The world of thought is so large, and the span of human life is so brief, that it is impossible for one man to be profound on many subjects, or to be thoroughly conversant with the writings of many authors.

In the extracts from prominent authors of every age and nation which the compiler of the following work offers to the public, he has deviated from the usual plan adopted by others, of introducing a dictionary of quotations arranged in alphabetical order, and has selected from his "Index Rerum," prepared during his collegiate and early profes. sional life, quotations upon eight topics of universal interest, which appeal most strongly to the emotional element in

man.

He has chosen the themes of Youth, Beauty, Love, Mar. riage, Man, Woman, Age and Death, and believes the reader can trace through the quotations presented the strong, eamest pulsations of the hearts of the great men who poured forth their souls through such media.

It has been the object of the compiler to search for and collate original ideas, couched in brief, forcible language, in the books he has read, rather than for beauty of expression and metrical euphony, attractive as these may be.

That the pleasure derived from the perusal may equal that resulting from the preparation of the work, is the earnest wish of

THE COMPILER.

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YOUTH.

YOUTH.

A LOVELY being scarcely formed or moulded,
.A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.

Byron.

Ninc times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually occupied by an ill-placed or disappointed affection. We recover and find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wreck of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.

Bulwer's “Maltravers."

The fresh and buoyant sense of being
That bounds in youth's yet careless breast,
Itself a star not borrowing light,
But in its own glad essence bright.

Moore.

In girls we love what they are; in lads what they promise.

Goethe.

Youth is perpetual intoxication; 'tis the fever of reason.

La Rochefoucauld.

What in our view marks the full development of manhood, and dissevers it totally from the states of boyhood and youth, is a sustained self-mastery. When the ener gies are not the slaves of excitement; when the fiery im. patience of occasional effort has become the perseverant energy of continued work; when the powers are ranged in ordered submission under the will; when the motives are not the faint wavering fatui or meteors of the hour, but the guiding principle of the life is clearly ascertained and resolutely adhered to,-then the boy has passed into the man.

Bayne.

The clue of our destiny, wander where we will, lies at the cradle foot.

How infinite the wealth of love and hope
Garnered in these same tiny treasure-houses !
Another little wave upon the sea of life,
Another soul to save amid its toil and strife;
Two more little feet to walk the dusty road,
To choose where two paths meet—the narrow and the

broad;
Two more little hands to work for good or ill;
Two more little eyes, another little will;
Another heart to love, receiving love again;
And so the baby came, a thing of joy and pain.

The smallest child is nearest to God, as the smallest planets are nearest the sun.

Jean Paul