JANUARY SEVENTEENTH
Reading edition
John Ray died 1705.
Benjamin Franklin born 1706.
George Bancroft died 1891.
Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour! Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
—Benjamin Franklin.
There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by despising the example of nature, and making arbitrary rules for oneself. Our liberty wisely understood is but a voluntary obedience to the universal laws of life.
—Amiel.
I will meditate on thy precepts, And have respect unto thy ways. —Psalm 119. 15.
My Father, help me to understand the power of nature, that I may be willing to obey her laws. I pray that I may so live that my life will proclaim itself without need of boasting or deception. Forbid that I should spend my life in perfecting trifles, and have no leisure to enjoy thy great gifts. Amen.