GIFT OF 
 
 UTHERFOW) BACON 
 ORIAL LJBRAKY 
 
NEW EVERY MORNING" 
 
 A YEAR BOOK FOR GIRLS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ANNIE HA RYDER 
 
 BOSTON 
 D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 
 
 FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 
 
Copyright, 1886, 
 
 by 
 D. LOTHROP & COMPANY. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WITHIN the past few years numerous 
 books have been written providing spe- 
 cial spiritual thought for each day's wants. 
 These have lifted the souls of thousands and 
 encouraged them to worthier efforts after a 
 heavenly nature ; people have come to depend 
 upon these works as on scriptural readings ; they 
 have opened the day with a thought from them, 
 or hallowed its close with a selected portion. 
 The books have been indeed Daily Strength for 
 Daily Needs, Helps by the Way, and Gold Dust 
 from the mines of holiness. And there have 
 been calendars, dropping for each day the word 
 of inspiration or of wisdom, giving sweet coun- 
 sel from the prose and poetry of great authors. 
 With what eagerness do we look for what the 
 new day will say to us when we tear the old leaf 
 away from the month ! 
 
 Realizing how much good these works are 
 
 287548 
 
11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 doing, and knowing how valuable portions of 
 them are to the young, I have thought a little 
 volume entirely devoted to girls might be ac- 
 ceptable. Out of a sincere love for the girls 
 and an earnest desire to help them cheerfully 
 along the way of life, I have striven to bring 
 together such selections as seemed most practi- 
 cal. 
 
 Thoughts have been chosen which offer sug- 
 gestions for daily conduct, and which furnish 
 hints about such common subjects as talking, 
 reading, studying, exercising, caring for health, 
 working, dressing, and other necessary acts. 
 Duty, particularly in its everyday phases, is en- 
 couraged on many a page, while other qualities 
 which tend to the growth of character cheer- 
 fulness, perseverance, honesty, courtesy, courage 
 and aspiration, have been leading motives in 
 compiling the work. 
 
 Here and there a bit of helpful experience 
 from some well-known woman's life is held up 
 to encourage girls and to increase their rever- 
 ence for noble womanhood. 
 
 In choosing from the many helps to girls, 
 Nature has been deemed most worthy of consid- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ill 
 
 eration among the days of the year. If you love 
 her, girls, and daily note some added beauty in 
 her charms, you will grow stronger not only in 
 body and in mind, but in spirit too. Your love 
 for what is pure and for what is beautiful, how- 
 ever common, will increase, and your stock of 
 happiness will be enlarged by riches which no 
 condition in life can impoverish. 
 
 For every seventh day a quotation is given 
 bearing directly on spiritual things, though it 
 has been the sincere wish of the compiler to 
 make such selections for each day as shall lead 
 to the fullest development of the soul. 
 
 To those large-hearted men and women who 
 have written so helpfully for us, and who allow 
 me to bring together in this year-book their 
 thoughts, please give your thanks, while I in full 
 sincerity add mine. Grow familiar with the 
 works these authors have written in your behalf, 
 and then be glad again that the world has so 
 many good and wise people who love just you 
 yourselves. 
 
 If I have too frequently used some thought of 
 my own, it has not been because I believed it 
 worthy of a place among the thoughts of cele- 
 
iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brated authors, but because I wanted to give 
 you, girls, a certain idea, and had not the oppor- 
 tunity to search for a better expression of it 
 among well-known writers. 
 
 While for every day some passage has been 
 taken to give encouragement or hints towards 
 earnest living, the general idea which I hope 
 pervades the little work, is expressed in the title, 
 " New Every Morning," and more fully given in 
 the opening poem. With the dawn of each day 
 we are born anew into opportunities for fresh 
 efforts. No matter about yesterday's shortcom- 
 ings, " To-day is ours." Make of it a day holy 
 with duty done, and strong with cheerful striv- 
 ings ; a day full of hope for the future. 
 
 My heartiest thanks are due to those authors 
 who have so generously allowed me the use of 
 their works, and to the publishers, Messrs. 
 Houghton, Miffim and Co., and Messrs. Roberts 
 Brothers, whose permission to select passages 
 from their publications has been of great value. 
 
 ANNIE H. RYDER. 
 
 August, 1886. 
 
JANUARY. 
 
 NEW EVERY MORNING. 
 
 Every day is a fresh beginning, 
 
 Every morn is the world made new. 
 You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 
 
 Here is a beautiful hope for you : 
 
 A hope for me and a hope for you. 
 
 All the past things are past and over, 
 The tasks are done and the tears are shed, 
 
 Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover ; 
 
 Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled, 
 Are healed with the healing which night has shed. 
 
 Yesterday now is a part of forever : 
 Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, 
 
 With glad days, and sad days, and bad days which never 
 Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight, 
 Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful night. 
 
 Let them go, since we cannot relieve them, 
 
 Cannot undo and cannot atone ; 
 God in his mercy receive, forgive them ! 
 
 Only the new days are our own. 
 
 To-day is ours, and to-day alone. 
 
 SUSAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 IX 
 
12 JANUARY. 
 
 2. She had reached that point where the girl suddenly 
 blooms into a woman, asking something more substantial 
 than pleasure to satisfy the new aspirations that are born ; 
 a time as precious and important to the after life, as the 
 hour when the apple-blossoms fall, and the young fruit 
 waits for the elements to ripen or destroy the harvest. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 There are many boys and girls, full of high hopes, lovely 
 possibilities, and earnest plans, pausing a moment before 
 they push their little boats from the safe shore. Let those 
 who launch them see to it that they have good health to 
 man the oars, good education for ballast, and good princi- 
 ples as pilots to guide them as they voyage down an ever- 
 widening river to the sea. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 3. There are so many kinds of beauty after which one 
 may strive, that we are bewildered by the bare attempt to 
 remember them. There is beauty of manner, of utterance, 
 of achievement, of reputation, of character, any one of these 
 outweighs beauty of person, even in the scales of society, 
 to say nothing of celestial values. Cultivate most of the 
 kind that lasts the longest. The beautiful face with noth- 
 ing back of it lacks the " staying qualities " that are nec- 
 essary to those who would be winners in the race of life. 
 It is not the first mile post, but the last that tells the story ; 
 not the outward bound steed, but the one on the " home 
 stretch " that we note as victor. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
JANUARY. 13 
 
 4. Girls, have your aspirations, and when you have 
 outgrown one, or exhausted all there is good and pure in 
 it, take hold of another and grow as large as you can in it. 
 If circumstances baffle, why baffle circumstances ; only be 
 careful to do all these things cheerfully. That is the nat- 
 ural way to grow. The trees get along so, you know. 
 They spread out into great space, give as much foliage and 
 fruit as they can, and then when other trees crowd around 
 too closely, they shoot up and out into the limitless air and 
 sunshine. All the while the wind goes sounding through 
 them making life musical and bright. A. H. R. 
 
 The true way to begin life is not to look off upon it to 
 see what it offers, but to take a good look at self. Find 
 out what you are, how you are made up, your capacities 
 and lacks, and then determine to get the most out of your- 
 self possible. 
 
 THEODORE T. MUNGER. 
 
 5. I am afraid that the majority of girls act very ridicu- 
 lously with regard to their health. I should be very sorry 
 to make them nervous and fanciful, and lead them to cod- 
 dle themselves ; I only want them to act reasonably. If 
 they get wet through and do not change their clothes, if 
 they go from a heated atmosphere to a cold one without 
 additional clothing, if they sit dreaming over the fire, and 
 do not take regular exercise, or if they make exercise im- 
 possible, by wearing tight stays, or hobbling about on 
 high-heeled boots, they can no more expect to be strong 
 than they can expect to put their hands into the fire and 
 draw them out smooth and sound. 
 
 PHILLIS BROWNE. 
 
14 JANUARY. 
 
 6. Maiden, when such a soul as thine is born, 
 The morning stars their ancient music make 
 And, joyful, once again their song awake, 
 Long silent now with melancholy scorn ; 
 And thou, not mindless of so blest a morn, 
 By no least deed its harmony shalt break, 
 
 But shalt to that high chime thy footsteps take, 
 Through life's most darksome passes unforlorn ; 
 Therefore from thy pure faith thou shalt not fall, 
 Therefore shalt thou be ever fair and free, 
 And in thine every motion musical 
 As summer air, majestic as the sea, 
 A mystery to those who creep and crawl 
 Through Time, and part it from Eternity. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 7. To live well, you must be in the open air every day. 
 This rule is well nigh absolute. Women offend against 
 it terribly in America, and women are very apt to break 
 down. Rain or shine, mud or dust, go out of your house 
 and see what God is doing outside. I do not count that 
 an irreverent phrase, which says one feels nearer God un- 
 der the open sky, than he is apt to do when shut up in a 
 room. I know a very wise man who used to say : " Peo- 
 ple speak of going out, when they should speak of going 
 in." He meant that you do plunge into the air, as when 
 you bathe at the seaside you go into the water. Be quite 
 sure of your air bath. I will not dictate the time, but, on 
 an average, an hour is not too long. You will fare all the 
 better, will eat the better, digest the better, and sleep the 
 better, if instead of an hour it is two hours or more. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
JANUARY. 15 
 
 8. Elizabeth Fry, woman-like, aimed at the improve- 
 ment of her own sex ; but the reform she inaugurated did 
 not stop there ; like a circle caused by the descent of a 
 pebble into a lake, it widened and extended until she and 
 her work became household words among all classes of 
 society, and in all civilized countries. . . Probably it is 
 not too much to say that no laborer in the cause of prison 
 reform ever won a larger share of success. Certainly 
 none ever received a larger meed of reverential love. . 
 To those who had sinned against, and had been forgiven 
 by her, Mrs. Fry's memory was something almost too 
 holy for earth. No saint of the Catholic Church ever 
 received truer reverence, or performed such miracles of 
 moral healing. MRS. E. R. PITMAN. 
 
 9. I told my Sunday class to-day about putting on " the 
 whole armor of God." We talked about the places that 
 don't get covered by it. You know the Achilles story and 
 the legend about Siegfried ? how Achilles' heel didn't get 
 dipped into the fluid which made his body invulnerable, 
 and how a leaf rested between Siegfried's shoulders so 
 that one tiny spot was not bathed in the liquid which pro- 
 tected the rest of him ? You remember one was killed by 
 a wound in the heel, and the other by an arrow which 
 struck between his shoulders. Now, girls, we haven't been 
 dipped all over in the magic fluid of goodness. Lots and 
 lots of places are bare. We don't help being wicked in 
 hundreds of ways. It's easy not to steal and not to lie, 
 but it is not easy to keep from losing patience, and get- 
 ting envious, and wanting to have our own way. We have 
 just the least armor on. A. H. R. 
 
1 6 JANUARY. 
 
 10. Be more economical in the use of your mother 
 tougue. Apply your terms of praise with precision ; use 
 epithets with some degree of judgment and fitness. Do 
 not waste your best and highest words upon inferior ob- 
 jects, and find that when you have met with something 
 which really is superlatively great and good, the terms by 
 which you would distinguish it have all been thrown away 
 upon inferior things that you are bankrupt in expression. 
 If a thing is simply good, say so ; if pretty, say so ; if very 
 pretty, say so ; if fine, say so ; if very fine, say so ; if grand, 
 say so ; if sublime, say so ; if magnificent, say so ; if 
 splendid, say so. These words all have different mean- 
 ings, and you may say them all of as many different ob- 
 jects, and not use the word " perfect " once. That is a 
 very large word. TIMOTHY TITCOMB. 
 
 11. Not a little sunshine of our Northern winters is 
 surely wrapped up in the apple. How pleasing to the 
 touch. I love to stroke its polished rondure with my 
 hand, to carry it in my pocket on my tramp over the win- 
 ter hills, or through the early spring woods. You are com- 
 pany, you red-cheeked spitz, or you salmon-fleshed green- 
 ing! I toy with you ; press your face to mine, toss you in 
 the air, roll you on the ground, see you shine out where 
 you lie amid the moss and dry leaves and sticks. You are 
 so alive ! You glow like a ruddy flower. You look so 
 animated I almost expect to see you move ! I postpone 
 the eating of you, you are so beautiful ! How compact 
 how exquisitely tinted ! Stained by the sun and varnished 
 against the rains. 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
JANUARY. 1 7 
 
 12. Some of the girls said, sometimes, that " Leslie 
 Goldthwaite liked to be odd ; she took pains to be." This 
 was not true ; she began with the prevailing fashion the 
 fundamental idea of it always, when she had a new 
 thing; but she modified and curtailed, something was 
 sure to stop her somewhere ; and the trouble with the new 
 fashions is that they never stop. ... She had other 
 work to do, and she must choose the finishing that would 
 take the shortest time ; or satin folds would cost six dol- 
 lars more, and she wanted the money to use differently ; 
 the dress was never the first and the must be. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 She didn't seem to sense anything only ruffles and such 
 like. Her mind seemed to be narrowed down and puck- 
 ered up, just like trimmin'. MARIETTA HOLLEY. 
 
 13. For each of us there waits an Orleans. Some time 
 that crisis-battle must be fought which gives us final vic- 
 tory or ultimate defeat. In that long siege which pre- 
 cedes that crisis-battle we need the faith of Joan, that faith 
 which ranges the soul on the side of the conquering 
 powers, and enlists it in a service which is sure to win. 
 And we need to see our visions, to hear our voices, as did 
 Joan hers ; those visions which open to us from the sum- 
 mits of our holiest resolve, our highest endeavor, our most 
 painful abnegation; those voices which lay on us most 
 strenuous commands and whisper to us, in secret cham- 
 bers of our beleaguered souls, words of conviction, of 
 courage, and of cheer. God grant that we be not unrespon- 
 sive to that angel voice, that we be not disobedient unto 
 the heavenly vision ! ROSE E. CLEVELAND. 
 
l8 JANUARY. 
 
 14. In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the 
 supreme excellence is simplicity. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 The old fashion of simplicity is the best for all of us. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 Charles Lamb was just in his admiration of the shin- 
 ing Quakeresses who came up to their Whitsun-confer- 
 ences clad in white simplicity, a quality in dress, as in be- 
 havior, most becoming. Some of the prettiest faces we see 
 may be confined by the linen bands of the Sisters of Mercy 
 or by plain Quaker bonnets, still we are to remember that it 
 is the soul always and not the simple attire which makes 
 faces sweet, and lives beautiful. " Handsome is that 
 handsome does." A. H. R. 
 
 15. If there were only a sure and certain receipt for 
 making a cheery person, how glad we would all be to try 
 it! How thankful we would all be to do good like sun- 
 shine ! To cheer everybody up and help everybody along ! 
 To have everybody's face brighten the minute we come in 
 sight ! Why, it seems to me there cannot be in this life 
 any pleasure half so great as this would be. If we looked 
 at life only from a selfish point of view, it would be worth 
 while to be a cheery person merely because it would be 
 such a satisfaction to have everybody be glad to live with 
 us, to see us, even to meet us on the street. 
 
 " I jist like to let her in at the door," said an Irish ser- 
 vant one day, of a woman I know whose face was always 
 cheery and bright ; " the face of her does one good, shure." 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
JANUARY. 19 
 
 16. " But I do sin, " you say, " again and again, and 
 that is what makes me fearful. I try to do better, but 
 I fall and I fail all day long. I try not to be covetous 
 and worldly, but poverty tempts me, and I fall ; I try 
 to keep my temper, but people upset me, and I say 
 things of which I am bitterly ashamed the next minute. 
 Can God love such a one as me ? " My answer is, If God 
 loved the whole world when it was dead in trespasses and 
 sins, and not trying to be better, much more will he love 
 you who are not dead in trespasses and sins, and are trying 
 to be better. If he were not still helping you; if his Spirit 
 were not with you, you would care no more to become bet- 
 ter than a dog or an ox cares. And if you fall why, 
 arise again. Get up, and go on. You may be sorely 
 bruised, and soiled with your fall, but is that any reason 
 for lying still, and giving up the struggle cowardly ? In 
 the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk. 
 
 CHAS. KINGSLEY. 
 
 17. I like so much the legend of St. Elizabeth, of Hun- 
 gary, who did all for charity's sake that is, for love's sweet 
 sa k e . YOU know that the heavy load of bread which she 
 was carrying, trying to conceal it from her husband's eye, 
 all turned to roses, red and white, when he commanded 
 her to open the pack which she was bringing to the poor. 
 Gentle deeds of charity always turn fragrant and beautiful 
 in our hands, even when custom, or authority, or fashion, 
 or prudence rebukes us for bestowing gifts. You give a 
 
 loaf and you let an angel into your heart. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
2O JANUARY. 
 
 1 8. In our comfortable homes, we forget how near 
 these wretched cellars and attics are to the reformatories 
 and prison cells. They are the next door, and it depends 
 often upon our personal influence over the poor to keep 
 that door shut. When we are told that certain evils can- 
 not be helped, that we may as well let them alone, we 
 must remember that experience has taught differently. 
 Evils can be helped, and to let things alone is to lend our- 
 selves to wrong. It is impossible to overestimate the 
 value of friendly communication with the poor and unfor- 
 tunate. When I see what is accomplished sometimes by 
 what in contrast may be called so small an expenditure, 
 it seems impossible not to spread the good news, and thus 
 bring in a very much larger number of workers, when the 
 harvest is so abundant. " From wealth, little can be 
 hoped ; from intercourse, everything." 
 
 How to Help the Poor. MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS. 
 
 19. Have something to do, whether you are rich or 
 poor, have some useful employment. And let it be some 
 fixed task which you cannot shirk at a moment's notice. 
 Carlyle compares the work of this world to an immense 
 hand-barrow with innumerable handles, of which there is 
 one for every human being. But there are some people, 
 he says, so lazy, that they not only let go their handle, 
 but jump upon the barrow and increase the weight. Don't 
 let go your handle. There is abundance of work in this 
 busy world for every one who has a human heart. 
 
 DAVID PRYDE. 
 
JANUARY. 2 1 
 
 20. In the morning, when thou risest unwilingly, let 
 this thought be present : " I am rising to the work of a 
 human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going 
 to do the things for which I exist, and for which I was 
 brought into the world ? Or have I been made for this, 
 to lie in the bed-clothes, and keep myself warm ? " 
 
 But this is more pleasant. Dost thou exist, then, to 
 take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion ? 
 Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, 
 the spiders, the bees, working together to put in order 
 their several parts of the universe ? 
 
 And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human 
 being ? and dost thou not make haste to do that which is 
 according to thy nature ? MARCUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 21. O Love is weak 
 
 Which counts the answers and the gains, 
 Weighs all the losses and the pains, 
 And eagerly each fond word drains 
 A joy to seek. 
 
 When Love is strong 
 It never tarries to take heed, 
 Or know if its return exceed 
 Its gift ; in its sweet haste no greed, 
 
 No strife belongs. 
 
 It hardly asks 
 
 If it be loved at all ; to take 
 So barren seems, when it can make 
 Such bliss, for the beloved sake, 
 
 Of bitter tasks. 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
22 JANUARY. 
 
 22. " Taste, dear Mrs. Potiphar," said the Pacha, " was 
 a thing not known in the days of those kings. Grace was 
 entirely supplanted by grotesqueness, and now, instead 
 of pure and beautiful Greek forms, we must collect these 
 hideous things. If you are going backward to find models, 
 why not go as far as the good ones ? My dear madam, an 
 or molu Louis Quatorze clock would have given Pericles 
 a fit. Your drawing-rooms would have thrown Aspasia 
 into hysterics. Things are not beautiful because they cost 
 money ; nor is any grouping handsome without harmony. 
 Your house is like a woman dressed in Ninon de 1'En- 
 clos's bodice, with Queen Anne's hooped skirt, who limps 
 in Chinese shoes, and wears an Elizabethan ruff round 
 her neck, and a Druse's horn on her head. 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 23. We are, many of us, in these days wandering far 
 and wide in despairing search for some bread of life 
 whereby we may sustain our souls, some Holy Grail wherein 
 we may drink salvation from doubt and sin. It may be a 
 long, long quest ere we find it ; but one thing is ready to 
 our hands. It is DUTY. Let us turn to that in simple 
 fidelity, and labor to act up to our own highest ideal to 
 be the very best and purest and truest we know how, and 
 to do around us every work of love which our hands and 
 hearts may reach. When we have lived and labored like 
 this, then, I believe, that the light will come to us, as to 
 many another doubting soul ; and it will prove true once 
 more that " they who do God's will shall know of his 
 doctrine." 
 
 FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
JANUARY. 23 
 
 24. Raphael and Guido have painted the angel Michael 
 with a beautiful maiden's face, though his body is muscu- 
 lar, and his wings are tipped with strength, while, firm as 
 a Hercules, he stands upon the writhing coils of Satan. 
 The Devil but turns his coward head to look with van- 
 quished strength upon the clear, calm smile of the angel. 
 Maidenly love of what is pure, of what is brave, of what is 
 manly, will crush the evil in youths who are tempted ; yes, 
 and make from an Adam of mere muscle and intelligence 
 a very god of virtue. A. H. R. 
 
 25. The artist was not just then at her easel, but was 
 busied with the feminine task of mending a pair of gloves. 
 There is something extremely pleasant, and even touch- 
 in^ _ a t least, of very sweet, soft, and winning effect, 
 in this peculiarity of needlework distinguishing women 
 from men. . . . Women be they of what earthly rank 
 they may, however gifted with intellect or genius, or en- 
 dowed with awful beauty have always some little handi- 
 work ready to fill the tiny gap of every vacant moment. 
 A needle is familiar to them all. A queen, no doubt, plies 
 it on occasion : the woman poet can use it as adroitly as 
 her pen ; the woman's eye, that has discovered a new star 
 turns from its glory to send the polished little instrument 
 gleaming along the hem of her kerchief or to darn a casual 
 fray in her dress. . . . Methinks it is a token of 
 healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high 
 thoughts and accomplishments love to sew ; especially as 
 they are never more at home with their own hearts than 
 
 while so occupied. 
 
 HAWTHORNE. 
 
24 JANUARY. 
 
 26. Sweet and thoughtful maiden sitting by my side, 
 All the world's before you and the world is wide, 
 Hearts are there for winning, hearts are there to 
 
 break, 
 Has your own, shy maiden, just begun to wake ? 
 
 Is that rose of dawning glowing on your cheek 
 Telling us in blushes what you will not speak? 
 Shy and tender maiden, I would fain forego 
 All the golden future, just to keep you so. 
 
 LOUISE C. MOULTON. 
 
 27. But how came it that Florence Nightingale devoted 
 herself to the profession of nursing ? Simply from a feel- 
 ing of love and duty. She need never have devoted her- 
 self to so trying and disagreeable an occupation. She was 
 an accomplished young lady, possessing abundant means. 
 She was happy at home, a general favorite, and the centre 
 of an admiring circle. . . . The soldiers blessed her 
 as they saw her shadow falling over their pillows at night. 
 They did not know her name; they merely called her 
 " The Lady of the Lamp." 
 
 SMILES. 
 
 Every tidy, gentle girl who goes into the sick room 
 bearing with her, it may be, but a smile or a touch, carries 
 a lamp in her hand, which is filled with the oil of blessing. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 From henceforth thou shalt learn that there is love 
 To long for, pureness to desire, a mount 
 Of consecration it were good to scale. 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. 
 
JANUARY. 25 
 
 28. Life consists of two parts Expression and Re- 
 presssion, each of which has its solemn duties. To love, 
 joy, hope, faith, pity, belongs the duty of expression; to 
 anger, envy, malice, revenge, and all uncharitableness, 
 belongs the duty of repression. Some very religious and 
 moral people err by applying expression to both classes 
 alike. They repress equally the expression of love and 
 of hatred, of pity and of anger. Such forget one great law, 
 as true in the moral world as in the physical, that re- 
 pression lessens and deadens. ... A compress on a 
 limb will stop its growing; the surgeon knows this, and 
 puts a tight bandage around a tumor ; but what if we put 
 a tight bandage about the heart and lungs, as some young 
 ladies of my acquaintance do, or bandage the feet, as 
 they do in China? And what if we bandage a nobler 
 inner faculty, and wrap love in grave-clothes ? 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 29. Do not despise your love for the beautiful : cherish 
 it, develop it to the last ; steep your whole soul in beauty ; 
 watch it in its most vast and complex harmonies, and not 
 less in its most faint and fragmentary traces. Learn to 
 comprehend, to master, to embody it ; to show it forth to 
 men as the sacrament of heaven, the finger-mark of God. 
 
 But more God has not only made things beautiful ; 
 He has made things happy ; whatever misery there may be 
 in the world, there is no denying that. However sorrow 
 may have come into the world, there is a great deal more 
 happiness than misery in it. Misery is the exception ; 
 happiness is the rule. 
 
 CHAS. KINGSLEY. 
 
26 JANUARY. 
 
 30. " My children," Father Le Blanc was saying, " you 
 put all your treasures into earthen vessels. Your aspira- 
 tions, so noble, soar upward like the branches of the tree, 
 but your roots are in the earth that you must certainly 
 leave. All your faith which will not take denials ; all 
 your hopes which will not be gainsaid ; all your wide-em- 
 bracing affections you place in humanity, in a few frail 
 hearts which cannot meet the infinity of your need and of 
 your desire. And all these things which must fail you and 
 pass away, . . . why will you put them in the place of 
 heaven, to which you go to live forever ; in the place of 
 God, whose love knows no variableness nor shadow of 
 turning ? It is not I who undervalue them ; it is you who 
 overestimate them. . . . Love them without sacrific- 
 ing yourself to them. Make them the rivers that water 
 your life, and also the rivers that bear you to the infinite 
 sea into which they shall be merged. A. S. HARDY. 
 
 31. She neither regarded them each and all as wolves 
 nor as possible lovers. . . . She was even capable of 
 being utterly unconscious of the astounding fact of a tete- 
 h-tete with a man. Perhaps the day would come when the 
 clear, steady eyes would droop and the brave mouth would 
 tremble in the presence of a man ; but surely not for every 
 man must she lose her sweet freedom and fearlessness. 
 . . . What will the true king have when he comes to 
 his throne, if his golden tribute has been wasted on every 
 passer by? And when will the dull world learn that truth 
 may look out of the heart of a maiden through loyal, fear- 
 less eyes, while false coquetry often drops the lid, and 
 sends the shy, conscious flush to the cheek ? 
 
 BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
FEBRUARY. 
 
 I. The snow levels all things, and infolds them deeper 
 in the bosom of nature, as, in the slow summer, vegetation 
 creeps up to the entablature of the temple, and the turrets 
 of the castle, and helps her to prevail over art. 
 
 A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, 
 and in winter, summer is in his heart. There is the South. 
 Thither have all birds and insects migrated, and around 
 the warm springs in his breast are gathered the robin and 
 
 the lark. 
 
 There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which 
 never goes out, and which no cold can chill. In the cold- 
 est day it flows somewhere, and the snow melts around 
 every tree. THOREAU. 
 
 2. Who quarrels with dancing ? But then, people must 
 dance at their own risk. If Lucy Lamb, by dancing with 
 young Boosey when he is tipsy, shows that she has no 
 self-respect, how can I, coolly talking with Mrs. Lamb in 
 the corner, and gravely looking on, respect the young lady ? 
 Lucy tells me that if she dances with James she must dance 
 with John. I cannot deny it, for I am not sufficiently fa- 
 miliar with the regulations of the mystery. Only this ; if 
 dancing with sober James makes it necessary to dance 
 with tipsy John it seems to me, upon a hasty glance at 
 the subject, that a self-respecting Lucy would refrain from 
 the dance with James. Why Lucy must dance with every 
 man who asks her, whether he is in his senses, or knows 
 how to dance, or is agreeable to her or not, is a profound 
 
 mystery to Paul Potiphar. 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
28 FEBRUARY. 
 
 3. If all women could realize the power, the might of 
 even a small pleasure, how much happier the world would 
 be ! and how much longer bodies and souls both would bear 
 up under living \ Sensitive people realize it to the very 
 core of their being. They know that often and often it 
 happens to them to be revived, kindled, strengthened, to a 
 degree which they could not describe, and which they 
 hardly comprehend, by some little thing some word of 
 praise, some token of remembrance, some proof of affec- 
 tion or recognition. They know, too, that strength goes 
 out of them, just as inexplicably, just as fatally, when for 
 a space, perhaps even for a short space, all these are want- 
 ing- HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 4. The Girl of the Period, sauntering before one down 
 Broadway, is one panorama of awful surprises from top to 
 toe. Her clothes characterize her. She never character- 
 izes her clothes. . . . She has not one of the attributes 
 of nature nor of proper art. She neither soothes the eye 
 like a flower, nor pleases it like a picture. She wearies it 
 like a kaleidoscope. She is a meaningless dazzle of broken 
 effects. Surely it is one of the requisitions of a tasteful 
 garb that the expression of effort to please shall be want- 
 ing in it; that the mysteries of the toilet shall not be 
 suggested by it ; that the steps to its completion shall be 
 knocked away like the sculptor's ladder from the statue, 
 and the mental force expended upon it be swept away out 
 of sight like chips on the studio floor. 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
FEBRUARY. 29 
 
 5. " One day, when I was a very little girl, I was watch- 
 ing my mother make strawberry preserves. Beside the 
 stove stood a large milk pan containing some squash for 
 company pies. ' Now, Bridget,' said my mother, ' at last 
 it is done ; take the kettle off.' This was accomplished 
 and then, with almost incredible stupidity, the ' help ' ac- 
 tually emptied the strawberries into the squash! My 
 mother turned her head just too late. She was quick and 
 impulsive, but, there escaped from her mouth only a des- 
 pairing ' Oh, Bridget ! ' Then as she saw the girl's regretful 
 face, she uttered no angry reproaches. No doubt, when 
 my tired mother went up-stairs to rest, she felt disheartened, 
 and thought that her preserves and squash, her time and 
 labor, had all been wasted ; but probably she never did for 
 me a more valuable morning's work than when she gave 
 me that unconscious lesson in sweet self control." 
 
 " MOTHERS IN COUNCIL." 
 
 6. I must confess, however, that rage and hatred boiled 
 within me, but I wrestled with these evil spirits till I could 
 say to myself : " No, the wicked shall not so far trouble 
 me as to poison my heart. No, I will do all the good I can 
 to those who falsely call themselves Christians and fol- 
 lowers of the religion of love. One thing certainly I cannot 
 do, I cannot love my enemies, and I know no one who 
 can ; nay, I believe the saying was never meant in that 
 sense, only, as it is written afterwards : I can and I must 
 do good to those who have injured me. . . . We can- 
 not force ourselves to love our enemy, but we can force 
 ourselves to help him and to do good to him. This I must 
 do I can and I will." AUERBACH. 
 
30 FEBRUARY. 
 
 7. Ever since spinning was a type of womanly industry, 
 from age to age and nation to nation, it has been expected 
 that beautiful apparel should clothe women. From the 
 classic robes of an Aspasia to the rich dresses cf Elizabeth, 
 and thence to the wedding gown of Puritan Priscilla, we 
 see the value and attractiveness of dress. But there are 
 some costumes I cannot abide, can you ? Have you never 
 seen girls whose dresses looked like books with the begin- 
 ning and ending gone, which reminded you of " antiques 
 and horribles "or of what musicians call medleys "Lis- 
 ten to the Mocking Bird," " Nearer my God to Thee," 
 "Hail Columbia," all in a whirl ? What is the matter? 
 Lack of harmony. A. H. R. 
 
 8. Yet in herself she dwelleth not, 
 
 Although no home were half so fair ; 
 No simplest duty is forgot ; 
 Life hath no dim and lowly spot 
 
 That doth not in her sunshine share. 
 
 She doeth little kindnesses 
 
 Which most leave undone, or despise ; 
 
 For nought that sets one heart at ease, 
 
 And giveth happiness or peace, 
 Is low-esteemed in her eyes. 
 
