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Reading edition
1621
WHEN IT RAINS.
THE PESSIMIST.
The rain is coming down in sheets; It makes me sad to think about The mud that will be in the streets And all the crops and things washed out.
THE OPTIMIST.
This rain will wash the dirt away, And leave the pavements nice and clean; I needn't use the hose to-day To keep the front yard looking green.
1622
My high birth suffocates me. If thou love me, mother, thou wilt not on all occasions quote my high rank; it is those only who have no peculiar good in their own nature who are constantly speaking of their noble birth.
1623
A man who attempts to read all the new publications must do as the fly does—skip.
1624
Man is not the prince of creatures, But in reason. Fail that, he is worse Than horse, or dog, or beast of wilderness.
—Field.
1625
When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.
—Sir Walter Scott.
1626
"Live and let live" was his rule: no more I'll say.
1627
There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life, that word is reciprocity;
What you do not wish done to yourself, Do not do to others.
—Confucius.
1628
The bow cannot possibly stand always bent, nor can human nature subsist without recreation.
—Cervantes.
1629
Regret.—It is folly to shiver over last year's snow.
—Whately.
1630
Relaxation above produces remissness below. (In authority.)
—Chinese.
1631
A religion that costs nothing, does nothing.
1632
They who doubt the blessings of religion because they find no Christian who is perfect, might as well deny the existence of the sun because it is not always noonday.
—Marchioness de Spadara.
1633
Religion is good for nothing one day in the week, unless it is also good for all the seven days.
1634
Religion is the knowledge of the most excellent truths; the contemplation of the most glorious objects, and the hope of the most ravishing pleasures, and the practice of such duties as are most servicable to our happiness, our peace, our health, our honor, our prosperity, and our eternal welfare. Virtue needs no outward pomp; her very countenance is so full of majesty, that the proudest pay her respect, and the profanest are awed by her presence.
1635
It is rare to see a rich man religious; for religion preaches restraint, and riches prompt to unlicensed freedom.
—Feltham.
1636
Religion lies more in the walk than in the talk.
1637
Religion presents few difficulties to the humble, Many to the proud, Insuperable ones to the vain.
1638
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired.
1639
REPENTANCE.
I will to-morrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it; To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes, And still thou art to do it. Thus still repentance is deferred, From one day to another: Until the day of death is come, And judgment is the other.
—Drexelius.
1640
'Tis not, to cry God mercy, or to sit And droop, or to confess that thou hast fail'd: 'Tis to bewail the sins thou didst commit; And not commit those sins thou hast bewail'd, He that bewails and not forsakes them too; Confesses rather what he means to do.
—Quarles.
1641
Profanity Gently Reproved.—It is related that the excellent John Wesley, having to travel some distance in a stagecoach, was thereby brought into the company of an intelligent and gentlemanly officer of the British army. The officer was very social with his traveling companions; but the enjoyment, which his society would otherwise have afforded to those with him, was sadly lessened by the profane expressions he used.
While stopping at a station, Mr. Wesley called the officer to one side, and, after expressing the satisfaction he had enjoyed in his company, told him he felt encouraged to ask of him a very great favor. "I shall take great pleasure in obliging you," replied the officer, "as I am certain you would not make an unreasonable request."—"Then," said Mr. Wesley, "as we are to travel together for some days, I beg that if I should so far forget myself as to use any profane language, you will kindly reprove me." The officer immediately perceived how faithfully and how delicately his own conduct stood reproved, and, smiling, said, "No one but Mr. Wesley could administer reproof in such manner."
—Anonymous.
1642
After I have named the man, I need say no more.
1643
PERFECT RESIGNATION.
It is reported of a person who, being ill, was asked whether she was willing to live or die; she answered—"Which God pleases." "But," said one, "if God should refer it to you, which would you choose?" "Truly," replied she, "I would at once refer it to Him again."
—W. Secker.
1644
REST.
Some seek bread—no more—life's mere subsistence, And some seek wealth and ease—the common quest; And some seek fame that hovers in the distance; But all are seeking rest.
1645
OUR PRESENT NEED.
Pray, give us rest. A little rest From peace-destroying hurry; A moment of the quietest, As balm for work and worry. Pray, give us rest. A little rest For people and for nation; A moment's time to stop and test The purpose of creation.
—Wm. J. Lampton.
1646
Rest is sweet to those who labor.
—Plutarch.
1647
Take Rest.—A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
—Ovid.
1648
The man who goes easiest and best, Is he who gives his tongue Vast quantities of rest.
1649
"If I rest too much, I rust,"—says the key.
1650
Quick resolves are often unsafe.
1651
Irresolute people often let their soup grow cold between the plate and the mouth.
1652
Sleep over it and you will come to a resolution.
—Spanish.
1653
Those who act in a disinterested way seldom miss their reward.
1654
One knows not for whom he gathers.
—French.
1655
It is wealth to a man to be able to live contentedly upon a frugal store.
