صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

LIVING THOUGHTS

FROM

THE WORLD'S GREAT THINKERS.

ACTION.

The only cure for grief is action.(G.H.Lewes

Speak out in acts; the time for words has A stirring dwarf we do allowance give passed, and deeds alone suffice.

Before a sleeping giant.

(Shakespeare

Better to sink beneath the shock Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.

(Byron.

(Whittier. Everywhere in life, the true question is, not what we gain, but what we do. (Carlyle. A slender acquaintance with the world must I have lived to know that the secret of hapconvince every man, that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

use.

Washington.

He hath no power that hath not power to (Bailey. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

(George Eliot.

It is better to wear out than to rust out. (Bishop Horne.

Men must be decided on what they will NOT do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.

(Mencius. Our acts, our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. (John Fletcher. Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. (Carlyle. Push on-keep moving. (Thomas Morton. Heaven never helps the men who will not (Sophocles.

act.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence. (Carlyle.

piness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.

(Adam Clarke.

[blocks in formation]

Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
(Shakespeare.

Cicero has said of men: "They are like wine;
age sours the bad, and betters the good."
We can say that misfortune has the
same effect upon them.
(Ricker.
Calamity is man's true touch-stone.

(Beaumont and Fletcher. Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of; they just turn up some of the ill weeds on to the surface. (Spurgeon. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. (Sirach

782

GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE.

Afflictions fall, not like the lightning strokes The eternal stars shine out as soon as it 18

upon the tree, to blast and shatter it the more, but like the blows of the sculptor which shape the marble into a thing of beauty. (Howard Malcom. It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.

(Greville. The greater our dread of crosses, the more necessary they are for us. (Fenelon.

dark enough.

AMBITION.

(Carlyle.

Ambition has but one reward for all:
A little power, a little transient fame,
A grave to rest in, and a fading name!
(William Winter.

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains to the
skies?

Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil sur-
veys,

We know not of what we are capable till the And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. trial comes;-till it comes, perhaps, in a form which makes the strong man quail, and turns the gentler woman into a heroine. (Mrs. Jameson.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the

(Pope. Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

(Longfellow.

Remember Milo's end,

only balance to weigh friends. (Plutarch. Wedged in that timber which he strove to

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

(Burke. Men think God is destroying them because he is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the string upon the musical rack.

(Beecher.
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man:
but for one man who can stand prosper-
ity, there are a hundred that will stand
adversity.
(Carlyle.

His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.
(Shakespeare.

There are no crown wearers in heaven who
were not cross-bearers here below.

[blocks in formation]

rend.

(Wentworth Dillon. Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,

Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms;

Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæsar's mind.

(Pope.

One contented with what he has done, stands

but small chance of becoming famous for what he will do. He has lain down to die. The grass is already growing over him. (Bovee. They that stand high have many blasts to

shake them;

And if they fall they dash themselves to
pieces.
(Shakespeare.
Who shoots at the midday sun, though he be
sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as
sure he is that he shall shoot higher than
he who aims but at a bush.

(Sir P. Sidney. Fling away ambition; by that sin fell the angels: how can man then, the image of his Maker hope to win by it?

(Shakespeare.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods. (Pope.

LIVING THOUGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS.

Say what we will, you may be sure that ambition is an error; its wear and tear of heart are never recompensed, it steals away the freshness of life,-it deadens its vivid and social enjoyments,-it shuts our souls to our own youth,-and we are old ere we remember that we have made a fever and a labor of our raciest years. (Bulwer.

ART.

Art is the child of Nature: yes,
Her darling child in whom we trace
The features of the mother's face;
Her aspect and her attitude.

(Longfellow. Seraphs share with thee Knowledge: But Art, O Man, is thine alone! (Schiller.

I think I love and reverence all arts equally, only putting my own just above the others; because in it I recognize the union and culmination of them all. To me it seems as if when God conceived the world, that was Poetry; He formed it, and that was Sculpture; He colored it, and that was Painting; He peopled it with living beings, and that was the grand, divine, eternal Drama.

his own.

(Charlotte Cushman.

Art is Nature made by Man
To Man the interpreter of God.

783

(Owen Meredith. His heart was in his work, and the heart Giveth grace unto every Art. (Longfellow. The one thing that marks the true artist is a clear perception and a firm, bold hand, in distinction from that imperfect mental vision and uncertain touch which give us the feeble pictures and the lumpy statues of the mere artisans on canvas or in stone. (Holmes.

Dead he is not, but departed,-for the artist (Longfellow.

never dies.

He best can paint them who shall feel them

In

most.

(Pope. sculpture did ever any body call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoön how it might be made different? A master-piece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal. (Emerson. Nature is a revelation of God; Art a revelation of man. (Longfellow. The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in stone

subdued by the insatiable demand of
harmony in man. The mountain of
granite blooms into an eternal flower,
with the lightness and delicate finish, as
well as the aerial proportions and per-
spective of vegetable beauty. (Emerson.
The stone unhewn and cold,
Becomes a living mould,
The more the marble wastes

He that seeks popularity in art closes the
door on his own genius; as he must
needs paint for other minds, and not for
(Mrs. Jameson.
The art of a thing is, first, its aim, and next,
its manner of accomplishment. (Bovee.
If it is the love of that which your work rep-
resents-if, being a landscape painter, it
is love of hills and trees that moves you
-if, being a figure painter, it is love of
human beauty, and human soul that
moves you-if being a flower or animal
painter, it is love, and wonder, and de-
light in petal and in limb that move And the cold marble leapt to life a god.

