Perhaps it is in the matter of amusements that one seeking to make a departure in the direction of "the simple life" has the best chance of exercising judgment. As each one must do his share of the world's work, so in order to restore to the body its capacity for labour there must be rest through sleep and rest through entertainment. As we must have exercise in the open air in order to be healthy, there is opportunity to select those things which are natural rather than the amusements which are artificial. John Brisben Walker. Most of American literature that we prize is in praise of the simple life, from the writings of Benjamin Franklin to those of John Burroughs, who both use simple English; and all our preachers, in and out of the pulpit, have made their best sermons about it-to name two laymen for examples, Charles William Eliot and Theodore Roosevelt. To consider this a new gospel is the most ominous sign that our minds have been upholstered with cheap fiction, commercial living, and department-store decorations. It is as true as it is commonplace, by the way, that the simple life was perhaps never learned from sermons, but always in a home. Walter H. Page. Fair is the soul, rare is the soul Who has kept, after youth is past, All the art of the child, all the heart of the child, Holding his faith at last! Gelett Burgess. Simplicity is a state of mind. It dwells in the main intention of our lives. A man is simple when his chief care is the wish to be what he ought to be, that is, honestly and naturally human. And this is neither so easy nor so impossible as one might think. At bottom, it consists in putting our acts and aspirations in accordance with the law of our being, and consequently with the Eternal Intention which willed that we should be at all. Charles Wagner. For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. Shakespeare. Wiser it were to welcome and make ours Whate'er of good, though small, the Present brings, Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flow ers, With a child's pure delight in little things. R. C. Trench. A face that's best By its own beauty drest, And can alone command the rest: A face made up Out of no other shop Than what Nature's white hand sets ope. Richard Crashaw. "A commonplace life," we say, and we sigh; But why should we sigh as we say? The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky Makes up the commonplace day. The moon and the stars are commonplace things, And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings; But dark were the world, and sad our lot whole. Susan Coolidge. Only through an ideal that is pure and simple can we live in this world in such a way as to discover its beauty and appropriate its truth. Samuel M. Crothers. There is a holy simplicity! John Huss. Simplicity of style and directness of language, when united in the narrative form, present the strongest attractions to the expanding mind. Putnam. Let us consider of what is life made up? Of splendid bursts of genius and heroism, or of patient, noiseless, progressive efforts of daily wisdom and usefulness? Whence flow the order, tranquillity, and happiness of society? By whom are the great designs of Providence carried into effect? The grand sum total of the world's business is brought to pass, not by the irregular impulses of a few energetic spirits, but by the joint harmonious action of myriads of humble, faithful workers, who pursue the task set before them, and have no higher ambition than to perform it well. John James Tayler. O Nature! I do not aspire Or comet that may range on high; In some withdrawn, unpublic mead Or in the woods, with leafy din, Some still work give me to do, Only - be it near to you! For I'd rather be thy child And pupil, in the forest wild, Than be the king of men elsewhere, H. D. Thoreau. How welcome to our ears, long pained 66 J. G. Whittier: Wordsworth." Simplicity is the virtue of nature. Mrs. Opie. |