 She hath no scorn of common things, 
 And, though she seem of other birth, 
 
 Round us her heart entwines and clings, 
 
 And patiently she folds her wings 
 To tread the humble paths of earth. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
FEBRUARY. 31 
 
 9. When people wish to say not how great a distance 
 they have to go in order to reach a certain place, but how 
 far it really is straight from point to point they say it is 
 so far, as the crow flies. Now, Polly, suppose you try to 
 do all you have to do " as the crow flies." Don't be like 
 the robin, which flew down, and then up again, and then 
 stopped, and considered, and fluttered about; but go on 
 patiently and steadily, " as the crow flies." 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. 
 
 We do nothing heartily and happily that we do not do 
 honestly, with a single eye and perfect self-reliance. 
 
 SUMNER ELLIS. 
 
 10. She looked real. Her bright hair was gathered up 
 loosely, with some graceful turn that showed its fine shin- 
 ing strands had all been freshly dressed and handled; 
 ... it was not packed and stuffed and matted and put 
 on like a pad or bolster, from the bump of benevolence, 
 all over that and everything else gentle and beautiful, down 
 to the bend of her neck; and her dress suggested always 
 some one simple idea which you could trace through it, in 
 its harmony, at a glance ; not complex and bewildering 
 and fatiguing with its many parts and folds and festoonings 
 and the garnishings of every one of these. She looked 
 more as young women used to look before it took a lady 
 with her dressmaker seven toilsome days to achieve a 
 " short street suit," and the public promenades became the 
 problems that they now are to the inquiring minds that 
 are forced to wonder who stops at home and does up all 
 the sewing, and where the hair all comes from. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
32 FEBRUARY. 
 
 11. Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a 
 woman whom the world calls beautiful. Through its " sil- 
 ver veil " the evil and ungentle passions looked out hideous 
 and hateful. On the other hand, there are faces which the 
 multitude at the first glance pronounce homely, unattract- 
 ive, and such as "Nature fashions by the gross," which I 
 always recognize with a warm heart-thrill ; not for the 
 world would I have one feature changed ; they please me 
 as they are ; they are hallowed by kind memories ; they 
 are beautiful through their associations ; nor are they any 
 the less welcome that with my admiration of them " the 
 stranger intermeddleth not." WHITTIER. 
 
 12. Nothing comes amiss in the great business of prep- 
 aration, if it has been thoroughly well learned. And the 
 strangest things come of use, too, at the strangest times. 
 A sailor teaches you to tie a knot when you are on a fishing 
 party, and you tie that knot the next time when you are 
 patching up the Emperor of Russia's carriage for him, in 
 a valley in the Ural Mountains. But " getting ready " does 
 not mean the piling in of a heap of accidental accomplish- 
 ments. It means sedulously examining the coming duty or 
 pleasure, imagining it even in its details, decreeing the ut- 
 most punctuality so far as you are concerned, and thus 
 entering upon them as a knight armed from head to foot. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success 
 depends at last upon yourself, trite to weariness, I 
 acknowledge, but one of those eternal truths to be kept 
 before us as we heed gravitation and appetite. The tritest 
 is always the truest. THEODORE T. HUNGER. 
 
FEBRUARY. 33 
 
 13. I cannot think but God must know 
 About the thing I long for so ; 
 I know He is so good, so kind, 
 I cannot think but He will find 
 Some way to help, some way to show 
 Me to the thing I long for so. 
 
 I stretch my hand it lies so near : 
 It looks so sweet, it looks so dear. 
 " Dear Lord," I pray, " Oh let me know 
 If it is wrong to want it so ? " 
 He only smiles, He does not speak ; 
 My heart grows weaker and more weak, 
 With looking at the thing so dear, 
 Which lies so far, and yet so near. 
 
 Now, Lord, I leave at Thy loved feet 
 This thing which looks so near, so sweet ; 
 I will not seek, I will not long, 
 I almost fear I have been wrong. 
 I'll go, and work the harder, Lord, 
 And wait till by some loud, clear word 
 Thou callest me to Thy loved feet, 
 To take this thing so dear, so sweet. 
 
 SAXE HOLM. 
 
 14. I have read and well I believe it, that a friend is in 
 prosperity a pleasure, in adversity a solace, in grief a com- 
 fort, in joy a merry companion, at all times another /, in 
 all places the express image of mine own person ; insomuch 
 that I cannot tell whether the immortal gods have bestowed 
 any gift upon mortal men, either more noble or more nec- 
 essary than friendship. LYLY'S " EUPHUES." 
 
34 FEBRUARY. 
 
 15. That she had faults we need not deny. But as an 
 example of one who, gifted with great powers, aspired only 
 to their noblest uses ; who, able to rule, sought rather to 
 counsel and to help, she deserves a place in the highest 
 niche of her country's affection. As a woman who believed 
 in women, her word is still an evangel of hope and inspira- 
 tion to her sex. Her heart belonged to all God's creatures, 
 and most to what is noblest in them. Gray-headed men of 
 to-day, the happy companions of her youth, grow young 
 again when they speak of her. One of these still recalls 
 her as the greatest soul he ever knew. Such a word, 
 spoken with the weight of ripe wisdom, may fitly indicate 
 to posterity the honor and reverence which belong to the 
 memory of Margaret Fuller. 
 
 JULIA WARD HOWE. 
 
 1 6. There is never a "Might-have-been" that touches 
 with a sting, but reveals also to us an inner glimpse of the 
 wide and beautiful " May-be." It is all there ; somebody 
 else has it now, while we wait. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 We know not, verily, that which is laid up for us. There 
 are such beautiful things put by. In God's house and in 
 God's time, there are such treasures. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 Hope unlocks the temple doors. Despair rusts the 
 keys. Each must know her own anxieties best ; but the 
 trials of all, we shall sometime see, are but bitter on the 
 outside, sweet and nourishing within. Believe in the some- 
 time. A. H. R. 
 
FEBRUARY. 35 
 
 17. What makes the " best society "of men and women ? 
 The noblest specimens of each, of course. The men who 
 mould the time, who refresh our faith in heroism and vir- 
 tue. . . The women, whose beauty, and sweetness, and 
 dignity, and high accomplishment, and grace, make us 
 understand the Greek mythology, and weaken our desire 
 to have some glimpse of the most famous women of his- 
 tory. The " best society " is that in which the virtues are 
 the most shining, which is the most charitable, forgiving, 
 long-suffering, modest, and innocent. The "best society " 
 is, by its very name, that in which there is the least hypoc- 
 risy and insincerity of all kinds, which recoils from, and 
 blasts, artificiality, which is anxious to be all that it is pos- 
 sible to be, and which sternly reprobates all shallow 
 pretence, all coxcombery and foppery and insists upon 
 simplicity as the infallible characteristic of true worth. 
 That is the " best society " which comprises the best men 
 and women. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 18. " You are seeking your own will, my daughter. 
 You are seeking some good other than the law you are 
 bound to obey. But how will you find good ? It is not a 
 thing of choice : it is a river that flows from the foot of 
 the Invisible Throne, and flows by the path of obedience. 
 I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may 
 choose to forsake your duties, and choose not to have the 
 sorrow they bring. But you will go forth ; and what will 
 you find, my daughter? Sorrow without duty bitter 
 herbs, and no bread with them. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
36 FEBRUARY. 
 
 19. ... The Mahomets, the Carlyles, the George 
 Eliots, need their Cadijahs, but not so much, I would say, 
 as do the people with whom we come in contact every day, 
 in common ways and common places. ... I deem it 
 true that deeper than the craving for health, or wealth, or 
 love, is the craving for recognition, the deep desire to be 
 known for what we truly are ; to hear from some human 
 lips our rightful name ... to hear this name, that at 
 last we may answer to it, and find and keep our undisputed 
 place. If you miss health, miss wealth, lose or lack love, 
 may you not miss the gift from another of divining faith in 
 you ; this faith which is, as is all faith, the gift of God. 
 The name of every Cadijah is also Theodora. 
 
 ROSE E. CLEVELAND. 
 
 20. Live for something. Do good and leave behind 
 you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never 
 destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on 
 the hearts of thousands you come in contact with, year by 
 year: you will never be forgotten . . . your name, 
 your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave be- 
 hind as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds 
 will shine as the stars of heaven. CHALMERS. 
 
 There is nothing no, nothing innocent or good that 
 dies and is forgotten ; let us hold to that faith or none. 
 An infant, a prattling child, dying in the cradle will live 
 again in the better thoughts of those that loved it, and play 
 its part through them in redeeming actions of the world, 
 though its body be burnt to ashes, or drowned in the deep 
 sea - DICKENS. 
 
FEBRUARY. 37 
 
 21. Whatever it be that keeps the finer faculties of the 
 mind awake, wonder alive, and the interest above mere 
 eating and drinking, money-making and money-saving ; 
 whatever it be that gives gladness, or sorrow, or hope, 
 this, be it violin, pencil, pen, or, highest of all, the love of 
 woman, is simply a divine gift of holy influence for the 
 salvation of that being to whom it comes, for the lifting 
 of him out of the mire and upon the rock. For it keeps 
 a way open for the entrance of deeper, holier, grander in- 
 fluences emanating from the same riches of the Godhead. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 22. Pamela, who that day having wearied her selfe with 
 reading . . . was working upon a purse certaine roses 
 and lillies. . . . The flowers shee had wrought caried 
 such life in them, that the cunningest painter might have 
 learned of her needle : which, with so pretty a manner, 
 made his careers to & fro through the cloth, as if the 
 needle itselfe would haue been loth to haue gone fromward 
 such a mistresse, but that it hoped to returne thitherward 
 very quickly againe ; the clothe looking with many eyes 
 vpon her, and louingly embracing the wounds she gaue it ; 
 the sheares also were at hand to behead thesilke that was 
 growne too short. And if at any time shee put her mouth 
 to bite it off, it seemed, that where she had beene long in 
 making of a rose with her hands, she would in an instant 
 make roses with her lips; -as the lillies seemed to haue 
 their whitenesse rather of the hand that made them, than 
 of the matter whereof they were made ; that they grew 
 there by the suns of her eyes, and were refreshed by the 
 most . . . comfortable ayre, which an unawares sigh 
 might bestow upon them. PHILIP SIDNEY. 
 
38 FEBRUARY. 
 
 23. Be but faithful, that is all. 
 
 Go right on y and close behind thee, 
 There shall follow still andyfo^ thee, 
 Help, sure help ! 
 
 ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. 
 
 When Douglas was carrying the heart of Bruce in the 
 silver case, to bury it in the Holy Land, he was attacked 
 by a body of Turks, and finding the result somewhat 
 doubtful he took the silver case and flung it among the 
 ranks of the enemy, saying, " O brave heart of Bruce ! go 
 foward as you have ever done, and I will follow." Take 
 the beating heart of Christ and throw it among your tempt- 
 ations, and follow where that leads, by its divine impulses, 
 by its eternal recognition of that which alone is right, and 
 good and true. CHAPIN. 
 
 24. Expression is the loftiest and the final charm in 
 every human face. While it is right, indeed a heavenly 
 intuition, to desire beauty, and while attention to the laws 
 of hygiene, good taste, and good behavior mightily con- 
 duce to it, heavenly thoughts are the only sure rceipe for 
 a countenance of heavenly expression. St. Cecilia heard 
 the music of the upper courts, and hence her face mirrors 
 its ethereal loveliness. It is not only true that prayer will 
 cause a man to cease from sinning, even as sin will cause a 
 man to cease from prayer, but" it is also true that no heart 
 can be lifted up toward God as a lily lifts its chalice to the 
 sun, without the face beaming with a light which never 
 shone on sea or shore, but which reflects the shekinah of 
 the upper sanctuary. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
FEBRUARY. 39 
 
 25. The tendency to persevere, to persist in spite of 
 hindrances, discouragements, and impossibilities it is 
 this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the 
 weak. CARLYLE. 
 
 Near the close of the Middle Ages there lived in Spain 
 a girl whose persistent efforts after reforms in the Catho- 
 lic religion, and whose endeavors after a pure and conse- 
 crated life, made people call her in after-times " Saint 
 Theresa." So noble was her devotion to truth, so perse- 
 vering her endeavor for charity's sake, that even her 
 bodily infirmities and her poverty had to succumb to her 
 iofty purposes. When founding the Carmelite Convent 
 of Toledo, she was taunted with the harsh fact that she 
 had only four ducats to begin her work of mercy. But she 
 replied to the reproach by saying, " Theresa and this money 
 are indeed nothing ; but God and Theresa and four ducats 
 can accomplish anything." A. H. R. 
 
 26. The want of occupation is no less the plague of 
 society than of solitude. ROUSSEAU. 
 
 You just take hold of something and try. You'll find 
 there's always a working alongside. Put up your sails and 
 the wind will fill 'em. MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 Absorbing occupation was with Mme. de Stae'l, as it is 
 with all energetic minds, a necessary condition of content- 
 ment and of mental health. " I see," she says, " that 
 time divided is never long, and that regularity abridges all 
 things." ABEL STEVENS. 
 
40 FEBRUARY. 
 
 27. But our school-girl is largely occupied with becom- 
 ing " a young lady." She may lose sight of her intention 
 by and by, when she enters Lassell, or Wellesley, or Vas- 
 sar ; but at present, especially if she be a village girl, she 
 does not know even the joyous restful weariness of a long 
 vigorous walk, much less would she run. . . . Very 
 likely treasures of flowers, rare plants, minerals, birds, and 
 beautiful landscape views, illustrating the sciences and 
 literature she is industriously studying in-doors, lie all 
 about her, among the hills and woods, within walking dis- 
 tance. But she is none the richer. She and a friend, arm 
 in arm, frequently " promenade ; " she stands about in 
 groups, she returns calls, she goes shopping, she wears 
 high French heels, and wears them, too, as nearly as may 
 be, under her insteps. She has been known to visit the 
 chiropodist. MARY J. SAFFORD. M. D. 
 
 28. If you are to see clearly all your life, you must not 
 sacrifice eyesight by over-straining it; and the same law 
 of moderation is the condition of preserving every other 
 faculty. I want you to know the exquisite taste of common 
 dry bread; to enjoy the perfume of a larch wood at a dis- 
 tance ; to feel delight when a sea-wave dashes over you. 
 I want your eye to be so sensitive that it shall discern the 
 faintest tones of a gray cloud, and yet so strong that it 
 shall bear to gaze on a white one in the dazzling glory of 
 sunshine. I would have your hearing sharp enough to de- 
 tect the music of the spheres, if it were but audible, and 
 yet your nervous system robust enough to endure the 
 shock of the guns on an ironclad. To have and keep 
 these powers, we need a firmness of self-government that 
 is rare, HAMERTON. 
 
MARCH. 
 
 1. Ah ! March ! we know thou art 
 Kind-hearted, spite of ugly looks and threats, 
 And, out of sight, art nursing violets. 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 Nearer and ever nearer 
 
 Drawing with every day ! 
 But a little longer to wait and watch 
 
 'Neath skies so cold and gray ; 
 
 And hushed is the roar of the bitter north 
 
 Before the might of the spring, 
 And up the frozen slope of the world 
 
 Climbs Summer, triumphing. 
 
 CELIA THAXTER. 
 
 2. If books cost in proportion to their grade or value, 
 or if the higher levels of composition and creation were, of 
 necessity, so written that they could be understood only by 
 severe application, like that of learning a foreign language, 
 or the higher mathematics, how would society be affected 
 with a fresh and worthy sense of the privilege of books 
 and reading ! If only the aristocracy of wealth could buy 
 Dante and the Waverley Novels, and the literature of the 
 age of Elizabeth, or could read of Copernicus, or Her- 
 schell's astromony, or could own the Prophets and the 
 four Gospels ! 
 
 No, we do not say the empire of letters, the kingdom 
 of letters, the aristocracy or oligarchy of letters, but the 
 republic of letters. T. STARR KING. 
 
42 MARCH. 
 
 3. I know the Miss Osbornes were excellent critics of 
 a cashmere shawl, or a pink satin slip ; and when Miss 
 Turner had hers dyed purple, and made into a spencer ; 
 and when Miss Pickford had her ermine tippet twisted 
 into a muff and trimmings, I warrant you the changes did 
 not escape the two intelligent young women before men- 
 tioned. But there are things, look you, of a finer texture 
 than fur or satin, and all Solomon's glories, and all the 
 wardrobe of the Queen of Sheba; things whereof the 
 beauty escapes the eye of many connoisseurs. And there 
 are sweet modest little souls on which you light, fragrant 
 and blooming tenderly in quiet shady places ; and there 
 are garden-ornaments, as big as brass warming-pans, that 
 are fit to stare the sun itself out of countenance. 
 
 THACKERAY. 
 
 4. In very truth, Mary Marston was already immeasur- 
 ably more of a lady than Hesper Mortimer was ever likely 
 to be in this world. What was the stateliness and pride 
 of the one compared to the fact that the other would have 
 died in the work-house or on the street rather than let a 
 man she did not love embrace her. To be a martyr to a 
 He is but false ladyhood. There was nothing striking 
 about her; she made no such sharp impression on the 
 mind as compelled one to think of her again ; yet always, 
 when one had been long enough in her company to feel 
 the charm of her individuality, the very quiet of any quiet 
 moment was enough to bring back the sweetness of Mary's 
 twilight presence. For this girl, who spent her days be- 
 hind a counter, was one of the spiritual forces at work for 
 the conservation and recovery of the universe. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
MARCH. 43 
 
 5. I should have a small book-case, just one shelf, and 
 on it I should arrange the biographies of those women 
 who represent the best lives in all positions and callings. 
 I should select not perfect women they cannot be found 
 but I should choose such as have been ideally brave, 
 faithful, industrious and true to the duty which lay closest 
 to them. I should want them to represent what woman 
 has done in religion, literature, science, art, history, as well 
 as in domestic industries, in philanthropy and in the home. 
 But, mind you, girls, I should not always prefer the lives 
 of those women about whose feet the world has cast the 
 most crowns. A. H. R. 
 
 That which is ideally beautiful or strong in men and 
 women imparts courage to us who learn about them ; but 
 there are brave and gentle lives, surrounded by debasing 
 circumstances, which the world only too rarely exhalts. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 6. Patience and struggle. An earnest use of what we 
 have now, and, all the time, an earnest discontent until 
 we come to what we ought to be. Are not these what we 
 need ? What, in their rich union, we could not get, except 
 in just such a life as this with its delayed completions ? 
 Jesus does not blame Peter when he impetuously begs that 
 he may follow Him now. He bids him wait and he shall 
 follow Him some day. But we can see that the value of 
 his waiting lies in the certainty that he shall follow, and 
 the value of his following, when it comes, will lie in the 
 fact that he has waited. So, if we take all Christ's culture, 
 we are sure that our life on earth may get already the 
 inspiration of the heaven for which we are training, and 
 our life in heaven may keep forever the blessing of the 
 earth in which we were trained. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
44 MARCH. 
 
 7. She looks through life, and with a balance just 
 
 Weighs men and things, beholding as they are 
 The lives of others : in the common dust 
 
 She finds the fragments of the ruined star : 
 Proud, with a pride all feminine and sweet, 
 
 No path can soil the whiteness of her feet. 
 
 The steady candor of her gentle eyes, 
 Strikes dead deceit, laughs vanity away; 
 
 She hath no room for petty jealousies, 
 
 Where Faith and Love divide their tender sway. 
 
 Of either sex she owns the nobler part : 
 
 Man's honest brow and woman's faithful heart. 
 BAYARD TAYLOR. 
 
 8. " They are in God's hands," answered Falconer. 
 " He hasn't done with them yet. Shall it take less time 
 to make a woman than to make a world ? Is not the 
 woman the greater? She may have her ages of chaos, 
 her centuries of crawling slime, yet rise a woman at last." 
 
 " It always comes back upon me, as if I had never known 
 it before, that women like some of those were of the first 
 to understand our Lord." GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 Not to the shorn lamb alone, always are sharp winds 
 beneficently tempered. There is mercy, also, to the mis- 
 erable wolf. MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 What's done we partly may compute, 
 But know not what's resisted. BURNS. 
 Yet to the worst despair that comes through sin 
 God's light shall reach at last. 
 
 CELT A THAXTER. 
 
MARCH. 45 
 
 9. " I have had no exact system with my niece Rosa- 
 mund. Perhaps I have erred in this. But I should be 
 grieved to see her losing unconsciousness and fearlessness. 
 She has never learned to be afraid. I should be pained 
 if she should begin to think much about evil, even for the 
 purpose of avoiding it. I have always had the idea, that, 
 although I myself, as a girl, was far from a headstrong, 
 impetuous, brilliant character, had anyone said to me, 
 4 Young girl, here is a pleasant garden, where you may 
 play, and here is a great, mysterious wall, with something 
 highly interesting beyond, which you must not see or think 
 about making daisy-chains would have palled upon me 
 at last ; and, though I might not have actually ventured 
 on the forbidden ground, I am very sure I should at least 
 have found a ladder, climbed up, and peeped over the wall 
 to my heart's content." BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
 10. Work, then, girls ! Work for pleasure, work for 
 profit ! Work for the health of your bodies, and the 
 health of your souls ! " You will find that the mere re- 
 solve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other 
 people, will, in the quickest and most delicate ways, 
 improve yourselves." ..." When men are rightly 
 occupied their amusement grows out of their work, as the 
 color petals out of a fruitful flower ; when they are faith- 
 fully helpful and compassionate, all their emotions become 
 steady, deep, perpetual, and vivifying to the soul as the 
 natural pulse to the body." 
 
 To these great truths of Ruskin add these bits of warn- 
 ing : whatever your work is, be not impatient for great 
 results. Go slowly, remembering the necessity for thor- 
 oughness and for bringing your strongest action to bear 
 upon the important points. A. H. R. 
 
46 MARCH. 
 
 11. There is such an expression used as "society man- 
 ners." Alice and Phebe Gary had no manner for society 
 more charming in the slightest particular, than they had 
 for each other. No pun ever came into Phebe's head too 
 bright to be flashed over Alice, and Alice had no gentle- 
 ness for strangers which she withheld from Phebe. The 
 perfect gentlewomen which they were in the parlor, they 
 were always, under every circumstance. There was not a 
 servant in the house, who, in his or her place, was not 
 treated with as absolute a politeness as a guest in the par- 
 lor. This spirit of perfect breeding penetrated every word 
 and act of the household. What Alice and Phebe Gary 
 were in their drawing-room, they were always in the abso- 
 lute privacy of their lives. Each obeyed one inflexible 
 l aw - MARY CLEMMER. 
 
 12. To sleep well is one of your duties. Do not culti- 
 vate, do not permit, any of the sentimental nonsense which 
 speaks as if sleep were a matter of chance, or were out of 
 your control. You must sleep well, if you mean to do the 
 rest well. You must have body and mind in good working 
 order ; and they will not be in good working order, unless 
 you sleep regularly, steadily, and enough. Do not place 
 any confidence in the old laws which limit the amount of 
 sleep. There are such old lines as " six hours sleep for a 
 maid, and seven hours sleep for a man." Take all you 
 need. . . . The rule is correlative to the rule for work. 
 Thomas Drew stated it thus : " You have no right in any 
 day to incur more fatigue than the sleep of the next night 
 
 will recover from." 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
MARCH. 47 
 
 13. The old, old story ; yet I kneel 
 
 To tell it at Thy call ; 
 And cares grow lighter as I feel 
 
 My Father knows them all. 
 Yes, all ! The morning and the night, 
 
 The joy, the grief, the loss, 
 The roughened path, the sunbeam bright, 
 
 The hourly thorn and cross. 
 
 And He has loved me ! All my heart 
 
 With answering love is stirred ; 
 And every anguished pain and smart 
 
 Finds healing in the word. 
 So here I lay me down to rest, 
 
 As nightly shadows fall, 
 And lean, confiding, on His breast, 
 
 Who knows and pities all ! ANON. 
 
 14. At sixteen or eighteen, or perhaps at twenty, a girl 
 can toss a jaunty little felt hat upon her head, pin it in a 
 twinkling above her wayward hair, tie on a bit of blue or 
 red somewhere about her blouse, brush her short walking- 
 skirt into becoming folds, tie up her tennis shoes, and there 
 she is in five minutes, prettier, fresher, more becomingly 
 dressed than all the older women of the household, who 
 have been standing before the mirror trying this effect and 
 that for the last hour. Ask a girl how she does it, how 
 she manages to make her hat bend down and up, and in 
 and out, in all kinds of alluring ways, and she does not 
 know, it belongs to girls to do such things. Of course 
 it does ! A. H. R. 
 
48 MARCH. 
 
 15. Leslie was different, in some things, from the little 
 world of girls about her. . . . She was like a bit of 
 fresh, springing, delicate vine in a bouquet of bright simi- 
 larly beautiful flowers ; taking little free curves and reaches 
 of her own, just as she had grown ; not tied, nor placed, 
 nor constrained ; never the central or most brilliant thing ; 
 but somehow a kind of life and grace that helped and 
 touched and perfected all. 
 
 There was something very real and individual about 
 her ; she was no " girl of the period," made up by the 
 fashion of the day. She would have grown just as a rose 
 or a violet would, the same in the first quarter of the cen- 
 tury or the third. They called her " grandmotherly " 
 sometimes, when a certain quaint primitiveness that was 
 in her showed itself. And yet she was the youngest girl 
 in all that set, as to simpleness and freshness and unpre- 
 tendingness, though she was in her twentieth year now, 
 which sounds so very old ! Adelaide Marchbanks used 
 to say of her that she " stayed fifteen." 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 16. So I am content to tell my simple story, without 
 trying to make things seem better than they were ; dread- 
 ing nothing, indeed, but falsity, which, in spite of one's 
 best efforts, there is reason to dread. Falsehood is so 
 easy, truth so difficult. Examine your words well, and 
 you will firid that even when you have no motive to be 
 false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even 
 about your own immediate feelings, much harder than 
 to say something fine about them which is not the exact 
 truth. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
MARCH. 49 
 
 17. Great men and great causes have always some 
 helper of whom the outside world knows but little. Some- 
 times these helpers have been men, sometimes they have 
 been women, who have given themselves to help and 
 strengthen those called upon to be leaders and workers, in- 
 spiring them with courage, keeping faith in their own idea 
 alive, in days of darkness. Of this noble company of 
 unknown helpers Caroline Herschel was one. She stood 
 beside her brother, William Herschel, sharing his labors, 
 helping his life. . . She became his assistant in the 
 workshop ; she helped him to grind and polish his mir- 
 rors ; she stood beside his telescope in the nights of mid- 
 winter, to write down his observations, when the very ink 
 was frozen. She kept him alive by her care; thinking 
 nothing of herself, she lived for him. She loved him, be- 
 lieved in him, and helped him, with all her heart and with 
 all her strength. MRS< J OHN HERSCHEL. 
 
 18. It was a lovely day. The sun shone so warm that 
 you could not help thinking of what he would be able to 
 do before long draw primroses and buttercups out of 
 the earth by force of sweet persuasive influences. But in 
 the shadows lay fine webs and laces of ice, so delicately 
 lovely that one could not but be glad of the cold that made 
 the water able to please itself by taking such graceful 
 forms. And I wondered over again for the hundredth 
 time, what could be the principle which, in the wildest, 
 most lawless, fantastically chaotic, apparently capricious 
 work of nature, always kept it beautiful. The beauty of 
 holiness must be at the heart of it somehow, I thought. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
50 MARCH. 
 
 19. "I do not object to plain, pure sugar candies, if 
 eaten as a dessert now and then," said I, much to their 
 surprise. " The flavoring and coloring are often mis- 
 chievous. Keep that in mind. Still I rather you would 
 give candies the go-by along with the peppers and limes, 
 and get your positive sweets and sours from fruits. Let 
 an orange before breakfast be your only between-meal in- 
 dulgence. When once you have gained an appetite for 
 healthy foods, the idea of food between meals will be 
 actually repugnant to you. And don't you know that your 
 stomach is bound to take hold of food and try to digest it 
 just as soon and just as often as any is offered it? You 
 will feel very different then from head to foot when your 
 stomach is allowed its rightful and regular rests. This 
 precaution alone will help you to a good appetite in time." 
 
 MARY J. S AFFORD, M. D. 
 
 20. You may be poor ; you may lead lives of struggle ; 
 your occupations may run counter to many of the natural 
 delights of youth ; you may see no relief, no outlook to a 
 tedious and dull routine. Well, bear it all, and bate no 
 jot of heart or hope ; for, in spite of it all, you need never 
 fail. 
 
 Be good and do good, and you will have won something 
 better than a fortune or a coronet. To do this may not 
 save you from abuse, or opposition, or earthly loss ; but if 
 this and a thousand other calamities come upon you, you 
 will be at the promontory, at whose base the tide-waves 
 break in vain. Look, I say, at the cross of Christ, and 
 study all that it means, and you will understand the mean- 
 ing of your life. CANON FARRAR. 
 
MARCH. 51 
 
 21. Small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble 
 
 BOVEE. 
 
 Courtesy in the mistress of a house consists in feeding 
 conversation, never in usurping it. She is the guardian of 
 this species of sacred fire, but it must be accessible to all. 
 
 MME. SWETCHINE. 
 
 The innocent and kindly little arts that make some peo- 
 ple as useful and beloved as good fairy god-mothers were 
 once upon a time. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 Fuller says, that " William, Earl of Nassau, won a sub- 
 ject from the King of Spain, every time he put off his hat. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 22. " Girls are such enthusiasts ! " Of course they are, 
 my friend. That's what I like in them enthusiasm. 
 The sad thing is that it oozes out when they become women. 
 
 " Yes, and they always solemnly determine they will do 
 something grand, and then down they come, everyone of 
 'em to the commonplace ! " Well, housekeeping, a mother's 
 cares, teaching, spinning, writing may be common enough, 
 but I do not like to have the best things the most nec- 
 essary called commonplace. It makes them seem triv- 
 ial. So, I say, girls, carry your enthusiasm into every one 
 of them, no matter if you never rise to distinction. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm ; it is the real 
 allegory of the tale of Orpheus it moves stones, it 
 charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, 
 and truth accomplishes no victories without it. 
 
 BULWER. 
 
52 MARCH. 
 
 23. Books give to all who will faithfully use them, the 
 society and the 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 learned men and poets will enter and take up 
 their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my 
 threshold and sing to me of Paradise ; and Shakespeare 
 open to me the world of imagination and the workings of 
 the human heart; and Franklin enrich me with his practi- 
 cal 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. Nothing can supply the place of books. 
 
 CHANNING. 
 
 24. " To look up and not down ; 
 To look forward and not back ; 
 To look out and not in ; 
 
 And 
 To lend a hand." 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 You never miss an opportunity of giving innocent pleas- 
 ure, or helping another soul on the path to God, but you 
 are taking away from yourselves forever what might have 
 been a happy memory, and leaving in its place pain or 
 remorse. FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
 Every individual has a place in the world, and is im- 
 portant in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or 
 not. HAWTHORNE. 
 
 Everybody has a way of living ; if you can get into it, 
 everyone is as good as a story. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
MARCH. 53 
 
 25. I confess that the evening talk over the dessert at 
 dinner is much more entertaining and piquant than the 
 morning paper, and often as important. There is no en- 
 tertainment so full of quiet pleasure as the hearing a lady 
 of culture and refinement relate her day's experience in her 
 daily round of calls, charitable visits, shopping, errands of 
 relief and condolence. I don't mean gossip, by any means, 
 or scandal. A woman of culture skims over that like a 
 bird, never touching it with the tip of a wing. What she 
 brings home is the freshness and brightness of life. She 
 touches everything so daintily, she hits off a character in 
 a sentence, she gives the pith of a dialogue without tedious- 
 ness, she mimics without vulgarity ; her narration sparkles 
 but it doesn't sting. The picture of her day is full of vi- 
 vacity, and it gives new value and freshness to common 
 things. CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 
 
 26. " A commonplace life " we say and we sigh, 
 
 Yet why should we sigh as we say ? 
 The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky 
 
 Makes up the commonplace day. 
 The moon and the stars are commonplace things, 
 And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings, 
 Yet dark were the world and sad our lot, 
 If the flower failed, or the sun shone not ; 
 And God who studies each separate soul, 
 Out of commonplace lives makes his beautiful 
 
 whole. SUSAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 Nor knowest thou what argument 
 Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 
 All are needed by each one ; 
 Nothing is fair or good alone. EMERSON. 
 
