■- '■■•■'•''• '■'- '^ n 'Ai\x UCSB LIBRARY J \^ -^ \/ Digitizeff bj the Internet Arclnive in 20Q7 with funding from IViicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/boolin 131 Slander, Detraction, &c 191 Slavery 136 Small things I^S Success- ••• 1^ Suspicion 200 Sympathy 211 Sinndcr and ■Flattery ^f'2 Talkin?, Silence 202 Ternper, Good and Bid 204 Temptation 205 Theaters 200 The Sahbnth 208 Tomb 209 Theology 210 Thinkers. Thought 211 Time 21^^ Tobacco 215 Toneue 210 Trial, Affliction, Sorrow 219 Truth, Ye«acity 293 Tsnrer 2?5 Vanity... 226 Virtue, Vice 22fi War 229 Wisdom 230 Woman, Mothers 232 Youth Z?P Ze>l 212 Promiscuous Subjects 2 13 to 2P9 Chapter of Anecdotes 289 to 315 Anecdote of Rev. Wm. .Tay 2S9 Settling accounts 289 What will become of you 9f=0 Challenge to fijht 2P9 He knows when I swear at him. ... 290 Who flu heaven and hell 290 The Scoffer 290 The way to heaven paved with good intentions 290 An opportune rebuke 291 Work not eat not 291 And it was his own daughter 291 Short Creed 292 Prodigal son 292 Rum color 292 Remedy for sore eyes 293 That matter is settled 293 Pluck the roses and eat the fruit... 294 SniiJT not injurious to the brain- • .. 204 Will strear will steal 295 Clarke's question to workmen 295 Zachariah Fox 295 P.arly impressions never effaced. ... 296 Beecher's first oath 996 Cnbbett's duel 206 Attontionto lives 297 Qnnker reply 297 No freeilom with the name of my Mas'er 298 Avaricious reetor 998 Roaring of the British Lion 208 Accuspd and acquitted 299 Cn^'vofessional 209 Died of a complication 209 Put it where your other irons are... 299 Quin and the coxcomb 300 No bettor than Clav .300 Out of his Lordship's way 300 The clenryman and the jockey 300 Preaching on the times ?n Tlnpny passage 301 Wash'cton's respect for his mother 3!'2 B-ilincrhroke ?(!2 Contentment 303 Giving to save ?03 The benevolent Di-. Wilsm 303 H e tried it before he said it 303 Re^uires two fiols to fieht 304 Remembering the nameof Christ. .. 304 How far to a ta vs^rn 304 May perish by the sword 30.5 Napoleon's npinion nf Christ :?05 Wesley's charity 306 Distiller an'! reformed drunkard 307 Discarded Layer .307 Not my will but thine 3ftS The world and Bro hers 308 Tlaynes to the scofftrs 309 Whv do yon plant trees 309 Wilberforce's conversion 309 Effect* of intemperance on national industry 311 Compositions 315 to 324 BOOK OF THOUGHT. SINGLE LINE EXPRESSIONS; Designed as Copies, Praxies for Parsing and Subjects for Compositions. All lessons should be punctually and thoroughly studied. Be circumspect in all your walks through life. Civilization is the result of the right kind of education. Do to others as you would wish they should do to you. Every man is miserable in just proportion to his vices. Forget not. your duty under any conceivable circumstances. Good order must be maintained in families and schools. Hear counsel and receive kind, good instruction. Idleness is the legitimate mother of mischief. Justice is the great standing policy of civil society. Kindness of heart will commonly be appreciated. Labor is one of the great elements of civil society. Man's happiness or misery is in his own hands. Never utt«r that which may ofiFend the chastest ear. Order, neatness, and economy, are all capital virtues. Parents are honored by the virtues of their children. Quick promisors are most commonly tardy performers. Rudeness of manners ever disgusts all good men. Strive to be something in life, and you will be something. The bible is a window in this dark prison of hope. Undirected by virtue, knowledge is but the servant of vice. Virtue ever elevates the mind, but vice ever degrades it. What maintains one vice, would bring up two children. Xenophon was famous both as a general and historian. Youth is the morning of life — the time for exertion. Zeal in the promotion of a good cause, will ensure success. (9) 10 BOOK OF THOUGHT. A gentleman makes no noise, a lady is always serene. Beauty very soon fades, but virtae flourishes forever. Coolness — absence of heat and haste, indicate fine qualities. Duty, as well as interest, requires honesty in our dealings. Every hour lost in youth, is a chance of future misfortune. From disappointments we commonly learn to be prudent. Genuine courage has its origin in genuine virtue. He that is slow to wrath, is of great understanding. Ignorance is undoubtedly a great highway to crime. Joy and sorrow divide the world equally between them. Knowledge and goodness form the degrees in heaven. Life and death are both within the power of the tongue. Mind grows and strengthens only by its own action. No thoroughly occupied man was ever very miserable. On tlie cultivation of women's minds, depends man's wisdom. Peevishness always disgusts us, pains and mortifies us. Quench not good desires ; they are the promptings of the Spirit. Hather diminish than magnify other persons' faults. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all easy. The highest joys to the christian, come through suffering. Upon secrecy, commonly depends the success of designs. Vice, sooner or later, brings much real unhappiness. We should read books that inculcate the duties of life. Xerxes was the father of Darius, the last king of Persia. Youth is the season of lively hope, enterprise and energy. Zealous souls without meekness are like ships in a storm. A mother's influence usually makes men what they are. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Content has a very kindly influence on the soul of man. Do nothing to-day that you must repent of in future. Envy and anger cause great pain, and shorten human life. Falsehood is a very base and a very loathsome vice. Good temper, like sunshine, sheds its brightness all around. He that refuseth instruction, despiseth his own soul. Idleness is the legitimate parent of most of the vices. Joy wholly from without, is false, precarious, and short. BOOK OF THOUGHT. U Keep thy tongue from Blander and thy lips from guile. Little sins bring in their train many sins of magnitude. Moderate exercise and toil, strengthen and consolidate the body. No habitual reader of novels, can love to read the Bible. One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth. Prejudice and ignorance always go hand in hand. Quietly and perseveringly pursue the many duties of life. Regard your good name as the richest jewel on earth. Strict adherence to truth will command true respect. Though death is terrible, still it will come to all of us. Unite with your industry, system and good economy. Virtue commonly secures much respect and happiness. "VVe should revenge a wrong by freely forgiving it. Xerxes built a bridge of boats across the Hellespont. You should never suffer your energies to stagnate. Zeal in a good cause will merit applause. All great distinguished men have had great mothers. Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Content makes even the poor richer than California mines. Death comes suddenly to those who are unprepared. Education dissipates the many evils of ignorance. Flattery corrupts both the giver and the receiver. Grand results are obtained by grand efforts. He who lives to no purpose, lives to a bad purpose. If you live a useful life, you will live happily. Judge not, lest ye be judged by the unerring Judge. Kindnesses and smiles, given habitually, win the heart. Little minds make their opinions subordinate to their interests. Most men make policy the rule of their lives. Nothing is utterly impossible to persevering industry. Of all our infirmities, vanity is the dearest to us. Punctuality is the heart and soul of all business. Quarrels would be short, if the fault was only on one side. Reason and virtue alone can bestow real liberty. Self-praise is a very inadequate recommendation. That which you sow to-day you will sometime reap. 12 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Use law and pliysic only in cases of real necessity. Virtue is the all-sustaining power of government. "We should dearly love life, without fearing its close. Xerxes was a very vain and very boastful man. Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough. " Zion," is used figuratively for the chui'ch of God. A hopeless person is one who deserts himself. — Berkeley, Grace is to the boily what good sense is to the mind. Simple diet is best, — for many dishes bring many diseases. Tobacco is a curse to a nation, in proportion to its use. Worth makes the man; the want of it the fellow. Modesty of manners, once lost, is forever irrecoverable. The cure of an evil tongue must be done at the heart. Never reply to the epithet of a drunken man or a fool. Solomon well says, " anger resteth in the bosom of Fools." "Want of prudence is not unfrequently the want of virtue. Good books are our best companions through this life. Earth's vanities pass very quickly away forever. Do that which is right, and speak that which is true. Every condition sets easy on a truly wise man. Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. Tobacco is a great generator of idle habits among mankind. Civility is the result of genuine good nature and good sense Curiosity, from its nature, is a very active principle. Aim at excellence, and excellence will surely be attained. Idleness is the sepulchre of a living man. A propenstity to hope and joy is substantial riches. Humility is the true foundation of virtue and content. All intemperance should be carefully guarded against. Virtue, joined to knowledge, confers great influence. Look well before you undertake any important enterprise. It is much easier to think well than to act well. Happiness is lost, when ease is very much consulted. When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain. A majority of mankind prefer custom to consistency. We can not too highly value a true and tried friend. BOOK OP THOUGirr. 13 Idleness is the great bane of both body and mind. We should guard against our evil passions in early life. Practice makes that easy, which at first seems impossible. Profane swearing is a violent breach of good manners. Learn to consider yourself in the place of another. Never speak of your father as the " old man." Calumnies are murder in the first degree. The Slthiness consequent on tobacco-using, is a great moral evil. Rare as true love is, true friendship is still rarer. To be of use is the great object of human existence. Riches are commonly the impediment of our virtues. Agar prayed that he might not have riches. Labor is the substantial interest on which we all stand. As you desire the love of God and man, beware of pride. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. — Shakspeare. The love of money is the root of all evil. — Paul. The morality of an action depends upon our motive. Good manners are the small coin of virtue. — Women of England. The half-learned are more dangerous than the simpleton. Innocence does not always shield us from evil reports. Constant success shows us but one side of the world. Ho is not great, who is not gi'eatly good. — Shakspeare. The conscience of well-doing, is an ample rewai'd. Home should be more attractive than any other place. No man envies the merit of another who has enough of his own. Personal neatness is a never-failing sign of self-respect. Would we have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies. We should never speak contemptuously of mankind. Never abuse one who was once your bosom friend. To be called proud is a misfortune, to be proud is a sin. There is a time to think, and there is a time to speak. Think before you speak, that you may speak wisely. We have nothing to enjoy till we have something to impart. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. That which is worth doing, is worth doing well. Right doing is wise doing, wrong doing is but folly. Nothing noble can be had without seriousness and sobriety. Prejudice is always the legitmate offspring of ignorance. 14 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Occupation is a pressing necessity to aU young persons. The way of every man is indicative of his end. Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong. There is nothing so low and mean as selfishness. The principal virtues of woman are of a domestic kind. To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance. There is no solid happiness without strict sobriety. We may mend our faults more easily than hide them. Without energy, no circumstances will make a man a man. The pursuit of great objects, usually forms great minds. We should constantly beware of indulgence in any excess. The use of tobacco unnerves the body, and stultifies the mind. Neither precept nor discipline is so forcible as example. Our worst enemies are the evils of our own wicked hearts. No man has so far fallen that he may not rise by effort. The future destiny of the child is the work of the mother. The origin of all men is the same, and virtue is the only nobility. The heart is a cup which is always empty till it overflows. Procrastination is, verily, the great arch thief of time. Ever open your mouth and your purse with great caution. No excellence can be secured without persevering labor. The virtues of mothers are commonly visited on their offspring. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. — Solomon. Pleasure's votaries will certainly be disappointed at last. All censure of others is oblique praise of one's self. To be happy, the passions must be cheerful and gay. This little life has duties that are indeed very great. The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas. A thoughtful mind will find instruction in all things. He only lives who is not a reservoir, but a fountain. All difficulties vanish before diligence and perseverance. Elucation distinguishes between savage and civilized life. Carefully avoid those things which you blame in others. Gratitude is homage the heart renders to God for His favors. Remember that time is money. — Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Good manners are the blossom of good sense and good feeling. A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. Malice always drinks one half of its own poison. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 15 The mother's heart is the child's school-room. — Beecher. Tobacco broods like an incubus over the chewer and smoker. Energy will do any thing that can be done in this -world. Ever be governed by an enlightened conviction of truth and duty. A good character is, in all cases, the fruit of personal exertion. He is the most empty man who is the fullest of self. Ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools at a distance. The foundation of knowledge must be laid by reading. Flattery is a kind of base coin to which vanity gives currency. A flatterer is said to be a beast which always bites smiling. As a wolf resembles a dog, so does a flatterer resemble a friend. Nothing is so great an instance of ill manners as flattery. Lawless are they who make their wills their law. A friend should bear his friends' infirmities. — Shakspeare. Envy is a weakness of poor, frail, erring humanity. A comfortable old age is the i"eward of a well-spent youth. A guileful heart always makes a guileful tongue and lips. Never make your ear the grave of another persons good name. The man who strictly adheres to truth will be respected. The proudest monuments of earth will very soon perish. The first lesson to be taught the young, is strict obedience. "It is employment," says Webster, "that makes men happy." Talent and worth are the only external grounds of distinction. A contented mind is the greatest blessing of this transitory life. A man of un-doubted honesty, will always command respect. Habit, if not resolutely resisted, soon becomes real necessity. Leisure is the time for doing something useful to mankind. They Trho seek wisdom will surely find her. — Solomon. Truth is a noble, generous, and a glorious virtue. The love of wealth governs the vulgar herd of mankind. There is a greater desire to live long, than to live well. The utmost extent of human science is very circumscribed. We make another man's judgment ours, by keeping his company. There is many a good thing lost by not asking for it. A cheerful countenance always betokens a good heart. The virtuous man is, in the end, always sure of his reward. Virtue alone is honor, glory, wealth and happiness. When the devil finds a man idle he sets him to work. 16 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Be careful to acquire the habit of untiring industry. The consciousness of doing good is a sufficient reward. Form fixed principles on which to think and act. Be simple and neat in all your personal habits. Endeavor to acquire the habit of doing everything well. Make persevering effort to become master of your temper. Good humor and cheerfulness are essential to true politeness. Make a daily practice of reading the word of God, Always have a plan laid, beforeiiand, for every day. Vice, virtue and time, are three things that never stand still. Revenge is a more punctual paymaster, than gratitude. Depraved conversation will corrupt the best morals. Tears are frequently equal in weight to words. To do little things well, is, in most cases, highly honorable. A mind fraught with integrity, is the noblest possession. The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor. Endeavor to do good, rather than be conspicuous. Look to budding mischief before it has time to ripen into fruit. Every body should be as clean and neat as a Quaker. There is no difficulty over which an iron will can not prevail. "What am I? how produced ? and for what end? Never indulge in levity upon what is sacred. — Todd. To keep the mind pure, keep it usefully employed. All that time is wasted which might be better employed. Be careful to improve your thoughts wlien you are alone. Men speak but little when vanity does not induce tliem. Affectation is even more contemptible than weakness. He who has not much wealth, has not much care. God looks only to pure, and not to full hands. He who does not advance surely goes backward. As your conduct has been, so shall be its fruit. Truth is afraid of nothing but concealment. Ignorance is the lecritimate mother of superstition. Catching at more, men often lose what they have. Content is natural wealth, luxury artificial poverty Truth is most powerful, and will ultimately prevail. A month of vexation will not pay a farthing of debt. Virtue is equal to ten thousand shields. — Juvenal. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 17 Prosperity gires us friends, and adversity tries them. Nothing on all the earth can smile but man. Barbarism is rendered intractable by the force of custom. Resolution is, in most cases, almost omnipotent. It is always better to wear out than to rust out. True nobility is derived from virtue, not from birth. "With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes silk. Politeness is but kind feeling toward others, acted out. When you have any thing to do, go straightly and do it. A newspaper is the history of the world for one day. I would rather be right than be President. — Henry Clay. He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice over. Incessant pains the end obtains. — Oommon Observation. Time, distance, and delay, are abolished by railroads. Discharge your duty, and leave the rest to Providence. Reason is a very light rider, and easily shaken off. Trust not the world, for it never pays what it promises. The way of the world is to make laws and follow customs. Men very rarely like the virtues which they have not. He who will not reflect is surely a ruined man. Wisdom is to the mind, what health is to the body. Hate no one, — hate their vices, not themselves. — Brainard. The slanderer and the assassin, differ only in their weapons. A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man. — Young. Contentment gives a crown, where fortune has denied it. The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind. He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his Maker. Gratitude is a virtue that has great profit annexed to it. All good principles must stagnate without moral activity Zeal for the public good is characteristic of a man of honor. (2) 18 BOOK OF THOUGHT. ACTIONS. The only things in which we can be said to have any property, are our actioDS. — Colton. The moat unalloyed pleasure in life, is the doing of a good action from good motives. — Mrs. F. Pitts. The actions of men are like the index of a book ; they point out what is most remarkable in them. Berkeley/. He is the wisest and best man, who crowds the most good actions into now. — It. B. Cutter. AMBITION. I charge thee fling away ambition ; By that sin fell angels : how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope to .win by't ? Shakspeare. Earth's highest station ends in " Here he lies ; " And " dust to dust" concludes the noblest song. Young. Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. And I hold ambition of so light and airy a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. — Shakspeare. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 19 One breast laid open were a school, Which would unteach mankind the lust to shine or rule. — Byron. Ambition is the way in which a vulgar man aspires. H. Ward Beecher. ASSOCIATES. If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp. — From the Latin. If men wish to be held in esteem, they must asso- ciate with the estimable. — La Brut/ere. Choose the company of your superiors, whenever you can have it ; that is the right and true pride. Lord Chesterfield. Thou art noble ; yet, I see, The honorable metal may be wrought From that it is disposed. Therefore, 'tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes : For who so firm that can not be seduced tShahspeare. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. — Solomon. You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose ene- mies are characters decidedly bad. — Lavater. 20 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Mankind will, in a great degree, form their opinion of you, upon that which they have of your intimate friends and associates. — R. B. Cutter. ATTENTION. Without attention you can succeed in nothing ; and without strict attention, books are as valueless to you as mere blank sheets. By attention, Cuvier became so versed in compara- tive anatomy, that when a little bone was shown him, he could tell to what class of animals it belonged. Means and Ends. It was attention to the falling of an apple from a tree, which led Newton to the discovery of the law of gravity, by which all ponderable substances are attracted to the center of the earth. — D. B. Adams. Attention to the rise and fall of the lid of a boiling tea-kettle, has led to steamboats, steamships, and railroads. — Means and Ends. It is by attention to his barometer that the mari- ner avoids shipwreck. — Redwood. By attention, the Indian finds his way through the pathless desert ; and the physician, by attention to the condition of the skin, eye, and pulse of the patient, applies the healing art. — Home. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 21 By attention, the deaf mutes are taught language, and the blind learn to read. — Means and Ends. It is by attention that 0. S. Fowler, and others, have learned to read in the human head and face, those beamings of love, that no language can express, and of aversion, that stillness of tongue can not con- ceal. AVARICE. The avaricious person is kind to no one, but is most unkind to himself. — Latin Proverb. No amount of money, however large, can satisfy the avaricious feelings of the human heart. Mrs. R. Morrell. "Avarice is so insatiable, that it is not in the power of liberality to content it ; and man's desires are so boundless, that whatever he gets is but in the way of getting more, without end. " 'What walls can bound, or compelling rein, The ungoverned lust of avarice restrain.' " It may be remarked for the comfort of honest poverty, that avarice reigns most in those who have but few good qualities to recommend them. This is a weed that grows only in a barren soil. — Hughes. 22 BOOK OP THOUGHT. BENEVOLENCE— BENEFICENCE. When the good Fenelon's Library — immense library, — was in flames, "God be praised," said he, "that it is not the dwelling of a poor man." This is the true spirit of benevolence. There is no use of money equal to that of Benefi- cence; here the enjoyment grows on reflection. Mackenzie. Constantly cherish the God-like virtue, benevo- lence, for it will shine through your life like light from the celestial regions. — Mrs. Elizabeth Adams. To find one thankful man, I will oblige many that are not so. — Seneca. He who receives a good turn should never forget it ; he who does one, should never remember it. Charron. The rich should not reserve their benevolence for purposes after they are dead ; for those who give not till they die, show that they would not then if they could keep it any longer. — Bishop Hall. Remember earth has one privilege above heaven. It is that of Beneficence. The privilege of passing by a transgression, of relieving the distressed, of spreading the Scriptures, of evangelizing the heathen, of instructing the ignorant, of reclaiming the vicious — " of seeking and saving them that are lost." — Jay. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 23 The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple is a far nobler property than the finest in- tellect. Satan has a fine intellect, but not the image of God. — Bowels. Men resemble the gods in nothing so much, as in doing good to their fellow-creatures. — Cicei'o. BIBLE. The Bible has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without mixture of error, for its matter. — Dr. Locke. At any price give me the book of God. — Wesley. The most momentous concern of man is the state he shall enter upon at the close of this short life. The Bible is the only source of information as to what that state shall be ; and its heavenly teachings fully enable us to make that state glorious. J). B. Adams. Leo the Tenth knew that the pontifical hierarchy did support, and was reciprocally supported by a superstition that was false ; but he also knew that the Bible was true, and that truth and falsehood assimilate not; therefore he withheld the Bible from the laity. — Colton. The whole preparation for a coming eternity is, believe what the Bible tells you, and do what the Bible bids you. — Br. Chalmers. 