. The house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them.
1282
Marriage is the bloom or blight of all men's happiness.
—Byron.
1283
A MAIDEN'S TRUST IN MARRIAGE.
There is no one thing more lovely in this life, more full of the divine courage, than when a young maiden, from her past life, from her happy childhood, when she rambled over every field and moor around her home; when a mother anticipated her wants and soothed her little cares, when her brothers and sisters grew from merry playmates, to loving, trustful friends; from Christmas gatherings and romps, the summer festivals in bower or garden; from the secure backgrounds of her childhood, and girlhood, and maidenhood, looks out into the dark and unilluminated future away from all that, and yet unterrified, undaunted, leans her fair cheek upon her lover's breast, and whispers—"Dear heart! I cannot see, but I believe. The past was beautiful, but the future I can trust—with thee!"
—Hunt.
1284
Advice on Marriage.—An Athenian who was hesitating whether to give his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with a small fortune, or to a rich man who had no other recommendation, went to consult Themistocles on the subject. "I would bestow my daughter," said Themistocles, "upon a man without money, rather than upon money without a man."
—Arvine.
1285
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
1286
ON A WEDDING DAY.
Cling closer, closer, life to life,
Cling closer, heart to heart;
The time will come, my own wed wife,
When you and I must part!
Let nothing break our band but Death,
For in the world above
'Tis the breaker Death that soldereth
Our ring of wedded love.
—G. Massie.
1287
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.
A man of experience, declares that men, like plants, adapt themselves to conditions. To illustrate his theory, he told of two men, one of whom said to the other, at a pleasantly critical period:
"Do you think two can live as cheaply as one?"
"Before my marriage I thought they could," was the guarded reply.
"And afterward?" anxiously.
"Afterward I found they had to."
1288
MARRIAGE,—CHOICE IN.
Boswell: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one woman in particular?" Johnson: "Ay, sir, fifty thousand." Boswell: "Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain men and certain women are made for each other, and that they cannot be happy if they miss their counterparts." Johnson: "To be sure not, sir. I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter."
Boswell's Johnson, p. 283.
—Samuel Johnson.
1289
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.
—Cowper.
1290
When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history commences.
1291
Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,
Where they that are without, would fain go in,
And they that are within, would fain go out.
—Sir J. Davis.
1292
Marriage somewhat resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.
—S. Smith.
1293
Marry in your own Rank. Wise was the man, ay, wise indeed, who first weighed well this maxim, and with his tongue published it abroad, that to marry in one's own class is best by far, and that a peasant should woo the hand neither of any that have waxed wanton by riches, nor of such as pride themselves in high-traced lineage.
—Aeschylus.
1294
THE NEWLY WEDDED.
Now the rite is duly done,
Now the word is spoken,
And the spell has made us one
Which may ne'er be broken;
Rest we, dearest, in our home,
Roam we o'er the heather;
We shall rest, and we shall roam,
Shall we not—together?
From this hour the summer rose
Sweeter breathes to charm us;
From this hour the winter snows
Lighter fall to harm us;
Fair or foul—on land or sea—
Come the wind or weather,
Best or worst, whate'er they be,
We shall (D.V.) always share—together!
—Winthrop Mackworth Praed.
1295
Whom first we love, you know one seldom weds.
—Owen Meredith.
1296
A pious elder once said to his son in view of marriage,—"My boy, piety is essential for the life to come, but good temper is the great requisite for happiness in this world."
1297
The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
—Swift.
1298
COMPANIONSHIP IN MARRIAGE.
If God had designed woman as man's master, He would have taken her from his head; if as his slave, He would have taken her from his feet; but as He designed her for his companion and equal, He took her from his side.
—St. Augustine.
1299
The following was written on a card by an old friend of a young lady's when he sent her some flowers on the eve of her wedding day:—"I have sent you a few flowers to adorn the dying moments of your single life."