54 MARCH. 
 
 27. Reverence the highest, have patience with the low- 
 est. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty be 
 thy religion. Are the stars too distant, pick up the pebble 
 that lies at thy feet, and from it learn the all. 
 
 MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. 
 
 Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the mar- 
 ket, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as 
 faithfully as if we stood in the first rank of some great 
 battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended 
 upon our bravery, strength and skill. 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Faithfulness in little things fits one for heroism when 
 the great trials come. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 28. If you want to know people you must get near 
 them ; first get down to their level, and then bring them 
 up to yours, not waiting for any great occasion, or a more 
 direct revelation, but taking advantage of small opportu- 
 nities, and making your influence felt in quiet, unobtrusive 
 ways. 
 
 There is always some one to smile at, somebody to give 
 your chair to, somebody to whom a book, a flower, or even 
 an old paper, will be a boon. These small attentions will 
 open the way to confidence, will make it possible that in 
 need these friends will give you opportunities to help them 
 which, unless you had shown thoughtfulness and regard 
 for them, they could never have done. A quiet, sympa- 
 thetic look or smile many a time unbars a heart that needs 
 help which you can give. JOSEPHINE POLLARD, 
 
MARCH. 55 
 
 29. Ask the labourer in the field, at the forge, or in the 
 mine ; ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or the 
 strong-armed, fiery-hearted worker in bronze, and in mar^ 
 ble, and with the colours of light ; and none of these, who 
 are true workmen, will ever tell you, that they have found 
 the law of heaven an unkind one that in the sweat of 
 their face they should eat bread, till they return to the 
 ground ; nor that they ever found it an unrewarded obe- 
 dience, if, indeed, it was rendered faithfully to the com- 
 mand " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with 
 thy might." RUSKIN. 
 
 30. Every considerate word we utter concerning those 
 about us ; every time we give them the benefit of a doubt 
 in our judgment of their motive ; every time we take occa- 
 sion to couple with our demurrer from their position some 
 saving clause of appreciation, we are habituating ourselves 
 to that charity which " suffereth long and is kind." 
 
 Just as you now play a piece without the music and do 
 not think what notes you strike, though once you picked 
 them out by slow and patient toil, so if you begin of set 
 purpose, you will learn the law of kindness in utterance so 
 perfectly, that it will be second nature to you, and make 
 more music in your life than all the songs the sweetest 
 voice has ever sung. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 If a good face is a letter of recommendation, a good 
 heart is a letter of credit. BULWER. 
 
 Keep thyself simple, good, pure, kind, and affectionate. 
 Make thyself all simplicity. 
 
 MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
56 MARCH. 
 
 31. Why does the moaning of the storm give me pleas- 
 ure ? Methinks because it puts to rout the trivialness of 
 our fair-weather life, and gives it, at least, a tragic interest. 
 The sound has the effect of a pleasing challenge to call 
 forth our energy to resist the invaders of our life's territory. 
 It is as musical and thrilling as the sound of an enemy's 
 bugle. Our spirits revive like lichens in a storm. There 
 is something worth living for when we are resisted, threat- 
 ened. . . . If it were not for physical cold how should 
 we have discovered the warmth of the affections ? I some- 
 times feel that I need to sit in a far-away cave through a 
 three weeks' storm, cold and wet, to give a tone to my 
 system. The spring has its windy March to usher it in, 
 with many soaking rains reaching into April. 
 
 THOREAU. 
 
APRIL. 
 
 1. " Oh, keep me innocent ; make others great ! " 
 Those words were written by Queen Caroline Matilda of 
 Denmark, with a diamond, on her window in the castle of 
 Freudsborg ; and, could we but live in that spirit, many a 
 one might be saved from such bitter disappointment as 
 makes men well-nigh wish that they had never been born. 
 The jewel of innocence is more than a crown. 
 
 CANON FARRAR. 
 
 " My children, beware of popularity ; it is a delusion and 
 a snare ; it puffeth up the heart of man, and especially of 
 woman ; it blindeth the eyes to faults ; it exalteth unduly 
 the humble powers of the victim ; it is apt to be capri- 
 cious ; and just as one gets to liking the taste of this intox- 
 icating draught, it suddenly faileth, and one is left gasping 
 like a fish out of water." LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 2. Yes, I believe in ideals. Some of us will owe our suc- 
 cess, our worth to them. I would not have Joan of Arc's 
 life-story changed in the least, and I hope historians will 
 never become so critical as to erase her name from the 
 books as they have William Tell's. But I believe this, 
 too, that, among our friends, ideals which grow upon us 
 are far sweeter and more helpful than those recommended 
 by a first glance. I believe that a girl ought to pass 
 quickly through a state of infatuation, blind adoration of a 
 mortal, that she ought to allow some chance for faults, and 
 some room for loving others too, then she will save herself 
 from future disgust and make raillery against the friend- 
 ships of girls cease. A. H. R. 
 
 57 
 
58 APRIL. 
 
 3. It comes far easier to scold our friend in an angry 
 moment than to say how much we love, honor, and esteem 
 him in a kindly mood. Wrath and bitterness speak them- 
 selves and go with their own force ; love is shamefaced, 
 looks shyly out of the window, lingers long at the door 
 latch. 
 
 I hate is said loud and with all our force. I love is said 
 v/ith a hesitating voice and blushing cheek. 
 
 In an angry mood we do an injury to a loving heart 
 with good, strong, free emphasis ; but we stammer and 
 hang back when our diviner nature tells us to confess and 
 ask pardon. Even when our heart is broken with repent- 
 ance, we haggle and linger long before we can 
 Throw away the worser part. 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 4. Her air, her smile, her motions, told 
 
 Of womanly completeness ; 
 A music as of household songs 
 Was in her voice of sweetness. 
 
 Not beautiful in curve and line, 
 
 But something more and better, 
 The secret charm eluding art, 
 
 Its spirit, not its letter ; 
 
 An inborn grace that nothing lacked 
 
 Of culture or appliance, 
 The warmth of genial courtesy, 
 
 The calm of self-reliance. 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
APRIL. 59 
 
 5. It's good to put a bother away over night. It all 
 straightens out in the morning. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 The best thing to take people out of their own worries 
 is to go to work and find out how other folks' worries are 
 getting on. MRS. A. D. T." WHITNEY. 
 
 It will all come out somehow. It has got to, you know. 
 Things always do, they can't stay up in arms. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 Look on other lives beside your own ; see what their 
 troubles are, and how they are borne. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 6. One cowslip, though it shows the yellow, is not 
 fairly out, but will be by to-morrow. How they improve 
 their time. Not a moment of sunshine is lost. One thing 
 I may depend on, there has been no idling with the flowers. 
 Nature loses not a moment, takes no vacation. They 
 advance as steadily as a clock. These plants now protected 
 by the water, are just peeping forth. I should not be sur- 
 prised to find that they drew in their heads in a frosty 
 night. THOREAU. 
 
 The year's at the spring, 
 And day's at the morn ; 
 Morning's at seven ; 
 The hill-side's dew-pearled ; 
 The lark's on the wing ; 
 The snail's on the thorn ; 
 God's in His heaven 
 All's right with the world. 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
60 APRIL. 
 
 7. It is just as bad, when you are talking to another 
 girl, or another girl's mother, if you take to watching her 
 hair, or the way she trimmed her frock, instead of watching 
 what she is saying as if that were really what you and she 
 are talking for. I could name to you young women who 
 seem to go into society for the purpose of studying the 
 milliner's business. It is a very good business, and a very 
 proper business to study in the right place. I know some 
 very good girls who would be much improved, and whose 
 husbands would be a great deal happier, if they would 
 study it to more purpose than they do. But do not study 
 it while you are talking. No, not if the Empress Eu- 
 genie herself should be talking to you. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 8. If Christ had to be made perfect by sufferings, much 
 more must we. If he needed to learn obedience by sorrow, 
 much more must we. If he needed, in the days of his 
 flesh, to make supplication to God his Father with strong 
 crying and tears, so do we. And if he was heard in that 
 he feared, so I trust, we shall be heard likewise. If he 
 needed to taste even the most horrible misery of all ; to 
 feel for a moment that God had forsaken him ; surely we 
 must expect, if we are to be made like him, to have to 
 drink at least one drop out of his bitter cup. It is very 
 wonderful : but yet it is full of hope and comfort, to be 
 able, in our darkest and bitterest sorrow, to look up to 
 heaven and say, " At least there is one who has been 
 through all this." CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 Sorrow is often misquoted. It is only one step in a 
 long journey, one stage in a long growth. A. S. HARDY. 
 
APRIL. 6 1 
 
 9. " And the three Marys brought precious spices to 
 anoint our Lord. Take good heed now, my dear sisters ; 
 these three Marys denote three bitternesses, as the name 
 signifieth. The first bitterness is remorse and making 
 amends for sin, and this is the first Mary, Mary Magdalene, 
 for she in great bitterness of heart left off her sins and 
 turned to our Lord. The second bitterness is in wrestling 
 and struggling against temptation, and this is that other 
 Mary, the mother of Jacob, which meaneth wrestling. 
 This wrestling is very bitter to many who are well ad- 
 vanced in the way to heaven, for they still waver in tempt- 
 ation. And the third bitterness consists in longing for 
 heaven and weariness of this world, when one is of such 
 piety that his heart is at rest with the war of vice, and is 
 as it were in the gates of heaven, where all worldly things 
 seem bitter to him. And this bitterness is to be under- 
 stood by the third Mary, Mary Salome, which signifieth 
 peace." A. S. HARDY. 
 
 10. Soeur Marie bent her head over her book as she 
 read. All her thoughts were there. " But now observe 
 here, my dear sisters, how after bitterness cometh sweet- 
 ness. Bitterness buyeth it, for, as the Gospel saith, these 
 three Marys brought sweet-smelling spices to anoint our 
 Lord. By spices, which are sweet, is to be understood 
 the sweetness of a devout heart. These three Marys buy 
 it, that is, through bitterness we arrive at sweetness. So 
 saith God's dear spouse, I will go to the hill of frankin- 
 cense by the mountain of myrrh. Observe : which is the 
 way to the sweetness of frankincense ? By the myrrh of 
 bitterness." A. S. HARDY. 
 
62 APRIL. 
 
 1 1. The best sort of bravery, the courage to do right. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspira- 
 tions. I cannot reach them, but I can look up and see 
 their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they 
 lead. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 O power to do ! O baffled will ! 
 
 O prayer and action ! ye are one 
 Who may not strive, may yet fulfil 
 The harder task of standing still, 
 
 And good but wished with God is done. 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 And having done all, to stand. 
 Stand, therefore. ST. PAUL. 
 
 12. Oh! Nature is so modest! But once set her talk- 
 ing, she will forget your presence, and babble like the 
 brook. How much she has told the poets, and the men 
 of science ! How much she will tell you, too, if you but 
 heed her ! 
 
 Ah, girls, what slight attention we have, in reality, 
 shown to Nature ! We treat her more like a servant than 
 a friend and companion. The desire for excitement has 
 turned our minds to vainer subjects. The struggles which 
 our elders have made for money and position have deprived 
 them of chances for regarding natural objects. However 
 deplorable this may be, it is a still more lamentable fact, 
 that you, dear girls, give so little heed to Nature, you 
 who have time and to spare. It lies with you to cultivate 
 this love for the natural world, that future generations 
 may be more mindful of it. A. H. R. 
 
APRIL. 63 
 
 13. Beauty of achievement, whether in overcoming a 
 hasty temper, a habit of exaggeration, in exploring a con- 
 tinent with Stanley, or guiding well the ship of state with 
 Gladstone, is always fascinating, and whether known in a 
 circle large as the equator or only in the family circle at 
 home, those who are in this fashion beautiful are never 
 desolate, and some one always loves them. Beauty of 
 reputation is a mantle of spotless ermine in which if you 
 are but enwrapped you shall receive the homage of those 
 about you, as real, as ready, and as spontaneous as any 
 ever paid to personal beauty in its most powerful hour. 
 Some sort of reputation you must have, whether you will 
 or no. In school, in church, at home, and in society, you 
 carry ever with you the wings of a good, or the ball and 
 chain of a bad reputation. Resolve to make it beautiful, 
 clean, shining, gracious. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 14. (i.) Read first the one or two great standard 
 works in each department of literature. 
 
 ( 2. ) Confine, then, your reading to that department 
 which suits the particular bent of your minds. 
 
 1. Before you begin to peruse a book, know something 
 about the author. 
 
 2. Read the preface carefully. 
 
 3. Take a comprehensive survey of the table of con- 
 tents. 
 
 4. Give your whole attention to whatever you read. 
 
 5. Be sure to note the most valuable passages. 
 
 6. Write out, in your own language, a summary of the 
 facts you have noted. 
 
 7. Apply the results of your reading to your every-day 
 duties. DAVID PRYDE. 
 
64 APRIL. 
 
 15. Observe, only observe! and curiosity will press for 
 you the very secrets out of the woods, the streams, the 
 skies. Look around you ! There is such an infinite num- 
 ber of objects to consider right about your own porch-door, 
 the lichens on the door-stone, the apple-tree shading 
 the path, the striped pebble that you kick aside, the plant 
 pressing up between the boards, the dew shimmering on 
 the weed. Investigate all your surroundings, especially 
 the small, neglected places, and try to have an opinion 
 about what you observe. Do not think of yourselves as 
 living in rooms and houses, but as living in the house, the 
 palace of the earth and sky, whose every gallery, corridor 
 and hall, is carpeted with Nature's tapestries of unfading 
 color and deep softness ; whose walls are hung with glow- 
 ing sunsets ; and whose roof is lighted with windows of 
 blue sky. A. H. R. 
 
 1 6. A. habit of mistrust is the torment of some people. 
 It taints their love and their friendship. They take up 
 small causes of offence. They expect their friends to show 
 the same aspect to them at all times, which is more than 
 human nature can do. They try experiments to ascertain 
 whether they are sufficiently loved ; they watch narrowly 
 the effects of absence, and require their friends to prove to 
 them that the intimacy is exactly upon the same footing as 
 it was before. Some persons acquire these suspicious 
 ways from a natural diffidence in themselves. . . With 
 others, these habits arise from a selfishness which cannot 
 be satisfied. And their endeavors should be to uproot 
 such a disposition, not to soothe it. 
 
 ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
APRIL. 65 
 
 17. Like a cradle rocking, rocking, 
 
 Silent, peaceful, to and fro, 
 Like a mother's sweet looks dropping 
 
 On the little face below, 
 Hangs the green earth, swinging, turning, 
 
 Jarless, noiseless, safe, and slow ; 
 Falls the light of God's face bending 
 
 Down and watching us below. 
 
 And as feeble babes that suffer, 
 
 Toss, and cry, and will not rest, 
 Are the ones the tender mother 
 
 Holds the closest, loves the best, 
 So when we are weak and wretched, 
 
 By our sins weighed down, distressed, 
 Then it is that God's great patience 
 
 Holds us closest, loves us best. 
 
 SAXE HOLM. 
 
 18. In our whole social intercourse with our fellows 
 in the family, the home, in society, and in all public work 
 the power of any individual to do good must depend al- 
 most measure for measure on the extent of that individual's 
 power of sympathy, the wideness and the warmth of his 
 heart. The power of thinking, the capacity of his head, is 
 but a secondary matter. . . . Never think you who 
 are young and glorying, perhaps, in the grand new fields of 
 intellectual culture opened before you that the intellect 
 is nobler than the heart, that knowledge is greater than 
 love. Not so ! A thousand times no ! . . . It is here, 
 in the faculty of noble, disinterested, unselfish love, that 
 lies the true gift and power of our womanhood. 
 
 FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
66 APRIL. 
 
 19. When I see a ruddy, romping school-girl in her first 
 long dress, beginning to avoid coasting on her double-run- 
 ner, or afraid of the stone walls in the blueberry-fields, or 
 standing aloof from the game of base-ball, or turning sadly 
 away from the ladder which her brother is climbing to the 
 cherry-tree, or lingering for him to assist her over the 
 gunwale of a boat ; when I read of the sinking of steamers 
 at sea, with " nearly all the women and children on board," 
 and the accompanying comments, " Every effort was made 
 to assist the women up the masts and out of danger till 
 help arrived, but they could not climb, and we were forced 
 to leave them to their fate " when I consider these things, 
 I feel that I have ceased to deal with blunders in dress, 
 and have entered the category of crimes. 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
 20. I do not think I exaggerate the importance or the 
 charms of pedestrianism, or our need as a people to culti- 
 vate the art. I think it would tend to soften the national 
 manners, to teach us the meaning of leisure, to acquaint us 
 with the charms of the open air, to strengthen and foster 
 the tie between the race and the land. . . . The roads 
 and paths you have walked along in summer and winter 
 weather, the fields and hills which you have looked upon 
 in lightness and gladness of heart, when fresh thoughts 
 have come into your mind, or some noble prospect has 
 opened before you, and especially the quiet ways where 
 you have walked in sweet converse with your friend, paus- 
 ing under the trees, drinking at the spring henceforth 
 they are not the same; a new charm is added; those 
 thoughts spring there perennial, your friend walks there 
 forever. JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
APRIL. 67 
 
 21. It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever 
 come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. 
 We can only have the highest happiness, by having wide 
 thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the world as 
 well as ourselves ; and this sort of happiness often brings 
 so much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by 
 its being what we would choose before everything else, 
 because our souls see it is good. There are so many 
 things wrong and difficult in the world, that no man can 
 be great unless he gives up thinking much about pleasure 
 or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and 
 painful. 
 
 And so, my Lillo, if you mean to act nobly and seek to 
 know the best things God has put within reach of men, 
 you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on 
 what will happen to you because of it. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 22. " Perfectly true, perfectly right," said I. " Every 
 word good as gold. Truth before all things ; sincerity 
 before all things : pure, clear, diamond-bright sincerity is 
 of more value than the gold of Ophir ; the foundation of 
 all love must rest here. ... If I once know that my 
 wife or my friend will tell me only what she thinks will be 
 agreeable to me, then I am at once lost, my way is a path- 
 less quicksand. But all this being promised, I still say 
 that we Anglo-Saxons might improve our domestic life, if 
 we would graft upon the strong stock of its homely sincer- 
 ity the courteous graces of the French character." 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
68 APRIL. 
 
 23. Girls and boys have too slight an appreciation of 
 manual labor. In most ways, work with the hands is more 
 necessary than mental labor. God made man work in a 
 garden before he gave him power to write books or keep 
 accounts. Fine white hands are very pretty when they be- 
 long to a lady ; but sunburnt, muscular ones are beautiful 
 too, in a vineyard. 
 
 May I warn you not to despise the small amount of work 
 you can accomplish, as compared with what others are 
 able to do ? Let me remind you, too, that it is not so 
 much what we get in money, buildings, knowledge, reputa- 
 tion, influence, by means of work, as what labor does for 
 ourselves, our characters that is valuable to us. Carlyle 
 expressed the idea in a very short sentence, " Not what I 
 have, but what I do, is my kingdom." A. H. R. 
 
 24. This intense tenderness, this yearning over every- 
 thing human, with a pity and love inexpressible, made the 
 very impulse and essence of her being. Surely in this she 
 was Christlike. Our Saviour wept over Jerusalem. How 
 many tears did she, his disciple, shed for sorrowing human- 
 ity, for suffering womanhood. Nor were tears all she 
 gave. The deepest longing of her life was to see human 
 nature lifted from sin to holiness, from misery to happiness ; 
 every thought that she uttered, every deed she did, she 
 prayed might help toward this end. To help somebody, 
 no matter how lowly, to comfort the afflicted, to lift up the 
 fallen, to share every blessing of her life with others, to 
 live ( even under the stress of pain and struggle ) a life pure 
 large, in itself an inspiration this, and more, was Alice 
 Cary. MARY CLEMMER. 
 
APRIL. 69 
 
 25. Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a 
 moment, quietly, its narrow, sword-shaped strip of fluted 
 green. Think of it well, and judge whether, of all the 
 gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and of all 
 strong and goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes or good for 
 food, there be any by God more highly graced, by man 
 more deeply loved, than that narrow point of feeble green. 
 Consider what we owe to the meadow grass, to the cover- 
 ing of the ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies 
 of those soft and countless and peaceful spears. 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 26. And now, I will give you one lesson to carry home 
 with you a lesson which if we all could really believe 
 and obey, the world would begin to mend from to-morrow, 
 and every other good work on earth would prosper and 
 multiply tenfold, a hundredfold ay, beyond all our fair- 
 est dreams. And my lesson is this. When you go out 
 from this church into the crowded streets, remember there 
 is not a soul in them who is not as precious in God's eyes 
 as you are ; not a little dirty ragged child whom Jesus, 
 were he again on earth, would not take up in his arms and 
 bless, not a publican or a harlot with whom, if they but 
 asked him, he would not eat and drink. . . . Therefore 
 do to all who are in want of your help as Jesus would do 
 to them if he were here ; as Jesus is doing to them already ; 
 for he is here among us now, and forever seeking and 
 saving that which was lost ; and all we have to do is to 
 believe that, and work on, sure that he is working at our 
 head, and that though we cannot see him, he sees us. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
70 APRIL. 
 
 27. Every evening it was a fresh excitement to watch 
 the lighting of the lamps, and think how far the lighthouse 
 sent its rays, and how many hearts it gladdened with as- 
 surance of safety. As I grew older, I was allowed to 
 kindle the lamps sometimes myself. That was indeed a 
 pleasure. So little a creature as I might do that much 
 for the great world ! We waited for the spring with an 
 eager longing ; the advent of the growing grass, the birds 
 and flowers and insect life, the soft skies and softer winds 
 the everlasting beauty of the thousand tender tints that 
 clothed the world, these things brought us unspeakable 
 bliss. To the heart of Nature one must needs be drawn 
 in such a life; and very soon I learned how richly she 
 repays in deep refreshment the reverent love of her wor- 
 shipper. CELIA THAXTER. 
 
 28. You should be careful not to intrust another unnec- 
 essarily with a secret which it may be a hard matter for 
 him to keep, and which may expose him to somebody's 
 displeasure, when it is hereafter discovered that he was 
 the object of your confidence. Your desire for aid, or for 
 sympathy, is not to be indulged by dragging other people 
 into your misfortunes. 
 
 There is as much responsibility in imparting your own 
 secrets, as in keeping those of your neighbor. 
 
 ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
 Avoid having many confidants. Avoid absorbing and 
 exclusive friendships. They are not wise ; they are selfish, 
 and not of the nature of true friendship. They commonly 
 breed trouble, and end in quarrel and heart break. 
 
 THEODORE T. HUNGER. 
 
APRIL. 7 1 
 
 29. The foul toad hath a fair stone in his head ; the 
 fine gold is found in the filthy earth ; the sweet kernel 
 lyeth in the hard shell ; virtue is harbored in the heart of 
 him that most men esteem misshapen. If we respect more 
 the outward shape than the inward habit, into how many 
 mischiefs do we fall, into what blindness are we led ! Do 
 we not commonly see that in painted pots is hidden the 
 deadliest poison, that in the greenest grass is the greatest 
 serpent ? How frantic are those lovers who are carried 
 away with the gay glistening of the fine face, the beauty 
 whereof is parched with the summer's blaze, and chipped 
 with the winter's blast, which is of so short continuance 
 that it fadeth before one perceives it flourisheth. 
 
 LYLY'S " EUPHUES." 
 
 30. Patience, accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy 
 work of affection ! 
 
 Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is 
 
 godlike. 
 Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is 
 
 made godlike, 
 Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more 
 
 worthy of heaven. LONGFELLOW. 
 
MAY. 
 
 1. The clear pure light of the morning made me long 
 for the truth in my heart, which alone could make me pure 
 and clear as the morning, tune me up to the concert-pitch 
 of the nature around me. And the wind that blew from 
 the sunrise made me hope in the God who had first breathed 
 into my nostrils the breath of life ; that He would at length 
 so fill me with His breath, His mind, His spirit, that I 
 should think only His thoughts, and live His life, finding 
 therein my own life, only glorified infinitely. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 The face of Nature is the face of God, and must bear 
 expressions that can influence, though unconsciously to 
 them, the most ignorant and hopeless of His children. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 2. Maiden, that read'st this simple rhyme, 
 
 Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay; 
 Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime, 
 For oh, it is not always May ! 
 
 Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth, 
 To some good angel leave the rest ; 
 
 For Time will teach thee soon the truth, 
 There are no birds in last year's nest ! 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 God's hand is on thee, O my child ; God's grace 
 Go with thee 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 72 
 
MAY. 73 
 
 3. I stand in the sunny noon of life. Objects no longer 
 glitter in the dews of morning, neither are yet softened by 
 the shadows of evening. Every spot is seen, every chasm 
 revealed. Climbing the dusty hill, some fair effigies that 
 once stood for human destiny have been broken. Yet 
 enough is left to point distinctly to the glories of that destiny. 
 
 Always the soul says to us all, "Cherish your best hopes 
 as a faith, and abide by them in action. . . . Such 
 shall be the effectual, fervent means to their fulfilment." 
 
 MARGARET FULLER. 
 
 4. A woman has a personal work and duty, relating to 
 her own home, and a public work and duty, which is also 
 the expansion of that. The woman's work for her own 
 home is to secure its order, comfort, and loveliness. The 
 woman's duty, as a member of the commonwealth, is to as- 
 sist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful 
 adornment of the state. What the woman is to be within 
 her gates, as the centre of order, the balm of distress, and 
 the mirror of beauty ; that she is also to be without her 
 gates, where order is more difficult, distress more immi- 
 nent, and loveliness more rare. RUSKIN. 
 
 O birds through the heaven that soar 
 With such tumult of jubilant song ! 
 
 The shadows are flying before 
 For the rapture of life is strong. 
 
 And my spirit leaps to the light 
 On the wings of its hope new born, 
 
 And I follow your radiant flight 
 Through the golden halls of morn ! 
 
 CELIA THAXTER. 
 
74 MAY. 
 
 5. Yon bells in the steeples, ring, ring out your 
 changes, 
 
 However so many they be, 
 
 And let the brown meadow-lark's note as he ranges 
 Come over, come over to me. 
 
 I wish, and I wish that the spring would go faster, 
 
 Nor long summer bide so late ; 
 And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster, 
 
 For some things are ill to wait. 
 
 I wait for the day when dear hearts shall discover, 
 While dear hands are laid on my head ; 
 
 " The child is a woman, the book may close over, 
 For all the lessons are said." 
 
 I wait for my story the birds cannot sing it, 
 
 Hot one, as he sits on the tree ; 
 The bells cannot ring it, but long years, O bring it ! 
 
 Such as I wish it to be. JEAN INGELOW. 
 
 6. This, then, is the sum of all. Circumstances are not 
 in our power ; virtues are. It is not in our power to avert 
 the bitter failure which the earth may inflict ; it is in our 
 power to win the high success which God bestows. The 
 young lions do lack, and suffer hunger ; but they that seek 
 the Lord shall want no manner of thing ; certainly, which 
 is eternally, infinitely good. No man is a failure who is 
 faithful and upright; no cause is a failure which is just 
 and true. 
 
 There is but one failure ; and that is, not to be true to 
 the best one knows. To us and to our race, there is but 
 one failure, and that is sin. CANON FARRAR. 
 
MAY. 75 
 
 7. " Nothin* like green grass and woodsy smells to 
 right folks up. When I was a gal, if I got riled in my 
 temper or low in my mind, I just went out and grubbed in 
 the garclin, or made hay, or walked a good piece, and it 
 fetched me round beautiful. Never failed ; so I came to 
 see that good fresh dirt is fust-rate physic for folks' spirits 
 as it is for mounds, as they tell on." 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 Take Nature for your friend and teacher. You love 
 and feel near to her already ; you will find her always just 
 and genial, patient and wise. Watch the harmonious laws 
 that rule her ; imitate her industry, her sweet sanity ; and 
 soon I think you will find that this benignant mother will 
 take you in her arms and show you God. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 8. The loom of life turns out many different fabrics. 
 Is the beauty that you seek the gossamer of a day or the 
 royal purple of a century ? Beauty of manner, tender con- 
 siderateness, reverence, and equipoise will make it impos- 
 sible for you ever to be desolate, and will insure your 
 always being loved. No physical defect, however irreme- 
 diable, bars you from this choicest of all exterior attractions. 
 Beauty of utterance has a fadeless charm ; opens all hearts 
 whose key it is worth while to wish for ; and makes those 
 once obscure, the favorites of fortune, the heroes of soci- 
 ety, the peers of kings. Burns was a Highland peasant, 
 but the magic of his song made him the idol of a nation ; 
 and winsomeness of speech will always win whether upon 
 the world's great stage or in the more sheltered home life. 
 
 FRANCES E. W T ILLARD. 
 
76 MAY. 
 
 9. The one thing a girl owes to the world, to herself, to 
 her Maker, is a reverence for her own sex. Girls, I repeat, 
 you cannot sufficiently realize your obligations to your own 
 kind. Because you are girls, and not boys, women and not 
 men, oh, try to be loyal to girls and women ! Pay homage 
 to womankind ; adorn it, place sacrifices upon its altars, 
 rejoice in unceasing service to it, exalt it by every worthy 
 endeavor ! What can be more beautiful than womanliness ! 
 The next time you see the Sistine Madonna, look behind 
 all the mother in the lovely face for the woman in it. Then 
 see if you do not remark the same in Raphael's St. Cecilia, 
 and in the Venus de Milo. Wherever masters have suc- 
 ceeded in painting the Virgin, notice, aside from the holy 
 look if it is aside from that the womanly look. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 10. Flowers spring to blossom where she walks 
 
 The careful ways of duty ; 
 Our hard, stiff lines of life with her 
 Are flowing curves of beauty. 
 
 Our homes are cheerier for her sake, 
 
 Our door-yards brighter blooming, 
 And all about the social air 
 
 Is sweeter for her coming. 
 
 And never tenderer hand than hers 
 
 Unknits the brow of ailing ; 
 Her garments, to the sick man's ear 
 
 Have music in their trailing. WHITTIER. 
 
MAY. 77 
 
 11. The instinct of self-control, of gentleness, of con- 
 sideration and forethought and quick sympathy, which go 
 to make up what we call good breeding ; the absence of 
 noise and hurry, the thousand and one little ways by which 
 we can please people, or avoid displeasing them, are all 
 taught us by our own hearts. Good manners are the fine 
 flower of civilization. And everybody can have them. I 
 always say that one of the best-bred men of my acquaint- 
 ance is Mr. Jarvis, the mason. I have known him come 
 up out of a cistern to speak to me, dressed in overalls and 
 a flannel shirt ; and his bow and his manner and the 
 politeness of his address would have done credit to any 
 gentleman in the world. SUSAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 12. That happy union of frankness and reserve which 
 is to be desired comes not by studying rules, either for 
 candor or for caution. It results chiefly from an upright- 
 ness of purpose, enlightened by a profound and delicate 
 care for the feelings of others. This will go very far in 
 teaching us what to confide, and what to conceal, in our 
 own affairs ; what to repeat, and what to suppress, in those 
 of other peeple. The stone in which nothing is seen, and 
 the polished metal which reflects all things, are both alike 
 hard and insensible. ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
 Cultivate the friendly spirit. If one would have friends 
 he must be worthy of them. Make friends early in life. 
 Hold fast to your friends. It is one of the commonest 
 regrets in after life that early friendships were not kept 
 up. Make a point of having friends amongst your elders. 
 Friendship between those of the same age is sweeter, but 
 friendship with elders is more useful, or, rather, they sup- 
 plement each other. THEODORE T. MUNGER. 
 
