Chapter VIII: Letter V: 400 (6)

Where there is love, all things interest; where there is indifference, minute details are tedious, disbelief is cherished, and trifles are apt to be thought contemptible.

1162

If he loves me, the merit is not mine; my fault will be if he ceases.

1163

LOVE.

To a man, the disappointment of love may occasion some bitter pangs: it wounds some feelings of tenderness--it blasts some prospects of felicity; but he is an active being; he may dissipate his thoughts in the whirl of varied occupation, or may plunge into the tide of pleasure; or, if the scene of disappointment be too full of painful associations, he can shift his abode at will, and taking, as it were, the wings of the morning, can "fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, and be at rest."

But woman's is comparatively a fixed, a secluded and a meditative life. She is more the companion of her own thoughts and feelings; and if they are turned to ministers of sorrow, where shall she look for consolation? Her lot is to be wooed and won; and if unhappy in her love, her heart is her world--is like some fortress that has been captured, and sacked, and abandoned, and left desolate.

Shall I confess it?--I believe in broken hearts, and the possibility of dying of disappointed love! I do not, however, consider it a malady often fatal to my own sex; but I firmly believe that it withers down many a lovely woman into an early grave. So is it the nature of woman to hide from the world the pangs of wounded affection.

--_Washington Irving._

1164

To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.

1165

WHAT!

Since there's no help for me, come, let us kiss and part--
Alas! I am done, you see no more of me;
But I am sorry, yea, sorry with all my heart,
That thus, you have willed it,--to be free:
Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.

--_Anonymous._

1166

Dr. Doddridge one day asked his little daughter how it was that everybody loved her: "I know not," said she, "unless it be that I love everybody."

--_Arvine._

1167

He who is loved by man is loved by God.

--_The Talmud._

1168

If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.

--_Garrick._

1169

Love is the only passion that justifies a perpetual hyperbole, i. e., poetic exaggeration.

--_Bacon._

1170

There is an atmosphere in the letters of those we love which we alone--we who love--can feel.

1171

LIFE WITHOUT LOVE.

Life without love is like day without sunshine,
Roses bereft of sweet nature's perfume;
Love is the guide mark to those who are weary
Of waiting and watching in darkness and gloom.

Love to the heart is like dewdrops to violets
Left on the dust-ridden roadside to die;
Love leads the way to our highest endeavors,
Lightens and lessens the pain of each sigh.

Life without love is like spring without flowers,
Brook-streams that move not, or star-bereft sky;
Love creates efforts most worthy and noble,
Prompts us to live and resigns us to die.

--_Unknown._

1172

LOVE.

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the whole world dies
With the setting sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
But the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

--_Francis W. Bourdillon._

1173

One nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.

--_Shakespeare._

1174

Love is like the moon; when it does not increase, it decreases.

1175

FORGET THEE?

Behold the sun forget to shine,
The brightest star to twinkle,
The ivy round the oak to twine,
The tearful heart to sprinkle
The sod that wraps affection's grave,
The never silent surging sea
The sandy shore to lash and lave--
Then think that I'll forget thee.

--_Winfred._

1176

THE MAIDEN IN LOVE.

Sweet mother, I can spin no more to-day,
And all for a youth who has stolen my heart away.

--_Sappho, 600 B. C._
--_Translated by Appleton._

1177

We are easily duped by those whom we love.

--_Moliere._

1178

MORE THAN HIS SHARE.

"Martha, does thee love me?" asked a quaker youth of one at whose shrine his heart's fondest feelings had been offered up.

"Why, Seth," answered she, "we are commanded to love one another, are we not?"

"Aye, Martha; but does thee regard me with that feeling that the world calls love?"

"I hardly know what to tell thee, Seth; I have greatly feared that my heart was an erring one. I have tried to bestow my love on all; but I have sometimes thought, perhaps, that thee was getting rather more than thy share."

--_Christian Observer._

1179

No disguise can long conceal love where it is, nor feign it where it is not.

--_Rochefoucauld._

1180

LOVE.

Naught sweeter is than love. Whom that doth bless
Regardeth all things less.
If thou first taste of love, then shalt thou see
Honey shall bitter be!
What roses are, they never know, who miss
Fair Cytherea's kiss.