1300
The treasures of the deep are not so precious
As are the concealed comforts of a man
Lock'd up in woman's love. I scent the air
Of blessings, when I come but near the house.
What a delicious breath marriage sends forth—
The violet bed's not sweeter!
—Middleton.
1301
Blessed their life whose marriage prospers well,
But if things fall out ill, no happiness
Awaits them, within doors or without,—so beware!
—Unknown.
1302
THE MARRIAGE VOW.
Speak it not lightly; 'tis a holy thing—
A bond, enduring thro' long distant years,
Life will not prove all sunshine; there will come
Dark hours for all; oh! will ye, when the night
Of sorrow gathers thickly round your home,
Love as ye did in days when smooth and bright
Seemed the sure path ye trod, untouched by care,
And deemed the future, like the present, fair?
Age, with its silvery locks, will come stealing on,
And bring the tottering step, the furrow'd cheek,
The eye, from whence each lustrous gleam hath gone;
And the pale lip, with accents low and weak;
Will ye then think upon your youth's gay prime,
And, smiling, bid love triumph over time?
Speak it not lightly; oh! beware! beware!
'Tis no vain promise, no unmeaning word;
Before God's altar, now ye both do swear,
And by the High and Holy One 'tis heard!
Be faithful to each other till life's close;
Seek peace below, and you'll get Heaven's repose.
1303
Let him who weds, wed character, not money.
1304
A girl should look happy because she is not married; a wife because she is.
1305
A Gentleman, but a Fool.—Chief Justice Marshall once found himself suddenly brought to a halt by a small tree which intervened between the front wheel and the body of his buggy. Seeing a servant at a short distance, he asked him to bring an axe and cut down the tree. The servant—a colored man—told the judge that there was no occasion for cutting down the tree, but just to back the buggy. Pleased at the good sense of the fellow, Judge Marshall told him that he would leave him something at the inn hard by, where he intended to stop, having then no small change. In due time the man applied, and a dollar was handed him. Being asked if he knew who it was that gave him the dollar, he replied: "No, sir: I concluded he was a gentleman by his leaving the money, but I think he is the biggest fool I ever saw."
1306
If thou art a master, be sometimes blind, and sometimes deaf.
—Fuller.
1307
Let no man be the servant of another who can be his own master.
1308
Our master is our—enemy.
—From Amiel's Journal.
Applicable to those who have formed a useless habit.
1309
Matrimony.—He hath tied a knot with his tongue that he cannot untie with all his teeth.
1310
Numbers, xxxvi. 6,—"Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry."
Mr. John Martin used to give two advices, both to his children and others, in reference to marriages. One was, "Keep within the bounds of your profession." The other was, "Look at suitableness in age, quality, education, temper, etc." He used to observe, from Genesis, ii, 18, "I will make him a help-meet for him;" that there is not meetness, there will not be much help. He commonly said to his children, with reference to their choice in marriage, "Please God, and please yourselves, and you shall never displease me;" and greatly blamed those parents who conclude matches for their children without their consent. He sometimes mentioned the saying of a pious gentlewoman, who had many daughters.—"The care of most people is how to get good husbands for their daughters; but my care is to fit my daughters to be good wives, and then let God provide for them."
1311
MATRIMONY.
The sum of all that makes a just man happy
Consists in the well-choosing of his wife:
And there, well to discharge it, does require
Equality of years, of birth, of fortune;
For beauty being poor, and not cried up
By birth or wealth, can truly mix with neither.
And wealth, when there's such difference in years,
And fair descent, must make the yoke uneasy.
—Massinger.
1312
MATRIMONY.
1. That man must lead a happy life
2. Who is directed by a wife;
3. Who's free from matrimonial chains
4. Is sure to suffer for his pains.
5. Adam could find no solid peace
6. Till he beheld a woman's face;
7. When Eve was given for a mate,
8. Adam was in a happy state.
Epigram: Read alternate lines,—1,3; 2,4; 5,7; 6,8.
—Cowper.