24 BOOK OF THOUGHT. In what light so ever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to moral- ity, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue. — John Q. Adams. The great mass of mankind have misunderstood the real object of life on earth, or else he misunder- stands who follows the light of the Bible. Precious Bible ! what a treasure Does the word of God aflford ! — All I want for life or pleasure, Food and medicine, shield and sword. Let the world account me poor, Having this, I need no more. — Newton. I confess that the majesty of the Scriptures aston- ishes me, that the sanctity of the Gospel speaks to my heart. View the books of the philosophers with all their pomp, and what a littleness they possess compared with the Scriptures. — Rosseau. A matchless Temple, where I delight to be, to con- template the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnifi- cence of the structure, and to increase my awe, and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored. — Boyle. That the truths of the Bible have the power of awakening an intense moral feeling in man under every variety of character, — learned or ignorant, civilized or savage; that they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through all the BOOK OF THOUGHT. 25 domestic, civil and social relations ; that they teach men to love right, to hate wrong, and to seek each other's -welfare, as the children of one common parent ; that they control the baleful passions of the human heai't, and thus make men proficient in the science of self-government ; and, finally, that they teach him to aspire after a conformity to a Being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes infinitely more purifying, more exalted, more suited to his nature, than any other which this world has ever known, are facts as incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or the demonstrations of mathematics. Dr. Wayland. BIGOTRY. Show me the man who would go to heaven alone if he could, and in that man I will show you one who will never be admitted into heaven. — Feltham. Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost. — Colton. The good old man, too eager in dispute, Flew high ; and as his Christian fury rose, Damned all for heretics who durst oppose. Dryden. (3) 26 BOOK OF THOUGHT. CENSURE. Censure is a tax a man pays to the public, for being eminent. — Swift. The censure of those opposed to us, is the nicest commendation that can be given us. — St. Mvremond, Censure has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the reproach of falsehood. — Miss M. Morrell. The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure is, to correct ourselves. — Demosthenes. The censure of our fellow-men, which we are so prone to esteem a proof of our superior wisdom, is too often only the evidence of the conceit that would magnify self, and of the malignity or envy that would detract from others. — T. Edwards. To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or inveterate enemies ; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one, or the admonitions of the other. — Diogenes. It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escap- ing censure, and a weakness to be ajQfected by it. All illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery per- secution. — Addison. There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of censure of the world : to despise it, to BOOK OF THOUGHT. 27 return the like, or to endeavor to live so as to avoid it. The first of these is usually pretended, the last is almost impossible, the universal practice is in favor of the second. — Sioift. CHARACTER, REPUTATION. The character is like white paper ; if once blotted it can hardly ever be made to appear as white as before. One wrong step often stains the character for life. — Berkeley. A pure mind is the foundation of a pure character ; and a pure character is of amazing worth to every young person. Nothing of character is really permanent, but virtue and personal worth. These remain. Daniel Webster. It is the possession of established and unwavering principles, that makes a man a firm character. Todd. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and ffold. Solomon. As they who for every slight infirmity, take medi- cine to repair their health, rather impair it ; so they who, for every trifle, are eager to vindicate their character, rather weaken it. — Old Writer. 28 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Good character is like stock in trade, the more of it a man has, the greater his facilities for adding to it. Good character is power and influence; it makes good friends ; creates funds ; draws patronage and support ; and opens a sure and easy way to wealth, honor, and happiness. — Hawes. A good character is, in all cases, the fruit of per- sonal exertion. It is not created by external advan- tages; it is no necessary appendage of birth, talents, or station ; but it is the fruit and reward of good principles manifested in a course of virtuous and honorable action. — Hawes. Those who quit their own proper character to assume some other, are, for the most part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the one they assume. — Burke. In a truly good character we look, first of all, for integrity, or unbending regard to rectitude ; then for independence, or the habitual determination to be governed by an enlightened conviction of truth and duty ; then for benevolence, or the spirit of kindness and good will to men ; and last, but not least, for piety toward God, or an affectionate regard for the will and glory of the great Jehovah. — Haives. Character and reputation are individually different. Character is what you really are ; Reputation is the estimation, false or true, which the world puts upon you. BOOK OF THOUGHT. The way to gain a good reputation is, to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. — Socrates. A watchful regard to one's reputation in early youth, will be of incalculable benefit to us in after life.— iJ/m A. G. N. Morrell. A fair reputation is a plant, delicate in its nature, and by no means rapid in its growth. It will not shoot up in a night, like the gourd of the prophet ; but like that gourd it may perish in a night. — Taylor. The purest treasure mortal times afford. Is spotless reputation ; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. Shakspeare. " Individual character is almost universally a com- pound from the characters of others. If it is true that one fool makes many, it is not less clear that many fools or many wise men make one." Character, like porcelain ware, must be painted before it is glazed. There can be no change after it is burned in. — Henry Ward Beecher. Good name, in man and woman. Is the immediate jewel of their souls. ShaTcspeare. How wonderfully beautiful is the delineation of the characters of the three patriarchs in Genesis ! To be sure, if ever man could, without impropriety, 30 BOOK OF THOUGHT. be called, or supposed to be, "the friend of God," Abraham was that man. We are not surprised that Abimelech and Ephron seem to reverence him so profoundly. He was peaceful, because of his con- scious relation to God — S. T. Coleridge. CHARITY. A man's true wealth hereafter, is the good he does in this world to his fellow-man. — Mrs. F. Pitts, In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concerned in charity. Pope. The truly generous is the truly wise, And he who loves not others, lives unblessed. Some. Would'st thou from sorrow find a sweet relief. Or is thy heart oppressed with woes untold? Balm would'st thou gather for corroding grief? Pour blessings round thee, like a shower of gold. Wilcox. Give employment, rather than alms to the poor. The former drives out indolence, the latter, industry. World's Laconics. We owe every allowance to the faults of others, being conscious that we too have our share of im- perfection. — Scott. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 31 When u charitable man dies, people will say, " "What property has he left behind him ?*' But the angels will ask, "What good deeds has he sent before him ?" Mercy is seasonable in time of affliction; like showers of rain in time of great drought. — Jones. It is a mark of littleness of spirit to confine your inspections to some minute part of a person's char- acter. A man of generous, open, extended views, will grasp the whole of it ; without which he can not pass a right judgment on any part. — Scott's Lessons. Humanity is the basis of the Christian religion, and they who are not charitable can not be Christians. Charity suffereth long, and is kind: charity en- vieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up ; doth not behave itself unseemly ; seeketh not her own ; is not easily provoked ; thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things. — iSt. Paul. It is a duty incumbent on the wise, to bear with such as are not so. — D. B. Adams. Gently to hear, kindly to judge. — Shakspeare. The drying up of a single tear has more Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. Byron, 32 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Public charities and benevolent associations for the gratuitous relief of every species of distress, are peculiar to Christianity ; no other system of civil or religious policy has originated them; they form its highest praise and characteristic feature, — Colion. Judge of yourself with rigor, but of others with the softnings of humanity. Miss Myrtilla Morrell. CHEERFULNESS, SADNESS. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the soul of man, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity. — •Observation. To be happy, the passion must be cheerful and gay, not gloomy and melancholy. A propensity to hope and joy is real riches ; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty. — Hume. Keep aloof from sadness, for it is a sickness of the soul. — Sigourney. A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, makes beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good natured. It lightens sickness, poverty, and affliction ; converts ignorance into amiable simplicity, and renders deformity itself agreeable. — Addison. Cheerful looks make every dish a feast. And 'tis that crowns a welcome. — Massinger. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 33 Moral sufferings very speedily undermine human health. ! keep the mind cheerful. Mrs. R. Morrell. The most manifest sign of wisdom, is continued cheerfulness . — Mo ntaigne. Cheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitoe of their life to the old ; age without cheerfulness, is a Lap- land winter without a sun ; and this spirit of cheer- fulness should be encouraged in our youth, if we would have the benefit of it in our old age ; time will make a generous wine more mellow, but it will turn that which is early on the fret, to vinegar. Colton. CONTENTMENT. Contentment is a pearl of great price, and who- ever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires, makes a wise and happy purchase. — Balguy. The highest point outward things can bring unto, is the contentment of the mind ; with which no estate can be poor ; and without which all estates are miserable. Sir P. Sidney. A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world ; and if, in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next, from the gratification of them. — Addison. 34 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Content swells a mite into a talent, and makes even the poor richer than the Indies. World's Laconics. Alas ! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the hight of station, and worldly grandeur, will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature, as to his happiness. — Sterne. The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind ; and he who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs he purposes to remove. — Johnson. If two angels were sent down from heaven, one to conduct an empire, the other to sweep a street, they would feel no inclination to change employments. John Newton. Whatever difference there may appear to be in men's fortunes, there is still a certain compensation of good and ill, that makes them equal. — Charron. It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that, if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who think themselves the most unhappy, would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division. Horace has carried this thought much further, which implies that the hardships or BOOK OF THOUGHT. 35 misfortunes we lie under, are more easy to us than those of any other person vrould he, in case we could exchange conditions with him. — Addison. There never was any system hut that of Christi- anity, which could effectually produce in the mind of man the virtue of contentment. Religion bears a tender regard to human nature. It prescribes to the miserable man the means of improving his con- dition: nay, it shows him, that to bear his afflic- tions as he ought, will naturally end in the removal of them. It makes him contented here, because it can make him happy hereafter. — D. B. Adams. Think'st thou the man whose mansions hold The worldling's pomp, and miser's gold, Obtains a richer prize, Than he who, in his cot at rest, Finds heavenly peace a willing guest, And bears the promise in his breast. Of treasure in the skies ? — Mrs. Sigourney. COOKERY. More evils than ever were fabled of Pandora's box, are sent abroad in the land by bad cooks. Cook- ing requires study, and constant exercise of judg- ment and skill. — Means and Ends. Cooking should be well understood by the wives and daughters of our farmers, mechanics, merchants, 36 BOOK OF THOUGHT. manufacturers, ministers, lawyers and doctors. No ladj is too high to regulate the process of domestic cookery; but on the contrary, it would be a real honor to a Princess. — Mrs. R. Morrell. COVETOUSNESS. If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man can not so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him. Lord Bacon. The only gratification a covetous man gives his neighbors is, to let them see that he himself is as little better for what he has, as they are. — Penn. - Covetous men are fools, miserable wretches, mad men, who live by themselves in perpetual slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow, discontent, with more of gall than honey in their enjoyments, who are rather pos- sessed by their money than possessors of it ; bound 'prentices to their property ; and mean slaves and drudges to their substance. — Burton. When all sins are old in us. And go upon crutches, covetousness Does but then lie in her cradle. — BecJcer. The covetous man reverses the principle on which iEsop chose his burden, and oppi esses himself with a heavier load of provisions the nearer he gets to the end of his journey. — Colton. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 37 Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. — Luke, xii., 15. The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world ; to take in every thing, and part with nothing. South, CREDULITY. Credulity is belief on slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence. In this sense it is the infidel, not the believer, who is credulous. " The simple," says Solomon, "believeth every word." WorldJ's Laconics. Credulousness is the concomitant of the first stages of life ; and is indeed the principle on which all instruction must be founded; but it lays the mind open to impressions of error as well as of truth ; and when suifered to combine itself with that passion for the marvelous — which all children discover, it fos- ters the rankest weeds of chimera and superstition. Hence, the awful solemnity of "darkness visible," and what the poet has denominated " a dim religious light ;" together with the terrors of evil omens, or haunted places, and of ghastly specters. — Percival. Charles the second, hearing Vossius, a celebrated free-thinker, or infidel, repeating some incredible 38 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Stories about the Chinese, said : " This is a very- strange man. He believes every thing but the Bible." The credulity which has faith in goodness, is a mark of goodness. CUNNING— PRUDENCE— DISCRETION. Cunning is none of the best nor worst quality ; it floats between virtue and vice : there is scarcely any exigence where it may not be supplied by prudence. Bruyere. Cunning pays no regard to virtue, and is but the low mimic of wisdom. — Bolinghrohe. The certain way to be cheated, is to fancy one's self more cunning than others. — Charron. Cunning leads to knavery ; it is but a step from one to the other, and that very slippery ; lying only makes the difference ; add that to cunning and it is knavery. — Bruyere. Cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them successful. Dis- cretion has large and extended views, and like a well formed eye, commands the whole horizon. Cunning is a kind of short sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects near at hand, but is unable to dis- cover things at a distance. Discretion, the more it BOOK OF TIIOUOriT. 39 is discovered, gives a greater authority to the per- son who possesses it ; cunning, once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done, had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life ; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest. Discre- tion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding. Cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but a short remove from them. — Addison. There are many shining qualities in the mind of man ; but none so useful as discretion. — Addison. A cunning man overreaches no one half so much as himself. — ff. Ward Beeeher. No other protection is needed, provided you are under the guidance of prudence. — Juvenal. Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say. — Colt on. CURIOSITY. How much time and ease that man gains, who is not troubled with the spirit of impertinent curiosity about others, and about their business and actions ; 40 BOOK OF THOUGHT. who lets his neighbor's thoughts and behavior alone ; who is inclined to confine his inspections to himself, and cares chiefly for his own duty and conscience. Berkeley. CUSTOM— HABIT — USB. Habit, if not resolutely resisted, soon becomes necessity. — Augustine. Habits are to the soul, what veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves. H. BusTinell. Habits, though in their commencement like the filmy line of the spider, trembling at every breeze, may, in the end, prove as links of tempered steel, binding a deathless being to eternal felicity or woe. Sigourney. Never did any soul do good, but it more readily did the same again, with increased enjoyment. Never was love, or gratitude, or benevolence, prac- ticed but with increasing joy, which made the prac- ticer still more in love with the fair act. — Shafishury. In early childhood we may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, of industry or idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which we train our children. Solomon understood the force of habit, as we may infer from his injunction : " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." BOOK OF THOUGHT. 41 There is one feature in the law of habit so import- ant, and so uniformly sure in its operation, as to call for the notice of all. It is this : our power of passive sensation is weakened by the repetition of impressions, just as certainly as our active pro- pensities are strengthened by the repetition of actions. — Berkeley. How use doth breed a habic in a man. Shahs-peare. We make laws, but follow customs. — Montague. Man is a bundle of habits, and happy is he whose habits are his friends. There are habits, not only of drinking, swearing, lying, and some other things which are commonly acknowledged to be such, but of every modification of speech and thought. Man is a bundle of habits. There are habits of industry, attention, advertency ; of a prompt obedience to the judgment occurring, or of yielding to the first impulses of passion ; of extending our views to the future, or of resting upon the present; of apprehending methodizing, reasoning; of indolence, dilatoriness ; of vanity, self-conceit, melancholly, partiality ; of fretfulness, suspicion, captiousness, censoriousness ; pride, ambition, covet- ousness ; of overreaching, intriguing, projecting : in a word there is not a quality or function, either of body or mind, which does not feel the influence of this great law of animated nature. — Paley. (4) 42 BOOK OF THOUGHT. I trust every thing, under God, to habit, upon which, in all ages, the law-giver, as well as the school-master, has mainly placed his reliance ; habit "which makes every thing easy, and casts all difficul- ties upon the deviation from the wonted course. Make sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be hateful and hard ; make prudence a habit, and reck- less profligacy will be as contrary to the nature of the child grown an adult, as the most atrocious crimes to any of your lordships. Give a child the habit of sacredly regarding the truth, of carefully respecting the property of others, of scrupulously abstaining from all acts of improvidence which can involve him in distress, and he will just as likely think of rushing into the element in which he can not breathe, as of lying, or cheating, or stealing. Lord Brougham. Custom does often reason overrule, And only serves for reason to the fool. — Rochester. All habits gather by unseen degrees. As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. — Dryden. Custom forms us all ; Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed belief, Are consequences of our place of birth. — HiU. A blind submission to inveterate custom, sets aside all rationality. It is in the nature of good or bad habits, to con- firm and strengthen themselves. BOOK OF THOUGirr. 4S The whole character may be said to be compre- hended in the term, habits; so that it is not far from being true, that "man is a bundle of habits." — Todd. Choose life actions that are most proper, and cus- tom will render them most easy and agreeable. Miss 31yrtilla Morrell. Habits are easily formed, especially such as are bad ; and what to-day seems a small affair, will soon become fixed, and hold yon with the strength of a cable. The cable, you will recollect, is formed by spinning and twisting one thread at a time, but when completed, the proudest ship turns her head toward it, and acknowledges her subjection to its power. — Todd. Would you know who is the most degraded and wretched of mankind, look for one that has practiced a vice so long that he even loathes and curses it and clings to it : that he pursues it because it has become " second nature ;" but reaching it, he is conscious that it will gnaw his heart like a tiger, and make him roll himself in the dust with anguish. — Berkeley. Custom bestows ease and confidence, even in the midst of great danger. Custom is a great leveler. It corrects the inequal- ities of fortune, by lessening equally the pleasures of the rich, and the pains of the poor. 44 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Would you contemplate one of the most degraded, and most to be pitied of all men, look upon the poor inebriate laboring under delirium tremens, who by a great law of his nature is irresistably drawn into the yawning mouth of hell, with all its most highly pic- tured horrors, as the poor bird with all its chattcr- ings of distress is drawn into the open mouth of the charming serpent. " Let the best course of life your choice invite. For custom soon will turn it to delight." The old man who has occupied a particular cor- ner of the old fire-place, in the old house, for sixty years, may be rendered miserable by a change. A habit may, in its infancy, come in at the key- hole of your door ; and if you entertain and cherish it, it will soon grow tod large for your parlor. Mrs. E. Adams. By nourishing and cherishing an evil habit, and by feeding it with your own vitality, you will soon give it a strength superior to your own. Wm. T. Jones. Where all moves equally (says Paschal) nothing seems to move, as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He who stops first, views, as from a fixed point, the horrible extravagance that transports the rest. — Colton. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 45 An aged prisoner of the Bastile, on being released, entreated that he might be permitted to return to his gloomy dungeon ; because his habits there formed were so strong, that his nature threat- ened to sink under the attempt to break them up. DEATH. Death opens the gate of fame, and shuts the gate of envy after it ; it breaks the chain of the captive, and puts the bondsman's task into another's hands. iSieme. A good man, when dying, said, " Formerly death appeared to me like a wide river, but now it has dwindled to a little rill ; and my comforts which were once as the rill, have become the deep and broad river." Death, to a good man, is but passing through a dark entry, out of one little room of his father's house, into another which is fair and spacious, light- some and glorious, and divinely entertaining. Clarke. Those born once only, die twice — they die a tem- poral and an eternal death. But those who are born twice, die only once ; for over them the second death hath no power. — Jay. The solemn recollection of death, is the very best preservative from vice and error. — Mrs. Cutter. 46 BOOK OF THOUGHT. It is no small reproach to a Christian, whose faith is in immortality and the blessedness of another life, much to fear death, which is the necessary passage thereto. — Sir H. Vatie. There is but this difference between the death of the old and the young ; the old go to death, and death comes to the young. Death 's but a path that must be trod, If man would ever pass to God. — Parnell. Thrice welcome, death ! That after many a painful bleeding step, Conducts us to our home, and lands us safe On the long wished for shore. — Blair. The bad man's death is horror, but the just Does but ascend to glory from the dust. Habhingdon. Be still prepared for death ; and death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter. — SkaJcspeare. The king of terrors is the prince of peace to the truly good man. — Young. Ah ! what a sign it is of evil life, When death's approach is seen so terrible. tShakspeare. To the righteous, death is the gate to endless joys, to the unrighteous, to endless banishment from the presence of God and his power. BOOK OF THOUGirr. 47 Death is the liberator of liim whom freedom can not release ; the physician of him whom medicine can not cure ; and the comforter of him whom time can not console. — Colton. To those who have run the Christian race, and fought the good fight of faith, death is but the soul's harvest home. — B. B. Adams. This short life can but little more supply, Than just to look around us and to die. — Pope. Death is the dropping of the flower that the fruit may swell. — Renry Ward Beecher. The best school for a good life, is frequent medi- tation upon a happy death. — I\Irs. E. Adams. As death is inevitable — will not relax nor give back his strong hold, mortals huve to submit, and fly to faith for consolation. To die — to sleep — No more ; — and, by a sleep, to say we end The heavt-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. — Shakspeare. Death is the crown of life : Were death denied, poor men would live in vain; Were death denied, to live would not be life ; Were death denied, even fools would wish to die. Young. 