time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, and every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make. -Sterne. Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind; signifying thereby that we must take time (as we say) by the forelock, for when it is once passed there is no recalling it.-Swift. MAN. That heavenly ray He Reason calls, and uses so that he Grows the most brutish of the brutes to be; But quickly fall again to sing The same old song amid the grass!-Goethe's Faust. Beautiful! How beautiful is all this visible world! How glorious in its action and itself! But we, who deem ourselves its sovereigns,-we, To sink or soar,-with our mixed essence make The breath of degradation and of pride, Till our mortality predominates, And men are-what they name not to themselves, O God, what is man?-Even a thing of naught; a poor, infirm, miserable, short-lived creature, that passes away like a shadow, and is hastening off the stage where the theatrical titles and distinctions, and the whole mask of pride which he has worn for a day will fall off, and leave him naked as a neglected slave.-Sterne. MEMORY AND FORGETFULNESS. [Themistocles, when Simonides proposed to teach him mnemonics, or the art of memory, observed that he would rather learn the art of forgetfulness.] Memory, and thou, Forgetfulness, all hail! Each in her province greatly may avail. EDUCATION. I CONSIDER the human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which without such help are never able to make their appearance.Addison. MAXIMS FROM "POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK." LET honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains. Then shall thy hide-bound pocket soon begin to thrive, and will never again cry with the empty bellyache; neither will creditors insult thee, nor nakedness freeze thee. The whole hemisphere will shine brighter, and pleasure spring up in every corner of thy heart. Now, therefore, embrace these rules and be happy. Banish the bleak winds of sorrow from thy mind, and live independent. Then shalt thou be a man, and not hide thy face at the approach of the rich, nor suffer the pain of feeling little when the sons of fortune walk at thy right hand; for independency, whether with little or much, is good fortune, and places thee on even ground with the proudest of the golden fleece. Oh, then, be wise, and let industry walk with thee in the morning, and attend thee until thou reachest the evening hour for rest. Let honesty be as the breath of hy soul, and never forget to have a penny whenever thy expenses are enumerated and paid: then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds. Remember that money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six; turned again it is seven and three pence; and so on till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds. Three removes are as bad as a fire; and keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee; and again, if you would have your business done, go; if not, send. Again, "He that by the plough would thrive, And again, the eye of the master will do more work than both his hands; and again, want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge; and again, not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open. Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece; but it is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. He that hath a trade, hath an estate, and he that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honour; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. A little neglect may breed great mischief. For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy-all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail. Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad or sits idle one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion and idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense, he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides. Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; so that, as Poor Richard says, a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.-Franklin. LACONICS FROM GOETHE. THE hope of bringing back old happy days burns up again in us, as if it never could be extinguished. There are but few men who care to occupy themselves with the immediate past. Either we are forcibly bound up in the present, or we lose ourselves in the long gone by, and seek back for what is utterly lost; as if it were possible to summon it up again and rehabilitate it. As the emerald refreshes the sight with its beautiful hues, and exerts, it is said, a beneficent influence on that noble sense, so does human beauty work with far larger potency on the outward than on the inward sense; whoever looks upon it is charmed against the breath of evil, and feels in harmony with himself and the world. Sweet sleep, like pure joy, thou comest most readily unasked, unprayed for! Thou loosest the knot of troubled thoughts, and from before thee flee all the images of woe and sadness. The circle of inward harmonies rolls on undisturbed, and, hidden in pleasing delusion, we lose ourselves, and cease to be. We may imagine ourselves in what situation we please, we always conceive ourselves seeing. I believe men only dream that they may not cease to see. Some day, perhaps, the inner light may come out from within us, and we shall not any more require another. The year dies away, the wind sweeps over the stubble, and there is nothing left to stir it under its touch. But the red berries on yonder tall tree seem as if they would still remind us of brighter things; and the stroke of the thrasher's flail awakes the thought, how much of nourishment and life lies buried in the sickled ear. Observe a young lady as a lover, as a bride, as a housewife, as a mother. She always stands isolated. She is always alone. Even the most empty-headed woman is in the same case. Each one of them excludes all the others. It is her nature to do so, because of each one of them is required what the entire sex have to do. With a man it is altogether different. But a woman might live to an eternity, without even so much as producing a duplicate of herself. FROM THE PERSIAN FABLES. A LITTLE boy went one day into a river, and not having learned to swim, had like to have been drowned. Seeing, however, a man at a distance, he called out to him for help. The man, as soon as he saw the lad's distress, began to expostulate with him on the folly of going into a river before he had learned to swim. The boy, instead of answering him, cried out, “Save me, save me, then chide as long as you will."-Lokman. The goose and the swallow entered into a league of friendship, and resolved to live together. In the course of their wanderings, they came unluckily to a place where the fowlers were watching. The swallow, as soon as she saw them, flew away; but the poor goose, not being able to make use of her wings, was taken and killed."-Ibid. One day as I was in the bath, a friend of mine put into my hand a piece of scented clay. I took it, and said to it, “Art thou musk or ambergris, for I am charmed with thy perfume!" It answered, “I was a despicable piece of clay, but I was some time in the company of the rose; the sweet quality of my companion was communicated to me, otherwise I should only be a bit of clay, as I appear to be."Sadi. PLEASURES OF OBSERVATION AND STUDY. WHAT a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything; and who, having eyes to see what time and chance are perpetually holding out to him as he journeyeth on his way, misses nothing he can fairly lay his hands on! If this won't turn out something, another will. No matter; 'tis an essay upon human nature; I get my labours for my pains, 'tis enough; the pleasure of the experiment has kept my senses and the best part of my blood awake, and laid the gross to sleep. I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all barren! And so it is; and so is all the world to him who will not cultivate the fruit it offers. I declare, that were I in a desert, I would find out wherewith in it to call forth my affections. If I could do no better, I would fasten them upon some sweet myrtle, or seek some melancholy cypress to connect myself to; I would court their shade, and greet them kindly for their protection. I would cut my name upon them, and swear they were the loveliest trees throughout the desert. If their leaves withered, I would teach myself to mourn; and when they rejoiced, I would rejoice with them.-Sterne's Sentimental Journey. SANCHO'S IDEAS OF SLEEP. I ONLY know that while I'm asleep I have neither fear nor hope, nor trouble nor glory. Blessings light on him who first invented sleep! It covers a man all over, body and soul, like a cloak; it is meat to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, heat to the cold, and cold to the hot. It is the coin that can purchase all things, the balance that makes the shepherd equal with the king, the fool with the wise man. It has only one fault, as I have heard say,-which is that it looks very like death; for between the sleeper and the corpse there is but little to choose.— Don Quixote. BOOKS. IT is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds; and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race.-W. E. Channing. He who loves not books before he comes to thirty years of age, will hardly love them enough afterwards to understand them.-Clarendon. A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up to a life beyond life.-Milton. To divert at any time a troublesome fancy, run to thy books; they presently fix thee to them, and drive the other out of thy thoughts. They always receive thee with the same kindness.-Fuller. Books are yours, Within whose silent chambers treasure lies, And orient gems, which, for a day of need, The sultan hides in his ancestral tombs. These hoards of sweets you can unlock at will And music waits upon your skilful touch.-Wordsworth. How differently do mental pleasures Lead us from book to book to roam How cheerful winter nights become ! |