1313
FROM A WORK ENTITLED "SKETCHES OF PERSIA."
The following admirable lines were inscribed upon a golden crown having five sides, which was found in the tomb of Noosherwan.
First Side.—"Consider the end before you begin, and before you advance, provide a retreat.
Give not unnecessary pain to any man, but study the happiness of all. Ground not your dignity upon your power to hurt others."
Second Side.—"Take counsel before you commence any measure, and never trust its execution to the inexperienced.
Sacrifice your property for your life, and your life for your religion.
Spend your time in establishing a good name, and if you desire fortune, learn contentment."
Third Side.—"Grieve not for that which is broken, stolen, burnt or lost.
Never give order in another man's house; accustom yourself to eat your bread at your own table."
Fourth Side.—"Take not a wife from a bad family, and seat not thyself with those who have no shame.
Keep thyself at a distance from those who are incorrigible in bad habits, and hold no intercourse with that man who is insensible to kindness.
Convert not the goods of others.
Be sensible of your own value, estimate justly the worth of others: and war not with those who are far above thee in fortune."
Fifth Side.—"Be envious of no man, and avoid being out of temper, or thy life will pass in misery.
Respect and protect the females of thy family."
1314
The meals which are eaten in company are always better digested than those which are taken in solitude.
—Dr. Combe.
1315
The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach for his meat.
1316
Johnson said melancholy people were apt to fly to intemperance for relief, but that it sunk them much deeper in misery. He observed, that laboring men who work hard and live sparingly, are seldom or never troubled with low spirits.
—Boswell's Johnson.
1317
Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.
—Rochefoucauld.
1318
By attention ideas are registered on the memory.
1319
An old deacon was accustomed to offer this prayer: "Help us to forget what we ought not to remember, and to remember what we ought not to forget."
—Weekly Paper.
1320
What nicer, what sweeter, than—
The remembrance of a past in boyhood's village days without regret!
1321
So many we find to be well fed but ill taught.
1322
The Greatest Men Arose from the People.—The greatest scholars, poets, orators, philosophers, warriors, statesmen, inventors, and improvers of the arts, arose from the people. If we had waited till courtiers had invented the arts of printing, clockmaking, navigation, and a thousand others, we should probably have continued in darkness till this hour.
1323
I would as soon attempt to entice a star
To perch upon my finger; or the wind
To follow me like a dog—as try to make
Some people do what they ought.
1324
ABBOTSFORD.
When Washington Irving visited Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott introduced him to many of his friends and favorites, not only among the neighboring farmers, but the laboring peasantry. "I wish to show you," said Scott, "some of our really excellent plain Scotch people. The character of a nation is not to be learnt from its fine folks, its fine gentlemen and ladies; such you meet everywhere, and they are everywhere the same."
—Smiles.
1325
MEN—UNLUCKY.
Never have anything to do with an unlucky man. I never act with them. Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how can they do good to me?
—Rothschild.
1326
He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.
1327
Wise men care not for what they cannot have.
1328
Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things, from not being enough acquainted with them.
1329
YOUNG MEN.
The trouble with most young men is that they do not learn anything thoroughly, and are apt to do the work committed to them in a careless manner. The business world is full of such young men, content in simply putting in their time somehow and drawing their salaries, making no effort whatever to increase their efficiency and thereby enhance their own as well as their employers' interests.
—Unknown.
1330
The Clemency of a Queen.—It is related that during the first few days of the reign of Queen Victoria, then a girl between nineteen and twenty years of age, some sentences of a court-martial were presented for her signature. One was death for desertion. She read it, paused, and looked up to the officer who laid it before her, and said:—"Have you nothing to say in behalf of this man?" "Nothing; he has deserted three times," answered the officer. "Think again, Your Grace," was the reply. "And," said the gallant veteran, as he related the circumstance to his friends—(for he was none other than the Duke of Wellington)—"seeing her majesty so earnest about it, I said—'He is certainly a bad soldier, but there was somebody who spoke as to his good character, and he may be a good man for aught I know to the contrary.'" "Oh, I thank you a thousand times!" exclaimed the youthful queen, and hastily writing 'Pardoned' in large letters on the fatal page, she sent it across the table with a hand trembling with eagerness and beautiful emotion.