78 MAY. 
 
 13. Such a starved bank of moss 
 
 Till, that May-morn, 
 Blue ran the flash across : 
 
 Violets were born ! ROBERT BROWNING. 
 If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me 
 there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them 
 with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, 
 and be unable to detect them ; but let me take a magnet 
 and sweep through it, and how would it draw to itself the 
 almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction ! 
 The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers 
 no mercies ; but let the thankful heart sweep through the 
 day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in 
 every hour some heavenly blessings only, the iron in 
 God's sand is gold. HOLMES. 
 
 14. Even if our work is spoilt as we near its completion, 
 and, instead of gain, failure awaits us, we have still been 
 winners in ourselves, because we have acquired habits of 
 industry, have made our powers of perseverance stronger, 
 and have developed physical or moral strength as well. 
 Work is never lost. When Carlyle sat down to write his 
 " French Revolution " the second time a careless servant 
 having burnt his manuscript he was a nobler man than 
 when he wrote out the first issue. When Walter Scott 
 failed, and Abbotsford was encumbered with a large debt, 
 when his dream of restoring a kind of baronial life was all 
 shattered, he did a grander work than in the building of 
 that magnificent estate ; for he strove with all the powers 
 of his mind to earn the money which should repay his 
 creditors. Though he died in the struggle, it was not 
 fought in vain. A. H. R. 
 
MAY. 79 
 
 15. All common things, each day's events, 
 
 That with the hour begin and end, 
 Our pleasures and our discontents, 
 Are rounds by which we may ascend. 
 
 We have not wings, we cannot soar, 
 
 But we have feet to scale and climb, 
 By slow degrees, by more and more, 
 The cloudy summits of our time. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 And wherever a true wife comes, this home is always 
 round her. The stars only may be over her head ; the 
 glow-worm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at 
 her foot : but home is yet wherever she is ; and for a noble 
 woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with 
 cedar, or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light 
 far, for those who else were homeless. RUSKIN. 
 
 1 6. I envy the good fortune of all walkers, and feel like 
 joining myself to every tramp that comes along. I am 
 jealous of the clergyman I read about the other day who 
 footed it from Edinburgh to London, as poor Effie Deans 
 did, carrying her shoes in her hand most of the way, and 
 over the ground that rugged Ben Jonson strode, larking 
 it to Scotland, so long ago. ... It would have been 
 a good draught of the rugged cup to have walked with 
 Wilson the ornithologist, deserted by his companions, 
 from Niagara to Philadelphia through the snows of winter. 
 I almost wish that I had been born to the career of a Ger- 
 man mechanic, that I might have had that delicious adven- 
 turous year of wandering over my country before I settled 
 down to work. . . . JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
8o MAY. 
 
 17. O, the blossoms ! All the world's a paradise now. 
 It is high carnival out in the orchard, yes, and down among 
 the meadow grasses too. The birds are the gladdest spec- 
 tators, but the robins are the gayest of them all. Just 
 think of a home all shielded and perfumed, all built and 
 closed in with apple-blossoms ! And right in the midst of 
 it, tuning his notes in harmony with the fluttering pink 
 and white petals, sits a young robin boldly beseeching his 
 newly found neighbor, who lives in sweet expectancy just 
 over the branch : 
 
 " Come to my nest o' down, 
 
 Lady-bird o' mine, 
 Come in your russet gown 
 
 Don't you be too fine ! " A. H. R. 
 
 18. In the first place, then, let us watch our course 
 when we are entertaining strangers whose good opinion 
 we wish to propitiate. We dress ourselves with care, we 
 study what it will be agreeable to say, we do not suffer 
 our natural laziness to prevent our being very alert in pay- 
 ing small attentions, we start across the room for an easier 
 chair, we stoop to pick up the fan, we search for the mis- 
 laid newspaper, and all this for persons in whom we have 
 no particular interest beyond the passing hour ; while with 
 those friends whom we love and respect we too often sit 
 in our old faded habiliments, and let them get their own 
 chair, and look up their own newspaper, and fight their 
 own way daily, without any of this preventing care. 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 She doeth little kindnesses which most leave undone, or 
 despise. LOWELL. 
 
MAY. 8 1 
 
 19. Over the hedge I leaned one day 
 To see my darling as she lay 
 
 On the May grass, it was not fair, 
 I know, in me to see her there. 
 
 The smile could only just get through 
 The mouth which she together drew, 
 That tender secret to repress 
 Which tells itself by silentness. 
 
 She did not raise her eyes above 
 The hedge, to chide my look of love, 
 Such fancies did about her close, 
 Like sunbeams feeding on a rose. 
 
 My passion to sad verse I set, 
 ( I had not got my beard as yet. ) 
 And she my worship did not wrong, 
 The hedge was not between us long. 
 " Mono, Fifteen" ALICE GARY. 
 
 20. Do not waste a minute, not a second, in trying to 
 demonstrate to others the merit of your own performance. 
 If your work does not vindicate itself, you cannot vindicate 
 it, but you can labor steadily on to something which needs 
 no advocate but itself. . . . Toughen yourself a little 
 and accomplish something better. Inscribe above your 
 desk the words of Rivarol, " Genius is only great patience." 
 It was Keats, the most precocious of all great poets, who 
 declared that " nothing is finer for purposes of production 
 than a very gradual ripening of the intellectual powers." 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON. 
 
82 MAY. 
 
 21. All honor and reverence to the divine beauty of 
 form ! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, 
 and children, in our gardens and in our houses. But 
 let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret 
 of proportion, but in the secret of deep human smypathy. 
 Paint us an angel, if you can, with a floating violet robe, 
 and a face paled by the celestial light ; paint us yet oftener 
 a Madonna, turning her mild face upward and opening 
 her arms to welcome the divine glory ; but do not impose 
 on us any aesthetic rules which shall banish from the region 
 of Art those old women scraping carrots with their work- 
 worn hands, those heavy clowns taking holiday in a dingy 
 pot-house, those rounded backs and stupid weather-beaten 
 faces that have bent over the spade and done the rough 
 work of the world, those homes with their tin pans, their 
 brown pitchers, their rough curs, and their clusters of 
 onions. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 22. If you have any trouble which seems intolerable, 
 pray. . . . These implacable demons turn to smiling 
 angels when we cast our care on God, and surrender our 
 will to His will. JAMES F. CLARKE. 
 
 To Him nothing is insignificant which moves the hearts 
 of His children. JAMES F. CLARKE. 
 
 Let no man call himself a Christian who lives without 
 giving a part of his life to this duty. . . . Let our 
 prayers, like the ancient sacrifices, ascend morning and 
 evening. Let our days begin and end with God. 
 
 CHANNING. 
 
 " Do my best all round : keep good company, read good 
 books, love good things, and cultivate soul and body as 
 faithfully and wisely as I can." LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
MAY. 83 
 
 23. Do not expect to escape criticism, girls. If you 
 should go to dwell in the midst of a desert or to take up 
 your abode on the top of a lonely mountain, some one 
 would follow and pass judgment on the shape of your hat 
 or the shape of your conduct. So try to accept honest 
 criticism when it is given you openly, face to face ; but 
 scorn with silent derision the cowardly thing that crawls 
 up over the wall and tries to bite you in the back. 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 24. For thee the sun shines and the earth rejoices 
 
 In fragrance, music, light ; 
 
 The spring-time wooes thee with a thousand voices, 
 For thee her flowers are bright ; 
 
 Youth crowns thee, and love waits upon thy 
 
 splendor, 
 
 Trembling beneath thine eyes ; 
 The morning sky is yet serene and tender, 
 Thy life before thee lies. 
 
 CELIA THAXTER. 
 
 Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
 When the young heart overflows, 
 To embalm that tent of snows. 
 
 Bear a lily in thy hand ; 
 
 Gates of brass cannot withstand 
 
 One touch of that magic wand. 
 
 Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, 
 
 In thy heart the dew of youth, 
 
 On thy lips the smile of truth. LONGFELLOW. 
 
84 MAY. 
 
 25. Knitting at her mother's door, 
 Underneath a sycamore, 
 
 That did long, white arms extend 
 
 Round about her, like a friend, 
 
 Saw I maiden Mona next. 
 
 She was now become the text 
 
 Of my dreams, my thoughts, my life, 
 
 Would she, could she be my wife ? 
 
 Rows of pinks on either side, 
 With their red mouths open wide, 
 And the quail, with tawny breast 
 Swelling out above her nest, 
 And the lily's speckled head 
 Shining o'er the spearmint bed ; 
 All were fair, but more than fair 
 Maiden Mona, knitting there. 
 
 26. Round her eyes the hair fell down, 
 Sunshine on a leafy brown, 
 
 And her simple rustic dress 
 Witched my worldly eyes, I guess. 
 
 Something sacred did divide her 
 From me, when I stood beside her : 
 ^1 was born to house and land, 
 She had but her heart and hand, 
 Yet she seemed so high above 
 The aspiring of my love, 
 That I stood in bashful shame, 
 Trembling just to speak her name. 
 * Mona Knitting? ALICE GARY. 
 
MAY. 85 
 
 27. Where Cinderella dropped her shoe, 
 
 'Tis said in fairy tales of yore, 
 'Twas first the lady's slipper grew, 
 And there its rosy blossom bore. 
 
 And ever since in woodlands grey, 
 It marks where spring retreating flew, 
 
 Where speeding on her eager way, 
 She left behind her dainty shoe. 
 
 ELAINE GOODALE. 
 
 28. No book is worth anything which is not worth 
 much, nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and 
 re-read, and loved, and loved again ; and marked so that 
 you can refer to the passages you want in it, as a soldier 
 can seize the weapon he needs in an armory. 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 One is sometimes asked by young people to recommend 
 a course of reading. My advice would be that they should 
 confine themselves to the supreme books in whatever liter- 
 ature, or, still better, to choose some one great author, and 
 make themselves thoroughly familiar with him. For as 
 all roads lead to Rome, so do they likewise lead awayirom 
 it ; and you will find that, in order to understand perfectly 
 and weigh exactly any vital piece of literature, you will be 
 gradually and pleasantly persuaded to excursions and ex- 
 plorations of which you little dreamed when you began, 
 and will find yourselves scholars before you are aware. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 The true university of these days is a collection of 
 books. CARLYLE. 
 
86 MAY. 
 
 29. To examine its evidence is not to try Christianity ; 
 to admire its martyrs is not to try Christianity ; to com- 
 pare and estimate its teachers is not to try Christianity ; 
 to attend its rites and services with more than Mahometan 
 punctuality is not to try or know Christianity. But for 
 one week, for one day, to have lived in the pure atmos- 
 phere of faith and love to God, of tenderness to man ; to 
 have beheld earth annihilated, and heaven opened to the 
 prophetic gaze of hope ; to have seen evermore revealed 
 behind the complicated troubles of this strange, mysterious 
 life, the unchanged smile of an eternal Friend, and every- 
 thing that is difficult to reason solved by that reposing 
 trust which is higher and better than reason, to have 
 known and felt this, I will not say for a life, but for a sin- 
 gle blessed hour, that, indeed, is to have made experiment 
 of Christianity. WILLIAM ARCHER BUTLER. 
 
 30. All her life Madame Roland had loved this people, 
 even with the love of a mother for her first born. All her 
 life she had been ready to shed her blood for it, in the 
 conviction that a new generation would arise which should 
 live to enjoy the freedom for which she was content to 
 perish. That conviction made her passage to the scaffold 
 a triumphal path, and invested her, as she stood in the 
 death-cart, with a splendor as of victory. Like " a Star 
 above the Storm " the beautiful woman, serenely radiant, 
 in pure white raiment, with long dark locks falling in clus- 
 ters to her girdle, passed through the streets of the blood- 
 stained city, an embodiment of all that was highest and 
 purest in the Revolution whose star was now quenched in 
 the weltering storm. MATHILDE BLIND. 
 
MAY. 87 
 
 31. I suppose that eye and touch and feeling are all 
 educated, by the commonest teasing little everyday things ; 
 the trying to fit things and lay them straight ; the making 
 of beds ; the setting of tables. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 If Rose had ever felt that the gift of living for others 
 was a poor one, she saw now how beautiful and blest it 
 was, how rich the returns, how wide the influence, how 
 much more precious the tender tie which knit so many 
 hearts together, than any breath of fame, or brilliant talent, 
 that dazzled, but did not win and warm. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 Companions sweet, 
 
 Why do you weep, 
 And where is cause for sorrow ? 
 " Alas, the May 
 Goes out to-day ; " 
 But June comes in to-morrow ! 
 
 ELAINE GOODALE. 
 
JUNE. 
 
 1. Hark, how sweet the thrushes sing! 
 
 Hark, how clear the robins call I 
 Chorus of the happy spring, 
 Summer's madrigal ! 
 
 Flood the world with joy and cheer, 
 O ye birds, and pour your song 
 
 Till the farthest distance hear 
 Notes so glad and strong ! 
 
 Storm the earth with odors sweet, 
 O ye flowers, that blaze in light ! 
 
 Crowd about June's shining feet, 
 All ye blossoms bright. 
 
 Shout, ye waters, to the sun ! 
 
 Back are winter's fetters hurled ; 
 Summer's glory is begun ; 
 
 Beauty holds the world ! 
 
 CELIA THAXTER. 
 
 2. This is the true nature of home it is the place of 
 peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all 
 
 terror, doubt, and division So far as it is a 
 
 sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth 
 watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces 
 none may come but those whom they can receive with 
 love, so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only 
 of a nobler shade and light, shade as of the rock in a 
 weary land, and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea ; 
 so far it vindicates the same, and fulfils the praise, of 
 home. RUSKIN. 
 
 88 
 
JUNE. 89 
 
 3. I do not ask you to be anything but a glad, sunny 
 woman. I would have no counsels of mine recommended 
 by long faces and formal behavior. I would have you so 
 at peace with Heaven, with the world and with yourself, 
 that tears shall flow only at the call of sympathy. I would 
 have you immaculate as light, devoted to all good deeds, 
 industrious, intelligent, patient, heroic. And crowning 
 every grace of person and mind, every accomplishment, 
 every noble sentiment, every womanly faculty, every deli- 
 cate instinct, every true impulse, I would see religion upon 
 your brow, the coronet by token of which God makes you 
 a princess in his family, and an heir to the brightest glo- 
 ries, the sweetest pleasures, the noblest privileges, and the 
 highest honors of his kingdom. TIMOTHY TITCOMB. 
 
 4. Oh, do not think it necessary to behold Nature in 
 her great stretches of sublimity in order to appreciate her. 
 You will come to know her far more easily, and much 
 more helpfully, in a little woodside walk, or right here 
 underneath these branches, than you will in Niagara Falls, 
 or in looking at her in the great ocean. We should re- 
 member, too, that not only the glow of autumn and the 
 flush of summer are beautiful, but that every season, every 
 climate, every aspect in the shifting panorama of Nature, 
 has real beauty. Our own region, be it arid with parching 
 suns, or wet with frequent rains ; be it always winter there, 
 or always summer, is full of charm. A. H. R. 
 
 " For one year," said Ramona, " I should lie and look 
 up at the sky, my Allessandro, and do nothing else. It 
 hardly seems as if it would be a sin to do nothing for a 
 year, if one gazed steadily at the sky all the while." 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
90 JUNE. 
 
 5. And we can have this deepest life by beginning to 
 live for God. Curb your passions. Begin from this 
 moment to listen to the inward voice. Consecrate your 
 heart. Meditate upon the Infinite as the holiest and best, 
 set forth in the stars not so clearly as in the heart of 
 Christ. Education is no more certain to bring knowledge 
 than the humble obedience to these conditions is sure to 
 bring the diviner life. The best things are sure. Toil 
 may not bring money. Carefulness may not protect health. 
 Study may not banish error. The utmost art cannot keep 
 off the final sickness and the call of death. But the Divine 
 life is possible to every one of us. " God may be had for 
 the asking." T. STARR KING. 
 
 6. Her language is so sweet and fit 
 You never have enough of it. 
 
 If she smiles, the house is bright 
 Without any candle-light. 
 Whether that her hair is rolled 
 Round an ivory comb, or gold, 
 Pinned or no, I cannot tell, 
 In itself it shines so well. 
 Whether she doth wear her coat 
 Loose, or buttoned to the throat, 
 Hems or ruffles, plain or gay, 
 Seems to me the sweetest way. 
 
 By her innocence she awes 
 Evil from her ; through love's laws, 
 That so bind us like a cord, 
 Each to all, she seeks the Lord. 
 Mona Perfect. ALICE CARY. 
 
JUNE. 91 
 
 7. What gigantic plans we scheme, and how little we 
 advance in the labor of a day ! If there is one lesson 
 which experience teaches, surely it is this, to make plans 
 that are strictly limited, and to arrange our work in a prac- 
 ticable way within the limits which we must accept. 
 Others expect so much from us that it seems as if we had 
 accomplished nothing. " What ! have you done only 
 that? " they say, or we know by their looks that they are 
 thinking it. HAMERTON. 
 
 'Tis but beating one's wings against the invisible to seek 
 to know even to-morrow. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 8. The illuminated hours of life are few ; but those of 
 our first youth have a piercing splendor which neither 
 earlier nor later experience can by any chance absorb. 
 Avis was perhaps sixteen, when one of these phosphores- 
 cent hours flashed upon her. . . . She was down in 
 her father's apple-orchard, where the low, outskirting 
 branches yield the outlook to the sea. The stalks of the 
 young corn turned their edges in profile towards the sun ; 
 and the short silk hung like the hair of babies, tangled and 
 falling. In the meadow the long grass rioted ; and black 
 and brown and yellow bees made love to crimson clovers. 
 How they blushed ! She should think they would. They 
 were too lavish of their honey, those buxom clovers, like 
 an untaught country lassie with a kiss. But the daisies 
 that skirted the old gray stone walls, the slim white 
 daisies with the golden hearts, looked to the young 
 girl's fancy like the virgins in the Bible story, carrying 
 each a burning lamp. 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
92 JUNE. 
 
 9. Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 
 We are happy now because God wills it ; 
 
 No matter how barren the past may have been, 
 'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green. 
 
 Now is the high-tide of the year, 
 And whatever of life hath ebbed away 
 
 Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, 
 Into every bare inlet and creek and bay. 
 
 Every clod feels a stir of might, 
 
 An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
 And, groping blindly above it for light, 
 
 Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 10. But what instruction the baby brings to the mother ! 
 She learns patience, self-control, endurance. She learns 
 to understand character, too, by dealing with the little 
 ones, . . . and to have loved them is a liberal educa- 
 tion. 
 
 For the height of heights is love. The philosopher 
 dries into a skeleton like that he investigates, unless love 
 teaches him. He is blind among his microscopes, unless 
 he sees in the humblest human soul a revelation that 
 dwarfs all the work beside. While he grows gray in igno- 
 rance among his crucibles, every girlish mother is being 
 illuminated by every kiss of her child. That house is so 
 far sacred, which holds within its walls this new-born heir 
 of eternity. Tt Wt HIGGINSON. 
 
 Blessed is the woman who exalts. BULWER. 
 
JUNE. 93 
 
 11. It is more needful that I should have a fibre of 
 sympathy connecting me with that vulgar citizen who 
 weighs out my sugar in a vilely assorted cravat and waist- 
 coat, than with the handsomest rascal in red scarf and 
 green feathers ; more needful that my heart should swell 
 with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in 
 the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me, or 
 in the clergyman of my own parish, who is perhaps rather 
 too corpulent, and in other respects is not an Oberlin or a 
 Tillotson, than at the deeds of heroes whom I shall never 
 know except by hearsay, or at the sublimest abstract of all 
 clerical graces that was ever conceived by an able novelist. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 12. Don't try, girls, to get along without God, for He 
 will not go on without you. You may fancy yourselves 
 quite independent of the Hereafter and think you belong 
 to just the things of earth. But you cannot really believe 
 that ! " Of course, no one is an atheist," said a lovely old 
 lady to me. " He may fancy he is ; but just think how 
 lonesome he would be." A. H. R. 
 
 Go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and 
 sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come 
 to your mother. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 ' Fate ! " cried Rienzi ; " there is no fate ! Between the 
 thought and the success, God is the only agent." 
 
 BULWER. 
 
 Contentment abides with truth. And you will generally 
 suffer for wishing to appear other than what you are, 
 whether it be richer or greater or more learned. The 
 mask soon becomes an instrument of torture. 
 
 ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
94 JUNE. 
 
 13. Shall we not love knowledge, and use it to find out 
 truth ; and place unspoken fidelity to conscience foremost 
 amongst our duties ; and care for the progress of our race 
 rather than for our own fame ; shall we not be truthful, 
 and honest, and upright, and, to this end, brave in pub- 
 lic as in private life, and shall we not seek so to bear our- 
 selves that men shall shrink from owning their ignobler 
 thoughts and baser shifts to us, but shall never fear to 
 avow high aims and pure deeds, while yet we retain our 
 womanly kindness and all our domestic virtues unchanged ? 
 All this we may know that we can be and do, if we will, 
 for we have seen it exemplified in the life of Harriet 
 Martineau. MRS . F> FENWICK MILLER. 
 
 14. . . . Let any clever woman simply take it to 
 heart to make everybody about her as happy as she can, 
 and the result I believe will always be wonderful. . . . 
 Let her try not so much to make her rooms splendid and 
 aesthetically admirable as to make them thoroughly habi- 
 table and comfortable for those who are to occupy them. 
 
 . . . A drawing-room bright and clean, sweet with 
 flowers in summer or with dried leaves in winter, with 
 tables at which the inmates may occupy themselves, and 
 easy chairs wherever they are wanted, and plenty of soft 
 light and warmth, or else of coolness adapted to the 
 weather, this sort of room belongs more properly to a 
 woman who seeks to make her house a province of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven than one which might be exhibited at 
 South Kensington as having belonged to the Kingdom of 
 Queen Anne. FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
JUNE. 95 
 
 15. Reputation, after all, is but the shadow cast by 
 character; beauty, in this best and highest sense, com- 
 mands all forces worth the having, in all worlds. Every 
 form of attractiveness confesses the primacy of this. 
 Beauty of character includes every good of which a human 
 heart can know and makes the woman who possesses it a 
 princess in Israel, whose home is everybody's heart, and 
 whose Heaven is everywhere. The dullest eyes may re- 
 flect this beauty ; the palest cheek bloom with it ; the most 
 unclassic lips may be enwreathed with its smile of ineffable 
 good will and heavenly joy. For beauty of character comes 
 only from loving obedience to every known law of God in 
 nature and in grace. Lovingly to learn and dutifully to 
 obey these laws of our beneficent Father is to live. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 16. O, yes, girls, it's very sweet to recall such women 
 as Alice and Phcebe Cary, Helen Hunt, Mrs. Browning, 
 and Jean Ingelow who expressed in words such beautiful 
 thoughts as could arise only from beautiful souls ; but it 
 is dearer yet to us to remember that women uncounted are 
 living those thoughts by daily acts. Learn to lift the 
 cover from the casket of a woman's soul and you shall see 
 jewels that never yet have been exposed to the glance of 
 one who looks for them in sparkling eyes, in glowing 
 cheeks, and radiant hair. 
 
 When you have learned to look for inner beauty you 
 will learn to make it your own. Behind your lovely faces 
 and your beautiful forms there will be nourished the lofti- 
 est ideal womanhood, which will make you not only com- 
 prehend the worth of another, but will help you to interpret 
 all that is best and loveliest everywhere. A. H. R. 
 
96 JUNE. 
 
 17. I wonder what the Clover thinks ! 
 
 Intimate friend of Bob-o-link's. 
 
 Sweet by the roadsides, sweet by rills, 
 Sweet in the meadows, sweet on hills, 
 Sweet in its white, sweet in its red, 
 Oh, half its sweet cannot be said. 
 
 SAXE HOLM. 
 
 18. The two arts of letter-writing and conversation, in- 
 valuable both as instruments of pleasure and of culture, 
 seem to be dying out before the encroachment of innu- 
 merable trifles, absorbing amusements, tyrannical egotisms, 
 and that pernicious flood of ephemeral literature, whose 
 varieties are daily spawned upon all tables. The long, 
 careful letters, full of thought, full of true personal inter- 
 est and earnest general sentiment, so common two or three 
 generations ago, are all but unknown now. There is no 
 time left for them. W. R. ALGER. 
 
 Tight lacing is not only a hideous stupidity, it is a crime, 
 a crime that casts a heavy burden upon the next genera- 
 tion, and renders the present one incapable of its duties. 
 
 Miss OAKEY. 
 
 The prevailing fashion of using tight and high-heeled 
 boots and shoes cannot be too strongly condemned as both 
 hurtful and ugly. High heels throw the weight of the 
 body forwards, and force the foot down on to the toes. 
 This will in time not only crush all shape out of the toes, 
 causing tender feet, corns, bunions, distorted joints, and 
 in-growing nails, but makes the natural gait stiff and un- 
 gainly. PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
JUNE. 97 
 
 19. It is good for us to think that no grace or blessing 
 is truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed some 
 one else with it through us. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 No task was too hard or humble ; no day long enough 
 to do all she longed to do ; and no sacrifice would have 
 seemed too great for those whom she regarded with stead- 
 ily increasing love and gratitude. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 20. Frank-hearted hostess of the field and wood, 
 Gypsy, whose roof is every spreading tree, 
 June is the pearl of our New England year. 
 Still a surprisal, though expected long, 
 Her coming startles. Long she lies in wait, 
 Makes many a feint, peeps forth, draws coyly back 
 Then, from some southern ambush in the sky, 
 With one great gush of blossom storms the world. 
 A week ago the sparrow was divine : 
 
 The bluebird, shifting his light load of song 
 From post to post along the cheerless fence, 
 Was as a rhymer ere the poet came ; 
 But now, O rapture ! sunshine winged and voiced, 
 Pipe blown through by the warm wild wind of the 
 
 west 
 
 Shepherding his soft doves of fleecy clouds, 
 Gladness of woods, skies, waters, all in one, 
 The bobolink has come, and, like the soul 
 Of the sweet season vocal in a bird, 
 Gurgles in ecstacy we know not what 
 Save June ! Dear June ! Now God be praised for 
 
 June. LOWELL. 
 
98 JUNE. 
 
 21. What worthy pursuit can you not, by excellence, 
 raise into honor and esteem? Matilda of Normandy em- 
 broidered, in the quiet of her castle, stitch by stitch, and 
 day after day, the battle of Hastings, at which the Con- 
 queror won. When that great mingling of Normans and 
 Saxons proved to be the important and the last step in the 
 making of England, men looked back to the battle which 
 decided the Norman Conquest, and, lacking needed infor- 
 mation from chronicles, turned to the work of Matilda. 
 There, on the Bayeux tapestry, was wrought the battle 
 scene they required, a piece of^woman's work. It was a 
 peasant girl, you know, who brought victory to France in 
 the Hundred Years' War between that country and Eng- 
 land. A. H. R. 
 
 22. O Fortunate ', O happy day, 
 
 When a new household finds its place 
 Among the myriad homes of earth, 
 Like a new star just sprung to birth, 
 And rolled on its harmonious way 
 
 Into the boundless realms of space ! 
 
 For two alone, there in the hall, 
 Is spread the table round and small ; 
 Upon the polished silver shine 
 The evening lamps, but, more divine, 
 The light of love shines over all ; 
 Of love, that says not mine and thine, 
 But ours, for ours is thine and mine. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
JUNE. 99 
 
 23. Out-door habits depend upon the personal tastes 
 of the individual, and are best cultivated by educating 
 these. If a young girl is born and bred with a love of any 
 branch of natural history or of horticulture, happy is she ; 
 for the mere unconscious interest of the pursuit is an 
 added lease of life to her. It is the same with all branches 
 of Art whose pursuit leads into the open air. Rosa Bon- 
 heur, with her wanderings among mountains and pastures, 
 alternating with the vigorous work of the studio, needed 
 no other appliances for health. The same advantages 
 come to many, in the bracing habits of household labor. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON. 
 
 24. A young woman who is afraid of compromising her 
 position by recognizing men out of her set, or out of a 
 certain line of genteel occupations, shows by how frail a 
 tenure she holds her own respectability. I could name to 
 you women who have not only a recognized but a com- 
 manding position in the best society, who are as uniformly 
 and systematically polite to the clerk who sells them silks, 
 as to the pets of their circle ; who have a bow and a smile 
 for all with whom they have ever been thrown into per- 
 sonal relations, and who, by this very politeness vindicate 
 their place among those whom society calls ladies. 
 
 TIMOTHY TITCOMB. 
 
 In the meantime Helen is at Clifton, where Horace 
 Evarts has also gone, and Mrs. Long wrote that they all 
 thought it would soon be an engagement. I wish people 
 wouldn't speculate in this horrid way, settling a girl's life 
 before she knows herself in the least what she really wants 
 or needs; but they will, I suppose, to the end of time. 
 
 HELEN CAMPBELL. 
 
100 JUNE. 
 
 25. Observe the humblest flower that grows, and first 
 you may notice only its color, or form, or fragrance. Ob- 
 serve more closely, handle it, and you are made a little 
 thoughtful, because, all unconsciously to yourself, it may 
 be, the flower is doing something to your mind and heart 
 and soul. Perhaps its velvety softness and its lowliness 
 speak to you of humility and gentleness ; or perhaps its 
 fragrance breathes sweetness into your life and feeling, 
 only a little, to be sure, but that little means something. 
 The spirit of the flower speaks to your spirit ; and you 
 wonder what relation it bears to you, and if you are not 
 both connected with the spirit of God. A. H. R. 
 
 26. Regard not much who is for thee, or who against 
 thee : but give all thy thought and care to this, that God 
 be with thee in everything thou doest. 
 
 Have a good conscience, and God will defend thee. 
 
 For whom God will help, no malice of man shall be able 
 to hurt. 
 
 If thou canst be silent and suffer, without doubt thou 
 shalt see that the Lord will help thee. 
 
 By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly, 
 namely, by Simplicity and Purity. 
 
 If thou intend and seek nothing else but the will of God 
 and the good of thy neighbor, thou shalt thoroughly enjoy 
 inward liberty. THOMAS A KEMPIS. 
 
 He liveth long who liveth well ; 
 
 All else is life but flung away ; 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 
 Of true things truly done each day. 
 
 H. BONAR. 
 
27. What a suffocating feeling it is, leaving school 
 for ever a period, an era completely passed and left 
 behind ! One feels that childhood is over now, and a 
 sense of tenfold increased responsibility and independence, 
 so to speak, is a weight upon the spirit .... One's 
 future education and formation of character, whether for 
 good or evil, depends now upon one's self. Many a power 
 of mind must be exercised, which, as yet, has had little 
 opportunity to try its flight; judgment and discretion and 
 a thousand things are needful ; one must think and act 
 
 - far more for oneself ; self-denial must be learnt ; oh ! so 
 much has to be done ! One's spirifis a precious diamond ; 
 the rougher cutting work has been done by other hands, 
 now one must undertake the further beautifying oneself. 
 FRANCES R. HAVERGAL. 
 
 28. He serves all who dares to be true. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 Those love truth best who to themselves are true, 
 And what they dare to dream of, dare to do. 
 Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole 
 being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of 
 character. 
 
 She hath a natural, wise sincerity, 
 A simple truthfulness, and these have lent her 
 A dignity as moveless as the centre ; 
 So that no influence of earth can stir 
 
 Her steadfast courage, nor can take away 
 The holy perfectness, which, night and day, 
 Unto her queenly soul doth minister. LOWELL. 
 
102 JUNE. 
 
 29. Small talk is like small change, good to buy light 
 commodities. It serves to scatter smiling favors, pretty 
 jests, merry words, and wins a way into the good graces of 
 our acquaintances. It fills many an hour that otherwise 
 would be moody and, loans a sense of cheerfulness and 
 sportiveness to girls especially. Even nonsense is at 
 times convenient and in place, and girls can no more help 
 falling into it than birds can help singing when the sun 
 shines. It is really sad when a girl becomes so ultra 
 proper that she always talks the strongest sense. But re- 
 member, girls, small talk must not be deliberate fault-find- 
 ing, nor unjust criticism, nor that kind of gossip which 
 creates a love for scandal and only adds evil to evil. And 
 bear in mind, too, that the gold of real conversation is not 
 to be preferred to, nor exchanged for, the tinsel of chat- 
 ter. A. H. R. 
 