--_Nossis, Greek._
_Translated by Lilla Cabot Perry._

1181

How often love is maintained by wealth:
When all is spent adversity then breeds
The discontent.

--_Herrick._

1182

The moment one is in love one becomes so amiable.

1183

ONE WHO LOVES.

I had so fixed my heart upon her,
That whereso'er I fram'd a scheme of life
For time to come, she was my only joy
With which I used to sweeten future cares:
I fancy'd pleasures, none but one who loves
And doats as I did, can imagine like them.

1184

The secret _of being loved_ is _in being_ lovely, and the secret _of being_ lovely, is _in being_ unselfish.

1185

A lover never sees the faults of the one he loves till the enchantment is over.

1186

THE TRAGEDY OF FICKLE LOVE.

He came too late! Neglect had tried
Her constancy too long;
Her love had yielded to her pride
And the deep sense of wrong.
She scorned the offering of a heart
Which lingered on its way,
Till it could no delight impart,
Nor spread one cheering ray.

He came too late! At once he felt
That all his power was o'er;
Indifference in her calm smile dwelt--
She thought of him no more.
Anger and grief had passed away,
Her heart and thoughts were free;
She met him, and her words were gay
No spell had memory.

He came too late! Her countless dreams
Of hope had long since flown;
No charms dwelt in his chosen themes,
Nor in his whispered tone.
And when, with word and smile, he tried
Affection still to prove,
She nerved her heart with woman's pride
And spurned his fickle love.

--_Unknown._

1187

OH, NO! WE NEVER MENTION HIM.

Oh, no! we never mention him, his name is never heard;
My lips are now forbid to speak that once familiar word:
From sport to sport they hurry me, to banish my regret;
And when they win a smile from me, they think that I forget.

They bid me seek in change of scene the charms that others see;
But were I in a foreign land, they'd find no change in me.
'Tis true that I behold no more the valley where we met,
I do not see the hawthorn-tree; but how can I forget?

For oh! there are so many things recall the past to me--
The breeze upon the sunny hills, the billows of the sea;
The rosy tint that decks the sky before the sun is set;--
Ay, every leaf I look upon forbids me to forget.

They tell me he is happy now, the gayest of the gay;
They hint that he forgets me too,--but I heed not what they say:
Perhaps like me he struggles with each feeling of regret;
But if he loves as I have loved, he never can forget.

--_Thomas Haynes Bayley, 1797-1839._

1188

Is it possible a man can be so changed by love that one would not know him for the same person?

1189

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

--_Goethe._

1190

Love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.

1191

Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections, as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots.

--_Hawthorne._

1192

MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS FRIENDS.

"My dear Veit," said Luther, "I have said it often and I repeat it again, whoever would know God aright and speculate concerning Him without danger, must look into the manger, and learn first of all to know the Son of the Virgin Mary, born at Bethlehem, lying in His mother's bosom or hanging upon the cross; then will he understand who God is. This will not only then be not terrible, but on the contrary most attractive and comforting. Guard yourself, my dear Veit, from the proud thought of climbing into heaven without this ladder, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. As the Word simple describes Him, stick to this, and do not permit reason to divert you from it; then will you apprehend God aright! I wish to know of no other God than the God who hung upon the cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and of the Virgin Mary."

1193

Luther was remarkable for his contempt of riches, though few men had a greater opportunity of obtaining them. The Elector of Saxony offered him the produce of a mine at Sneberg, but he nobly refused it, lest it should prove an injury to him.

--_Buck._

1194

LUXURY.

_Dr. Johnson_:--"A man gives half a guinea for a dish of green peas. How much gardening does this occasion? How many laborers must the competition, to have such things early in the market, keep in employment? You will hear it said very gravely, 'Why was not the half-guinea, thus spent in luxury, given to the poor? To how many might it have afforded a good meal? Alas! has it not gone to the _industrious_ poor, whom it is better to support, than the _idle_ poor? You are much surer that you are doing good when you _pay_ money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you _give_ money merely in charity."

M

1195

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?"

"None; I'm a traveler."

"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?"

"Observation."

"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

He was--describe him who can,
An abridgement of all that was pleasant in man;
A truer, nobler, trustier heart,
More loving or more loyal, never beat
Within a human breast.

1247

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

Who fills his mind with matters small
For great things has no room at all.

1350

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.