—Hodgins.
1331
Mercy's door should open to those who knock.
1332
When there is doubt, lean to the side of mercy.
—Cervantes.
1333
MAN—THE CHILD OF MERCY.
When the Omniscient Giver of all life,
In His eternal council first conceived
The thought of man's creation, forth He call'd
Into His presence three bright ministers—
Justice, and Truth, and Mercy, that forever
Had hovered around His throne—and thus He spoke;
"Shall we make man?" Then stern Justice replied:
"Create him not, for he will trample on
Thy holy law;" and Truth, too, answering, said,
"Create him not, O God! he will pollute
Thy sanctuary!" When forth Mercy came,
And dropping on her knees, exclaimed: "O God!
Create him! I will watch his wandering steps,
And tender guide thro' all the darksome paths
That he may tread." Then forthwith God made man,
And said: "Thou art the child of Mercy; go:
In mercy with thy erring brother deal."
—Judge Crittenden, of Ky.
1334
MERCY.
Think not the good,
The gentle deeds of mercy thou hast done,
Shall die forgotten all; the poor, the prisoner,
The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow,
Who daily owe the bounty of thy hand,
Shall cry to Heaven, and pull a blessing on thee.
—Nicholas Rowe.
1335
He that showeth mercy when it may be best spared will receive mercy when it shall be most needed.
1336
MERCY.
I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
Ye, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too.
—Cowper.
1337
It is beautifully said that the veil of futurity is woven by the hand of mercy.
—Bulwer-Lytton.
1338
We pray for mercy, Let that same prayer teach us to render The deeds of mercy.
—Shakespeare.
1339
Merit does not always meet its due reward.
1340
Merit and good-breeding will make their way everywhere.
1341
All are not merry that dance lightly.
—Herbert.
1342
When I dinna ken what I say, Sandy,
And ye dinna ken what I mean—that's metaphysics.
—Scotch.
1343
Method will teach you to win time.
—Goethe.
1344
FRIENDS IN NEED.
Perhaps one of the most noteworthy characteristics of Methodists is the spirit of clannishness which runs through the whole body. Is any sick, the rest are eager to pray; is any merry, the rest are delighted to sing psalms; and they will not only pray and sing in sympathy, which is comparatively easy, but they are ready to spend, and to be spent, for the brethren to almost any extent. Men may know that they are Methodists from the love they have one to another.
Through whatsoever ill betide
For you I will be spent and spend:
I'll stand forever by your side,
And naught shall you and me divide,
Because you are my friend.
—Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.
1345
Where might is right, right is not upright.
—From the German.
1346
It is indicative of a weak mind to be much depressed by adversity or elated by prosperity.
1347
A well-governed mind learns in time, to find pleasure in nothing but the true and the just.
—Amiel.
1348
Overtasking the mind is an unwise act; when nature is unwilling, the labour is vain.
—Seneca.
1349
When the mind is in a state of uncertainty, the smallest impulse directs it to either side.
—Terence.
1351
MIND.
It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind, that application is the price to be paid for mental acquisitions, and that it is as absurd to expect them without it, as to hope for a harvest where we have not sown the seed.
—Bailey.
1352
Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy: we do not easily believe beyond what we see.
—La Rochefoucauld.
1353
I am one,
Who finds within me a nobility,
That spurns the idle pratings of the great,
And their mean boast of what their fathers were,
While they themselves are fools effeminate,
The scorn of all who know the worth of mind
And virtue.
1354
All who know their mind do not know their heart.
1355
RESIGNATION.
Entire and perfect happiness is never
Vouchsafed to man; but nobler minds endeavor
To keep their inward sorrows unrevealed.