48 BOOK OF THOUGHT. How shocking must thy summons he, Oh ! death, To him that is at ease in his possessions ! Who, counting on long years of pleasure here. Is quite unfurnished for the world to come. — Blair. Death is not to the Christian what many call it, "Paying the debt of nature." It is not paying a debt ; it is like bringing a note to a bank to obtain for it gold and silver. You bring a cumbrous body which is worth nothing, and which you could not wish to retain long ; you lay it down, and receive for it, from the eternal treasures, liberty, victory, knowledge and rapture. — John Foster. To the good man, it is a matter of congratulation that life is fast passing away. What a superlatively grand and consoling idea is that of death ! Without this radiant idea — this delightful morning star, indi- cating that the luminary of eternity is going to rise, life would, to my view, darken into midnight melan- choly. Oh ! the expectation of living here and living thus always, would be indeed a prospect of over- whelming despair. But thanks to that fatal decree that dooms us to die; thanks to that gospel which opens the visions of an endless life; and thanks above all to that Savior friend who has promised to conduct the faithful through the sacred trance of death, into scenes of Paradise and everlasting de- light. — John Foster. A wise and due consideration of death, is neither to render us sad, melancholly, disconsolate, or unfit BOOK OF THOUGHT. 49 for the business and oflSces of life ; but on the con- trary, to make us more watchful, vigilant, industri- ous, sober, cheerful, and thankful to God, who has been pleased to make us serviceable to him, comfort- able to ourselves, and profitable to others ; and after all this, to remove the sting of death, through Jesus Christ our Lord. — iSir M. Sale. To neglect at any time, preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege ; to omit it in old age, is to sleep in the midst of an attack. — Johnson. " As from the wing no scar the sky retains, The parted wave no furrow from the keel, So dies in human hearts, the thought of death." We have the promises of God as thick as daisies in summer meadows, that death, which men most fear, shall be to us the most blessed of experiences, if we trust in Him. — H. Ward Beecher. Dr. Goodwin, when dying, said : " Is this dying ? Is this the enemy that dismayed me so long, now appearing so harmless, and even pleasant ?" It is by no means a fact, that death is the worst of all evils ; when it comes, it is an alleviation to mortals who are worn out with sufferings. 31etastasio. Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high. Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward here to die. ^ Shakspeare, (5) 50 BOOK OF THOUGHT. The death-bed of the devoted, resigned Christian, is a glorious, favored, and happy place. " The chamber where the good man meets his fate. Is privileged beyond the common walk of virtuous life, Quite on the verge of heaven." — B. B. Adams, 31.1). All that nature has prescribed must be good ; and as death is natural to us, it is absurdity to fear it. Fear loses its purpose when we are sure it can not preserve us, and we should draw resolution to escape it. — Steele. One may live as a conqueror, a king, or a magi- strate ; but he must die as a man. The bed of death brings every human being to his pure individuality ; to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most solemn of all relations, the relation between the creature and his Creator. Here it is that fame and renown can not assist us ; that all external things must fail to aid us ; that even friends, aflFection, and human love and devotedness, can not succor us. Webster. DEBT. Run not in debt. Be content to want things that are not of absolute necessity, rather than incur debt ; for you will pay in the end a third more than the principal, and be a perpetual slave to your creditors; live uncomfortably, frequently necessitated to in- crease your debts to stop the mouths of creditors ; and many times fall into desperate courses. mSir 31. Hale. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 61 Running in debt without a very reasonable pro- bability of paying, frequently brings corroding sor- rows. — Mrs. R. Morrell. John Randolpf said, "I have discovered the philosophers stone that turns everything into gold ; it is this : pay as you go." One of the earliest lessons of childhood and youth, should be, caution in contracting debts, and to live within their income. — Francis 31. Pitts. A load of accumulating debts weighs down the spirits of a man ; and he can no more enjoy inde- pendent thought and feeling, than "an empty sack can stand upright." — Todd. No man can borrow himself out of debt. If we wish for relief under embarrassed circumstances, we must work and economize for it. Lose not thy own for want of asking for it ; 'twill get thee no thanks. — Fuller. DECEIT. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice ! ShaJcsj)eare. DESPAIR. No man need despair, until he has lost his integ- rity, lost God's mercy, and consequently, all hope of heavenly bldfcedness. — Mrs. B. Morrell. 52 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Despair is the legitimate offspring of fear, laziness, and impatience. It argues defect of spirit and reso- lution. — Collier. In all your undertakings, let a reasonable assu- rance animate your endeavors ; for if you despair of success, you shall not succeed. — A. Campbell. I would not despair, unless I saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate, and signed and sealed by necessity. — Collier. A few years ago, a merchant having failed in business, one day came home in a fit of despair, ex- claiming, "I am ruined; I am beggared; I have lost my all." " All," said his wife, " I am left." "All, papa," said his eldest boy, "here am I." "And I too, papa," said his little girl, running to him and throwing her arms around his neck. " Me not lost, papa," said little Eddie. " And you have your health left," said his wife. " And your two strong hands to work with, papa," said the eldest, " and I can help you." " And your two feet, papa, to carry you about," said his little girl. " And your two eyes to see with, papa," said little Eddie. " And you have God's precious promises," said grand- mother. " And a good God," said his wife. " And a heaven to go to," said his little girl. "And Jesus to come and fetch us there, "said the eldest. " God forgive me," said the merchant, bursting into tears. " I have not lost my all. "What are the few thousands which I was so foolish asjft call my all, BOOK OF THOUGHT. 63 compared with these more precious things which God has left me?" And he clasped his family to his bosom, and kissed his wife and children with a thankful heart. Ah, no, there are many things more precious than gold and bank stocks, valuable as these may be in their proper place. When the Central America was foundered at sea, bags and purses of gold were strewn about the deck, as worthless as the merest rubbish. *' Life, life !" was the prayer. To some of the wretched survivors, " water, water!" was the prayer. "Bread, bread!" — ^it was worth its weight in gold, if gold could have purchased it. The loss of the greatest property should not cloud the mind with a sinful forgetfulness of the great blessings Avhich are left behind. — Child's Paper.] DIET — DIETING. In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eat about twice as much as nature requires. Franklin. Shun sumptuous meals, especially suppers, if you value good health, or dread sinful disease. Mrs. H. Ann Jones. The refined luxuries of the table, besides enervat- ing the body, poison that very pleasure they are intended ^plromote, for, by soliciting the appetite, 54 BOOK OF THOUGHT. they exclude the greatest pleasure of taste, that which arises from the gratification of hunger. Always to indulge our appetites is to extinguish them. — Universal Experience. Fashionable dieting destroys more lives than pes- tilence, famine and the sword. A little boy, whose mother had for dinner one day a pot pie, after having eaten very heartily of it, clamored for more. She assured him that he had eaten sufiiciently ; but he insisted on having more. Becoming vexed, she dashed upon his plate a con- siderable portion, saying, " There, eat your death !" The smoking, and chewing, and eating, and drink- ing of death, is wonderful to contemplate. Nature delights in the plainest and simplest diet. The inferior animals use but one dish ; consequently they have few diseases, and unless violently killed, commonly die of old age. Herbs are the food of one species, flesh of another, seeds or grain of another, and fish of a fourth ; but man, the reasoning being, falls foul upon every thing which comes into his way ; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth — scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him. The consequence is, that he is aflflicted with pains and aches, tetter and scrofula, sores and can- cers, rheumatism and gout, chills and fevers, and a thousand and one other disorders, requiring an ex- tensive library to record their names, iind describe their peculiarities and treatment; ai^Hbctors and ?s^na ]^Hb( BOOK OF THOUGHT. 55 doctresses enough to populate five hundred worlds like this, if all the rest of mankind were swept off by a flood, to keep the machinery in repair to devour all creation ! We have heard a story told of a lady who once dined at a table where there was, among a variety of dishes, that of bacon and greens. On being asked what she would prefer, she said " Some of the bacon and greens." She was, after a time, furnished with a clean plate, and the inquiry repeated as to her preference : she said, " Some more of the bacon and greens." Now, if this lady did not eat too much of this one dish, she, perhaps, dined much more wisely than any other person at the table. 3Ir8. H. N. Gutter. Food, improperly taken, not only produces origi- nal diseases, but affords those already engendered both matter and sustenance ; so that, let the father of disease be what it may, intemperance is certainly its mother. — Burton. DISCIPLINE. The teacher should acquaint his pupils, and the parent, his children, with the important requirements of his oflSce ; and they will honor and obey him in just proportion as he discharges those requirements well. ^ 56 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Pupils never honor nor obey a teacher, nor sons and daughters, a parent, who, habitually, makes any compromise of his own duties, as a disciplinarian. Forty years observation of a teacher. Discipline is the corner-stone of education. On it is founded the future character of the pupil, and from it is derived that elevation and tone which recommends him to the esteem of the virtuous, and the favorable attention of the wise. — Just so. Discipline commands the stubborn will, corrects the disposition of the mind, and subdues the passions ; it rescues the mind from debasing influence, and opens the way to eminence, in the possession of a manly, moral character. — Truth. Discipline is the antidote to idleness, and the great corrector of the vices in general. — JExperience. All that is excellent in education, has its source and spring in wise discipline. — That's so. The rod and reproof give wisdom ; but a child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame. — Qod. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest ; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. — Ciod. Had doting Priam checked his son's desire, Troy had been bright with fame, and not with fire. Shakspeare. No evil propensity of the human heart is so pow- erful that it may not be subdued by discipline. m^ Seneca, BOOK OF THOUGHT. 57 DISCUSSION". Whoever is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free discussion, is more in love with his own opinion than with truth. Bishop Watson. DOCILITY. A docile disposition will, with proper application, surmount every difficulty. — dianlius. DRUNKENNESS— TEMPERAI^CE— INTEM- PERANCE. Wine is a mocker ; strong dring is laging; and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise. — Solomon. Oh thou invincible spirit of wine ! if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil. Shakspeare. Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin, which, whosoever hath, hath not himself; which, whosoever doth commit, doth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin. St. Augustine. Drunkenness sinks its victim, in the sight of both God and thinking men, below the grade of moral, to that of bru^ beings. — Mn. R. A. Jones. 58 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Drunkenness strikes a blow, a deadly blow, at all the capacities and sensibilities of the mind. — Smith. Doubtless, drunkenness, more than most other vices, unfits the mind for the cultivation of any plant of virtue. — Jacob 31c Cord. Drunkenness renders the mind alike incapable of pious feelings, of social regard, and of domestic aiFections. — Miss A. G. J^. Morrell. The drunkard's appetite may be called a link, at least, which connects man to the brute creation. When a man flees to drunkenness for consolation, it is then that he completes his misery. B. B. Adams. M. B. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate habits can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters. — J. A. Sarrison. To resort to drunkenness for the ease of a troubled mind, is like attempting to cure melancholly with madness. — WorWs Laconics. Every high and noble principle, every heaven-born virtue, every pure aifection, becomes extinguished in the insane surrender of reason and character to drunkenness. — Mrs. S. iV. Cutter. No vices are so diflScult to cure, as those in which men are apt to glory. Drunkenness is a vice of this class. — Henry C. Smither. f^ BOOK OF THOUGHT. 