786 GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE. Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well. (Sheffield. It is generally supposed that where there is Beneath the rule of men entirely great (Horace. A man may write at any time if he set himself doggedly at it. (Sam'l Johnson. But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think. (Byron. The most original modern authors are not so because they advance what is new, but simply because they know how to put what they have to say, as if it had never been said before. (Goethe. Readers may be classed into an infinite number of divisions; but an author is a solitary being, who, for the same reason he pleases one, must consequently displease another. (Isaac Disraeli. None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears. (Cowper. Hear, land o' cakes, and brither Scots, Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's, If there's a hole in a' your coats, I rede ye tent it; A chiel's amang you taking notes, And, faith, he'll prent it. (Burns. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling. If the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare, to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society, in the place where I live. (Channing. CARE. polished perturbation! golden care that keepest the ports of slumber open wide to many a watchful night! (Shakespeare. LIVING THOUGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS. 787 Hang sorrow, care 'll kill a cat. (Ben Jonson. He makes no friend who never made a foe. Care, admitted as guest, quickly turns to be Talents are nurtured best in solitude, but character in life's tempestuous sea. (Goethe. Character, good or bad, has a tendency to perpetuate itself. (Dr. A. A. Hodge. The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart. (Mencius. Take my word for this, reader, and say a fool told it you, if you please, that he who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition. (Lamb. All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ. (Bovee. (Tennyson. He was not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block itself. (Burke. When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a Vizor and a Face. (Bruyère. He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors. (Thomas à Kempis. This is that which we call character,-a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. (Emerson. The man that makes a character, makes foes. (Young. Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and angels know of us. (Thomas Paine. I will be lord over myself. No one who cannot master himself is worthy to rule, and only he can rule. (Goethe. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little I know myself now; and I feel within me Conscience is harder than our enemies, There is no future pang I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough, to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, that of an Honest Man." (Geo. Washington. Conflict, which rouses up the best and highest powers in some characters, in others not only jars the whole being, but paralyzes the faculties. (Mrs. Jameson. Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. (Longfellow. Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground finished; but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete. (Henry Ward Beecher. We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable subjects for biographies. But we don't care most for those flat pattern flowers that press best in the (Holmes. herbarium. Can deal that justice on the self-condemn'd (Shakespeare. He that has light within his own clear breast Benighted walks under the mid-day sun. CONTENTMENT. (Milton. LIVING THOUGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS. 789 Much The noblest mind the best contentment has. To the Contentment furnishes constant joy. If it were now to die, (Shakespeare. Lord of himself, though not of lands; (Sir Henry Wotton. My God, give me neither poverty nor riches; The quiet mind is richer than a crown; Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss. He is well paid that is well satisfied. (Spenser. My crown is in my heart, not on my head, Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen my crown is called content; A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. (Shakespeare. With equal minds what happens let us bear, O what a glory doth this world put on, CONVERSATION. I profess not talking; only this-Let each Speak not at all, in any wise, till you have The next best thing to being witty one's self, (Bovee. Oh! many a shaft, at random sent, (Scott. (Shakespeare. Not one will change his neighbor with him- 790 GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE. Discourse may want an animated "No," To brush the surface, and to make it flow; But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease. (Couper. It is as easy to draw back a stone thrown with force from the hand, as to recall a word once spoken. There are moments when silence, prolong'd and unbroken, More expressive may be than all words ever It is when the heart has an instinct of what (Owen Meredith. (Menander. Think all you speak; but speak not all you Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social (Letitia Elizabeth Landon. life. think: Thoughts are your own; your words are so no more. Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food. Where Wisdom steers, wind cannot make you sink: In the commerce of speech use only coin of O friends, be men, and let your hearts be (Joubert. gold and silver. Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse; Not more distinct from harmony divine, The constant creaking of a country sign. (Cowper. Repartee is perfect, when it effects its purpose with a double edge. Repartee is the highest order of wit, as it bespeaks the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius at a moment when the passions are roused. (C. C. Colton. True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but, ne'er so well ex My tongue within my lips I rein, (Gay. Were we as eloquent as angels, we should please some men, some women, and some children much more by listening than by talking. (C. C. Colton. But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much. (Dryden. It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. (Pope. strong, And let no warrior in the heat of fight eyes; For more of those who shrink from shame are safe Than fall in battle, while with those who flee Is neither glory nor reprieve from death. (Bryant. The direst foe of courage is the fear itself, not the object of it; and the man who can The sign of valor true; Peace hath higher tests of manhood Than battle ever knew. Our doubts are traitors, (Whittier. |