With meaner spirits nothing is concealed.
Weak, and unable to conform to fortune,
With rude rejoicing or complaint importune,
They vent their exultation or distress.
Whate'er betides us—grief or happiness—
The brave and wise will bear with steady mind,
The allotment, unforeseen and undefined,
Of good or evil, which the Gods bestow,
Promiscuously dealt to man below.
—Theognis, Greek.
Translated by Frere.
1356
Life will always be, to a large extent, what we ourselves make it. Each mind makes its own little world. The cheerful mind makes it pleasant, and the discontented mind makes it miserable. "My mind to me a kingdom is" applies alike to the peasant as to the monarch.
1357
The face is the index of the mind.
—Crabbe.
1358
It is not position, but mind, that I want, said a lady to her father, when rejecting a suitor.
1359
Those who visit foreign countries, but who associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs; they see new meridians, but the same men, and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home, with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds.
1360
Youthful minds, like the pliant wax, are susceptible of the most lasting impressions, and the good or evil bias they then receive is seldom if ever eradicated.
1361
Little minds are hurt by little things; great minds rise above them.
1362
Noblest minds are easiest bent.
—Homer.
1363
DUTY OF MINISTERS.
My friends, the chief duty of the ministers of God, is, that they should help their brethren to the best of their fallible knowledge and feeble power. When there is a spirit of repentance; when men truly seek the means of grace; when they have ceased to be insolent and defiant in sin; when they do intend—were it but ever so faintly—to lead a new life—then
Our commission is to heal, not harm;
We come not to condemn, but reconcile;
We come not to compel, but call again;
We come not to destroy, but edify;
Nor yet to question things already done;
These are forgiven; matters of the past;
And range with jetsam, and with offal, thrown
Into the blind sea of forgetfulness.
—F. W. Farrar, D. D.
1364
One ounce of mirth is worth more than ten thousand weight of gloominess.
1365
Man is no match for woman where mischief reigns.
—Balzac.
1366
Most just it is that he who breweth mischief should have the first draught of it himself.
—Jemmat.
1367
CONSTANTINE AND THE MISER.
Constantine the Great, born 274 A. D., in order to reclaim a miser, took a lance and marked out a space of ground the size of a human body and said to him: "Add heap to heap, accumulate riches upon riches, extend the bounds of your possessions, conquer the whole world, and in a few days, such a spot as this, will be all that you will have."
1368
A miser grows rich by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.
—Shenstone.
1369
Misers.—If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, for the sake of accumulating wealth; "Poor Man," I would say, "you pay too much for your whistle."
—Benj. Franklin.
1370
No thoroughly occupied man was ever miserable.
—Dutch.
1371
'Tis time enough to bear a misfortune when it comes without anticipating it.
—Seneca.
1372
Learn never to repine at your own misfortunes, or to envy the happiness of others.
1373
Any man may make a mistake; none but a fool will stick to it.
—Cicero.
1374
Better a mistake avoided, than two corrected.
1375
I will not quarrel with a slight mistake,
Such as our nature's frailty may excuse.
—Roscommon.
1376
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
—Swift.
1377
No lessons are so impressive as those our mistakes teach us.
1378
Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are warm,
And make mistakes for manhood to reform.
—Young.
1379
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.
—Goldsmith.
1380
MODERATION.
He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.
—Cowper.
1381
THE CHARM OF MODULATION.
'Tis not enough the voice be sound and clear,
'Tis modulation that must charm the ear.
1382
The abundance of money ruins youth.
1383
I almost grow to believe there is a sort of curse on money which is not earned, even when it is bestowed by father on son or daughter. It cripples individual development, and I think only when it is earned is it blest.
1384
A' complain o' want o' siller (money): nane o' want o' sense.
—Scotch.
1385
Your money cannot change your blood,
Although you strut as though it could.
1386
A MONEY-LENDER.
He serves you in the present tense;
He lends you in the conditional mood;
Keeps you in the subjunctive;
And is apt to ruin you in the future!