59 The drunkard's mind becomes, at last, reconciled to its own degradation and prostration, and the in- fluence of just motives is no longer felt by it. D 3Iis8 Myrtilla Morrell. Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness, are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals, or manners. Franklin. In the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort ; cow- ardice for courage; bashfulness for confidence; sad- ness, for joy; the cold, for warmth; the warm for genial coolness; and all find ruin. — World's Laconics. One of the earliest visible effects of drunkenness is, a lessening of self-respect, a consciousness of per- sonal degradation, a conviction felt by its victim, that he has sunk, or is sinking from his proper rank, as an intellectual and moral being. B. B. Adams, M. B. Drunkards leave many tracks toward the lion's den, but alas there are few tracks markincr the re- turn of any. It is a danger from which very few ever make good their retreat. Oh that men should put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains ; that we should, with joy and gaiety, revel and applause, transform ourselves iifto beasts. — Shakspeare. 60 BOOK OF THOUGHT. All excess is ill ; but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind and un- man's men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad. He that is drunk is not a man, because he is, for so long, void of reason, which distinguishes a man from a beast. — Wm. Penn. The habit of using ardent spirits by men in public office, has produced more injury to the public service, and more trouble to me, than any other circumstance. Thomas Jefferson. T can not drink on equal terms with other men — it costs them only one day, but me three ; the first in sinning, the second in suffering, and the third in repenting. — Sterne. madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health. When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook. Milton. Temperance is a virtue without pride, and fortune unenvied, which gives its possessor vigor of frame, and tranquility of mind. It is the best guardian of youth, and support of old age ; the precept of high reason as well as religion, and the physician of the soul as well as the body; the tutelar goddess of health, and universal medicine of life. — Sir Wm. Temple. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 61 'Tis to thy rules, oh ! temperance, we owe, All pleasures that from health and strength can flow. Chandler. Temperance is indeed a bridle of gold ; and he who uses it rightly is more like a god than a man. Burton. Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the bairns, vigor in the body, intelligence in the brain, and spirit in the whole constitution. I>r. Franklin. Temperance, by fortifying the mind and body, leads to happiness ; intemperance, by enervating the mind and body, ends generally, in misery. Art of Thinking. Those who destroy a healthful constitution of body by intemperance, and an irregular life, do as mani- festly kill themselves, as those who hang, or poison, or drown themselves. — Sherlock. What 's a drunken man like? Like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman : one draught above heat makes him a fool ; the second mads him ; and a third drowns him. — Shakspeare. EARLY RISING. He who rises late may trot all day, and not be able to overtake his business at night. — Franklin. 62 BOOK OF THOUGHT. I never knew any man come to greatness and eminence, who lay in bed of a morning. — Swift. Few ever lived to a great age, and fewer yet ever became distinguished, who were not in the habit of early rising. — Todd. Early rising not only gives to us more life in the same number of years, but adds likewise to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of existence in the same measure of time, but in- creases also the measure. — Colton. EARNESTNESS— PERSEVERANCE. The grand secret of all success, is earnestness. Earnestness and truth commonly accompany each other. — Common Observation. There is no difficulty over which an iron will can not prevail. — Kossuth. There is no impossibility to him Who stands prepared to conquer every hazard ; The fearful are the failing. — S. J. Sale Were we asked what attribute of the mind most impressed the minds ot others, or most commanded fortune, our answer would be, " Earnestness.'" The earnest man commonly wins for himself a fair re- putation. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 63 Great works are performed, not by great strength, but by skillful management and perseverance. Observation. It is not because things are difficult that we dare not encounter them. — F. M. Pitts I can not do it, never accomplished any thing at all. I will try, has often wrought the greatest wonders. — Berkeley. Energy and perseverance will do any thing that can be done in this world, and no talents, no cir- cumstances, no opportunities, will make a two- legged animal a man without them. — Goethe. In whatsoever you engage, pursue it with a steadi- ness of purpose, as though you were determined to succeed. An enterprise, when fairly once begun, Should not be left till all that ought is won. Shakspeare. Demosthenes is an immortal instance of perseve- rance — the only virtue that is crowned. He is a complete illustration of Cicero's remark, " That an industrious perseverance can surmount almost any obstacle. — D. B. Adams, M. D. Perseverance is a Roman virtue. That wins each God-like act, and plucks success Even from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger. Harvard, 64 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Bj the force of his iron will — his earnestness — his perseverance, General Jackson achieved a suc- cession of splendid triumphs, unequalled in the his- tory of any other man of his generation. ECONOMY— PROFUSENESS. Economy is of itself a great revenue. Many men become rich by their sayings, rather than by their gains. — R. B. Cutter. The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. Not to oversee workmen is to leave your purse open. — Franklin. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds. Franhlin. Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease ; and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness, and health ; and profuseness is a cruel and crafty demon, that gradually involves her folloivers in dependence and debts; that is, fetters them with "irons that enter into their souls." Eawkesworth. A sound economy is a sound understanding brought into action. Profuseness can not be accurately told, though we are very sensible how destructive it is. Economy on the one hand, by which a certain in- BOOK OF THOUGHT. 65 come is made to maintain a man genteelly ; and profuseness on the other, by which, on the same in- come, another man lives shabbily, can not be defined. Johnson. Men talk in raptures of youth and beauty, wit and spi'ightliness; but after seven years of union, not one of them is to be compared to good family management. — Witherspoon. One dollar earned is worth ten borrowed, and a dollar saved is worth ten times its amount in useless notions. — Wm. T. Jones. No gain is so certain as that which arises from the economical use of what you have. From the Latin. He that buys what he does not need, will soon need what he can not buv. — Colton. EDUCATION— LEARNING— KNOWLEDGE- INSTRUCTION. Education begins with life. Before we are aware of it, the foundations of character are permanently laid, and subsequent teaching avails but little to remove or alter them. — Berkeley. Education consists in the formation of character. He that refuseth instruction, despiseth his own soul. — Solomon. (8) 66 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Correct education dissipates the myriad evils ' ignorance civilized life of ignorance, and distinguishes between savage and Undirected by virtue, knowledge is but the ser- vant of vice. Education is awakening a love for truth ; giving a just sense of duty ; opening the eyes of the blind to the great purpose and end of life. — Berkeley Without proper moral training, it is unsafe to give youth knowledge. " Knowledge is power," and knowledge without principle to regulate it, may make a man a powerful villain. — WorlcCs Laconics. All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of honesty and good nature. Montaigne. Duty is the only true basis of education ; virtue, usefulness, and happiness, its great ends. — Grimke. Unless the vessel be pure, whatever you put into it will turn sour. If the young mind be not duly prepared, all after instructions are thrown away Horace. The real object of education is to give children and youth resources that will endure as long as life ; habits that time will ameliorate, not destroy ; occu- pations that will render sickness tolerable, solitude pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and useful, and death less terrible. — Sidney Smith. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 67 The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and serve him, and to im- itate him as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls with true virtue. — Milton. In casting about for the means of opposing the sensual, selfish, and mercenary tendencies of our nature, and so elevating man, as to render it not chimerical to expect from him the safe ordering of his steps, no mere human agency can be com- pared with the resources laid up in the great treasure house of literature. — Ja. A. Millhouse. The largest property may be wrested from a child, but a virtuous education never. -« Harriet Newell Cutter. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. — Franklin. An industrious and virtuous education of children, is a better inheritence for them than a great estate. — Addison. Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. — Eve^'ett. Education is that process which developes and improves the powers of the soul and body. Mrs. H. N. Cutter. Learning is the only thing that can render old age cheerful, agreeable, and happy. 68 BOOK. OF THOUGHT. I call, therefore, a complete and generous educa- tion, that which fits a man to perform justly, skill- fully, and magnanimously, all the offices both private and public, of peace and \iar.— Milton. Learning, if rightly applied, makes a young prX son thoughtful, attentive, industrious, confident and wary; and an aged person cheerful, useful and happy. — Palmer. Learning is wealth to the poor, an honor to the rich, an aid to the young, and a support and com- fort to the old. — Berkeley. No state can be more destitute than that of a person, who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no mental pleasures. — Burgh. To proper education we may safely look for man's highest and most enduring joys, and for the per- manent elevation of the human race. Learning is a real ornament in prosperity, a real refuge in adversity, and a useful and innocent enter- tainment at all times ; it cheers in solitude and gives moderation and wisdom in all circumstances. Palmer. Mental pleasures, which are the result of correct eflucation, never cloy. Unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approved by re- flection, and strengthened by enjoyment. — Colton. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 69 Knowledge is real wealth ; an inheritance which no prodigality can dissipate ; a safeguard to our liberties, and a glory to our republic. The aim of education should be to teach rather Jioiv to think than what to think : rather to improve our minds* so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the mind with the thoughts of others. Beattie. Education is the only ladder by which mankind can ascend from barbarism to civilization ; from ignorance to knowledge ; from darkness to light ; from earth to heaven. — Samuel G. Croodrich. Civilization, which is the legitimate result of know- ledge and profound thought, can neither be appre- ciated nor enjoyed by the rude and unlettered. Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and education must finish him. Locke. We should spare no pains in teaching our children self-government. — Mrs. Hester Ann Jones. The man who knows no higher use of his mind than to invent and slave for his body, is but little above the brute. — Berkeley. Of all knowledge. The wise and good seek most to know themselves. Shakspeare. 70 BOOK OF THOUGHT. We all have two educations, one of which wo receive from others ; and the other, and the most valuable, which we give ourselves. It is this last which fixes our grade in society, and eventually, our actual condition in this life, and the color of our fate hereafter. All the professors and teachers in the world would not make you a wise or goodauan with- out your own co-operation. John Randol-ph to his Nepheiv. In the matter of education, knowledge is not suffi- cient. It is, indeed, power; but if unsanctified, power for evil as well as good. Knowledge did not teach Charlemagne to sacrifice his own desires to the happiness of any living creature. It did not make Augustus respect the life of Cicero, nor the pupil of Aristotle restrain his passions. Know- ledge, if undirected by virtue, is but the servant of vice, and therefore a dangerous thing. — BerheUy. The creator has so constituted the human intellect, that it can only grow and strengthen by its own ac- tion. The mind of every student should be imbued with the spirit of activity and liberal inquiry, so that he will gladly avail himself of every opportunity for self cultivation. — Daniel Webster. Base minded they that want intelligence. For God himself for wisdom most is praised. And men to God thereby are nighest raised. Spencer. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 71 He that would make real progress in knowledge, must dedicate his age as well as youth, the latter growth as well as the first fruits, at the altar of truth. — Berkeley. As every parent wishes his offspring to be, so it is. The minds of children are of so plastic a nature, that if they do not answer the hopes of the parent, it is in most instances, attributable to neglect, or defect of education. — Terrence. I attribute the little I know, to my not having been ashamed to ask for information. — Dr. Locke. The grand Sultan knows that despotism is founded on the blindness and weakness of the governed ; but that learning is light and power ; and that the powerful and enlightened make very troublesome slaves ; therefore he discourages learning. — Colton. If those who are striving and toiling for wealth for their children, would but take half the pains to secure for them a virtuous and liberal education, how much more rationally would they act. Mrs. B. MorrelL Do not press young children into book learning ; but teach them politeness, including the whole cir- cle of charities,which spring from the consciousness of what is due to their fellow beings. — Spurzheim. The study of mathematics cultivates the reason ; that of the languages, at the same time, the reason 72 BOOK OF THOUGHT. and the taste. The former gives power to the mind, the latter, both power and flexibility. The former, by itself, Avould prepare us for a state of certainties which no where exists ; the latter, for a state of pro- babilities, which is that of common life. Each, by itself, does but an imperfect work ; in the union of both, is the best discipline for the mind, and the best training for the world as it is. — Berkeley. A knowledge of the laws of our country, is highly useful, and even an essential part of a liberal and polite education. Learning is like mercury, one of the most power- ful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands ; in unskillful, the most mischievous. — Pope. A little learning is a dangerous thing ! Drink deep, or taste not the pierian spring : There, shallow drafts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. — Pope. A little smattering of learning tends to intoxicate the mind, without amounting to inspiration ; and is, therefore, a dangerous thing. The half learned are more dangerous than the simpleton. — Page. A little philosophy inclines men's minds to athe- ism ; but depth in philosophy brings men's minds to religion. — Lord Bacon. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 73 The education of our children is never out of my mind. Train them to virtue, habituate them to in- dustry, activity and spirit. Make them consider every vice as shameful and unmanly. Fire them with ambition to be useful. Make them disdain to be destitute of any useful knowledge. John Adams to his wife. We must educate the masses, or we must, as a government, perish by our own prosperity. Let the ignorant learn, and let the learned im- prove their recollection. — Miss Myrtilla Morrell. We hail the march of intellect, because we know, that cultivated reason, is the grand support of a religion that is pure and peaceable. As nothing is more mischievous than a man that is half intoxicated, so nothing is more dangerous than a mind that is half informed. Nothing is more turbulent and unmanageable than a half enlightened population. Nothing is more terrible than active ignorance. It is this semi-scientific description of intellect, which has organized those bold attacks, made upon Christianity. — Facts. I consider the human soul, without education, like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inher- ent beauties, till the skill of the polisher brings out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. — Spectator. (7) 74 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Education is the great light of the age, and to extinguish that light, would produce a darkness in the moral world, like that which the annihilation of the sun would make in the material world ; while every effort made to advance or promote it, is like remov- ing a dense cloud from the sky, and giving free pas- sage to the light which illumines all nature. — Everett. "When the light of knowledge irradiates the mind, by contrast we are enabled to realize our ignorance." Knowledge does not comprise all which is con- tained in the large term education. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions are to be restrained; true and worthy motives are to be inspired ; a pro- found religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. All this is comprised in education. — Webster. Promote, as an object of primary importance, insti- tutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it should be enlightened. Washington. ENVY. A man who has no virtue himself, ever envies the virtue of others ; for men's minds either feed upon their own good, or upon other's evils. — Lord Bacon, BOOK OF THOUGHT. 75 Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another's prosperity, like the scorpion confined within a circle of fire, will sting itself to death. Colton. Envy sets the strongest seal on desert. If a man have no enemies I should esteem his fortune most wretched. — Ben Johnson. If we did but know how little some enjoy of the great things that they possess, there would be but little envy in the world. — Young. Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level with themselves. — Franklin. Envy and cavil are the natural fruits of laziness and ignorance ; which is probably the reason, that in the heathen mythology, Momus is said to be the son of Nox, and Somnus of darkness and sleep. Addison. Men of noble birth are noted to be envious toward new men when they arise ; for the distance is altered ; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back. — Lord Bacon, Envy keeps all sorts of company, and wriggles itself into the liking of the most contrary natures and dispositions, and yet carries so much venom and 76 BOOK OF THOUGHT. poison with it, that it alienates the affections from heaven, and raises rebellion against God himself. Hence it is. worth our utmost care to watch it in all its disguises and approaches, that we may discover it in its first entrance, and dislodge it before it pro- cures a shelter or retiring place to lodge and conceal itself. — Clareiidon. Whatever depresses immoderate wishes, will, at the same time, set the heart free from the corrosion of envy, and exempt us from that vice, which is, above most others, tormenting to ourselves, hateful to the world, and productive of mean artifices and sordid projects. — Johnson. Envy is a weed that grows in all soils and cli- mates, and is no less luxuriant in the country, than in the court ; is not confined to any rank of men or extent of fortune, but rages in the breasts of all degrees. — Clarendon. If envy, like anger, did not burn itself in its own fire, and consume and destroy those persons it pos- sesses, before it can destroy those persons it wishes most to, it would set the world on fire, and leave the most excellent persons the most miserable. Lord Clarendon. Base envy withers at another's joy And hates the excellence it can not reach Thom'£8on. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 77 Envy is blind, and she has no other quality than that of detracting from virtue. — Levy. The Sicilian tyrants never devised a greater pun- ishment than envy is to him who is actuated by it. The praise of the envious is far less creditable than their censure ; they praise only that which they can surpass, but that which surpasses them, they censure. Colton. Envy flames highest against one of the same rank and condition. — Old Writer. If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities, &c.,) — I presume the self-love common to human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condi- tion. — Shenstone. It is envy's work to spy out blemishes that she may lower another by defeat. — 3Irs. H. Ann Jones, ETERNITY. Oh ! Eternity, eternity, how are our boldest and loftiest thoughts lost and overwhelmed in contem- plation of thee ! Who can set land-marks to bound thy dominions, or find plummets to fathom thy depths ! Mathematicians have figures to compute all 78' BOOK OF THOUGHT. the progression of time ; astronomers have instru- ments to calculate the distances of the heavenly bodies ; but what numbers can represent, what lines can measure the length of eternity ! " It is higher than heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell ; what canst thou know ? The measure thereof is longer than the earth ; and broader than the sea ! Mysterious, mighty existence ! A sum not to be lessened by the largest deductions ; an extent not to be contracted by all possible diminutions ! None can truly say, after the most prodigious lapse of ages, that so much of eternity is gone ! For, when my- riads of centuries are elapsed it is but commencing ; and when myriads more have run their ample round, it will be no nearer ending ! Serious thoughts of eternity are calculated to prompt us to make good use of our allotted time, and in a goodly measure to remove the sting of death. J). B. Adams, M. J). He that will often put eternity and the world before him, and who will dare to look steadfastly at both of them, will find that the oftener he contem- plates them, the former will grow greater, and the latter less. — Oolton. EVIL. The greatest curse that can befall a vile man is, to behold the beauty of virtue, and pine at having forsaken her paths, for the ways of evil. — Juvenal. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 7^ The course of evil Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, An infant's hand might stem the breach with clay; But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy, Aye, religion too, shall strive in vain To stem the headlong current. — Lacon. Our sins, like to our shadows, When our day is in its glory, scarce appear ; Towards our evening, how great and monstrous! Suckling. We never do evil so thoroughly and heartily as when lead to it by the convictions of an honest, but perverted, because mistaken conscience. T. Edwards. Fools suffer themselves to be tormented by the remembrance of past evils. — Cicero As there is a law of continuity, whereby in as- cending we can only mount step by step, so is there a law of continuity, whereby they who descend must sink, and that too with an ever increasing velocity. No propagation or multiplication is more rapid than that of evil, unless it be checked ; no growth more certain. " He who is in for a penny," to take another expression belonging to the same family, if he does not resolutely fly, *' will find he is in for a pound." — Great Truths. 80 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Seneca says, " The way to wickedness is through wickedness. The perpetration of one crime gener- ally leads to the commission of another." The per- petration of a smaller crime generally leads to the commission of a greater. " Many have puzzled themselves," says Mr. New- ton, " about the origin of evil ; I observe there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it; and with this I begin and end." EVIL SPEAKING. Never speak ill of any one, but far less in his absence, than in his presence. Nothing is more un- worthy of a man of honor than evil-speaking ; it is so far from maintaining peace among mankind, which ought to be the chief end of society, that it keeps a man in continual broils with the whole world. — Common observation. They who are always speaking ill of others, are also very apt to be doing ill to them. — Sharpe. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. James iv., 11. I thank and bless God that for the last fifteen years, I have not given any man's credit a thrust behind his back. — Robert Fleming BOOK OF THOUGHT. 81 FAITH. That state of mind in -which man is impressed with invisible things, is faith. It is the use of the mind and soul power, in distinction from the body power. — R. Ward Beecher. Faith lights us through the dark to Deity : Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death. Young. Faith is the only thing that can make its posses- sor willing to leave this world, for one which has never been visited by us. — Mrs. S. N. Cutter. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. — Heh. ii., 1. FALL OF NATIONS. In the youth of a State, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a State, learning; and then both of them together for a time ; in the declining age of a State, mechanical arts and merchandise. Bacon. There is the moral of all human tales ; 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First freedom, and then glory — when that fails, Wealth, vice, corruption — barbarism at last. And history with all her volumes vast. Hath but one page. — Byron. 