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MAXIMS AND PROVERBS

"Enough is better than too much." "Actions speak louder than words."

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"A cat in gloves catches no mice." "Be not swift to take offense; Anger is a foe to sense."

"Our to-days and yesterdays

Are the blocks with which we build." "Cheerful looks make every dish a feast." "A fool and his money are soon parted." "And many strokes, though with a little ax,

Hew down and fell the hardest timbered oak." "He that lives upon hope will die fasting." "A learned man is a tank, a wise man is a spring." "A good cause makes a stout heart and a strong

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"A man cannot whistle and drink at the same time."

"He that does good to another does good to himself."

“A handful of good life is worth a bushel of learning."

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'People who live in glass houses should never throw stones."

"Since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour."

"If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting."

THE ARROW AND THE SONG

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I know not where; For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I know not where; For who has sight so keen and strong That it can follow the flight of a song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak,
I found the arrow still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again, in the heart of a friend.

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Scorn not the lightest word or deed,
Nor deem it void of power;

There's fruit in each wind-wafted seed
That waits its natal hour.

No act falls fruitless; none can tell
How vast its power may be,

Nor what results enfolded dwell

Within it silently.

-SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

THE DAY IS DONE

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in its flight.

I see the lights in the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me That my soul cannot resist!

A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,.
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time:

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;

And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like a benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

-HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

"Manhood is the one immortal thing Beneath Time's changeful sky."

-JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

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THE AMERICANISM OF LINCOLN

Among us perhaps half our people are not descendants of the men . . . of the Revolution: they, or their ancestors, came from Europe since 1776, to find themselves our equals. . . . They cannot trace their connection by blood with those glorious men. But when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find those old men saying, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' and they feel that the moral sentiment then taught is the source of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration. That is the electric cord in the Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together; that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world. . . . It gave liberty to this country, and hope to all mankind for all future time. promised that in due time the weight should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all men should have an equal chance. . . ."

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- From the speeches of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces

It

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

-G. G. BYRON.

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