But, thanks to God, a nobler strain, Buried to rise and bloom again. The relations of life are very various, and call different faculties into action, so that men are alternately leaders and led. No one can escape depression who does not control elation. Every good habit corrects a bad tendency. Trips help to save from tumbles. When a discourse is pitched too high, there is no opportunity of rising, and constant danger of sinking. As some instruments are tuned with a tuning-fork, some discourses seem to have been pitched with a pitch-fork. The chief difficulty of imparting instruction often consists in awakening the wish to receive it. In spite of all that we can do While good is smiling more and more To lull our doubts and fears, She privily unbars the door, And frowning ill appears. But ill, although he seems so stern, Will soon relax his mood, And after he has had his turn, Gives way again to good. We have heard an eloquent preacher remark, that they need help most who deserve it least." Many a long period of political contention becomes an invisible point in history. Heavenly mansions built after earthly patterns are but castles in the air. The indulgent parent fosters his children's foes. In the discipline of Providence, suffering follows sin by a law of nature, and is relieved only by repentance and reformation. It is the punishment of sin, and not the forgiveness of it, that saves the sinner. As sailors hear a tolling bell, When tossing on the sea, The clouds above us cannot long conceal the heaven beyond them. No man can solve the mysteries of life, but every man of common sense can perform its duties. Sarcasm poisons reproof. It is like the noxious juice of the cassava. The plant is unfit for food until the juice has been extracted. Men are seldom worn out by necessary labor. If the merchant exhausts himself by toiling for superfluous wealth, and the politician by toiling for personal aggrandizement, who is to be blamed? When a man is successful, people are apt to forget his difficulties, and to talk about his favorable circumstances; but circumstances are always favorable to those who can make them so. To accomplish much in the way that he has chosen, a man must be willing to be reproached with accomplishing little in other ways. During his life, people may complain of his omissions; but after he is dead, they will praise what he has done. Men begin life hoping to do better than their predecessors, and end it rejoicing if they have done as well. Reason asks, Can prayer influence God, who alone knows what is right, and never deviates from it? But is it certain that God sees only one right way of acting? We cannot get rid of troubles, but may do much to prevent them from accumulating. How many lines there are which their writers, when dying, will "wish to blot "; " idle words " of which they "shall give account in the day of judgment"! Diversity of language springs from difficulty of intercourse, and languages become blended as intercourse becomes easy. To compare living men with dead ones, is like comparing fresh fruit with dry. Men slowly learn how little they can do, and how careful they must be of their faculties and opportunities in order to do that little. The world may be making progress, but the progress which principally concerns each one is that which fits him to exchange this world for a better one. Retribution is a law of nature, and the one most important for us to study. There are many good things in this world, but it is often difficult to get them, and easy to lose them and dangerous to use them. If men's prejudices are not directly attacked, they will often admit truths that are inconsistent with them, and these will gradually root out the prejudices. It is not strange that we should suffer, but that we should be so constituted as to need suffering. Men can impart their knowledge, but not their expe rience. Men look for happiness in rest, but seek it in restless ness. Excepting virtue and vice, the points of difference be tween men are trifling compared with the points of resemblance. A man sometimes retains his youth by doing little to make his manhood noticed. A poem written in close and regular rhymes is more suitable for recitation than one written in blank verse; for blank verse, when recited, can hardly be distinguished from prose, except by hearers familiar with the lines. The world has not room enough for all the great men in it, so that they stand very much in each other's way. How many a man in frantic play And gave to Cleopatra's name The possibility of evil disturbs the anxious, but only the probability of evil disturbs the cheerful. A large part of the liabilities which hover before the eyes of the former are never thought of by the latter. Wrongs often petrify into rights. The effect of familiarity on the judgment is illustrated by the fact, that absurd phrases often gain currency by being held up to ridicule. "Solitary and alone" was laughed at so long, that men became accustomed to it, and it is now sometimes soberly used in newspapers. From this effect of familiarity, it seems to us ill-judged to teach children spelling by examples of words misspelt, or grammatical correctness by examples of bad grammar. If the eye and the ear are accustomed to such improprieties, the judgment may be sometimes perplexed by the images that remain in the memory. Ordinary morality suffices only for ordinary occasions. Ideas lie in the mind in all stages of growth. When they are matured, it is difficult for us to realize their early incompleteness. As sailors see the summer sun Go down the Arctic skies, And, when his shining course is run, Again begin to rise, The soul shall never set in night, But kindle its expiring light, And go rejoicing on its way From dim decline to glorious day. Flattery makes poets popular, as well as politicians. The "flowers that blush unseen" like to be reminded of their beauty. Success often costs more than it is worth. Thoughts are most impressive when conveyed in distinct propositions. Many passages may be made more forcible by leaving out connecting particles. Many processes go on in our bodies without our consciousness, and produce results without our volition. Is the same true of our minds? The remarks which impress men most are those which fall in with their own experience. A lawyer sometimes finds that the arguments which appear to him of least weight have most weight with a jury. And perhaps the sermons which have cost a clergyman the least effort may sometimes have the most effect on his hearers. Uneducated men dislike complicated reasoning and nice distinctions. The shortness of life makes the fear of future retribution lively, and thus strengthens virtuous resolutions. It is not strange that the old have become tired of trying new things, for they have found most of them to be vanity and vexation of spirit. The circumstances on which our comfort depends are so many that we cannot enumerate them, and so minute that we are ashamed to own them. After "the sting of folly" has made men wise, they find it hard to conceive that others can be as foolish as they have been. Passive resistance is often more effectual than active. The party that stirs least is likely to hold out longest. Knowledge of the world is dearly bought at the price of moral purity. If we could but lift the covers of men's heads, as a cook lifts the covers of the pots over the fire, to look at the contents, what a stewing and boiling we should see going on there, and what a variety of things bobbing up and down! True eloquence consists of "words that burn," and false, of gas that will not burn. |