1656
RUSKIN MEETS SOME TOURISTS.
"I was fated the other day to come from Venice to Verona with a family—father and mother and two girls—it matters not what country they came from—presumably rich—girls fifteen and eighteen. I never before conceived the misery of people who had evidently spent all their lives in trying to gratify themselves. It was a little warm—warmer than was entirely luxurious—but nothing in the least harmful. They moaned and fidgeted and frowned and puffed and stretched and fanned, and ate lemons, and smelled bottles, and covered their faces, and tore the cover off again, and had not one thought or feeling during five hours of traveling in the most noble part of all the world except what four poor beasts would have had in their end of a menagerie, being dragged about on a hot day. Add to this misery every form of polite vulgarity, in methods of doing and saying the common things they said and did. I never yet saw humanity so degraded (allowing for external circumstances of every possible advantage) given wealth, attainable education and the inheritance of eighteen centuries of Christianity."
—Letter to Charles E. Morton in the Atlantic.
1657
They call him rich; I deem him poor; Since, if he dares not use his store, But saves it for his heirs, The treasure is not his, but theirs.
1658
The generous should be rich, and the rich should be generous.
1659
Very rich men seldom or never whistle; poor men always do.
1660
Who is truly rich? He who is satisfied with what he possesses.
—From The Talmud.
1661
It is difficult to gather a heap in a long time, but it is easy to squander the whole in a day.
—Diphilus.
1662
Sir Thomas Sutton, the founder of the Charter House, was one of the wealthiest merchants of his day. Fuller tells how he was overheard one day praying in his garden: "Lord, Thou hast given me a large and liberal estate; give me also a heart to make use of it."
1663
The Influence of Riches.—A respectable widow lady, with a very small income, which she was obliged to eke out by the produce of her own industry and ingenuity, was remarkable for her generous liberality, especially in contributing to the cause of religion. When any work of pious benevolence was going forward, she was always ready to offer a donation equal to those of persons in comparative affluence. In process of time this lady came into the possession of an ample fortune, greatly to the joy of all who knew her willing liberality. But she no longer came forward unsolicited towards the cause of Christ, and when applied to, she yielded her aid but coldly and grudgingly, and sometimes excused herself from giving at all. On one occasion she presented a shilling to the same cause to which she had formerly given a guinea when in a state of comparative poverty. Her minister felt it his duty to expostulate with her, and reminded her of her former generosity when her means were so circumscribed. "Ah! sir," she affectingly replied; "then I had the shilling means, but the guinea heart, now I have the guinea means, but only the shilling heart. Then I received day by day my daily bread, and I had enough and to spare; now, I have to look at my ample income, but I live in constant apprehension that I may come to want!"
1664
Riches and care are as inseparable as sun and shadow.
1665
As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be below mediocrity, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.
1666
I remember when Mr. Locke first came over from Italy. Old Dr. Moore, who had a high opinion of him, was crying up his drawings, and asked me if I did not think he would make a great painter? I said, "No, never!" "Why not?" "Because he has six thousand a year."
—Northcote.
1667
Few men are both rich and generous; fewer are both rich and humble.
—Manning.
1668
Riches serve a wise man but command a fool.
—German.
1669
'Tis strange, the miser should his cares employ To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy.
—Pope.
1670
Riches:—We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we would rather pity him.
—Seed.
1671
My riches consist not in the greatness of my possessions, but in the smallness of my wants.
—Cobbett.
1672
OPULENCE.
Every one who rightly considers it, may know, that eminence and opulence in the world are not real divine blessings, notwithstanding man, from the pleasure he finds in them, calls them so; for they pass away, and also seduce many, and turn them away from heaven; but that eternal life, and its happiness, are real blessings, which are from the Divine: this the Lord also teaches in Luke: 12 ch., 33-34. "Make to yourselves a treasure that faileth not in the heavens, where the thief cometh not, nor the moth corrupteth; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
—Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772.
1673
Without frugality none can become rich, and with it, few would become poor.
—Dr. Johnson.
1674
No man has a right to do as he pleases, except when he pleases to do right.
1675
Late Rising.—He who rises late, must trot all day, and will scarcely overtake his business at night.
—Dr. Fuller.
1676
To wish for anything that is unattainable is worthless, and a poor road to travel.
1677
He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.
—Shakespeare.
1678
One roof and two winds—i. e., persons of opposite tempers living together.
—Chinese.
1679
Water and protect the root; Heaven will watch the flower and fruit.
—Chinese.
1680
If a man could make a single rose, we should give him an empire; yet roses, and flowers no less beautiful, are scattered in profusion over the world, and no one regards them.
1681
Royalty is but a feather in a man's cap; let children enjoy their rattle.
—Cromwell.
1682
There cannot be a greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
—Locke.
1683
No rumor wholly dies, once bruited wide.
—Hesiod, a Greek, 850 B. C.