 30. I verily believe that any young lady who would em- 
 ploy some of her leisure time in collecting wild flowers, 
 carefully examining them, verifying them, and arranging 
 them ; or who would in her summer trip to the sea-coast 
 do the same by the common objects of the shore, instead 
 of wasting her holiday, as one sees hundreds doing, in 
 lounging on benches and criticising dresses that such a 
 young lady, I say, would not only open her own mind to a 
 world of wonder, beauty, and wisdom, but would save 
 herself from the habit of gossip ; because she would have 
 things to think of and not merely persons ; facts instead 
 of fancies ; while she would acquire something of accu- 
 racy, of patience, of methodical observation and judgment, 
 which would stand her in good stead in the events of 
 daily life. CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
JULY. 
 
 1. I would help the youngest of you to remember what 
 noble Margaret Fuller said : " No woman can give her 
 hand with dignity, or her heart with loyalty, until she has 
 learned how to stand alone" It is not so much what comes 
 to you as what you come to, that determines whether you 
 are a winner in the great race of life. Never forget that 
 the only indestructible material in destiny's fierce crucible 
 is character. Say this, not to another say it to yourself ; 
 utter it early, and repeat it often : Fail me not thou. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 2. The cares and worries of housekeeping are not re- 
 pugnant to me. With a lively taste for the acquisition of 
 knowledge, I yet feel that I could pass the remainder of my 
 life without opening a book or being bored by not doing 
 so. Let only the home I live in be embellished by order, 
 peace, and harmony; let me only feel that I have helped 
 towards making it so, and be able to tell myself at the 
 close of each day that it has been usefully spent for the 
 good of a few, and I shall value existence and daily bless 
 the rising of the sun. MADAME ROLAND. 
 
 Truly, from the smallest Little Peddington that carries 
 on, year by year, its bloodless wars, its harmless scandals, 
 its daily chronicle of interminable nothings, to the great 
 metropolitan world, fashionable, intellectual, noble, or 
 royal, the blight of civilized life is gossip. 
 
 Miss MULOCK. 
 The worst is never true of anybody. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 I0 3 
 
104 JULY. 
 
 3. Not unfrequently the most important years of a life, 
 the years which tell most on the character, are unmarked 
 by any notable events. A steady, orderly routine, a grad- 
 ual progression, perseverance in hard work, often do more 
 to educate and form than a varied and eventful life. 
 
 EDNA LYALL. 
 
 Look at a cathedral from without, and the windows 
 are all dull and discolored and meaningless ; but step in- 
 side the hallowed edifice, and they glow with gules and 
 amethyst, and tinge the sunlight with the grandeur or 
 pathos of sacred histories. So it is with human life. It 
 often looks to us dingy and inexplicable ; but step within 
 the sanctuary of faith, and God's eternal sunlight, making 
 the whole edifice radiant with eternal beauty and with in- 
 finite significance, streams into it with many colored glories 
 and divine mercy and human heroism or toil. 
 
 CANON FARRAR. 
 
 4. Think of your home write and send and talk 
 about it. Let it be nearer and nearer to your thought, the 
 
 farther you have to travel from it And for 
 
 your country, and for that flag, never dream a dream but 
 of serving her as she bids you, though the service carry 
 you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens 
 to you, no matter who flatters )jpu or who abuses you, 
 never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you 
 pray God to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind 
 all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and gov- 
 ernment, and people even, there is the Country Herself, 
 your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong 
 to your own mother, EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
JULY. 105 
 
 5. ... As a rose opens to the summer's warmth, 
 Guenn's womanliness awakened more and more, softening 
 much that had been hard in her. Yet she lost none of 
 those dominant characterictics which separated her radi- 
 cally from other girls, and made her peculiarly herself, 
 her boylike instinct for fair play, fiery scorn of a blow in 
 the back, and large-hearted protection of the feeble, unde- 
 fended, and absent, attributes seldom, indeed, found or 
 expected in womankind, from its queens down to its fish- 
 girls, but nevertheless worthy of some contemplation on 
 the part of those interested in the higher education of 
 women, as rarer than decorative art, more precious than 
 Sanscrit. BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
 6. It was a maxim with Madame de Stae'l that polite- 
 ness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts. 
 Her whole demeanor was marked by a disposition to 
 oblige ; there were abundant wit and vivid repartee, but 
 no chicanery, and, especially, no severity, in her expres- 
 sions. ABEL STEVENS. 
 
 Are there not women who fill our vase with wine and 
 roses to the brim, so that the wine runs over and fills the 
 house with perfume ; who inspire us with courtesy ; who 
 unloose our tongues, and we speak ; who anoint our eyes, 
 and we see ? We say things we never thought to have 
 said ; for once our walls of habitual reserve vanished, and 
 left us at large ; we were children playing with children in 
 a wide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in these influ- 
 ences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny poets, 
 and will write out in many-colored words the romance 
 that you are. EMERSON. 
 
106 JULY. 
 
 7. We should begin life with books, they multiply the 
 sources of employment ; so does capital ; but capital is of no 
 use unless we live on the interest books are waste paper 
 unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought. 
 
 BULWER. 
 
 Nothing is to be gained by pretending to like what 
 one really dislikes, or to enjoy what one does not find 
 profitable, or even intelligible. If a reader is not honest 
 and sincere in this matter, there is small hope for him. 
 The lowest taste may be cultivated and improved, and radi- 
 cally changed; but pretense and artificiality can never 
 grow into anything better. They must be wholly rooted 
 out at the start. If you dislike Shakespeare's " Hamlet," 
 and greatly enjoy a trashy story, say so with sincerity and 
 sorrow, if occasion requires, and hope and work for a re- 
 versal of your taste. " It's guid to be honest and true," 
 says Burns, and nowhere is honesty more needed than 
 here. C. F. RICHARDSON. 
 
 8. But the country girls (Alice and Phebe Gary) uncul- 
 tured in mind and rustic in manners, not needing to be told 
 the immense distance which separated them from the world 
 of letters which they longed to enter, would not be dis- 
 couraged. If they must darn and bake, they would also 
 study and write, and at last publish : if candles were de- 
 nied them, a saucer of lard with a bit of rag for wick could 
 and did serve instead. And so, for ten long years, they 
 studied and wrote and published without pecuniary recom- 
 pense ; often discouraged and despondent, yet never de- 
 spairing ; looking out to the graveyard on the near hillside 
 with a regret for the past, and over and beyond it into the 
 
 unknown distance with hope for the future. 
 
 ADA CARNAHAN. 
 
JULY. 107 
 
 9. The best part of the home should ever be regarded 
 as personal, and rigidly held so. It is first and most a 
 question of good breeding, fine tastes, simple and charming 
 habits, wealth of mind and heart, and handsome hospitality 
 to the better nature. SUMNER ELLIS. 
 
 A woman puts all her income into party-dresses, and 
 thinks anything will do to wear at home. All her old 
 tumbled finery, her frayed, dirty silks and soiled ribbons, 
 are made to do duty for her hours of intercourse with her 
 dearest friends. Some seem to be really principled against 
 wearing a handsome dress in every-day life ; they " cannot 
 afford " to be well-dressed in private. Now what I should 
 recommend would be to take the money necessary for one 
 or two party-dresses and spend it upon an appropriate 
 and tasteful home-toilette, and to make it an avowed object 
 to look prettily at home. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 10. It is of great value here and now to anticipate 
 time and live to-day the eternal life. That we may all do. 
 The joys of heaven will begin as soon as we attain the 
 character of heaven and do its duties. That may begin 
 to-day. It is everlasting life to know God, to have His 
 spirit dwelling in you, yourself at one with Him. Try that 
 and prove its worth. Justice, usefulness, wisdom, religion, 
 love, are the best things we hope for in heaven. Try them 
 on they will fit you here not less becomingly. They are 
 the best things of earth. Think no outlay of goodness 
 and piety too great. You will find your reward begin here. 
 As much goodness and piety, so much heaven. Men will 
 not pay you God will ; pay you now, hereafter and for- 
 ever - THEODORE PARKER, 
 
108 JULY. 
 
 11. She gave out of herself, as if she had possessed 
 the life everlasting before her time. She had bread to eat 
 that he knew not of. He could not think of her as sink- 
 ing, dejected, in need, ahungered. Her splendid health was 
 like a god to her. She leaned against her own physical 
 strength as another woman might lean upon a man's. She 
 had the repose of her full mental activity. She had her 
 dangerous and sacred feminine nerve under magnificent 
 training. It was her servant, not her tyrant ; her wealth, 
 not her poverty ; the source of her power, not the exponent 
 of her weakness. She moved on her straight and narrow 
 way between life and death, where one hysteric moment 
 would be fatal, with a glorious poise. The young man ac- 
 knowledged from the bottom of his heart that the Doctor 
 was a balanced and a beautiful character. He had read 
 of such women. He had never seen one. 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
 12. There is always a best way of doing everything, if 
 it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing 
 things; each once a stroke of genius or of love, now 
 repeated and hardened into usage. 
 
 Your manners are always under examination, and by 
 committees little suspected, a police in citizens' clothes, 
 but are awarding or denying you very high prizes when 
 you least think of it. 
 
 Look on this woman. There is not beauty, nor brilliant 
 sayings, nor distinguished power to serve you ; but all see 
 her gladly ; her whole air and impression are healthful. 
 
 Manners require time, as nothing is more vulgar than 
 haste. EMERSON. 
 
JULY. 109 
 
 13. Let nothing make thee sad or fretful 
 Or too regretful, 
 
 Be still. 
 
 What God hath ordered must be right ; 
 
 Then find in it thine own delight, 
 
 My Will. PAUL FLEMMING. 
 
 Never mind your first failures, girls. No matter if 
 the biscuits are " as heavy as lead " and numerous enough 
 to supply a factory boarding-house. Laugh with the rest 
 at your stupidity ; but, all the while, keep a firm hold of 
 pride and make a secret resolve never to abandon biscuit- 
 baking till you have attained efficiency in making bread 
 delicious to the taste and satisfactory in quantity. It is 
 well to be thankful for defeat sometimes because we have 
 an opportunity then for observing what the strength of 
 our pride and perseverance will lead us to really conquer 
 next. A. H. R. 
 
 14. When one first catches the smell of the sea his 
 lungs seem involuntarily to expand, the same as they do 
 when he steps into the open air after long confinement in- 
 doors. There before him is aboriginal space, and the 
 breath of it thrills and dilates his body. . . It is a 
 breath out of the morning of the world bitter, but so 
 fresh and tonic ! . . . We seem to breathe a larger 
 air on the coast. It is the place for large types, large 
 thoughts. Tis not farms or a township, we see now, but 
 God's own domain. Possession, civilization, boundary 
 lines cease, and there within reach is a clear page of terres- 
 trial space as unmarred and as unmarrable as if plucked 
 from the sidereal heavens. J OHN BURROUGHS. 
 
IIO JULY. 
 
 15. Easy, pleasant and beautiful as it is to obey, de- 
 velopment of character is not complete when the person is 
 fitted only to obey. There comes a time in most women's 
 lives when they have to learn how to govern first, them- 
 selves, then those about them. I say to learn ; because it 
 has to be learnt. Miss MULOCK. 
 
 She was one of that large class of women who, mod- 
 erately endowed with talents, earnest and true-hearted 
 are driven by necessity, temperament, or principle out into 
 the world to find support, happiness, and home for them- 
 selves. Many turn back discouraged ; more accept shadow 
 for substance, and discover their mistake too late. The 
 weakest lose their purpose and themselves ; but the strong- 
 est struggle on, and after danger and defeat earn at last 
 the best success this world can give them, the possession 
 of a brave and cheerful spirit, rich in self-knowledge, self- 
 control, and self-help. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 1 6. Were I to pray for a taste which should stand me 
 in stead under every variety of circumstances, and be a 
 source of happiness and cheerfulness to me during life, and 
 a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss, 
 and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for read- 
 ing. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, 
 and you can hardly fail of making him a happy man ; un- 
 less, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse 
 selection of books. You place him in contact with the 
 best society in every period of history with the wisest, 
 the wittiest, the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest char- 
 acters who have adorned humanity. You make him a 
 denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. The 
 world has been created for him. SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. 
 
JULY. Ill 
 
 17. Much must be borne which it is hard to bear, 
 
 Much given away which it were sweet to keep. 
 God help us all, who need indeed His care, 
 And yet I know the Shepherd loves His sheep. 
 
 RUTH OGDEN. 
 
 A Son of God who has declared everlasting war 
 against disease, ignorance, sin, death, and all which makes 
 men miserable. Those are his enemies ; and he reigns, and 
 will reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet, and 
 there is nothing left in God's universe but order and useful- 
 ness, health and beauty, knowledge and virtue, in the day 
 when God shall be all in all. 
 
 This all-good Son of God I preach unto you, and I say 
 to you, Trust him, and obey him. Obey him, not lest he 
 should become angry with you and harm you, like the false 
 gods of the heathen, but because his commandments are 
 life ; because he has made them for your good. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 18. Impartial treatment of those we meet in society is 
 certainly very charming. We say it is a great accomplish- 
 ment to be able to speak a pleasant word to the neighbor 
 on the right, and a different, though equally expressive, 
 one to the friend on the left. Mary likes books, Sally 
 prefers society, Ruth enjoys housekeeping, Margaret is 
 fond of music. Then why not ask Mary if she has noticed 
 the beautiful woodcuts in the last Harper's, or seen the 
 new edition of Hawthorne ? Why not inquire of Sallie 
 about the last matinee and the last hop ? Why not ask 
 Ruth how she made those delicious rolls, and how she 
 prepared the coffee ? And why not make Margaret give you 
 her opinion of Wagner or of Beethoven. A. H. R. 
 
112 JULY. 
 
 19. "Nonsense! You don't belong to the sisterhood, 
 and can't for a dozen years. The crinkles must get out 
 of your hair, the twinkles out of your eyes, and the red off 
 your cheeks, before you read your title clear," said Uncle 
 Pepperfield. . " Besides, there are no old maids nowadays, 
 only a few left over from the last century, hidden away in 
 corners. Bless 'em ! They ought to have as much honor 
 paid to them as folks are paying to old spinning-wheels 
 and other precious relics. No : the women who don't get 
 married in these days know the reason why, and other 
 folks generally are ready to believe it is a good one. Some 
 make themselves so smart it is likely they were predestin- 
 ated to just that smartness and are as great a success as if 
 they had married." ANNETTE NOBLE. 
 
 Better be happy old maids than unhappy wives. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, 
 but that which is good is always beautiful. 
 
 NINON DE LENCLOS. 
 
 20. The two daughters, Jane and Maria, had naturally 
 very sweet voices, and, when they were little, trilled tunes 
 in a very pleasant and bird-like manner. But now, having 
 been instructed by the best masters, and heard the very 
 first artists, they never sing or play ; the piano is shut, and 
 their voices are dumb. If you request a song, they tell 
 you that they never sing now ; papa has such an exquisite 
 taste, he takes no interest in any common music ; in short, 
 having heard Jenny Lind, Grisi Alboni, Mario, and others 
 of the tuneful shell, this family have concluded to abide in 
 silence. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
JULY. II 3 
 
 21. Yet sets she not her soul so steadily 
 Above, that she forgets her ties to earth, 
 But her whole thought would almost seem to be 
 How to make glad one lowly human hearth ; 
 For with a gentle courage she doth strive 
 In thought and word and feeling so to live 
 As to make earth next heaven ; and her heart 
 Herein doth show its most exceeding worth, 
 That, bearing in her frailty her just part, 
 She hath not shrunk from evils of this life, 
 But hath gone calmly forth into the strife, 
 And all its sins and sorrows hath withstood 
 With lofty strength of patient womanhood : 
 For this I love her great soul more than all, 
 That, being bound, like us, with earthly thrall, 
 She walks so bright and heaven-like therein, 
 Too wise, too meek, too womanly, to sin. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 22. Many a summer morning have I crept out of the 
 still house before anyone was awake, and, wrapping myself 
 closely from the chill wind of dawn, climbed to the top of 
 the high cliff called the Head to watch the sun rise. Pale 
 grew the lighthouse frame before the broadening day as, 
 nestling in a crevice at the cliff's edge, I watched the 
 shadows draw away and morning break. Facing the east 
 and south, with the Atlantic before me, what happiness 
 was mine as the deepening rose-color flushed the delicate 
 cloud-flocks that dappled the sky, where the gulls soared, 
 rosy too, while the calm sea blushed beneath. Infinite 
 variety of beauty always awaited me, and filled me with an 
 absorbing, unreasoning joy such as makes the song-sparrow 
 sing, a sense of perfect bliss. CELIA THAXTER. 
 
1 14 JULY. 
 
 23. In the old, historic part of Boston, close by the 
 chime of bells given to the American colonists by King 
 George, under the vigilant eye of the old cockerel, there 
 stood, in 1816, a "rough cast" house. There, amid the 
 summer heats, was born, of stern Puritan stock, a blue-eyed 
 girl, who afterwards, single-handed, fought her way to an 
 eminence where she stood a queen, her royal right unchal- 
 lenged ! Boston proudly boasts that her day and genera- 
 tion had not Charlotte Cushman's equal. In 1867 the old 
 house was torn down and in its place a handsome brick 
 schoolhouse was built, the Cushman School. Here she 
 made her " maiden speech " to upturned girlish faces, and 
 said that higher than her culture or genius or graces of 
 character, she ranked her ability for work. This was the 
 secret of her success, and the legacy she bequeathed to the 
 girls of the Cushman School. ANON. 
 
 24. Some one once asked the Duke of Wellington 
 what his secret was for winning battles. And he said that 
 he had no secret ; that he did not know how to win battles, 
 and that no man knew. For all, he said, that man could 
 do, was to look beforehand steadily at all the chances, and 
 lay all possible plans: but from the moment the battle 
 began, he said, no mortal prudence was of use, and no 
 mortal man could know what the end would be. A thou- 
 sand new accidents might spring up every hour, and scatter 
 all his plans to the winds ; and all that man could do was 
 to comfort himself with the thought that he had done his 
 best, and to trust in God. . . . My friends, learn from 
 this a lesson for the battle of life, which every one of us 
 has to fight from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
JULY. 115 
 
 25. Beware of excess, girls. Kinds of dissipation seem 
 to be not worse than the frequency with which one indulges 
 in them. Extremes in sports, in amusements of any kind 
 either work disaster or get worn out from too constant 
 use. Moderation and discretion are as well worth consid- 
 eration in our times of enjoyment as in hours of hard work. 
 Lawn tennis every afternoon, dancing parties every week, 
 novels every rainy day, not only conceal all the virtue 
 there might be in such sport or entertainment if less fre- 
 quently resorted to, but dissipate the wholesome delight 
 in other pleasures as well. Too much of a sport, too much 
 of certain gayeties, in themselves well meaning, sap physi- 
 cal and moral strength, and make life contain nothing 
 fresh and new. A. H. R. 
 
 26. " Be not simply good, be good for something," said 
 Henry D. Thoreau. A bright-eyed girl of eighteen used to 
 come to me on Friday evenings to give me German lessons. 
 To be sure, I have lived in Germany, and she has never 
 been out of Illinois, but then that language is not my spe- 
 cialty, while it is hers. " How is it that though so young, 
 you have made yourself independent ? " I inquired of her 
 one day. Listen to the reply : " My mother was always 
 quoting this saying of Carlyle : ' The man who has a six- 
 pence commands the world to the extent of that six- 
 pence.' I early laid this sentiment to heart. Besides, 
 when I was fifteen years old, I heard a sermon on the text ; 
 4 This one thing I do.' I thought, why not in everyday 
 affairs as well as in religion do one thing well, rather than 
 many things indifferently, and in that way secure the magic 
 sixpence of Carlyle. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
Il6 JULY. 
 
 27. Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen 
 summers. 
 
 Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of beads 
 and her missal, 
 
 Wearing the Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the 
 earrings, 
 
 Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an 
 heirloom, 
 
 Handed down from mother to child, through long genera- 
 tions. 
 
 But a celestial brightness a more ethereal beauty 
 
 Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after con- 
 fession, 
 
 Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction 
 upon her. 
 
 When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exqui- 
 site music. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 28. I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 
 From the seas and the streams ; 
 
 I bear light shade for the leaves when laid 
 
 In their noonday dreams. 
 From my wings are shaken the dews that waken 
 
 The sweet buds every one, 
 When rocked to rest on their Mother's breast, 
 
 As she dances about in the sun. 
 I wield the flail of the lashing hail, 
 
 And whiten the green plains under ; 
 And then again I dissolve in rain, 
 
 And laugh as I pass in thunder. SHELLEY. 
 
JULY. Iiy 
 
 29. Economy doesn't mean scrimping in one place to 
 make a show in another. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 " We say that it is the duty of every man, with any 
 means, to observe proportion in his surplus expenses ; to 
 have a conscientious order with regard to the service 
 which his superfluous dollars discharge. Over against 
 every prominent allowance for a personal luxury, the ce- 
 lestial record book ought to show some entry in favor of 
 the cause of goodness and suffering humanity ; for every 
 guinea that goes into a theatre, a museum, an atheneum, 
 or the treasury of a music hall, there ought to be some 
 twin guinea pledged for a truth, or flying on some errand 
 of mercy in a city so crowded with misery as this. 
 
 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 30. A word, or the want of a word, is a little thing"; 
 but into the momentary mound or chasm, so made or left, 
 throng circumstances ; these thrust wider and wider asun- 
 der, till the whole round bulk of the world may lie between 
 two lives. MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 O my lost love, and my own, own love, 
 
 And my love that loved me so ! 
 Is there never a chink in the world above, 
 
 Where they listen for words from below ? 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. 
 
 Could ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas, 
 
 In the old likeness that I knew, 
 I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas, 
 
 Douglas, Douglas, tender and true. 
 
 MRS. MULOCK (CRAIK). 
 
Il8 JULY. 
 
 31. It would be the height of absurdity for the child to 
 think and speak of its father as if he were a child too, and 
 could do no more than the boy's playmates. Yet this is the 
 common error of the children of God. We do not raise 
 our thoughts to a god-like level. We think our own 
 thoughts of God, and straightway we doubt. Oh, that we 
 rose to God's thoughts, and tried to conceive how He 
 looks upon matters ! Surely he taketh up the isles as a 
 very little thing, and the mountains he weighs in scales, 
 If our troubles were set in the light of God's power, and 
 love, and faithfulness, and wisdom, they would become to 
 us small burdens. Why should we not so regard them ? 
 
 SPURGEON, 
 
AUGUST. 
 
 1. According to the calendar, the summer ought to cul- 
 minate about the 2ist of June, but in reality it is some 
 weeks later ; June is a maiden month all through. It is 
 not high noon in nature till about the first or second week 
 in July. When the chestnut tree blooms, the meridian of 
 the year is reached. By the first of August, it is fairly one 
 o'clock. The lustre of the season begins to dim, the foli- 
 age of the trees and woods to tarnish, the plumage of the 
 birds to fade, and their songs to cease. The hints of ap- 
 proaching fall are on every hand. How suggestive this 
 thistle-down, for instance, which, as I sit by the open win- 
 dow, comes in and brushes softly across my hand ! The 
 first snow-flake tells of winter not more plainly than this 
 driving down heralds the approach of fall. Come here, 
 my fairy, and tell me whence you come and whither you go ? 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 2. But Margery sat on the doorsteps and wondered, as 
 the sea sounded louder, and the sunshine grew warmer 
 around her. It was all so strange, and grand, and beauti- 
 ful ! Her heart danced with joy to the music that went 
 echoing through the wide world from the roots of the 
 sprouting grass to the great golden blossom of the sun. 
 
 And when the round, gray eyes closed that night, at the 
 first peep of the stars, the angels looked down and won- 
 dered over Margery. For the wisdom of the wisest being 
 God has made ends in wonder ; and there is nothing on 
 earth so wonderful as the budding soul of a little child. 
 
 LUCY LARCOM. 
 119 
 
120 AUGUST. 
 
 3. Kindness to animals is no unworthy exercise of be 
 nevolence. We hold that the life of brutes perishes with 
 their breath, and that they are never to be clothed again 
 with consciousness. The inevitable shortness, then, of 
 their existence should plead for them touchingly. The 
 insects on the surface of the water, poor ephemeral things 
 who would heedlessly abridge their dancing pleasure of 
 to-day ? Such feelings we should have toward the whole 
 brute creation. To those animals, over which we are mas- 
 ters for however short a time, we have positive duties to 
 perform. This seems too obvious to be insisted upon ; 
 but there are persons who act as though they thought they 
 could buy the right of ill-treating any of God's creatures. 
 
 ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
 4. " Life and light ! " The words have a familiar and 
 a solemn sound. Are they snatches from some forgotten 
 sentiment of Holy Writ ? John, perhaps ? John, the golden 
 lipped, happy-hearted young enthusiast ? What a poet that 
 fisherman was ! No wonder that modern dispute centres 
 about the authenticity of the Fourth Gospel. Life and 
 Light ! In all the universe those were the only two words 
 that could interpret the summer-noon meaning of this vir- 
 gin State of Maine. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
 Resounds the living surface of the ground : 
 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, 
 To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 
 Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclined, 
 With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade 
 Of willows gray, close-crowding o'er the brook. 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
AUGUST. 121 
 
 5. There are duties devolving on every human being, 
 duties not small nor few, but vast and varied, which 
 spring from home and private life, and all their sweet rela- 
 tions. The support or care of the humblest household is 
 a function worthy of men, women, and angels, so far as it 
 goes. From these duties none must shrink, neither man 
 nor woman ; the loftiest genius cannot ignore them ; the 
 sublimest charity must begin with them. They are their 
 own exceeding great reward ; their self-sacrifice is infinite 
 joy ; and the selfishness which discards them is repaid by 
 loneliness and a desolate old age. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON. 
 
 6. Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest ; 
 Home-keeping hearts are happiest, 
 
 For those that wander they know not where 
 Are full of trouble and full of care : 
 To stay at home is best. 
 
 Weary and homesick and distressed 
 They wander east, and wander west, 
 And are baffled and beaten and blown about 
 By the winds of the wilderness of doubt ; 
 To stay at home is best. 
 
 Then stay at home, my heart, and rest; 
 The bird is safest in its nest ; 
 O'er all that flutter their wings and fly 
 A hawk is hovering in the sky ; 
 To stay at home is best. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
122 AUGUST. 
 
 7. " Lord, it is good for us to be here," the disciples 
 said. And it was good for them to be there : but not too 
 long. Man was sent into this world not merely to see but 
 to do ; and the more he sees, the more he is bound to go 
 and do accordingly. St. Peter had to come down from the 
 mount, and preach the Gospel wearily for many years, and 
 die at last upon the cross. St. Augustine, though he 
 would gladly have lived and died doing nothing but fixing 
 his soul's eye steadily on the glory of God's goodness, 
 had to come down from the mount likewise, and work, and 
 preach, and teach, and wear himself out in daily drudgery 
 for that God whom he learnt to serve. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 8. Accomplishments make a woman valuable to herself. 
 A truly accomplished woman one whose thoughts have 
 come naturally to flow out in artistic forms, whether 
 through the instrumentality of her tongue, her pen, her 
 pencil, or her piano, is a treasure to herself and to society. 
 There maybe something to interfere with your being all 
 this ; but this you can do : you can acquire thoroughly 
 every accomplishment for which you have a natural apti- 
 tude, or you can let it alone. Do not be content with a 
 smattering of anything. TIMOTHY TITCOMB. 
 
 " I don't want to be uncharitable, and I don't in the 
 least believe the things people often say about society; 
 but really, Lisbeth, I have sometimes thought that the life 
 behind all the glare and glitter was just the least bit stupid 
 and hollow. I know I should get dreadfully tired of it, if 
 I had nothing else to satisfy me ; no real home life, and no 
 true, single-hearted, close friends to love, like you and 
 mamma." FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. 
 
AUGUST. 123 
 
 9. Madame Recamier adopted certain rules which good 
 society has since observed. She discouraged the tete-a-tete 
 in a low voice in a mixed company ; if any one in her cir- 
 cle was likely to have especial knowledge, she would ap- 
 peal to him with an air of deference ; if anyone was shy, 
 she encouraged him ; if a mot was particularly happy, she 
 would take it up and show it to the company. Presiding 
 in her own salon, she talked but little herself, but rather 
 exerted herself to draw others out ; without being learned, 
 she exercised great judgment in her decisions when appeals 
 were made to her as the presiding genius. She discour- 
 aged everything pedantic and pretentious ; she dreaded 
 exaggerations ; she kept her company to the subject under 
 discussion ; she would allow no slang ; she insisted upon 
 good nature and amiability which more than anything else 
 marked society in the i8th century. 
 
 JOHN LORD. 
 
 10. O, yes, girls, dress helps, and we are in no mood 
 to dispense with it. We do not want you all to look like 
 the inmates of an orphan asylum, green checked sun- 
 bonnets, red calico dresses, and blue capes O, no ! But 
 let us not forget that the girl who wears a dress though 
 it may be worth a thousand dollars and be stiff with gold 
 brocade out of keeping with her face and form, its colors 
 in no way agreeing, cannot compare favorably with that 
 other girl whose dress costs only fifteen dollars but which 
 in its simplicity, its fit, its fabric, its adaptability to the 
 place and time where and when it is worn, its air of trim- 
 ness and tastefulness gives the wearer a kind of classic 
 superiority. A. H. R. 
 
124 AUGUST. 
 
 ii. The supreme advantage which modern society en- 
 joys over society five hundred years ago is printed litera- 
 ture. There are scores of blessings connected organically 
 with civilization that raise the plane of our life ; but over 
 all secular boons this one is sovereign, the printing 
 press, which arrests and cheapens, which accumulates and 
 scatters, the victories of genius and the stores of intellect- 
 ual toil 
 
 Books are our crowning privilege in modern civilization. 
 With a taste for books and music, let every person thank 
 God, night and morning, that he was not born earlier in 
 history. 
 
 T. STARR KING. 
 
 Mark, there. 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 profound, 
 
 Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth 
 
 Tis then we get the right good from a book. 
 
 MRS. BROWNING. 
 
 12. My young-lady friends, of from seventeen upwards, 
 your time and the use of it is as essential to you as to any 
 father or brother of you all. You are accountable for it 
 just as much as he is. If you waste it, you waste not only 
 your substance, but your very souls not that which is 
 your own, but your Maker's. 
 
 Miss MULOCK. 
 
AUGUST. 125 
 
 13. Coquettes are the quacks of love. 
 
 ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 
 God created the coquette as soon as he had made the 
 
 f o1 - VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 A coquette is a young lady of more beauty than sense, 
 more accomplishments than learning, more charms of per- 
 son than graces of mind, more admirers than friends, 
 more fools than wise men for attendants. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 14. A prayer is less a speaking than a looking up and 
 listening to hear what God will say. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 More things are wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 
 Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
 For what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend ? 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 Child of My love, " lean hard," 
 And let Me feel the pressure of thy care, 
 I know thy burden, child ; I shaped it, 
 Poised it in Mine own hand, made no proportion 
 In its weight to thine unaided strength ; 
 For even as I laid it on, I said, 
 " I shall be near, and while she leans on Me, 
 This burden shall be Mine, not hers ." 
 
 PAUL PASTNOR. 
 
126 AUGUST. 
 
 15. Our appreciation of the beautiful ought to be 
 strengthened by our love of the useful and our admiration 
 of labor, just as our appreciation of work ought to be in- 
 creased by valuing the serenity of rest. We pause in 
 wrapt wonder while we gaze from the cliffs on the blue 
 expanse of sea and sky, or cast our eyes upon the beauty 
 of stately lawns and waving banks of wild flowers, slop- 
 ing down to the rocks. We say, And this is life ! I live, 
 I walk in beauty, my soul is bathed in the evening light ! 
 But the sounds from the neighboring city meet our ears 
 steam whistles, bells and wagons ; men and girls go by 
 with quick steps hastening home from the factories. Then 
 the thought comes to us that labor, common labor, has a 
 beauty too. Though not so serene a beauty as rest gives, 
 not so emotional as Nature imparts, the loveliness of work 
 is more vigorous, more earnest, more godlike. A girl who 
 lives aright knows not only the joy of rest in the beautiful, 
 but of work in the beautiful, too. The one makes her 
 gentle, the other makes her strong. A. H. R. 
 