—Addison.
1387
The love of money is the root of much devotion.
1388
A man's money is either his master or his slave.
1389
Money doesn't make happiness. There is many a heart-ache behind plenty of money!
—Nettie S. Murphy.
1390
He who finds no money in his own purse, is still less likely to find it in that of others.
1391
Agassiz said, "I have no time to waste in making money. Life is not sufficiently long to enable a man to get rich and do his duty to his fellow man at the same time."
1392
No bees, no honey; no work, no money.
1393
THE POWER OF MONEY.
Money will purchase occupation;
It will purchase all the conveniences of life;
It will purchase variety of company;
It will purchase all sorts of entertainments;
It can change men's manners; alter their conditions!
How tempestuous these slaves are without it!
O thou powerful metal! what authority
Is in thee! thou art the key of all men's
Mouths; with thee a man may lock up the jaws
Of an informer, and without thee, he
Cannot open the lips of a lawyer.
—Broome.
1394
Mention money and the world is silent.
1395
How like a queen comes forth the lonely moon
From the slow opening curtains of the clouds;
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne!
—G. Croly.
1396
MOON.
See yonder fire! it is the moon
Slow rising o'er the eastern hill.
It glimmers on the forest tips,
And through the dewy foliage drips
In little rivulets of light,
And makes the heart in love with night.
—H. W. Longfellow.
1397
With morning cool reflection comes.
—Sir Walter Scott.
1398
The morning hour has gold in its mouth.
—Dr. Franklin.
1399
WHILE MOTHER WAS AWAY.
The Princess of Wales has trained her children so carefully in habits of obedience and veracity that they are most trustworthy little persons. Before her royal highness started on her trip round the world with her husband, she drew up a list of rules to be observed in the nursery, and added a series of light tasks to be fullfilled by each one of the youngsters before the date set for her return.
The rules were to be enforced by the nurses. The performance of the tasks was left to the honor of the children, and in addition there was a list of things they must not do.
There were occasional lapses of memory as regards the forbidden things, and some carelessness in carrying out the tasks, for royal children, despite the severity of their training, are children still. But in the main they respected their mother's wishes and commands, and took no advantage of her absence. Upon one occasion, however, they were sorely tempted. This was when their loving and beloved grandmother, Queen Alexandria, brought them a big box of bonbons. But when the sweets were offered to them, one child after another reluctantly but firmly declined to take any.
"We like them, but mother has forbidden us to eat them," explained the eldest prince.
"You can have the sugar-plums if I say you may," said the indulgent queen. "I will tell mama all about it when she returns."
Prince Eddie wavered momentarily, then reiterated his refusal.
"We'd like them," he sighed, "but that's what mother said."
The queen was slightly annoyed by this opposition.
"But if I say you may—" she said.
Prince Eddie stood his ground, a hero between two fires—the wishes of his adored mother, and those of his almost equally adored grandmother. His sister and his brothers followed his lead. When the queen went away she put the bonbons on the nursery table and there they stayed for months untouched, a handsome monument to the thoroughness of the princess' training and the respectful love and devotion of her children.
—The Youth's Companion.
1400
Better the child should cry than the mother sigh.
—Danish.
1401
THE DARING OF A MOTHER.
In Scotland a peasant woman had a child a few weeks old, which was seized by one of the golden eagles, the largest in the country, and borne away in its talons to its lofty eyrie on one of the most inaccessible cliffs of Scotland's bleak hills; the mother, perceiving her loss, hurried in alarm to its rescue, and the peasantry among whom the alarm spread, rushed out to her aid; they all came to the foot of the tremendous precipice; the peasants were anxious to risk their lives in order to recover the little infant; but how was the crag to be reached? One peasant tried to climb, but was obliged to return; another tried and came down injured; a third tried, and one after another failed, till a universal feeling of despair and deep sorrow fell upon the crowd as they gazed upon the eyrie where the infant lay. At last a woman was seen, climbing first one part and then another, getting over one rock and then another, and while every heart trembled with alarm, to the amazement of all, they saw her reach the loftiest crag, and clasp the infant rejoicingly in her bosom. This heroic female began to descend the perilous steep with her child; moving from point to point; and while everyone thought that her next step would precipitate her and dash her to pieces, they saw her at length reach the ground with the child safe in her arms. Who was this female? Why did she succeed when others failed? It was The Mother of The Child.