The more the statue grows. (Michael Angelo.

you, then the spirit is upon you, and the earth is yours, and the fullness thereof. (Ruskin.

Doubtless the human face is the grandest of
all mysteries; yet fixed on canvas, it can
hardly tell of more than one sensation;
no struggle, no successive contrasts ac-
cessible to dramatic art, can painting
give, as neither time nor motion exists
for her.
(Madame de Staël.

(Milman. Nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they being both the ser

784

GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE.

vants of his providence. Art is the per- Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self. fection of nature. Were the world now

within.

(Thomson.

(Socrates.

as it was the sixth day, there were yet a I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful chaos. Nature hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is the art of God. (Sir Thomas Browne. The architect Built his great heart into these sculptured

stones,

And with him toiled his children,-and their
lives,

Were builded, with his own, into the walls,
As offerings unto God.
(Longfellow.
I once asked a distinguished artist what place
he gave to labor in art. "Labor," he in
effect said, "is the beginning, the middle,
and the end of art." Turning then to
another "And you," I inquired, "what
do you consider the great force in art?"
Love," he replied. In their two an-
swers I found but one truth. (Bovee.

[ocr errors]

BEAUTY.

The most beautiful object in the world, it
will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.
(Macaulay.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet
breathing.
(Keats.
We do love beauty at first sight; and we do
cease to love it, if it is not accompanied
by amiable qualities.

(Lydia Maria Child. What as Beauty here is won We shall as Truth in some hereafter know.

Loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.

(Thomson.

If the nose of Cleopatra had been a little shorter, it would have changed the history of the world.

BLESSINGS.

(Pascal.

Like birds, whose beauties languish half cealed,

con

Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes

Expanded, shine with azure, green and gold; How blessings brighten as they take their flight! (Young. Blessings star forth forever; but a curse Is like a cloud-it passes. (Bailey. For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

(Congreve. What is remote and difficult of success we

are apt to overrate; what is really best for us lies always within our reach, though often overlooked. (Longfellow." Forever from the hand that takes

One blessing from us, others fall; And soon or late, our Father makes His perfect recompense to all! (Whittier.

[blocks in formation]

(Schiller.

If to her share some female errors fall Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all. (Pope.

Beauty with a bloodless conquest, finds A welcome sov'reignty in rudest minds. (Waller.

Pray thee, take care, that tak'st my book in hand,

To read it well; that is to understand.

(Ben. Jonson. Books cannot always please, however good; Minds are not ever craving for their food. (Crabbe

LIVING THOUGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS.

785

I love to lose myself in other men's minds.
When I am not walking, I am reading;
I cannot sit and think.

Books think for me. (Lamb.

There is no Past, so long as Books shall live! (Bulwer.

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond. (Milton. Books are friends, and what friends they are! Their love is deep and unchanging; their patience inexhaustible; their gentleness perennial, their forbearance unbounded; and their sympathy without selfishness. Strong as man, and tender as woman, they welcome you in every mood, and never turn from you in distress. (Langford.

Look, then, into thine heart and write.

(Longfellow.

Books should to one of these four ends conduce,

For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

(Sir John Denham. We get no good

By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits-so much help
By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
-Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's pro-
found,

Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth

'Tis then we get the right good from a book, (E. B. Browning. If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that.

(Carlyle. Books are the best things, well used: abused, among the worst. (Emerson. Books are life-long friends whom we come to love and know as we do our children. (S. L. Boardman.

They are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble: be you but true to yourself, applying that which they teach unto the party grieved, and you shall need no other comfort nor counsel. (Bacon.

Worthy books

Are not companions-they are solitudes :
We lose ourselves in them and all our cares.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be
(Bailey.

swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not seriously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. (Bacon. One cannot celebrate books sufficiently. After saying his best, still something better remains to be spoken in their praise.

In

(Alcott. literature, quotation is good only when the writer whom I follow goes my way, and, being better mounted than I, gives me a cast as we say; but if I like the gay equipage so well as to go out of my road, I had better have gone afoot.

(Emerson.

The true University of these days is a Collection of Books. (Carlyle.

I have ever gained the most profit, and the most pleasure also, from the books which have made me think the most: and, when the difficulties have once been overcome, these are the books which have struck the deepest root, not only in my memory and understanding, but likewise in my affections.

(W. A. Hare. Write to the mind and heart, and let the ear Glean after what it can. (Bailey. That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit.

(Alcott.

If time is precious, no book that will not im- If you once understand an author's characprove by repeated readings deserves to (Carlyle.

be read at all,

ter, the comprehension of his writing becomes easy.

(Longfellow.

« السابقةمتابعة »