 16. 'Tis raging noon ; and, vertical, the sun 
 Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. 
 O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye 
 Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns ; and all, 
 From pole to pole, is undistinguished blaze. 
 Echo no more returns the cheerful sound 
 
 Of sharpening scythe : the mower, sinking, heaps 
 O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfumed ; 
 And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard 
 Through the dumb mead. 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
AUGUST. 127 
 
 17. Traveller, what lies over the hill ? 
 
 Traveller, tell to me : 
 I am only a child from the window-sill 
 Over I cannot see. GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 This Universe, the grandest and loveliest work of nature, 
 and the Intellect which was created to observe and to 
 admire it, are our special and eternal possessions, which 
 shall last as long as we last ourselves. Cheerful, there- 
 fore, and erect, let us hasten with undaunted footsteps 
 whithersoever our fortunes lead us. There is no land 
 where man cannot dwell, no land where he cannot uplift 
 his eyes unto heaven ; wherever we are, the distance of the 
 divine from the human remains the same. 
 
 SENECA. 
 
 18. Nature finishes everything and that makes a large 
 part of her charm. Every little flower is perfect and com- 
 plete, from root to seed. Every leaf which will open in 
 the next springtime will have its little ribs and edges as 
 exactly and completely finished as if it were the only leaf 
 God intended to make in the whole year. 
 
 Let us learn to do everything as well as we can. That 
 turns life into art. The least thing thoroughly well done, 
 becomes artistic. It is a fine art to walk perfectly well, 
 not in the heavy mechanical way which most of us walk. 
 It is a fine art to speak well, to articulate distinctly, to 
 pronounce correctly, to use the right word and not the 
 wrong one. Anything complete, rounded, full, exact, gives 
 pleasure ; anything slovenly, slip-shod, unfinished, is dis- 
 couraging. 
 
 JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
128 AUGUST. 
 
 19. " You think because my life is rude, 
 
 I take no note of sweetness : 
 I tell you love has naught to do 
 With meetness or unmeetness: 
 
 " Itself its best excuse, it asks 
 
 No leave of pride or fashion 
 When silken zone or homespun frock 
 
 It stirs with throbs of passion. 
 
 " The plaything of your summer sport, 
 The spells you weave around me 
 
 You cannot at your will undo, 
 Nor leave me as you found me." WHITTIER. 
 
 20. But now let me see what you can do, girls, if you 
 will. Almost every one of you spends a few hours a week 
 in reading, and some of you pour away " oceans of time " 
 over fashionable fiction. Why not give just two or three 
 little hours to study, study so pleasant and so arranged 
 that you may call it reading, or recreating, or getting ac- 
 quainted with " the best of all good company ? " After a 
 little while you will find these hours precious and neces- 
 sary. They will give you rest, and a greater number of 
 useful and pleasant subjects to think about ; they will af- 
 ford you broader and readier information ; and they will 
 deepen within you an interest in the highest and most 
 helpful things this life affords. 
 
 As far as you can, in your reading or studying, group 
 those subjects together which belong to one another. Your 
 knowledge will thus become more thorough and your in- 
 terest more absorbing. A. H. R. 
 
AUGUST. 129 
 
 21. A man without religion is to be pitied, but a god- 
 less woman is a horror above all things. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 Life is valuable only so far as it serves for the religious 
 education of the heart. MME> DE STAEL. 
 
 Here is the great, last certainty. Be sure of God. With 
 simple, loving worship, by continual obedience, by purify- 
 ing yourself even as He is pure, creep close to Him, keep 
 close to Him. Be sure of God and nothing can overthrow 
 or drown you. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 22. There are many little things in the household, at- 
 tention to which is indispensable to health and happiness. 
 Cleanliness consists in attention to a number of apparent 
 trifles the scrubbing of a floor, the dusting of a chair, 
 the cleansing of a tea-cup, but the general result of the 
 whole is an atmosphere of moral and physical well-being 
 a condition favorable to the highest growth of human 
 character. The kind of air which circulates in a house 
 may seem a small matter, for we cannot see the air, and 
 few people know anything about it ; yet if we do not pro- 
 vide a regular supply of pure air within our houses, we 
 shall inevitably suffer for our neglect. A few specks of 
 dirt may seem neither here nor there, and a closed door or 
 window would appear to make little difference ; but it 
 may make the difference of a life destroyed by fever ; 
 and therefore the little dirt and the little bad air are really 
 very serious matters. SMILES. 
 
130 AUGUST. 
 
 23. After all, it doesn't so much signify what you may 
 do as that you do it well, whatever it may be. For the 
 value of skilled labor is estimated on a democratic basis, 
 nowadays. President Eliot, of Harvard University, the 
 cook in the Parker House restaurant, and Mary L. Booth, 
 who edits Harper's Bazar, each receive four thousand dol- 
 lars per year. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 24. " Little Ellie in her smile 
 
 Chooseth ... I will have a lover, 
 
 And the steed shall be red-roan, 
 And the lover shall be noble, 
 With an eye that takes the breath, 
 And the lute he plays upon 
 Shall strike ladies into trouble, 
 As his sword strikes men to death. 
 
 And the steed it shall be shod 
 
 All in silver, housed in azure, 
 
 And the mane shall swim the wind : 
 
 And the hoofs along the sod 
 
 Shall flash onward and keep measure, 
 
 Till the shepherds look behind. 
 
 But my lover will not prize 
 
 All the glory that he rides in 
 
 When he gazes in my face 
 
 He will say, " O Love, thine eyes 
 
 Build the shrine my soul abides in ; 
 
 And I kneel here for thy grace." 
 
 MRS. BROWNING. 
 
AUGUST. 131 
 
 25. Ourselves become our own best sacrifice. 
 
 CRASHAV/. 
 
 A vague feeling of kindness toward our fellow-crea- 
 tures is no state of mind to rest in. It is not enough 
 for us to be able to say that nothing of human interest is 
 alien to us, and that we give our acquiescence, or indeed 
 our transient assistance, to any scheme of benevolence that 
 may come in our way. No : in promoting the welfare of 
 others we must toil ; we must devote to it earnest thought, 
 constant care, and zealous endeavor. What is more, we 
 must do all this with patience ; and be ready, in the same 
 cause, to make an habitual sacrifice of our own tastes and 
 wishes. ARTHUR HELPS. 
 
 26. " Marryin' a man ain't like settin' alongside of him 
 nights and hearin' him talk pretty ; that's the fust prayer 
 There's lots an* lots o' meetin' after that ! " 
 
 ROSE TERRY COOKE. 
 
 Do you remember the infatuation of "Guenn"? how 
 neither the good priest, nor her own people no, nor her 
 reason could prevail ? And then do you remember the 
 end? Pass quickly through the adoration of a mere mor- 
 tal, allow some chances for faults in yourselves and those 
 you worship, and do not turn your hearts bitterly against 
 common sense. Ideals which grow upon us are stronger 
 than those recommended by a first glance. A. H. R. 
 
 I remember one day, when Lady Oldtower was suggest- 
 ing half jest, half earnest, " better any marriage than no 
 marriage at all ; " Maud's father replied very seriously 
 " Better no marriage, than any marriage that is less than 
 the best." Miss MULOCK. 
 
132 AUGUST. 
 
 27. Mother says that neither she nor her daughter 
 shall ever offer wine to any young man under her roof. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 The foaming, sparkling cup which you, with arch smiles 
 and graces, are handing to your guest, may be that critical 
 one which will consign him to a drunkard's grave, his wife 
 to a mad-house, his children to lives of penury, sickness 
 and sorrow. 
 
 A single dose of alcoholic tonics, given as a medicine, 
 may revive the fatal passion of half-cured drunkards, and 
 forfeit their hard-earned chance of recovery. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 28. All great men have lived by hope. Not what they 
 saw, but what they believed in, made their strength. 
 
 The power which moves the world is hope. An anxious 
 doubtful, timid man can accomplish little. Fear unnerves 
 as ; hope inspires us. If, then, we wish to cultivate and 
 strengthen our hope, it must be by increasing our faith in 
 goodness. 
 
 The path of progress for each individual soul lies along 
 this highway of hope. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 So take Joy home, 
 
 And make a place in thy great heart for her, 
 And give her time to grow, and cherish her ; 
 Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee, 
 When thou art working in the furrows, ay, 
 Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
 It is a comely fashion to be glad 
 Joy is a grace we say to God. 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. 
 
AUGUST. 133 
 
 29. There are thousands of men in our (English) army 
 and navy, and in all our industries, who have reason to 
 bless the name of Mary Carpenter. Armed with purity of 
 purpose, she went into courts and alleys through which a 
 policeman could scarcely walk. Nothing daunted, nothing 
 disgusted her. 
 
 There is a great deal of heroism in common life 
 that is never known. There is, perhaps, more heroism 
 among the poor than among the rich. ... A street 
 beggar said that he always got more coppers from the poor 
 shop girls than from anybody else. SMILES. 
 
 It is nobler far to do the most commonplace duty in the 
 household, or behind the counter, with a single eye to duty, 
 simply because it must be done ; nobler far, I say, than to 
 go out of your way to attempt a brilliant deed, with a dou- 
 ble mind and saying to yourself not only " This will be 
 a brilliant deed," but also " and it will pay me, or raise 
 me, or set me off, into the bargain." Heroism knows no 
 " into the bargain." CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 30. She had Albani Cupids and Correggio's floating 
 angel heads painted on the walls of her pretty boudoir, 
 and no doubt her studies of such artlessness were not 
 without effect in producing her dewy infantine smiles. 
 There was much that she knew, this wise and foolish 
 woman. But nevertheless, some simple and useful facts 
 escaped her. She did not know, for instance, that a 
 young heart holds the essence of youth in a woman's face 
 in defiance of wrinkles and gray hair. She did not know 
 that the world's imprint on her own spirit must sooner or 
 later work itself out into her face, despite her cherubic 
 studies. BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
134 AUGUST. 
 
 31. Patience is the truest sign of courage. Ask old 
 soldiers, who have seen real war, and they will tell you 
 that the bravest men, the men who endured best, not in 
 mere fighting, but in standing still for hours to be mowed 
 down by cannon shot ; who were most cheerful and patient 
 in shipwreck, and starvation, and defeat all things ten 
 times worse than fighting ask old soldiers, I say, and 
 they will tell you that the men who showed best in such 
 miseries were generally the stillest and meekest men in 
 the whole regiment, that is true fortitude ; that is Christ's 
 image the meekest of men, and the bravest too. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 Already the nestling sparrows 
 
 Are clothed in a mist of gray, 
 And under the breast of the swallow 
 
 The warm eggs stir to-day. 
 
 Already the cricket is busy 
 
 With hints of soberer days, 
 And the golden-rod lights slowly 
 
 Its torch for the autumn blaze. 
 
 O brief, bright smile of summer ! 
 
 O days divine and dear ! 
 The voices of winter's sorrow 
 
 Already we can hear. 
 
 CELIA THAXTER. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 
 
 1. So here hath been dawning 
 
 Another blue day : 
 Think wilt thou let it 
 Slip useless away. 
 
 Out of Eternity 
 
 This new day is born; 
 Into Eternity, 
 
 At night, will return. 
 
 Behold it aforetime 
 
 No eye ever did; 
 So soon it for ever 
 
 From all eyes is hid. 
 
 Here hath been dawning 
 
 Another blue Day : 
 Think wilt thou let it 
 
 Slip useless away ? CARLYLE. 
 
 2. Improved cooking-stoves and Mrs. Cornelius have 
 made the culinary art such a path of roses that it is hardly 
 now included in early training, but deferred till after mat- 
 rimony. Yet bread-making in well-ventilated kitchens 
 and sweeping in open-windowed rooms are calisthenics so 
 bracing that one grudges them to the Irish maidens, whose 
 round and comely arms betray so much less need of their 
 tonic influence than the shrunken muscles exhibited so 
 freely by our short-sleeved belles 
 
 T. W. HlGGINSON- 
 135 
 
136 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 3. You are not, under the pretense of exercise, to unfit 
 yourself for the duties of the day. I once knew a club of 
 young enthusiasts, men and women, who used to walk be- 
 fore breakfast, summer mornings. It is an exquisite time 
 of day, and they had what the New England dialect calls 
 " beautiful times." But when they came back, after two 
 or three hours, and ate a sumptuous breakfast, as they 
 used to, they found' themselves quite unfit for the duties 
 of the day, for making clothes, writing sermons, advising 
 clients, or painting pictures. This is what in slang phrase 
 is called " running exercise into the ground." Such exer- 
 cise is no longer preparation for living. Remember all 
 along, that our business is to keep the body up to the high- 
 est point, that we may get from it all the work we can. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 4. " The higher life begins for us, my daughter, when we 
 renounce our own will to bow before a Divine law. That 
 seems hard to you. It is the portal of wisdom, and free- 
 dom, and blessedness. And the symbol of it hangs before 
 you. That wisdom is the religion of the Cross." 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 Every heart must learn to beat, 
 As every robin learns to trill, 
 
 And every life be made complete, 
 Led upward by a higher will. 
 
 DORA R. GOODALE. 
 
 Be quiet, O my soul! 
 
 My Master's hand is on me now ; I must obey His will. 
 His hand is very strong ; His word He must fulfil. 
 
 J. M. S. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 137 
 
 5. On the day after Florence Nightingale's arrival in 
 the Crimea, six hundred wounded men were brought in, 
 and the number increased until there were over three 
 thousand under her immediate charge. One of the gen- 
 tlest and tenderest of women, she surveyed the scene of 
 confusion and anguish with unruffled mind, and issued 
 her orders with perfect calmness. During the first week 
 she was known to stand twenty consecutive hours, directing 
 the labor of men and women. She established a washing 
 house, and a kitchen in which hundreds of gallons of beef 
 tea were made daily. She understood the art of husband- 
 ing labor. Her nerve was wonderful. She was more 
 than equal to the trial of severe surgical operations. The 
 more awful to every sense any particular case, the more 
 surely would her slight form be seen bending over him, 
 until death released him. No wonder the soldiers kissed 
 her shadow as it passed their beds. JAMES PARTON. 
 
 6. What shall I see if I ever go 
 Over the mountains high ? 
 
 Now, I can see but the peaks of snow, 
 Crowning the cliffs where the pine-trees grow, 
 
 Waiting and longing to rise 
 
 Nearer the beckoning skies. 
 
 Once, I know, I shall journey far 
 
 Over the mountains high. 
 Lord, is thy door already ajar ? 
 Dear is the home where thy saved ones are ; 
 
 But bar it awhile from me, 
 
 And help me to long for Thee. 
 
 BJORNSON. 
 
138 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 7. People are better than we fancy, and have more in 
 them than we fancy ; and if they do not show that they 
 have, it is three times out of four our own fault. Instead 
 of esteeming them better than ourselves, and asking their 
 advice, and calling out their experience, we are too often 
 in such a hurry to show them that we are better than they, 
 and to thrust our advice upon them, that we give them no 
 encouragement to speak, often no time to speak; and so 
 they are silent and think the more, and remain shut up in 
 themselves, and often pass for stupider people than they 
 are. Because we will not begin by doing justice to our 
 neighbors, we prevent them doing justice to themselves. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 8. Suppose you are studying English Literature. Be 
 watchful, first, for the writer's ideas ; be sure you get his 
 thoughts, not such as some one else says are his, accord- 
 ing to some one's else interpretation ; then observe the 
 manner in which those ideas are expressed. The merits 
 of a literary work lie quite as much in the style as in the 
 thoughts which it contains. 
 
 You may be reading George Eliot's " Romola." Be sure, 
 when the book ends, that you see somewhat the purpose 
 for which it was written. Be impressed with its story: 
 follow its wonderful descriptions, its analysis of character; 
 remark the knowledge brought to bear in representing 
 that great historical character Savonarola, the Florentine 
 republic, and the rule of the De Medicis ; be moved by the 
 pathos of the story, its dignity and beauty ; but remember 
 most that she who begins with virtue, grows, though 
 through fires of tribulation, into a radiant, clear, crystal 
 womanhood. A. H. R. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 139 
 
 9. Dorothy Wordsworth [the poet's sister] numbered 
 eighty-four years without a winter in her heart. 
 
 MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. 
 
 You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful 
 people ; why not make earnest effort to confer that pleas- 
 ure on others? You will find half the battle is gained 
 if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy. 
 
 LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 
 
 There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or be- 
 havior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around 
 us. EMERSON. 
 
 10. "But I can't give up wishing," said Philip, im- 
 patiently. " It seems to me we can never give up long- 
 ing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are 
 certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we 
 must hunger after them. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 We are ever looking to something better than we have 
 or are, and whether we attain it or lose it, there is no rest 
 for our feet. It is the man who is fooled or deluded that 
 is to be pitied. He who finds life and self sufficient is 
 either a monster or a caricature. A. S. HARDY. 
 
 You say, " In childhood you fancy there's such a good 
 time for you in the world." I know it. The trees and 
 flowers promise it, and the blue sky and the stars. But 
 after long years of disappointment (we are twenty-two 
 now!), when you are perhaps giving up and thinking it is 
 all a cheat, you turn and find it in your own heart ! Right 
 there, Di, shut in like honey in a cell. I suppose the 
 " peace that passeth all understanding " is the name for 
 it, and when it comes to you so softly, then the old glamour 
 is over every thing again, just as it was far away in your 
 childhood, SOPHIE MAY. 
 
140 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 11. " The Length and the Breadth and the Height of 
 it are equal." 
 
 These are the three dimensions of the human life, its 
 length, its breadth, its height. The life which has only 
 length, only intensity of ambition, is narrow. The life 
 that has length and breadth, intense ambition and broad 
 humanity, is thin. It is like a great, flat plain, of which 
 one wearies, and which sooner or later wearies of itself. 
 The life which to its length and breadth adds height, 
 which to its personal ambition and sympathy with man, 
 adds the love and obedience of God, completes itself into 
 the cube of the eternal city and is the life complete. 
 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 12. I think Hans Andersen's story of the cobweb cloth 
 woven so fine that it was invisible, woven for the king's 
 garment, must mean manners, which do really clothe a 
 princely nature. Such a one can well go in a blanket, if 
 he would. In the gymnasium or on the sea-beach his 
 superiority does not leave him. EMERSON. 
 
 In effective womanly beauty form is more than face, 
 and manner more than either. ANON. 
 
 We cannot always oblige, but we can always speak 
 obligingly. VOLTAIRE. 
 
 Fine manners are a stronger bond than a beautiful face ; 
 the former bind, the latter only attracts. 
 
 LAMARTINE. 
 
 Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace ; 
 You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face. 
 
 MRS. BROWNING. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 141 
 
 13. To enjoy life thoroughly we need daily to mingle 
 the ideal with the real. You know some girls fancy them- 
 selves the most practical people the sun shines on, but on 
 their way to school, to work, or to market, they will stop 
 to pick a wayside flower, to admire a fleecy cloud, to 
 catch a glimpse of a picture in a shop-window; or they 
 will linger a moment to cast an admiring look at the 
 charming new neighbor who has just passed on. So with 
 their practical estimate of what butter and eggs ought to 
 cost, with their lists of Latin prepositions which they have 
 but lately learned there creep into the mind wonderful 
 shapes of beauty and visions of adorable friends. Keep 
 on drawing halos about the heads of your friends, keep on 
 delighting in clouds and flowers ; that kind of sentiment 
 you will need later to make your hearts as full as your 
 minds. A. H. R. 
 
 14. Through suffering and sorrow thou hast passed 
 To show us what a woman true may be : 
 They have not taken sympathy from thee, 
 
 Nor made thee any other than thou wast, 
 
 Save as some tree, which, in a sudden blast, 
 
 Sheddeth those blossoms which are weakly grown, 
 
 Upon the air, but keepeth every one 
 
 Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last : 
 
 So thou hast shed some blooms of gayety, 
 
 But never one of steadfast cheerfulness ; 
 
 Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity 
 
 Robbed thee of any faith in happiness, 
 
 But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see 
 
 How many simple ways there are to bless. 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 
142 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 15. There are two kinds of neatness: one is too evi- 
 dent, and makes every thing about it seem trite and cold 
 and stiff, and another kind of neatness disappears from 
 our sight in a satisfied sense of completeness like some 
 exquisite, simple, finished style of writing an Addison's 
 or a St. Pierre's. BULWER. 
 
 We hear a great deal about graceful dancing, pretty 
 faces, bright talkers, as well as the dearer charms of good 
 scholarship, not to mention the virtues of base ball and 
 tennis grounds but seldom, I fear, can the most eager 
 ears catch the old-fashioned compliment " Such charming 
 manners ! " 
 
 " The manners of children at home," said Mrs. Sharpe, 
 " form the very foundation stone of society. We all 
 know that politeness is defined to be 'kindness of heart ' ; 
 and the desire to do always and to every one the best 
 thing in one's power, make first a good son or daughter, 
 afterwards a good husband or wife, and then a good 
 citizen." MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 1 6. We cannot easily overrate the influence of those 
 who improve the social circle. They give not only the 
 greatest pleasure which is known to cultivated minds, but 
 kindle lofty sentiments 
 
 When woman accomplishes such results she fills no 
 ordinary sphere, she performs no ordinary mission ; she 
 rises in dignity as she declines in physical attractions. 
 Like a queen of beauty at the tournament, she bestows 
 the rewards which distinguished excellence has won ; she 
 breaks up the distinctions of rank ; she destroys preten- 
 tious ; she kills self-conceit ; she even gains consideration 
 for her husband or brother. JOHN LORD. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 143 
 
 17. However good you may be, you have faults ; how- 
 ever dull you may be, you can find out what some of them 
 are ; and however slight they may be, you had better 
 make some not too painful, but patient effort to get 
 quit of them. So far as you have confidence in me at all, 
 trust me for this, that how many soever you may find or 
 fancy your faults to be, there are only two that are of real 
 consequence, Idleness and Cruelty. RUSKIN. 
 
 18. Listen to the story of a simple shepherd, given in 
 his own words : I forget now who it was that once said 
 to me, " Jean Baptiste, you are very poor ? " True. " If 
 you fell ill, your wife and children would be destitute ? " 
 True. And then I felt anxious and uneasy for the rest of 
 the day. 
 
 At Evensong, wiser thoughts came to me, and I said 
 to myself : Jean Baptiste, for more than thirty years you 
 have lived in the world, you have never possessed any- 
 thing, yet still you live on, and have been provided each 
 day with nourishment, each night with repose. Of trouble 
 God has never sent you more than your share. Of help, 
 the means have never failed you. To whom do you owe 
 all this ? To God. Jean Baptiste, be no longer ungrate- 
 ful, and banish those anxious thoughts ; for what could 
 ever induce you to think that the Hand from which you 
 have already received so much, would close against you 
 when you grow old, and have greater need of help ? I 
 finished my prayer, and felt at peace. GOLD DUST. 
 
 ' Let others miss me ! 
 Never miss me, God ! ' 
 
 MRS. BROWNING. 
 
144 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 19. To learn never to waste our time is perhaps one 
 of the most difficult virtues to acquire. 
 
 A well-spent day is a source of pleasure. To be con- 
 stantly employed, and never asking, " What shall I do ? " 
 is the secret of much goodness and happiness. 
 
 Begin then with promptitude, act decisively, persevere, 
 if interrupted, be amiable, and return to the work unruffled, 
 finish it carefully, these will be the signs of a virtuous 
 soul. GOLD DUST. 
 
 If it is not right, do not do it ; if it is not true, do not 
 say it. MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 20. Winds may blow and skies may rain, fortune may 
 prove unkind, days may be lonely and evenings dull ; but 
 for the true lover of reading there is always at hand this 
 great company of companions and friends, the wisest, 
 the gentlest, the best, never too tired or too busy to 
 talk with him, ready at all moments to give their thought, 
 their teaching, to help, instruct, and entertain. They never 
 disappoint, they have no moods or tempers, they are 
 always at home, in all of which respects they differ 
 from the rest of our acquaintance. If the man who 
 invented sleep is to be blessed, thrice blessed be the man 
 who invented printing. SUSAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 Books are men of higher stature. MRS. BROWNING. 
 
 The days of blue-stockings are over; it is a notable fact 
 that the best housekeepers, the neatest needle-women, the 
 most discreet managers of their own and others' affairs, 
 are ladies whose names the world cons over in library lists 
 and exhibition catalogues. Miss MULOCK. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 145 
 
 21. The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashions, 
 and valuing ourselves by them, is one of the most childish 
 pieces of folly that can be. SIR MATTHEW HALE. 
 
 Those who are incapable of shining but by dress would 
 do well to consider that the contrast between them and 
 their clothes turns out much to their disadvantage. 
 
 SHENSTONE. 
 
 As long as there are cold and nakedness in the land 
 around you, so long can there be no question at all but that 
 splendor of dress is a crime. In due time, when we have 
 nothing better to set people to work at, it may be right to 
 let them make lace and cut jewels ; but as long as there 
 are any who have no blankets for their beds, and no rags 
 for their bodies, so long it is blanket-making and tailoring 
 we must set people to work at, not lace. RUSKIN. 
 
 22 And pray be mindful of the way you look at things. 
 Do not try to see evil ; have on your kind eyes, magnify 
 every dot of goodness. Ruskin says, "In all things 
 throughout the world, the men who look for the crooked 
 will see the crooked, and the men who look for the 
 straight will see the straight." And George Eliot tells 
 us to " Put a good face on it and don't seem to be looking 
 out for crows, else you'll set other people to watchin' for 
 'em to." Try especially to see what is good in your own lot. 
 
 " Count up your mercies," girls, and see how many they 
 are, then count up your chances for receiving more mercies 
 and find out how even more numerous they are. If you 
 do not get any comfort out of this, why, you haven't 
 counted right, you have left hundreds uncounted. Then 
 look closer and try it over again. A. H. R. 
 
146 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 23. I believe in rewards of a certain kind, especially for 
 young folks. They help us along ; and although we may 
 begin by being good for the sake of the reward, if it is 
 rightly used, we shall soon learn to love goodness for 
 itself. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 It is what we are, not what we have, that makes one 
 human being superior to another. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 People don't grow famous in a hurry, and it takes a 
 deal of hard work even to earn your bread and butter. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 The characteristic of heroism is its persistency. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 24. The old postmaster of the town to which her letter 
 was directed took it up to stamp, and read on the enve- 
 lope the direction to " Miss Lulu Pinrow." He brought 
 the stamp down with a vicious emphasis, coming very 
 near blotting out the nursery name, instead of cancelling 
 the postage-stamp. " Lulu ! " he exclaimed. " I should 
 like to know if that great strapping girl isn't out of her 
 cradle yet ! I suppose Miss Louisa will think that be- 
 longs to her, but I saw her christened, and I heard the 
 name the minister gave her, and it wasn't ' Lulu,' or any 
 such baby nonsense." . . . Why a grown-up young 
 woman allowed herself to be cheapened in the way so 
 many of them do by the use of names which become them, 
 as well as the frock of a ten-year-old schoolgirl would 
 become a graduate of the Cprinna Institute, the old postr 
 master could not guess, He was a queer old man. 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 
 
SEPTEMBER. 147 
 
 25. There are briers besetting every path, 
 
 Which call for patient care; 
 There is a cross in every lot, 
 
 And an earnest need for prayer ; 
 But a lonely heart that leans on thee 
 
 Is happy anywhere. 
 
 In a service which thy love appoints, 
 
 There are no bonds for me ; 
 For my secret heart is taught " the truth " 
 
 That makes thy children " free ; " 
 And a life of self-renouncing love 
 
 Is a life of liberty. ANNA L. WARING. 
 
 26. It is of little consequence how many positions of 
 cities a woman knows, or how many dates of events, or 
 how many names of celebrated persons it is not the 
 object of education to turn a woman into a dictionary. 
 But it is deeply necessary that she should be taught to 
 enter with her whole personality into the history she 
 reads, to picture the passages of it vitally in her own 
 bright imagination ; to apprehend, with her fine instincts, 
 the pathetic circumstances and the dramatic relations 
 which the historian too often only eclipses by his reason- 
 ing, and disconnects by his arrangements. It is for her to 
 trace the hidden equities of divine reward, and catch sight 
 through the darkness, of the fateful threads of woven fire 
 that connect error with its retribution. 
 
 But, chiefly of all, she is to be taught to extend the 
 limits of her sympathy with respect to that history which 
 is being for her determined, .... and to the eon- 
 temporary calamity which, were it but rightly mourned by 
 her, would recur no more hereafter. RUSKIN. 
 
148 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 27. Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate 
 
 thee. 
 
 Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 To silence envious tongues ; be just, and fear not. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 But God shapes all our fitness, and gives each man 
 his meaning, even as he guides the wavering lines of 
 snow descending. Our Eliza was meant for books ; our 
 dear Annie for loving and cooking ; I, John Ridd, for 
 sheep, and wrestling, and the thought of Lorna ; and 
 mother to love all three of us, and to make the best of 
 her children. R. D. BLACKMORE. 
 
 Nothing useless is, or low ; 
 
 Each thing in its place is best ; 
 And what seems but idle show 
 Strengthens and supports the rest. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 28. Let the maiden with erect soul, walk serenely on 
 her way, accept the hint of each new experience, search 
 in turn all the objects that solicit her eye, that she may 
 learn the power and the charm of her new-born being, 
 which is the kindling of a new dawn in the recesses of 
 space. The fair girl, who repels inteference by a decided 
 and proud choice of influences, so careless of pleasing, so 
 lofty, inspires every beholder with somewhat of her own 
 nobleness. The silent heart encourages her ; O friend, 
 never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or 
 sail with God the seas. Not in vain you live, for every 
 passing eye is cheered and refined by the vision. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 149 
 
 29. " I'm glad one girl has had sense enough not to marry 
 for a home," said Miss Tryphena energetically, " I've 
 watched too many women, toilin' an* slavin,' day an* 
 night for men that wouldn't let 'em have even the egg- 
 money. There's my own sister Almiry, an' Jacob sets 
 consid'able by her too ; always dretful upsot if she's 
 sick, and scared for fear she'll die, but he'll take every 
 pound of butter an' every solitary egg, an' if she happens 
 to touch the money, s'posin' he's laid it down, he sings 
 out, ' Look-a-here, Almiry Skinner, that's money ! ' And 
 Almiry drops it like hot shot." HELEN CAMPBELL. 
 
 "Of one thing I am pretty sure," he resumed "that 
 the same recipe Goethe gave for the enjoyment of life, 
 applies equally to all work : ' Do the thing that lies 
 next to you.' That is all our business. Hurried results 
 are worse than none. We must force nothing, but be 
 partakers of the divine patience. How long it took to 
 make the cradle ! and we fret that the baby Humanity is 
 not reading Euclid. If there is one thing evident in the 
 world's history, it is that God hasteneth not. All haste 
 implies weakness. GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 30. Let us remember that womanliness is in all the 
 motherliness we see in our mothers ; that it is in all the 
 sacrifices and noble deeds of silent women, as well as in 
 those of celebrated women ; that it is in the acts of all 
 those who make the ordinary home " like the shadow of a 
 rock in a weary land." If we are impressed with the 
 remembrance that womanliness is in such and such char- 
 acters, we shall try harder to imitate them; we shall be 
 more thankful we are women, and more grateful that it 
 it belongs to us especially to impart what man lacks, and 
 what he must depend on us to supply. A. H. R. 
 
OCTOBER. 
 