—Cumming.
1402
FUNERAL OF A MOTHER.
The Rev. George Crabbe when describing the funeral of "The Mother," in his passing glance at the half-interested spectators, says:—
Curious and sad, upon the fresh-dug hill
The village lads stood, melancholy still.
and in his description of the return to the house:—
Arrived at home, how then they gazed around.
In every place where she no more was found;
The seat at table she was wont to fill;
The fireside chair, still set, but vacant still;
The garden walks, a labor all her own;
The latticed bower, with trailing shrubs o'ergrown:
The Sunday pew she filled with all her race—
Each place of hers, was now a sacred place,
That while it called up sorrows in the eyes,
Pierced the full heart, and forced them still to rise.
—From the Eclectic Magazine.
1403
A MOTHER'S LOVE.
Children, look in those eyes, listen to that dear voice, notice the feeling of even a single touch that is bestowed upon you by that gentle hand. Make much of it while yet you have that most precious of all good gifts, a loving mother. Read the unfathomable love of those eyes; the kind anxiety of that tone and look, however slight your pain.
In after-life you may have friends, fond, dear, kind friends; but never will you have again the inexpressible love and gentleness lavished upon you which none but a mother bestows. Often do I sigh in my struggles with hard, uncaring world, for the sweet, deep security I felt when, of an evening nestling in her bosom, I listened to some quiet tale, suitable to my age, read in her tender and untiring voice. Never can I forget her sweet glances cast upon me when I appeared asleep, never her kiss of peace at night. Years have passed away since we laid her beside my father in the old church yard; yet still her voice whispers from the grave, and her eye watches over me, as I visit spots long since hallowed to the memory of my mother.
1404
The mother's heart is the child's school-room.
1405
He who takes the child by the hand, takes the mother by the heart.
1406
Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.
1407
Each mother is a historian; she writes not the history of empires or of nations on paper, but she writes her own history on the imperishable mind of her child. That tablet and that history will remain indelible when time shall be no more. That history each mother shall meet again, and read, with eternal joy, or unutterable grief, in the coming ages of eternity.
1408
MOTHERS AND MEN.
That it is the mother who moulds the man is a sentiment beautifully illustrated by the following recorded observation of a shrewd writer:—
"When I lived among the Choctaw Indians, I held a consultation with one of their chiefs respecting the successive stages of their progress in the arts of civilized life; and among other things he informed me, that at their start they made a great mistake,—they only sent boys to school. These boys came home intelligent men; but they married uneducated and uncivilized wives, and the uniform result was, the children were all like their mothers. The father soon lost all his interest both in wife and children. 'And now,' said he 'if we would educate but one class of our children, we should choose the girls; for, when they become mothers, they educate their sons.'"
1409
MOTHER.
Can'st thou, mother, for a moment think
That we, thy children, when old age shall shed
Its blanching honors on thy weary head,
Could from our best of duties ever shrink?
Sooner the sun from his high sphere should sink,
Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day
To pine in solitude thy life away,
Or shun thee, tottering on the grave's cold brink.
Banish the thought!—where'er our steps may roam,
O'er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree
Still will fond memory point our hearts to thee,
And paint the pleasures of thy peaceful home;
While duty bids us all thy griefs assuage
And smoothe the pillow of thy sinking age.
—Henry Kirke White.
1410
MY MOTHER.
My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead,
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed?
I heard the bells tolled on thy burial day,
I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away;
And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!
Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went,
Till, all my stock of infant sorrow spent,
I learned at last submission to my lot:
But though I less deplored thee, ne'er forgot.
—Cowper.
1411
An ounce of mother is worth more than a pound of clergy.
—Spanish Proverb.
1412
A MOTHER'S EXAMPLE.
It was a judicious resolution of a father, as well as a most pleasing compliment to his wife, when, on being asked by a friend what he intended to do with his girls, he replied: "I intend to apprentice them to their mother, that they may learn the art of improving time, and be fitted to become wives, mothers, heads of families, and useful members of society." Equally just, but very different, was the remark of an unhappy husband—his wife was vain and thoughtless—"It is hard to say, but if my girls are to have a chance of growing up good for anything, they must be sent out of the way of their mother's example."
1413
A MOTHER'S SORROWS.
My son! my son! I cannot speak the rest—
Ye who have sons can only know my fondness!
Ye who have lost them, or who fear to lose,
Can only know my pangs! none else can guess them;
A mother's sorrows cannot be conceived
But by a mother!
1414
Pomponius Atticus, who pronounced a funeral oration on the death of his mother, protested that though he had resided with her sixty-seven years, he was never once reconciled to her; "because," said he, "there never happened the least discord between us, and consequently there was no need of reconciliation."
1415
THE MOTHER'S HOPE.
Is there, when the winds are singing
In the happy summer time—
When the raptured air is ringing
With earth's music heavenward springing,
Forest chirp and village chime—
Is there, of the sounds that float
Unsighingly, a single note
Half so sweet, and clear, and wild,
As the laughter of a child?
—Laman Blanchard.
1416
A True Estimate of a Mother.—To a child, there is no velvet so soft as a mother's lap, no rose so lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps.
1417
TURF FROM MY MOTHER'S GRAVE.
The following simple, beautiful lines contain an unadorned statement of a fact in the experience of a friend, who is fond of wandering in the Scotch highland glens:
As I came wandering down Glen Spean,
Where the braes are green and grassy,
With my light step I overtook
A weary-footed lassie.
She had one bundle on her back,
Another in her hand,
And she walked as one who was full loath
To travel from the land.
Quoth I, "my bonnie lass!"—for she
Had hair of flowing gold,
And dark brown eyes, and dainty limbs,
Right pleasant to behold—
"My bonnie lass, what aileth thee,
On this bright summer day,
To travel sad and shoeless thus
Upon the stony way?
"I'm fresh and strong, and stoutly shod,
And thou art burdened so;
March lightly now and let me bear
The bundles as we go."
"No, no!" she said, "that canna be,
What's mine is mine to bear,
Of good or ill, as God may will,
I take my portioned share."
"But you have two and I have none;
One burden give to me;
I'll take that bundle from thy back
That heavier seems to be."
"No, no!" she said; "this, if you will,
That holds—no hand but mine
May bear its weight from dear Glen Spean
'Cross the Atlantic brine!"
"Well, well! but tell me what may be
Within that precious load
Which thou dost bear with such fine care
Along the dusty road?
"Is it some present rare
From friend in parting hour;
Perhaps, as prudent maidens wont,
Thou tak'st with thee thy dower?"
She drooped her head, and with her hand
She gave a mournful wave;
"Oh, do not jest, dear sir—it is
Turf from my mother's grave!"
I spoke no word; we sat and wept
By the road-side together:
No purer dew on that bright day
Was dropt upon the heather.
—John Stuart Black.
1418
When we are sick, where can we turn for succor,
When we are wretched where can we complain?
And when the world looks cold and surly on us
Where can we go to meet a warmer eye
With such sure confidence as to a mother?
1419
Is there a heart that music cannot melt?
Alas! how is that rugged heart forlorn.
—Beattie.
1420
Music loosens a heart that care has bound.
1421
No music is so charming to my ear as the requests of my friends, and the supplications of those in want of my assistance.
—Caesar.
1422
His very foot has music in't,
As he comes up the stair.
—Burns.
