that it is no bad rule to preach up the necessity, in such instances, of a little violence done to the feelings, and of efforts made in defiance of strict and sober calculation. Sydney Smith. Do that which is right. The respect of mankind will follow; or, if it do not, you will be able to do without it. Göethe. A man of unsettled determination will never forward his own interests, either temporarily or spiritually. Temporarily-because a man of business requires firm determination and settled purpose. Spiritually-for a decision, whether to serve God or mammon may have been put off till it is found to be too late, or a constant wavering between one opinion and another, will finally necessitate the decision to be made on a death-bed, and the period you suppose to be at your command there, may be found too short, and then nothing to follow but judgments. Where stands the undetermined man? In extremes, bold counsels are the best. Dryden. DEPARTED GREATNESS. Nay, then, farewell! I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness; And, from that full meridian of my glory, Shakespeare. The soul and body rive not more in parting, Than greatness going off. DAYBREAK. Shakespeare. This morning, like the spirit of a youth But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, The dapple-gray coursers of the morn Beat up the light with their bright silver hoofs, And chase it through the sky. DESTINY. Marston. There's a divinity that sharpens our ends, Shakespeare. Our thoughts are our's; their ends none of our own. Shakespeare. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to Heaven; the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backwards pull Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull. Shakespeare. DELAY. The sun shines hot; and if we use delay, Oh, what a tangled web we weave, Sir Walter Scott. "Guilt ever delights in, and adopts the outward appearances of virtue and innocence. The most practised deceivers are mostly those who appear least to be so." Craft once known, Doth teach fools wit; leaves the deceivers none. Middleton. DOMESTICITY. To be happy at home, is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution. DIFFICULTY. Johnson. What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects, a mere notice of the necessity for exertion, a bug-bear to children and fools, only a mere stimulus to man. Samuel Warren. DEBT. Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, the sons of genius, fear and hate ;debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seems so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be foregone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most. Emerson. Impecuniosity will do you no good. I don't know anything more wholesome for a man-for an honest man mind you-for another, the medicine loses its effect-than a state of tick. It is an alterative and a tonic; it keeps your moral man in a perpetual state of excitement: as a man who is riding at a fence, or has his opponent's single stick before him, is forced to look his obstacle steadily in the face, and braces himself to repulse or overcome it; a little necessity brings out your pluck, if you have any, and nerves you to grapple with fortune. You will discover what a number of things you can do without when you have no money to get them. You won't want new gloves and varnished boots, eau-de-Cologne, and cabs to ride in. DISAPPOINTMENTS, Thackeray. To expect what never comes, to lie in bed and not sleep, to serve well and not be advanced, are three things to die of. Italian Proverb. |