 1. " She's a good girl, Doctor Zay is, if she is cute. 
 There isn't a horse in town, without it's mine, can make 
 the miles that pony can. Look there ! The creetur wants 
 her dinner. She how she holds her? No blinders nor 
 check rein on her horses. She drives 'em by lovin' 'em. 
 There's woman clear through that girVs brains. You 
 should see her in January. There ain't three men in Sher- 
 man I'd trust to drive that mare in January without a good 
 life insurance before they set out. Now, Mr. Yorke, may 
 be you don't feel as I do, but to my mind there's no 
 prettier sight under heaven than a brave girl and a fine 
 horse that understand each other." 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 
 
 Life is not so short but that there is always time enough 
 for courtesy. Self-command is the main elegance. " Keep 
 cool and you can command everybody," said St. Just. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 2. Trust in that good Father in heaven, whose love 
 sent you into the world, and gave you the priceless bless- 
 ing of life ; whose love sent his Son to show you the pattern 
 of life, and to redeem you freely from all your sins ; whose 
 love sends his Spirit to give you the power of leading the 
 everlasting life, and will raise you up again to that same 
 everlasting life after death. Trust him, for he is your 
 Father. Whatever else he is, he is that. He has bid you 
 call him that, and he will hear you. If you forget that he 
 is your Father, you forget him, and worship a false God of 
 your own invention. CHARLES KINGSLEV, 
 
 '5 
 
OCTOBER. 151 
 
 3. Since rooms can be made cosey and cheerful with 
 very little money, I think it is right to say that it is every 
 woman's duty to make her rooms cosey and cheerful. 
 There is not one of my readers, I am sure, who does not 
 have, in the course of the year, pocket-money enough to do 
 
 a great deal toward making her room beautiful 
 
 How much better to have a fine plaster cast of Apollo or 
 Clyde than a gilt locket, for instance ! How much better 
 to have a heliotype picture of one of Raphael's or Correg- 
 gio's Madonnas than seventy-five cents worth of candy ! 
 . . . No ! it is not a question of money ; it is a ques- 
 tion of taste ; it is a question of choosing between good 
 and beautiful things, and bad and ugly things. 
 
 HELEN HUNT. 
 
 4. If you are studying the natural sciences, so follow 
 them that you may see more clearly the rocks, the sea, the 
 sky, the verdure of the earth, the mountains, and the 
 valleys, the rivers and the lakes, all the creations upon 
 the earth, as far as you have studied them, so that a new 
 heaven and a new earth shall be spread before you, and 
 you shall learn to appreciate more fully the beneficence of 
 God. 
 
 Are mathematics your choice ? Then learn from them 
 the value of stability, fixedness ; the worth of accuracy in 
 all studies and in all callings ; the power of durability, es- 
 pecially as it refers to the durableness of right against 
 wrong ; the perfections of forms and symbols ; the truths 
 of reasoning ; the necessity of discipline. A. H. R. 
 
 Stay at home in your mind, 
 
 Don't recite other peoples' opinions. EMERSON. 
 
152 OCTOBER. 
 
 5. I saw her upon nearer view, 
 A spirit, yet a woman too ! 
 Her household motions light and free, 
 And steps of virgin-liberty ; 
 A countenance in which did meet 
 Sweet records, promises as sweet ; 
 A creature not too bright or good 
 For human nature's daily food, 
 For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 
 Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 
 
 And now I see with eye serene 
 
 The very pulse of the machine ; 
 
 A being breathing thoughtful breath, 
 
 A traveller betwixt life and death ; 
 
 The reason firm, the temperate will, 
 
 Endurance, foresight, strength and skill. 
 
 A perfect woman, nobly planned 
 
 To warn, to comfort, and command ; 
 
 And yet a spirit still, and bright 
 
 With something of an angel light. 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 6. And to get peace, if you do want it, make for your- 
 selves nests of pleasant thoughts. Those are nests on the 
 sea, indeed, but safe beyond all others. Do you know 
 what fairy palaces you may build of beautiful thought 
 proof against all adversity ? Bright fancies, satisfied 
 memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses 
 of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot dis- 
 turb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from 
 us j houses built without hands for our souls to live in. 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
OCTOBER. 153 
 
 7. As a girl is bound to do what she honestly feels she 
 can do best, she should never question how her work may 
 seem to another, provided it does not absolutely injure 
 another. In many cases, much more good might be done 
 by girls and women, if, instead of talking so much about 
 the privileges they lack, they should confidently take the 
 places they ought to fill. 
 
 I should not ask is this man's work or woman's work : 
 but, rather, is it my work ? But, in whatever I attempted 
 I should repeatedly say to myself, Am I keeping my 
 womanhood strong and real, as God intended it ? am I 
 working womanly ? Sister Dora never questioned whether 
 she ought to bind up the wounds of her crushed workmen : 
 she laid them on the beds of her hospital, and calmly 
 healed them. Caroline Herschel did not stop to ask 
 whether her telescope were privileged to find new stars, 
 but swept it across the heavens, and was the first dis- 
 coverer of at least five comets. A. H. R. 
 
 8. The one serviceable, safe, certain, remunerative, at- 
 tainable quality in every study and every pursuit is the 
 quality of attention. My own invention, or imagination, 
 such as it is, I can most truthfully assure you, would never 
 have served me as it has but for the habit of common- 
 place, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention. 
 
 DICKENS. 
 
 To have one favorite study and live in it with happy 
 familiarity, and cultivate every portion of it diligently and 
 lovingly, as a small yeoman proprietor cultivates his own 
 land, this, as to study at least, is the most enviable intel- 
 lectual life. HAMERTON. 
 
154 OCTOBER. 
 
 9. Have we not sometimes seen persons on whom this 
 ineffable Dove of Peace seemed always to brood, some 
 persons whom nothing could disturb, no accident, no dis- 
 appointment, no disaster ; who never seemed vexed, never 
 discomposed, never sore, never out of temper ; who were 
 impregnable to all assaults of evil ; who were like the 
 rock in the sea, over which the great billows break and 
 roar, but which stands unmoved, and emerges at last calm 
 and firm as ever ? 
 
 What produces the divine serenity, subject to no moods, 
 clouded by no depression, this perpetual Sunday of the 
 heart ? It was not merely good-nature, not the accident 
 of a happy organization. It was deeper than that. It 
 was the perfect poise resulting from a Christian experience. 
 It was the habit of looking to God in love and to man in 
 l ve - JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 10. The first essential for a cheerful room is 
 Sunshine. Without this, money, labor, taste, are all 
 thrown away. A dark room cannot be cheerful ; and it 
 is unwholesome as it is gloomy. Flowers will not blos- 
 som in it; neither will people. 
 
 " Glorify the room ! Glorify the room ! " Sidney Smith 
 used to say of a morning, when he ordered every blind 
 thrown open, every shade drawn up to the top of the win- 
 dow. Whoever is fortunate enough to have a southeast 
 or southwest corner room, may, if she chooses, live in such 
 floods of sunny light that sickness will have hard work to 
 get hold of her ; and as for the blues, they will not dare to 
 so much as knock at her door. 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
OCTOBER. 155 
 
 11. Money is a needful and precious thing, and when 
 well used a noble thing ; but I never want you to think it is 
 the first or only prize to strive for. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 Mr. Micawber says, and he is right, that if one's income 
 is a shilling and his expenditure twelve pence half-penny, 
 the result is misery ; that if with the same income, one's 
 expenditure is eleven pence half-penny, the result is abso- 
 lute happiness. 
 
 This is quite true, and because it is true, faithful and 
 intelligent people determine on the regulation of their ex- 
 penses, under a very distinct and reliable system, among 
 the first foundations which they lay for successful life. 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 12. If old tales were true, and the gift-conferring fai- 
 ries really come to stand around a baby's bed, each with a 
 present in her hand, I think out of all that they could bestow 
 I should choose for any child in whom I was interested, 
 these two things, a quick sense of humor and a love 
 for books. There is nothing so lasting or so satisfying. 
 Riches may take wings, beauty fade, grace vanish into fat, 
 a sweet voice become harsh, rheumatism may cripple the 
 fingers which played or painted so deftly, with each and 
 all of these delighful things time may play sad tricks 
 but to life's end the power to see the droll side of events 
 is an unfailing cheer, and so long as eyes and ears last, 
 books furnish a world of interest and escape, whose doors 
 stand always open. SUSAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 I believe that more young women sink into invalidism, 
 or die prematurely, from the want of adequate thorough 
 mental training than from any one other physical or 
 mental cause. EDNA D. CHENEY. 
 
156 OCTOBER. 
 
 13. Its leaves have been asking it from time to time, in 
 a whisper, " When shall we redden ? " And now in this 
 month of October this month of travelling, when men 
 are hastening to the sea-side, or the mountains, or the 
 lakes, this modest Maple, still without budging an inch, 
 travels in its reputation, runs up its scarlet flag on that 
 hillside, which shows that it has finished its summer's 
 work before all other trees, and withdraws from the con- 
 test. . . . How beautiful when a whole tree is like 
 one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf, from 
 lowest limb to topmost spire, all aglow, especially if you 
 look toward the sun ! What more remarkable object can 
 there be in the landscape ? ... If such a phenome- 
 non occurred but once, it would be handed down to pos- 
 terity, and get into mythology at last. THOREAU. 
 
 14. You cannot think that the buckling on the knight's 
 armor by his lady's hand was a mere caprice of romantic 
 fashion. It is the type of an eternal truth that the 
 soul's armor is never well set to the heart unless a wo- 
 mar's hand has braced it : and it is only when she braces 
 it loosely that the honor of womanhood fails. 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 Ah, wasteful woman ! she who may 
 On her sweet self set her own price, 
 Knowing he cannot choose but pay 
 How has she cheapened Paradise ! 
 How given for naught her priceless gift, 
 How spoiled the bread and spilled the wine, 
 Which, spent with due, respective thrift, 
 Had made brutes men, and men divine ! 
 
 COVENTRY PATMORE. 
 
OCTOBER. 157 
 
 1 5. But I am to give you reasons why you are to culti- 
 vate your speciality. And I claim, first, that you should 
 do this because you have a specialty to cultivate. The 
 second reason, is, because you will then work more easily 
 and naturally, with the least friction, with the greatest 
 pleasure to yourself and the most advantage to those 
 around you. " Paddle your own canoe," but paddle it 
 right out into the swift, sure current of your strongest, 
 noblest inclination. Thirdly, by this means you will get 
 into your cranium, in place of aimless reverie, a resolute 
 aim. FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 16. " Not as I will : " the sound grows sweet 
 Each time my lips the words repeat, 
 
 " Not as I will : " the darkness feels 
 More safe than light when this thought steals 
 Like whispered voice to calm and bless 
 All unrest and all loneliness. 
 
 " Not as I will," because the One 
 Who loved us first and best has gone 
 Before us on the road, and still 
 For us must all his love fulfil, 
 
 "Not as we will." 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 Whatever church helps you or me best to worship Our 
 Father in spirit and truth, that is the best church for us or 
 for anyone. It makes no difference to God by what name 
 or with what form we seek Him if only the heart truly 
 seeks. Sometimes we may draw nearer Him through ex- 
 quisite music, and sometimes through the fervent, spoken 
 prayer, perhaps sometimes through the silence, as in the 
 Friends' Meeting. CHRISTINA GOODWIN. 
 
158 OCTOBER. 
 
 17. Second on my list of essentials for a cheerful room, 
 I put Color. 
 
 Don't be afraid of red. It is the most kindling and in- 
 spiring of colors. No room can be perfect without a good 
 deal of it. In an autumn leaf, in a curtain, in a chair- 
 cover, in a pin-cushion, in a vase, in the binding of a book, 
 everywhere you put it, it makes a brilliant point and gives 
 pleasure. The blind say that they always think red must 
 be like the sound of a trumpet; and I think there is a 
 deep truth in their instinct. It is the gladdest and most 
 triumphant color everywhere. Next to red comes yellow ; 
 this must be used very sparingly. No bouquet of flowers 
 is complete without a little touch of yellow; and no room 
 is as gay without it. . . . A bouquet or a room which 
 has one grain too much of yellow in it is hopelessly ruined. 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 18. The young people of our time are said to be want- 
 ing in reverence. They are often generous and sympa- 
 thetic ; they are true and honorable. This class of virtues 
 they believe in. But they do not believe in those born of 
 reverence. 
 
 " I was born in an unlucky time," said a lady. " When 
 I was young, I was obliged to respect and obey my parents, 
 and now I am obliged to respect and obey my children." 
 An irreverent age is wanting in the highest sentiment of 
 man. To " look up " is the noblest of all powers. The 
 small egotism which loves to look down on others wilts 
 the soul. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious 
 of none. CARLYLE. 
 
OCTOBER. 159 
 
 19. We may be so situated that we cannot do any great 
 work in the world. By temperament, by education, or by 
 reason of ill-health we may be restricted from carrying out 
 our ambitious schemes, but there are none so weak, so 
 ignorant, or so poor that they cannot do some good in the 
 world. The ladder that reaches to heaven is not composed 
 of wooden rungs, or of cold, senseless materials, but God 
 has made every human being so dependent on his fellow 
 creatures that each one is lifted up by some one above 
 him, some busy heart that feels another's need and reaches 
 out ; and where there is no looking up nor reaching out 
 there is no growth nor spiritual attainment. 
 
 JOSEPHINE POLLARD. 
 
 20. Have you ever rightly considered what the mere 
 ability to read means ? That it is the key that admits us 
 to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination, to 
 the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and the wittiest 
 at their wisest and wittiest moments ? That it enables us 
 to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and 
 listen to the sweetest voices of all time ? More than that, 
 it annihilates time and space for us ; it revives for us with- 
 out a miracle the Age of Wonder, endowing us with the 
 shoes of swiftness and the cap of darkness, so that we 
 walk invisible like fern seed, and witness unharmed the 
 plague at Athens or Florence or London, accompanying 
 Caesar on his marches, or look in on Cataline in council 
 with his fellow-conspirators, or Guy Fawkes in the cellar 
 of St. Stephen's. LOWELL. 
 
 To read without reflecting is like eating without digest- 
 in * BURKE. 
 
l6o OCTOBER. 
 
 21. To-day, October 21, I found the air in the bushy 
 fields and lanes under the woods loaded with the perfume 
 of the witch-hazel a sweetish, sickening odor. With the 
 blooming of this bush, Nature says, " positively the last." 
 All trees and shrubs, form their flowerbuds in the fall, and 
 keep the secret till spring. How comes the witch-hazel to 
 be the one exception and to celebrate its floral nuptials on 
 the funeral day of its foliage ? No doubt it will be found 
 that the spirit of some love-lorn squaw has passed into 
 this bush, and that this is why it blooms in the Indian 
 summer rather than in the white man's spring. 
 
 But it makes the floral series of the woods complete. 
 
 Between it and the shad-blow of earliest spring lies the 
 
 mountain of bloom ; the latter at the base on one side, this 
 
 at the base on the other, with the chestnut blossoms at the 
 
 . top in mid-summer. J OHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 22. The other thing that represses the utterances of love 
 is the characteristic shyness of the Anglo-Saxon blood. . . 
 There is a powerlessness of utterance in our blood that 
 we should fight against, and struggle outward towards 
 expression. We can educate ourselves to it, if we know 
 and feel the necessity ; we can make it a Christian duty, 
 not only to love, but to be loving, not only to be true 
 friends, but to show ourselves friendly. We can make 
 ourselves say the kind things that rise in our hearts and 
 tremble back on our lips, do the gentle and helpful 
 deeds which we long to do and shrink back from ; and, 
 little by little, it will grow easier, the love spoken will 
 bring the answer of love, the kind deed will bring back 
 a kind deed in return. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
OCTOBER. l6l 
 
 23. We are ever looking to something better than we 
 have or are, and whether we attain it or lose it, there is no 
 rest for our feet. 
 
 He who finds life and self sufficient is either a monster 
 or a caricature. Do you not see that I do not argue with 
 your tears ? 
 
 Sorrow is the handmaid of God, not of Satan. She 
 would lead us, as she did the Psalmist to say, " Who will 
 show us any good ? " that, after having said this, we may 
 also say with him, " Lord lift thou the light of thy coun- 
 tenance upon us 1 " 
 
 " Honestly," said he, lifting his hands as if he appealed 
 to his own conscience, " priest of God though I am, in 
 understanding I am as a child. I cannot explain, I 
 testify. I witness to you this mystery, that out of the 
 very hurt which brings me low, the spiritual life is devel- 
 oped. A. S. HARDY. 
 
 24. The best and safest color for walls is a delicate 
 cream color. When I say best and safest, I mean the 
 best background for bright colors and poor pictures, and 
 the color which is least in danger of disagreeing with any- 
 thing you may want to put upon it. So also with floors ; 
 the safest and best tint is a neutral gray. If you cannot 
 have a bare wooden floor, either of black walnut, or 
 stained to imitate it, then have a plain gray felt carpet. 
 Above all things, avoid bright colors in a carpet. In rugs, 
 to lay down on a plain gray, or a dark-brown floor, the 
 brighter the colors the better. The rugs are only so many 
 distinct pictures thrown up into relief here and there by 
 the under-tint of gray or brown. 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
l62 OCTOBER. 
 
 25. Make up your minds, girls, early in life that your lot 
 will probably be like that of the average girl, that trouble 
 must come, and even a skeleton must hang and gibber 
 behind your door ; but that, be the skeleton what it may, 
 you will nail the door back on the unsightly thing, clothe 
 it in some decent garments, and make it as respectable as 
 possible in its niche, since it must stay with you. Events, 
 decrees, circumstances, will not change for just you and 
 me; but we can change ourselves, and so defeat them. 
 Do not heed untoward circumstances. " Seize hold of 
 God's hand, and look full in the face of His creation, and 
 there is nothing He will not enable you to achieve." 
 
 A. H. R. 
 
 26. Let nothing disturb thee, 
 Nothing affright thee ; 
 All things are passing ; 
 God never changeth; 
 Patient endurance 
 Attainteth to all things ; 
 Who God possesseth 
 
 In nothing is wanting ; 
 Alone God sufficeth. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Art tired ? 
 
 There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned 
 There is a sacrifice. Lift up thy head. 
 The lovely world, and the over-world alike, 
 Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede, 
 "Thy Father loves thee." 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. 
 
OCTOBER. 163 
 
 27. There are few objects in this world more repulsive 
 to me than a selfish woman a woman who selfishly con- 
 sults her own enjoyments, her own ease, her own pleas- 
 ure. If you have the slightest desire to be loved ; if you 
 would have your presence a welcome one in palace and 
 cottage alike ; if you would be admired, respected, revered ; 
 if you would have all sweet human sympathies clustering 
 around you while you live, you must be a working woman 
 living and working for others, denying yourself for 
 others, and building up for yourself a character, strong, 
 symmetrical, beautiful. TIMOTHY TITCOMB. 
 
 28. Nothing could be lovelier than the last rose-buds, 
 or than the delicate edges of the strawberry leaves em- 
 broidered with hoar-frosts, while above them Arachne's 
 delicate webs hung swaying in the green branches of the 
 pines, little ball-rooms for the fairies, carpeted with 
 powdered pearls, and kept in place by a thousand dewy 
 strands, hanging from above like the chains of a lamp, 
 and supporting them from below like the anchors of a 
 vessel. These little airy edifices had all the fantastic 
 lightness of the elf-world, and all the vaporous freshness 
 of the dawn. FROM THE JOURNAL OF AMIEL. 
 
 In this art of conversation, woman, if not the queen and 
 victor, is the lawgiver. . . . Madame de Tesse said, 
 4< If I were Queen, I should command Madame de Stael 
 to talk to me every day." Conversation fills all gaps, 
 supplies all deficiences. What a good trait 'is that re- 
 corded of Madame de Maintenon, that, during dinner, the 
 servant slipped to her side, " Please, Madame, one anec- 
 dote more, for there is no roast to-day ! " EMERSON, 
 
164 OCTOBER. 
 
 29. How much we might make of our family life, of our 
 friendships, if every secret thought of love blossomed into 
 a deed ! We are not now speaking merely of personal 
 caresses. These may or may not be the best language 
 of affection. Many are endowed with a delicacy, a fas- 
 tidiousness of physical organization, which shrinks away 
 from too much of these, repelled and overpowered. But 
 there are words and looks and little observances, thought- 
 fulnesses, watchful little attentions, which speak of love, 
 which make it manifest, and there is scarce a family that 
 might not be richer in heart-wealth for more of them. 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 30. Believe me, your Christianity must be everywhere 
 or nowhere, in everything or in nothing. You can keep 
 it beside you when you sit at work, or when you put down 
 your work to read the last entertaining book, or carry it 
 abroad with you when you walk, or ride, or drive. You 
 ought to be able to take it with you to your gayest party, 
 and not leave it behind you when you dance and think 
 " nae ill." It may ring in your merriest laugh, as well as 
 wail in your bitterest weeping. ... I tell you once 
 more, there is Christianity in threading your mother's 
 needle, or pulling off your little sister's boot, as well as in 
 taking notes of sermons and distributing tracts, and there 
 is more security of the genuineness of the Christianity in 
 the first instances, than in the last. SARAH TYTLER. 
 
 Not what you say, or wish, or hope, 
 While through the darkness here you grope ; 
 But what you do and what you are 
 In heart, and thought, and character. 
 
 JAMES H. HOADLEY. 
 
OCTOBER. 165 
 
 31. Third on my list of essentials for making rooms 
 cosey, cheerful, and beautiful, come Books and Pictures. 
 " But books and pictures cost a great deal of money." 
 Yes, books and pictures do cost money, but books accu- 
 mulate rapidly in most houses where books are read at 
 allj and if people really want books, it is astonishing how 
 many they contrive to get together in a few years. As 
 for pictures, how much or how little they cost depends on 
 what sort of pictures you buy. For a few shillings you 
 can buy a good heliotype of one of Raphael's or Correg- 
 gio's Madonnas, as I have said before. But you can pur- 
 chase pictures much cheaper than that. A Japanese fan 
 is a picture ; some of them are exquisite pictures, and 
 blazing with color too. HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
NOVEMBER. 
 
 1. These rocks were never so red and black and soft 
 gray before ; the sea besieges us with intensest blue ; 
 and the atmosphere is all pure gold. There is a bloom 
 spread over the horizon which summer does not give, that 
 seems like the meeting of the sunrise and the glow of the 
 early twilight ; it lies like a benediction over sea and land. 
 The sea sings, and the heavens answer, and other men's 
 thoughts are as nothing. 
 
 We all know how the sense of but a short abiding 
 enhances the joy of these last days; how we hold the 
 hours with a miser's grasp, and how they slip, swift and 
 golden, from our unwilling fingers. I think we can speak 
 our best thoughts out under that broad and quiet sky, 
 and the answering note of sympathy is never so surely 
 struck as then. ALICE G. HOWE. 
 
 2. Do not begin by suffering or welcoming a willing 
 horse or a scapegoat among you, girls. Do not allow the 
 generosity, sweet temper, or simplicity of one of you to 
 take upon her the burdens of all the rest, so that when a 
 stranger asks who gets up in the morning and gives out 
 the tea and the coffee for breakfast, who stays at home 
 from the afternoon excursion and writes dutiful letters, 
 who invariably initiates the new servants in their duties, 
 and prepares the children's lessons, bears all the respon- 
 sibility, and incurs all the scolding the answer is, with- 
 out fail, Margaret, or Mary, or Lily as it may be. 
 
 SARAH TYTLER. 
 166 
 
NOVEMBER. 167 
 
 3. Earth's crammed with heaven, 
 
 And every common bush afire with God ; 
 But only he who sees, takes off his shoes. 
 
 MRS. BROWNING. 
 
 There has probably lived within the past century, no 
 woman whose genius, character, and position are more 
 full of interest than Mrs. Browning's. She was not only 
 far above all the female poets of her age, but ranked with 
 the first poets. She was not only a great poet but a great 
 woman. She loved and revered art, but she loved and 
 revered humanity more. Born and reared in England, 
 her best affections were given to Italy, and her warmest 
 friends and most enthusiastic admirers are found in 
 America. EDWARD Y. HINCKS. 
 
 Why is the memory of Mrs. Browning loved beyond 
 that of almost any poet who has sung ? Because " the 
 cry of the human " is so strong in that wondrous voice of 
 ners - FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 4. I had once the honor to address the girls of the 
 1 2th Street School in New York. " Shall I call you 
 1 girls,' or * young ladies ' ? " said I. " Call us girls," was 
 the unanimous answer. I heard it with great pleasure ; 
 for I took it as a nearly certain sign that these three hun- 
 dred young people were growing up to be true women, 
 which is to say, ladies of the very highest tone. 
 
 " Why did I think so ? " Because at the age of fifteen, 
 sixteen, and seventeen they took pleasure in calling things 
 by their right names. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
1 68 NOVEMBER. 
 
 5. See what wily creatures these blues are! full of 
 conceit ! They grow powerful while looking at us. They 
 are like those little wood creatures which can take the 
 hue of the tree on which they rest, so that for a long 
 time we do not perceive them. They sit beside us by 
 hundreds when we fancy we are alone ; and change 
 their colors and their wheedling tones to suit our inclina- 
 tions, while they pour into our ears deceitful whisperings 
 that the world is all wrong, and we are all right, the 
 vile flatterers ! They paint all our surroundings with dark 
 colors, make all our pictures Mater Dolorosas or St. 
 Sebastians, turn all our music into requiems, and all our 
 books into Stygian epics. A. H. R. 
 
 6. I have never known any other woman so systemati- 
 cally and persistently industrious as Alice Gary. Hers 
 was truly the genius of patience. No obstacle ever daunted 
 it, no pain ever stilled it, no weariness ever overcame it, 
 till the last weariness of death. I doubt if she ever kept 
 a diary, or wrote down a rule for her life. She did not 
 need to do so; her life itself was the rule. There was a 
 beautiful, yet touching uniformity in her days. Her pleas- 
 ure was her labor. Of rest, recreation, amusement, as 
 other women sought these, she knew almost nothing. Her 
 rest and recreation were the intervals from pain, in which 
 she could labor. It was not always the labor of writing. 
 NJO, sometimes it was making a cap, or trimming a bonnet 
 yet it was work of some sort, never play. 
 
 MARY CLEMMER. 
 
 The world belongs to the energetic man. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
NOVEMBER. 169 
 
 7. With a very earnest prayer, Polly asked for the 
 strength of an upright soul, the beauty of a tender heart, 
 the power to make her life a sweet and stirring song, 
 helpful while it lasted, remembered when it died. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 When Harriet Beecher was the leading spirit in a girl's 
 society for mental improvement, she did not know that the 
 intellectual gifts there developed would enable her to strike 
 the keenest blow that slavery ever received in this coun- 
 try. Keep the sword bright, keen, and well tempered, and 
 opportunity will come to use it in defense of truth and 
 right. EDXA D. CHENEY. 
 
 " I've got no rich friends to help me up, but, sooner or 
 later, I mean to find a place among cultivated people; 
 and while I am waiting and working I can be fitting my- 
 self to fill that place like a gentlewoman as I am." 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 8. Fourth on my list of essentials for a cosey, cheerful 
 room, I put Order. I think almost as many rooms are 
 spoiled by being kept in too exact order, as by being 
 too disorderly. There is an apparent disorder which is not 
 disorderly ; and there is an apparent order, which is only 
 a witness to the fact that things are never used. I do not 
 know how better to state the golden mean on this point 
 than to tell the story of an old temple which was once dis- 
 covered, bearing on three of its sides this inscription, " Be 
 bold." On the fourth side, the inscription, " Be not too 
 bold." I think it would be well written on the three sides 
 of a room, " Be orderly ; " on the fourth side, " But don't 
 be too orderly." HELEN HUNT JACKSON> 
 
170 NOVEMBER. 
 
 9. All are architects of Fate, 
 
 Working in these walls of Time ; 
 Some with massive deeds and great, 
 Some with ornaments of rhyme. 
 
 For the structure that we raise, 
 
 Time is with materials filled ; 
 Our to-days and yesterdays 
 
 Are the blocks with which we build. 
 
 In the elder days of Art, 
 
 Builders wrought with greatest care, 
 
 Each minute and unseen part, 
 For the Gods see everywhere. 
 
 Let us do our work as well, 
 
 Both the unseen and the seen ; 
 Make the house, where Gods may dwell, 
 
 Beautiful, entire, and clean. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 10. Shall we not find that all parts of our lives will 
 prove to have been training for whatever is our truest 
 work even on earth, and also for the heavenly service to 
 which one, more and more, looks forward ? But the bits 
 of wayside work are very sweet. Perhaps the odd bits, 
 when all is done, will really come to more than the seem- 
 ingly greater pieces ! The chance conversations with rich 
 or poor, the seed sown in odd five minutes, even the tables- 
 d'h6te for me, and the rides and friends' tables for you. 
 It is nice to know that the King's servants are always really 
 on duty, even while some can only stand and wait. 
 
 FRANCES R. HAVERGAL. 
 
NOVEMBER. 17 1 
 
 11. What makes us blame the weather so much for our 
 moods, girls ? The day is gray everywhere, in the skies, 
 on the trees, on the ground, and gray in us therefore. 
 Ah ! but these colors are beautiful, even in November and 
 December. In their variety, they are soft and shimmering 
 on the tree branches, a slightly ruddy gray on the branchlets, 
 and a serener gray on the tree trunks. Overhead, even 
 when a storm is gathering in the sky, there are the colors 
 of the moonstone tinting into silver, and shading into pearl 
 and blue. On the ground are delicate wood-colors, um- 
 bers, siennas, greens toned down to gray. The atmos- 
 phere, from its lack of sunlight, only sets off the more 
 visibly, beautiful forms of trees and branches. No, the 
 day is not moody : we are. We are not in harmony with 
 her, but have arrayed ourselves against her. A. H. R. 
 
 12. Titian and Raphael, and all the great brotherhood 
 of painters, may kneel reverently as priests before Nature's 
 face, and paint pictures at sight of which all men's eyes 
 shall fill with grateful tears ; and yet all men shall go away, 
 and find that the green shade of a tree, the light on a 
 young girl's face, the sleep of a child, the flowering of a 
 flower, are to their pictures as living life to beautiful 
 death. HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 In old days there were angels who came and took men 
 by the hand and led them away from the city of destruc- 
 tion. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men 
 are led away from threatening destruction ; a hand is put 
 into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm 
 and bright land, so that they look no more backward, and 
 the hand may be a little child's. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
172 NOVEMBER. 
 
 13. Many a young girl who is suddenly thrown upon 
 her own resources fails to do what she can, merely because 
 she has not the tact to do the first thing that offers that is 
 reputable. She cannot teach, perhaps, nor write for the 
 press, nor paint, nor read proof, but she ought to know 
 how to keep house, and, if she knows that she has one 
 opening. There are schools that need matrons and stew- 
 ards, and there are many households in which the mistress 
 wishes relief from the care of providing and managing 
 servants. Many a woman might do far worse than accept 
 a position of that sort. Are there not many, too, who have 
 had enough experience in watching dressmakers and 
 milliners to learn to do their work without much loss of 
 time? MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 14. The chief duty of a nurse is simply to keep the air 
 which the patient breathes as pure as the external air, but 
 without chilling him. . . . An extraordinary fallacy is 
 the dread of night air. What air can we breathe at 
 night but night air ? The choice is between pure night 
 air from without and foul night air from within. Most 
 people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice ! An 
 open window, most nights in the year, can hurt no one. 
 Better shut the windows all day than all night. One rea- 
 son why people, especially women, are less robust than 
 formerly is because they spend the greater part of their 
 lives breathing poison. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 If our girls are to walk the same streets with their 
 brothers, is there any reason why the soles of their shoes 
 should not be of equal thickness ? And yet no man would 
 think of wearing soles as thin as those which many of our 
 girls habitually wear. ANNA C. BRACKETT. 
 
NOVEMBER. 173 
 
 15. Obedience to the behests of duty gives peace, even 
 when love is lacking; and peace is a diviner thing than 
 happiness. MARY A. LIVERMORE. 
 
 If you have a piano, one note of which in the treble 
 is mute, not one tune can be played on it, no music 
 worth having can be drawn from it, without making the de- 
 fect manifest; and yet the note is not actively offensive, it 
 merely does not sound. 
 
 Now, call the piano a family, and call the Cumberer a 
 faulty note, and you at once see the harm she does ; she 
 makes the tune imperfect when it does not sound, and 
 when it does sound, jars. 
 
 JEAN INGELOW. The Cumbercrs. 
 
 The habit of treating one another without the little 
 forms in use among other friends, and the horrid trick of 
 speaking rudely of each other's defects or mishaps, is the 
 underlying source of half the alienations of relatives. If 
 we are bound to show special benevolence to those near- 
 est to us, why do we give them pain at every turn, rub 
 them the wrong way, and froisser their natural amour 
 propre by unflattering remarks or unkind references ? 
 
 FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
 16. The only thing wiser than dreaming is doing, 
 working in such a way as to bring the distant near, and 
 getting out of the veriest commonplace the joy we fancied 
 lay only in the future, in other lands, or only in dreams. 
 Build castles and dwellings out of the commonplace, and 
 you shall see them shine with splendor, and glow with 
 beauties which can never be exhausted. She alone is rich 
 who has estates in her soul. A. H. R. 
 
174 NOVEMBER. 
 
 17. Mary Ashburton was in her twentieth summer. 
 Like the fair maiden Amoret, who was sitting in the lap of 
 womanhood. They did her wrong who said she was not 
 beautiful : and yet 
 
 " She was not fair, 
 
 Nor beautiful ; those words express her not. 
 But, O, her looks had something excellent, 
 That wants a name." 
 
 Her face had a wonderful fascination in it. It was such 
 a calm, quiet face, with the light of the rising soul shining 
 so peacefully through it. At times it wore an expression 
 of seriousness, of sorrow even; and then seemed to 
 make the very air bright with what the Italian poets call the 
 lightning of the angelic smile. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 18. As our girls come into womanhood we wish them 
 to take right views of life ; and, while we desire that they 
 shall enjoy themselves as only young girls can, we certainly 
 would not have them look for nothing beyond the enjoyment 
 of the moment. " Having a thoroughly good time " must 
 not be their first and only idea. They have claims upon 
 their time and affection from the family at home ; their 
 feelings are easily moved, and should be directed to sym- 
 pathy in the real troubles and sorrows that they see, or 
 they should be taught to look for them among those whose 
 lot is less happy than their own, rather than allowed to 
 waste themselves in sentimental sorrows over modern 
 novels and the distresses of the imaginary heroines whom 
 we hear so much about. MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
NOVEMBER. 175 
 
 19. We shall see, first, that the cheery person never 
 minds small worries, vexations, perplexities. Second, 
 that he is brimful of sympathy in other people's gladness ; 
 he is heartily, genuinely glad of every bit of good luck or 
 joy which comes to other people. Thirdly, he has a keen 
 sense of humor, and never lets any droll thing escape him ; 
 he thinks it worth while to laugh, and to make everybody 
 about him laugh, at every amusing thing. Patience, sym- 
 pathy, and humor, these are the three most manifest traits 
 in the cheery person. But there is something else, . . . 
 this is lovingness. This is the real point of difference be- 
 tween the mirth of the witty and sarcastic person, which 
 does us no good, and the mirth of the cheery person which 
 "doeth good like a medicine." 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 20. Consider it 
 (This cuter world we tread on) as a harp, 
 A gracious instrument on whose fair strings 
 We learn those airs we shall be set to play 
 When mortal hours are ended. Let the wings, 
 Man, of thy spirit move on it as wind, 
 
 And draw forth melody. Why shoulds't thou yet 
 Lie grovelling ? More is won than e'er was lost : 
 Inherit. Let thy day be to thy night 
 A teller of good tidings. Let thy praise 
 Go up as birds go up that, when they wake, 
 Shake off the dew and soar. JEAN INGELOW. 
 
 Hope never hurt anyone never yet interfered with 
 duty; nay, it always strengthens to the performance of 
 duty, gives courage and clears the judgment. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
176 NOVEMBER. 
 
 21. Marguerite de Valois wrote, " Gentleness, cheerful- 
 ness, and urbanity are the Three Graces of manners." 
 Valuing all that constitutes a lady, knowing that these 
 graces are necessary to every girl, I believe the ladylike is 
 but a part of true womanliness, that infinitely precious, 
 indescribable something in woman that makes her royal by 
 birth, queen of herself, and fit to occupy the throne that 
 is placed beside the king's throne, not higher, not lower, 
 but beside it ; not his, but like his ; her own, from which, 
 with equal though with differing eye, she looks in blessing 
 on the world. A. H. R. 
 
 22. She had the essential attributes of a lady, high 
 veracity, delicate honor in her dealings, deference to 
 others, and refined personal habits. GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 The " Earth waits for her queen," was Margaret Fuller's 
 favorite motto. A. H. R. 
 
 " And whether consciously or not, you must be, in many 
 a heart, enthroned : there is no putting by that crown ; 
 queens you must always be; queens to your lovers; 
 queens to your husbands and your sons ; queens of higher 
 mystery to the world beyond, which bows itself and will 
 forever bow, before the myrtle crown, and the stainless 
 sceptre, of womanhood. RUSKIN. 
 
 For one, I can truly say, with charming Mrs. Trench in 
 her letters written in 1816, " I do believe the girls of the 
 present day have not lost the power of blushing ; and 
 though I have no grown-up daughters, I enjoy the friend- 
 ship of some who might be my daughters, in whom the 
 greatest delicacy and modesty are united with perfect ease 
 of manner, and habitual intercourse with the world." 
 
 T. W. HlGGINSON. 
 
NOVEMBER. 177 
 
 23. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing 
 can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 The only use of time is in bringing the heart into 
 partnership with high principles, and thus rising into 
 fellowship with God. As the Emperor Titus said, " I 
 have lost a day," when he could think of no good action 
 he had done during the sun's circuit, we must judge our- 
 selves in the blaze of the fact that every day is lost, ac- 
 cording to the heavenly notation, that has not been en. 
 nobled and spiritualized by the action of some moral and 
 celestial quality, either in restraining passion, or doing 
 something, or giving something, or cherishing some devout 
 sentiment, so that a truth, a principle, has become a 
 more ready guest, through us, in this world of conflict and 
 sin. T. STARR KING. 
 
 24. If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities 
 that which, on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should 
 select the love of children. No circumstance can render 
 this world wholly a solitude to one who has that posses- 
 sion. It is a freemasonry. Wherever one goes, there 
 are the little brethren and sisters of the mystic tie. No 
 diversity of race or tongue makes much difference. A 
 smile speaks the universal language. " If I value myself 
 on anything," said the lovely Hawthorne, " it is on having 
 a smile that children love." . . . The dearest saint in 
 my calendar never entered a railway car that she did not 
 look round for a baby, which, when discovered, must al- 
 ways be won at once into her arms. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON. 
 
178 NOVEMBER. 
 
 25. Look up at the miracle of the falling snow, the 
 air a dizzy maze of whirling, eddying flakes, noiselessly 
 transforming the world, the exquisite crystals dropping in 
 ditch and gutter, and disguising in the same suit of spot- 
 less livery all objects upon which they fall. How novel 
 and fine the first drifts ! The old, dilapidated fence is 
 suddenly set off with the most fantastic ruffles, scalloped 
 and fluted after an unheard-of fashion ! 
 
 The world lies about me in a " trance of snow." The 
 clouds are pearly and iridescent the ghosts of clouds. 
 . . . I see the hills, bulging with great drifts, lift them- 
 selves up cold and white against the sky. . . . 
 
 Looking down a long line of decrepit stone-wall, in the 
 trimming of which the wind had rim riot, I saw, as for the 
 first time, what a severe yet master artist old Winter is. 
 Ah, a severe artist ! J OHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 26. It is not for you, nor for me, to slight, to scorn, to 
 condemn the fallen. Of this we are sure, that no beauty, 
 no intelligence, can compare with womanliness ; and that 
 no girl, weak and wicked as she may be, is utterly lost to 
 womanliness. May I here appeal to you, dear girls, to 
 hasten the return of a woman to her best self ? May I 
 urge you not to slight even the sinful ? As you are girls 
 with most precious endowments, remember to encourage 
 the growth of these gifts in other girls. Then will woman- 
 hood seem even more blessed than now, when girls de- 
 fend it and purify it. Perhaps one of the hardest things in 
 this world to realize is the fact that we are all, not only 
 children of one Father, but that, we are brothers and 
 sisters, as well. A. H. R. 
 
NOVEMBER. 179 
 
 27. If I were able, I would change the public sentiment 
 so radically, that no girl should be considered well edu- 
 cated, no matter what her accomplishments, until she had 
 learned a trade, a business, a vocation, or a profession. 
 Self-support would then be possible to her, and she would 
 not float on the current of life, a part of its useless drift- 
 wood. MARY A. LIVERMORE. 
 
 " Th.ee is restless," said Rachel Froke. " And to make 
 us so is oftentimes the first thing the Lord does for us. It 
 was the first thing He did for the world. Then He said, 
 * Let there be light ! ' In the meantime, thee is right ; just 
 darn thy stockings." 
 
 Doing any one thing well even setting stitches and 
 
 plaiting frills puts a key into one's hand to the opening 
 
 of some other quite different secret ; and we can never 
 
 know what may be to come out of the meanest drudgery. 
 
 MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 28. A library of novels is like a gallery of pictures. 
 One man saunters through the library and sees what the 
 pictures are about ; another man goes through the gal- 
 lery and sees what the artists were about, what is the 
 range of the powers of each, the degrees of their technical 
 skill, and the directions in which they lie open to the In- 
 finite. The first man sees the paint, all of it ; the second 
 man sees the paintings. ... If all novel readers were 
 compelled, when they close a book, to write out the main 
 doctrine or proposition which is the axis of the incidents 
 and plot, it would be better for their moral education than 
 if they could listen once a week to the best lecture on 
 ethics that is delivered by the foremost professor in civiliz- 
 ation. T. STARR KING. 
 
l8o NOVEMBER. 
 
 29. Better trust all and be deceived, 
 
 And weep that trust and that deceiving, 
 Than doubt one heart that, if believed, 
 Had blessed one's life with true believing. 
 
 O, ?n this mocking world too fast 
 
 The doubting fiend o'ertakes our youth ; 
 
 Better be cheated to the last 
 
 Than lose the blessed hope of truth. 
 
 FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE. 
 
 30. If I were a boy again [it applies to girls as well], 
 I would look on the cheerful side of everything, for every- 
 thing, almost, has a cheerful side. Life is very much like 
 a mirror ; if you smile upon it, it smiles back again on you ; 
 but if you frown and look doubtful upon it, you will be 
 sure to get a similar look in return. I once heard it said 
 of a grumbling, unthankful person, " He would have made 
 an uncommonly fine sour apple, if he had happened to be 
 born in that station of life ! " Inner sunshine warms not only 
 the heart of the owner, but all who come in contact with it. 
 Indifference begets indifference. " Who shuts love out, in 
 turn shall be shut out from love." 
 
 JAMES T. FIELDS. 
 
DECEMBER. 
 
 1. I see no objection, however, to light reading, desul- 
 tory reading, the reading of newspapers, or the reading of 
 fiction, if you take enough ballast with it, so that these 
 light kites, as the sailors call them, may not carry your 
 ship over in some sudden gale. The principle of sound 
 habits of reading, if reduced to a precise rule, comes out 
 thus : That for each hour of light reading, of what we read 
 for amusement, we ought to take another hour of reading 
 for instruction. Nor have I any objection to stating the 
 same rule backward ; for that is a poor rule which will not 
 work both ways. It is, I think, true, that for every hour 
 we give to grave reading, it is well to give a corresponding 
 hour to what is light and amusing. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 2. Perhaps the first element of " Sister Dora's " charac- 
 ter which made itself felt was her great hopefulness. This 
 glowed in her, as was said of a great historic character, 
 " like a pillar of fire ; " it did so in the first and darkest 
 hour, and it did so every hour until the end. This light 
 and warmth never paled. It was so healthy, too ; not as 
 of hope against hope, but the hope of a sound, pure nature 
 doing the work of God. . . . Should we be tempted 
 some day to despond of humanity, we will think of her ; 
 should we be shaken some dark hour concerning the possi- 
 bilities of Christianity, her image will reassure us ; should 
 we be told, amid scenes of perplexity, that " religion is a 
 disease," then we can point to her, as to one who pos- 
 sessed, at all times, a fullness of joyous life beyond all we 
 had ever known. ANON. 
 
 iSi 
 
l82 DECEMBER. 
 
 3. With Miss St. John, music was the highest form of 
 human expression, as must often be the case with those 
 whose feeling is much in advance of their thought, and to 
 whom, therefore, what may be called mental sensation is 
 the highest known condition. . . . One who can only 
 play the music of others, however exquisitely, is not a 
 musician, any more than one who can read verse to the 
 satisfaction, or even expound it to the enlightenment of the 
 poet himself, is therefore a poet. When Miss St. John 
 would worship God, it was in music that she found the 
 chariot of fire in which to ascend heavenward. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 4. I look to Thee in every need, 
 
 And never look in vain ; 
 I feel Thy touch, Eternal Love, 
 
 And all is well again : 
 The thought of Thee is mightier far 
 Than sin and pain and sorrow are. 
 
 Discouraged in the work of life 
 
 Disheartened by its load, 
 Shamed by its failures or its fears, 
 
 I sink beside the road ; 
 But let me only think of Thee, 
 And then new heart springs up in me. 
 
 Embosomed deep in Thy dear love, 
 
 Held in Thy law, I stand ; 
 Thy hand in all things I behold, 
 
 And all things in Thy hand ;"] 
 Thou leadest me by unsought ways, 
 And turnest my mourning into praise. 
 
 SAMUEL LONGFELLOW. 
 
DECEMBER. 183 
 
 5. There are so many things a girl can do, even when 
 society claims her, more than ever, I should say I Make 
 work, if you cannot get it, girls. Encourage poor girls by 
 joining the industrial unions instituted in their behalf. 
 Go into the hospitals, old ladies' homes, charity bureaus, 
 flower missions. Join a Chautauqua club, or one of the 
 societies for the encouragement of studies at home. At- 
 tend the numerous lectures, exhibits, etc., which are pro- 
 vided free of expense in all large cities. A. H. R. 
 
 6. If the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids 
 of fruit, these are a tonic like the wine of iron. Drink 
 deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage. 
 The first sip may chill, but a full draught warms and in- 
 vigorates. No loitering by the brooks or in the woods 
 now, but spirited, rugged walking along the public high- 
 way. The sunbeams are welcome now. They seem like 
 pure electricity like friendly and recuperating light- 
 ning. Are we led to think electricity abounds only in 
 summer, when we see in the storm-clouds as it were, the 
 veins and ore-beds of it? I imagine it is equally abundant 
 in winter, and more equable and better tempered. Who 
 ever breasted a snow storm without being excited and 
 exhilarated ? It is like being pelted with sparks from a 
 battery. Behold the frost-work on the pane the wild 
 fantastic limnings and etchings, can there be any doubt 
 but this subtle agent has been here ? Where is it not ? 
 It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the 
 fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. The crisp win- 
 ter air is full of it. 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
184 DECEMBER. 
 
 7. ... As I looked, a film of shade kept appearing 
 and disappearing with rhythmic regularity in a corner of 
 the window, as if some one might be sitting in a low rock- 
 ing-chair close by. Presently the motion ceased, and sud- 
 denly across the curtain came the shadow of a woman. 
 She raised in her arms the shadow of a baby, and kissed 
 
 it ; then both disappeared, and I walked on 
 
 The ecstasy of human love passed in brief, intangible 
 panorama before me. It was something seen, yet unseen . 
 airy, yet solid ; a type, yet a reality ; fugitive, yet destined 
 
 to last in my memory while I live Their 
 
 character, their history, their fate, are all unknown. But 
 these two will always stand for me as disembodied types 
 of humanity, the Mother and the Child. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON. 
 
 8. The following evening Rosamond heard " Lohen- 
 grin " for the first time, and saw the mystic knight of the 
 swan. . . " Why," thought Aunt Serena, " can we not 
 have the help of beautiful music and the influence of mas- 
 ter-minds brought within the reach of moderate means, 
 and at so early an hour that neither the aged and the 
 delicate, nor the very young, need hesitate to enjoy them ?" 
 She preferred, indeed, that Rosamond should study life, 
 presented to her gaze in this way, at the sensible hour of 
 seven or even half-past six, than that she should make too 
 many personal investigations and experiments in a crowded 
 ball-room. So the congenial party enjoyed most charm- 
 ing' evenings in the pleasant little theatre, where people 
 came early in walking-dress, and went home temperately 
 at half-past nine. BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
DECEMBER. 185 
 
 9. Have, first of all, a home ! No matter what your 
 career, let it start from the home and return to the home. 
 
 ROSE CLEVELAND. 
 
 Womanish and womanly are two quite different things. 
 
 GLADSTONE. 
 
 I'd rather be a woman than act a queen. 
 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 With all her human imperfections, the upright nature 
 of the child kept her desires climbing towards the just and 
 pure and true, as flowers struggle to the light ; and the 
 woman's soul was budding beautifully under the green 
 leaves behind the little thorns. LOUSIA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 All women should desire to give each other the example 
 of a sweet, good life, more eloquent and powerful than 
 any words. LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
 
 10. I think that you will all agree with me that the one 
 great help of helps is the habit of looking up for strength 
 to One who is mightier than we who is unmoved among 
 all the changes and upturnings of time, and who has prom- 
 ised to all who feel the need of something firm to set their 
 feet upon, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' If only every day 
 in our often too hurried and worried lives we would take 
 but fifteen minutes for retirement, for quiet self-recollec- 
 tion and prayer, strength and calmness would surely come 
 to us. Things around us would assume their due propor- 
 tions ; the trifles and worries that seem at the moment su- 
 preme would grow less important in our eyes, as our life 
 gained in perspective, and we came to see more clearly 
 the outlines of that vast and unknown future which lies 
 yet before each one of us. MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
l86 DECEMBER. 
 
 11. Happiness is not what we are to look for. Our 
 place is to be true to the best we know, to seek that, and 
 do that. . . . Let us do right, and then whether hap- 
 piness come or unhappiness, it is no very weighty matter. 
 If it come, life will be sweet ; if it do not come, life will be 
 bitter not sweet, and yet to be borne. . . . The well- 
 being of our souls depends only on what we are ; and 
 nobleness of character is nothing else but steady love of 
 good, and steady scorn of evil. Only to those who have 
 the heart to say" We can do without selfish enjoyment; 
 it is not what we ask or desire," it is no secret. . . . 
 Happiness may fly away, pleasures pall or cease to be ob- 
 tainable, wealth decay, friends fail or prove unkind; but 
 the power to serve God never fails, and the love of Him 
 is never rejected. FROUDE. 
 
 12. Though winter is represented in the almanac as an 
 old man, facing the wind and sleet, and drawing his cloak 
 about him, we rather think of him as a merry wood-chop- 
 per, and warm-blooded youth, as blithe as summer. The 
 unexplored grandeur of the storm keeps up the spirits of 
 the traveller. It does not trifle with us, but has a sweet 
 earnestness. In winter we lead a more inward life. Our 
 hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, 
 whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from 
 whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends. The im- 
 prisoning drifts increase the sense of comfort which the 
 house affords, and in the coldest days we are content to 
 sit over the hearth, . . . enjoying the quiet and serene 
 life that may be had in a warm corner by the chimney side. 
 
 THOREAU. 
 
DECEMBER. 187 
 
 13. There always comes some smooth running to every 
 skein before all is done. You mustn't try to see through 
 the whole skein or to straighten it all out into a single 
 thread before you begin to wind ; that always makes a - 
 snarl. There is always an end, and it is what you have 
 got to take hold of. MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 
 
 Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 
 As the swift seasons roll ! 
 Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
 
 Till thou at length art free, 
 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. 
 
 HOLMES. 
 
 14. We need society, and we need solitude also, as we 
 need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest. 
 I thank heaven for a thousand pleasant and profitable con- 
 versations with acquaintances and friends ; I thank heaven 
 also, and not less gratefully for thousands of sweet hours 
 that have passed in solitary thought or labor, under the 
 silent stars. I value society for the abundance of ideas 
 that it brings before us, like carriages in a frequented 
 street ; but I value solitude for sincerity and peace, and 
 for the better understanding of the thoughts that are truly 
 ours. Only in solitude do we learn our inmost nature and 
 its needs. PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. 
 
 Beside the real life expands the ideal life to those that 
 seek it. Droop not, seek it ; the ideal life has its sorrows, 
 but it never admits despair. BULWER. 
 
 Blessed are the missionaries of cheerfulness. 
 
 LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 
 
l88 DECEMBER. 
 
 15. The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with 
 flowers ; but they rise behind her steps, not before them. 
 " Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies 
 rosy." It is little to say of a woman, that she only does 
 not destroy where she passes. She should revive ; the 
 harebells should bloom, not stoop, as she passes. 
 
 Far among the woodlands and the rocks, far in the 
 darkness of the terrible streets, feeble florets are lying, 
 with all their fresh leaves torn, and their stems broken 
 will you never go down to them, nor set them in order, nor 
 fence them in their shuddering from the fierce wind? 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 16. I did but dream. I never knew 
 
 What charms our sternest season wore. 
 Was never yet the sky so blue, 
 
 Was never earth so white before. 
 Till now I never saw the glow 
 Of sunset on yon hills of snow, 
 And never learned the bough's designs 
 Of beauty in its leafless lines. 
 
 As thou hast made thy world without, 
 Make thou more fair my world within ; 
 
 Shine through its lingering clouds of doubts ; 
 Rebuke its haunting shapes of sin ; 
 
 Fill, brief or long, my granted span 
 
 Of life with love to thee and man ; 
 
 Strike when thou wilt the hour of rest, 
 
 But let my last days be my best I 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
DECEMBER. 189 
 
 17. Never attempt to enjoy every picture in a great 
 collection, unless you have a year to bestow upon it. You 
 may as well attempt to enjoy every dish in a lord mayor's 
 feast. Both mind and palate get confounded by a great 
 variety and rapid succession, even of delicacies. The mind 
 can take in only a certain number of images and impres- 
 sions distinctly : by multiplying the number you render the 
 whole confused and vague. Study the choice pieces, look 
 upon none else, and you will afterwards find them hanging 
 
 up in vour memory. 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 18. She would have given neither of the men another 
 thought, but that there was no one else with whom to do 
 any of that huckster business called flirting which to her 
 had just harm enough in it to make it interesting. . . . 
 I tread on delicate ground ground which alas ! many 
 girls tread boldly, scattering much feather-bloom from the 
 wings of poor Physche, gathering for her hoards of un- 
 lovely memories, and sowing the seed of many a wish that 
 she had done differently. They cannot pass over such 
 ground and escape having their nature more or less vul- 
 garized. I do not speak of anything counted wicked, but 
 of gambling with the precious and lovely things of the 
 deepest human relation. If a girl with such an experience, 
 marry a man she loves, will she not now and then remem- 
 ber something it would be joy to discover she had 
 but dreamed ? . . . . Honesty and truth, God's es- 
 sentials, are perhaps more lacking in ordinary intercourse 
 between young men and women than anywhere else. 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
190 DECEMBER. 
 
 19. You can do all. Now make the earth renew its 
 vigor ; now make health and courage come again into the 
 world ; now restore the reign of cheer ; now break the 
 bonds of vice ; now bring back an earthly Paradise ! With 
 your strong bodies, your glad hearts, your vigorous minds, 
 your imperial sway over the hearts of one another, your 
 persuasive control of your elders, it is for you to make the 
 future what you will. Oh, make it the dawn of that civili- 
 zation, of that Christianity, when again " the morning 
 stars shall sing together." A. H. R. 
 
 20. So Guenn had had no need of finery. Now she 
 began to thirst after it. Monsieur was always talking of 
 color. Monsieur was always talking of form. It seemed 
 to her evident that she could more worthily help along the 
 great work, if she had a new gown with some color and 
 some form, and some bright ribbons beside. One day 
 Hamor found her earnestly scrutinizing herself in a small 
 mirror which hung in the corner of the atelier. He smiled 
 and thought, " All women are alike," a favorite conclu- 
 sion of youngish men who pride themselves upon their 
 knowledge of human nature ; but his theories were put to 
 rout and confusion when she unabashed smiled sweetly 
 at him, and, continuing her investigations, remarked : " I 
 am trying to find out what pleases you in my face, mon- 
 sieur, I wish I knew. You see " with her merriest laugh 
 " to me it looks so very much like Guenn Rodellec ! " 
 staring solemnly into her own great blue eyes, and adjust- 
 ing her coiffe without a sign of coquetry or embarrassment. 
 
 BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD. 
 
DECEMBER. 1 9 l 
 
 21. Whatever path a young man (or woman) chooses 
 in the intellectual world, whatever severity of study he may 
 impose upon himself in the ambition to master it, two vol. 
 umes must always be pouring their influence into his 
 nature, the New Testament and the volume of records of 
 his native land. Religion and patriotism must stream into 
 every fibre of his brain, into every duct of his blood. 
 
 T. STARR KING. 
 
 Human happiness hath no perfect security but freedom ; 
 freedom none but virtue ; virtue none but knowledge ; and 
 neither freedom nor virtue nor knowledge has any vigor 
 or immortal hope except in the principles of the Christian 
 faith, and the sanctions of the Christian religion. 
 
 JOSIAH QUINCY. 
 
 22. Those visions of old prophecy are working their 
 accomplishment in every home. He who sits upon the 
 white horse goes forth conquering and to conquer. Not 
 in the fashion which John of Patmos thought of, very likely. 
 But in God's fashion, a thousand times more grand, for 
 victories a thousand times more sure. He overthrows 
 death, He conquers ignorance and sin, crime is more hated, 
 truth is more honored. Light overpowers darkness, good 
 conquers evil. And if this is true here, it is only because 
 it is true everywhere. Those Pilgrim Fathers were not 
 little men, nor mean, nor bad. They did the largest thing 
 done in their time, and it showed faith most vividly. But 
 everywhere, as time passes, the eternal law is that the 
 power which works for Righteousness succeeds, which 
 is to say that God reigns, or that His Kingdom comes. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
IQ2 DECEMBER. 
 
 23. " I like that word ' kindness,' " said Mrs. Wythe, " for 
 I never hear it without remembering its derivation. To be 
 kind is only another form of being human being like our 
 kind, or acting as though we ever felt the tie that binds us 
 to our kind. How much of our ill-manners arises from 
 forgetfulness that others are children of the same All 
 Father! MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 Manners may be learned at dancing-schools and in 
 society, but true politeness grows in the home circle only. 
 If missed there, it is seldom found elsewhere. 
 
 MOTHERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 24. Just to let thy Father do what he will ; 
 Just to know that he is true, and be still ; 
 Just to follow hour by hour as he leadeth ; 
 Just to draw the moment's power as it needeth ; 
 
 Just to trust him, this is all ! 
 
 Then the day will surely be 
 Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall, 
 
 Bright and blessed, calm and free. 
 
 Just to leave in his dear hand little things, 
 All we cannot understand, all that stings ; 
 Just to let him take the care sorely pressing, 
 Finding all we let him bear changed to blessing, 
 This is all ! and yet the way 
 
 Marked by Him who loves the best : 
 Secret of a happy day, 
 Secret of his promised rest. 
 
 FRANCES R. HAVERGAL. 
 
DECEMBER. 193 
 
 25. It is good to be children sometimes, and never bet- 
 ter than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a 
 child Himself. DICKENS. 
 
 " Why do they not give such presents every day ? " said 
 Clara. 
 
 " O child," I said, " it is only for thirty-six hours of the 
 three hundred and sixty-five days, that all people remem- 
 ber that they are all brothers and sisters, and those are the 
 hours that we call, therefore, Christmas Eve and Christ- 
 mas Day." 
 
 " And when they always remember it," said Bertha, " it 
 will be Christmas all the time !" 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 
 
 26. We mustn't be in a hurry to fix and choose our own 
 lot; we must wait to be guided. We are led on, like the 
 little children, by a way that we know not. It is a vain 
 thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for 
 the sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls ; as 
 if we could choose for ourselves where we shall find the 
 fulness of the Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where 
 alone it is to be found, in loving obedience. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 The greatest lesson that we have to learn in our mental 
 life, is to value quality of work more and quantity less. 
 Everybody knows how much more exhilaration and less 
 fatigue is experienced from a brisk walk, than from stand- 
 ing listlessly around for double the length of time ; and it 
 is just so with mental effort. We want neither feverish, 
 excited, nor lazy work ; but earnest, vigorous effort, ceas- 
 ing when the brain is weary or the object is accomplished. 
 
 EDNA D. CHENEY. 
 
194 DECEMBER. 
 
 27. All persons who have spent any considerable time 
 in the fair city of Berlin, have heard much of Queen 
 Louisa, and those among them who have thought on what 
 they have heard, must have pondered on the causes which 
 have given such enduring power and sweetness to the 
 memory of one so long departed from her home on earth. 
 Why is that name so cherished with a living, animating, 
 energizing love ? 
 
 I believe that the warm affection which has so long 
 survived its object, is due not so much to the Queen's tal- 
 ents, to her brave spirit and high aspirations, as to the fact, 
 that with these gifts and these exalted aims, she still pre- 
 served a tender, sympathizing heart was the mother of 
 the family, and the mother of the land. 
 
 ELIZABETH H. HUDSON. 
 28. If I had known in the morning 
 How wearily all the day 
 The words unkind 
 Would trouble my mind, 
 I said when I went away, 
 I had been more careful, darling, 
 Nor given you needless pain ; 
 But we vex " our own " 
 With look and tone 
 We may never take back again. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN STARR. 
 
 Brothers are indeed terrible critics of their sisters, and 
 so far, irritating creatures. But otherwise, as we all know, 
 they are the very joy and pride of our lives. 
 
 FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
DECEMBER. 195 
 
 29. Two things should be included in the education of 
 every girl : she should be taught practically the value 
 and use of money, and she should be trained to do some 
 sort of work by which she can earn a livelihood, if need 
 be. . . . Any girl, with a proper personal pride and 
 individuality will learn to like the independence which a 
 system of allowance gives. To have to ask for every 
 article of dress or luxury is somewhat galling to young 
 people, and when it is in a home where strict economy 
 must be practical, it is sometimes a source of great pain. 
 
 A girl should learn some one thing thoroughly, by 
 which she may support herself, if necessary. When a 
 woman knows she is competent to earn a living, it w r ill not 
 hurt her if she does not need to use her ability. If mis- 
 fortune threatens, the knowledge that she is not helpless 
 saves many an hour of heart-sickening despondency, and, 
 if misfortune does come, she is equipped to meet it. 
 
 S. B. H. Century. 
 
 30. " Work while you have light," especially while you 
 have the light of morning. The happiness of your life, 
 and its power, and its part and rank in earth or in heaven, 
 depend on the way you pass your days now. They are not 
 to be sad days ; far from that, the first duty of young peo- 
 ple is to be delighted and delightful ; but they are to be 
 in the deepest sense solemn days. Now, therefore, see 
 that no day passes in which you do not make yourself a 
 somewhat better creature. RUSKIN. 
 
 Health is a means to an end. It is an investment for 
 the future. That end is worthy work and noble living. 
 
 MARY A. LIVERMORE. 
 
196 DECEMBER. 
 
 31. My fairest child, I have no song to give you ; 
 
 No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray ; 
 Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave with you 
 For every day. 
 
 Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; 
 Do noble things, not dream them, all day long : 
 And so make life, death, and that vast forever 
 One grand, sweet song. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 I shall always be very glad to be asked on your birth- 
 day, and to come if you will let me, and to send my love 
 to you, and to wish that you may live to be very old and 
 very happy, which I do now with all my heart. 
 
 DICKENS. 
 
 There, my blessmg with you ! 
 And these few precepts in thy memory. 
 See thou character : SHAKESPEARE. 
 
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