82 BOOK OF THOUGHT. FILIAL DUTY. There is no other virtue "which adds so noble a charm to the finest traits of beauty, as that which exerts itself in watching over the tranquility of an aged parent. There are no tears that give so rich and sweet a luster to the cheek of innocence, as the tears of filial sorrow. — St. Julian. A NOBLE Instance. One of the Roman judges had given up to the Triumvir a woman of some rank, condemned for a capital crime, to be executed in the prison. He who had the charge of the execu- tion, in consideration of her birth, did not imme- diately put her to death. He concluded to avoid the severity of putting a woman of quality to a violent death, by withholding all sustenance, suppos- ing that, in a few days, she must perish. He sufiered her daughter to visit her daily, carefully searching her, however, as she entered, lest she should take with her any nourishment. A number of days having passed, the Triumvir began to wonder that the should live so long. Watching, therefore, what passed in the interview between them, he found, to his utter astonishment, that the life of the inother had been, all this time, sustained by the milk of the daughter, who every day gave her her breasts to suck. This being presented to the judges, procured a pardon for the mother. Nor was it thought sufficient to give, to so dutiful a child, the forfeited life of her condemned mother, but a pen- sion, for their support, was settled on them for life ; BOOK OF THOUGHT. 83 and the ground upon which the prison stood, was consecrated, and a temple built, to filial piety, upon it. Duty to parents is the first law of nature. Despise not thy mother when she is old. Proverbs xxiii., 22. The pious Hooker used to say that if he had no other motive for being religious, he would earnestly strive to be so for the sake of his aged mother, that he might requite her care of him, and cause the widow's heart to sing for joy. — Rev. John Allen. FORESIGHT. Accustom yourself to submit on all and every occasion, and on the most minute, no less than on the most important circumstances of life, to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat, and honor from repulse. — Colton. Every thing that looks to the future elevates human nature ; for never is life so low, or so little, as when occupied with the present. — Landon. 84 BOOK OF THOUGHT. FORGIVENESS. He that can not forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. — Lord Serhert. A more glorious victory can not be gained over another man, than this: that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours. Tillotson. A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury ; for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it. — Pope. It is hard for a haughty man ever to forgive one who has caught him in a fault, and whom he knows has reason to complain of him ; his resentment never subsides till he has regained the advantage lost, and found means to make the other do him equal wrong. Bmiyere. It is a good rule to admit of an easy reconcilia- tion with a person whose offence proceeds not from depravity of heart ; but when sure that it does thus proceed, to forego, for our own sake, all opportuni- ties of revenge ; to forget our enemies as far as pos- sible, and instead, call to remembrance, the more pleasing idea of our friends. There is a manner of forgiveness so divine, that we are ready to embrace the offender for having called it forth. — Lavater BOOK OF THOUGHT. 85 Kneel not to me : The power that I have on you, is to spare you ; The malice toward you, to forgive you ; live And deal with others better. — Shakspeure. FRANKNESS — CANDOR. The habitual practice of frankness gives trans- parency to the character, and luster to the whole life. And yet it is an exceedingly rare quality. Deception is verily the order of the day. It enters into all the affairs of life — into the workshop, the counting-room, the court room, and, in brief, every- where. As to business transactions, it enters so extensively into them, that modern traffic is looked upon as a huge practical lie. So uncommon, indeed, is candor, that those who exhibit it are seldom taken at their word. A striking example is on re- cord, of the famous Spanish General Spinola. When he passed through France, in 1604, he was invited to partake of the hospitality of Henry IV. The king asked him what plan of operations -against the Dutch, in his contemplated campaign, he had resolved upon. Spinola coolly and quietly explained the whole of his programme to the king. Henry, who was in the interest of the Dutch, immediately wrote to the Prince of Orange, communicating all that Spinola had stated. But at the same time he ad- vised the Prince to place no confidence in it, giving it as his opinion that Spinola would not, under the 86 BOOK OF THOUGHT. circumstances, have disclosed his really intended plans. But he had done so, and he fulfilled every word he had spoken, in the execution of the plans of his campaign! Spinola, when questioned as to his reasons for such a statement, replied that frankness is so rare, that he knew the treacherous king would not believe him. The comment which Henry made upon this, con- tains a valuable lesson. " Others" said he, " deceive me with falsehood, but Spinola has deceived me with the truth." Frankness is the sign and natural expression of that most noble quality, truth. — Means and Ends. FRIENDS — FRIENDSHIP. No other blessing of life is any way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thoughts and know- ledge, animates virtue and good resolutions, soothes ■and allays the passions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life. — Spectator. The various pleasant attachments formed among men are but shadows of that true friendship, of which the sincere affections of the heart are the sub- stance. — Burton. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 87 The qualities of your friends will be those of your enemies : cold friends, cold enemies ; half friends, half enemies ; fervid enemies, warm friends. Lavater. To be influenced by a passion for the same pursuits, and to have similar dislikes, is the rational ground- work of lasting friendship. — Sallust. We may be sure that he who, in private, tells us of our faults, is our friend, for he hazards our dislike and hatred. There are few men who can bear to be apprised of their faults; men almost universally delighting in self-praise, one of the universal weak- nesses of mankind. Of no worldly good can the enjoyment be perfect, unless it be shared by a friend. — Latin Proverb. Those who in the common course of the world will claim to be your friends ; or whom, according to the common notions of friendship, you may probably think such, will never tell you of your faults, still less of your weaknesses. But on the contrary, more desirous to make you their friend than prove them- selves yours, they will flatter both, and, in truth, not be sorry for either. — Chesterfield. A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and sincerity. Berkeley. S8 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Friendship improves happiness, and ahates misery, by doubling our joy, and dividing our grief. Addison. Those friends are weak and worthless, who will not use the privilege of friendship in admonishing their friends with freedom and confidence, as well of their errors as of their danger. — Bacon. True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost. — Colton. If you have a friend who loves you, who has studied your interest and happiness ; be sure to sustain him in his adversity. Essential honor must be in a friend, Not such as every breath fans to and fro; But born within, is its own judge and end, And dares not sin, tho' sure that none should know. Where friendship's spoke, honesty's understood; For none can be a friend who is not good. Cath. Philips. Truth is the only real, lasting foundation for friend- ship ; in all but truth there is a principle of decay and dissimulation. — Miss Edgworth.. The firmest friendships have been formed in mu- tual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flames. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 89 FUTURE STATE. There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence; and this takes the deepest root, and is the most dis- coverable, in the greatest geniuses and the most ex- alted souls. — Cicero. Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a Future State is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news ? If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man. — Addison. Heaven may have happiness as utterly unknown to us, as the gift of perfect vision would be to a man born blind. — Colton. GAMBLING. Gaming finds a man a cully, and leaves him a knave. — Tom Brown. It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game ; but it is impossible that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man. Lavater. There is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting pas- sions which naturally attend them ; and nothing (8) 90 BOOK OF THOUGHT. " sears a man's conscience as with a hot iron," so soon. — Steele. I look upon every man as a suicide from the mo- ment he takes the dice-box desperately into his hand, and all that follows in his career from that fatal hour, is only sharpening the dagger before he strikes it to his heart. — Cumberland. Gaming is the legitimate child of avarice, but the parent of prodigality. — Lacon. The gamester, if he dies a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, surrenders earth to forfeit heaven. — Colton. GENEROSITY. A NOBLE Instance. The English man of war, Eli- zabeth, would infallibly have been lost on the Florida Reefs, in the year 1746, had not Capt. Edwards ven- tured into Havana. War existed, and the port be- longed to the enemey. "I come," said the captain to the governor, " to deliver up my ship, my sailors, my soldiers, and myself into your hands; I only ask the lives of my men." "No," said the Spanish commander, " I will not be guilty of so dishonorable an action. Had we taken you in battle, in open sea, or upon our coasts, your ship would have been ours, and you would be our prisoners. But as you BOOK OF THOUGHT. 91 are driven by stress of weather, and are come hither for fear of being cast away, I do, and ought to forget that my nation is at war with yours. You are men and so are we ; you are in distress and have a right to our pity. You are at liberty to unload and refit your vessel ; and if you wish it, you may trade in this port, to pay your expenses ; you may then de- part with a pass to earry you safely beyond the Bermudas. If, after this, you are taken, you will be a legal prize ; but, at this moment, I see in Eng- lishmen, only strangers, for whom common human- ity claims oar assistance. One great reason why men practice generosity so little in the world is, their finding so little there. Generosity is catching ; and if so many escape it, it is in a great degree from the same reason that countrymen escape the small-pox, — because they meet with no one to give it to them. — Greville. GENIUS. Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellencies which are out of reach of the rules of art ; a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire. — Sir J. Reynolds. There is no distinguished genius altogether ex- empt from some infusion of madness. — Cicero. When a true genius appears in the world, you 92 BOOK OF THOUGHT. may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. — Swift. Secondary men, men of talents, may be mixed up, like an apothecary's prescription, of so many grains of one quality, and so many of another. But genius is one, individual, indivisible ; like a star, it dwells alone. — Anon. GENTLEMAN. Gentleman, is a very expressive word in our lan- guage, a word denoting an assemblage of many real virtues, and a union of manners at once pleasing, and commanding respect. — Charles Butler. The true gentleman is tender of the feelings of others — ever on his guard, lest he wound others un- intentionally, much less intentionally. Miss M. Morrell. He who is open, loyal, true ; of humane and affable demeanor ; honorable himself, and in his judgment of others, faithful to bis word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man — such a man is a true gentle- man. — Berkeley. To be a gentleman, is to be a Christian ; and to be a Christian is to possess all graces and excellen- cies. — D. B. Adams, M. D. A Christian is God Almighty's gentleman : a gen- BOOK OF THOUGHT. 93 tleman in the vulgar, superficial way of understand- ing the -word, is the Devil's Christian. — Hare. A gentleman is a Christian in spirit who will take a polish. The rest are but plated goods ; and how- ever excellent their fashion, rub them more or less, and the base metal appears through. — Walker. GOD. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- ness and truth. — Confession of Faith. In contemplation of created things. By steps we may ascend to God. — 3filton, There is a God — all nature speaks, Through earth, and air, and sea, and skies, See from the skies his glory breaks. When the first beams of morning rise. — Steele. Sing praise to God ! exalt his name ! Prepare his way, who marcheth in the desert; Extol him by his name Jahf And exult before him. The orphan's father, the widow's judge, — Is God exalted in holiness. — Herder. In all his dispensations, God is at work for our good. In prosperity he tries our gratitude ; in ad- versity, our contentment ; in misfortune, our submis- 94 BOOK OF THOUGHT. sion ; in darkness, our faith ; under temptation our steadfastness ; and at all times, our obedience and trust in him. — Redwood. I love, and have some reason to love, the earth ; She is my Maker's creature ; therefore good : She is my mother ; for she gave me birth ; She is my tender nurse, she gives me food; But what's a creature. Lord, compared with thee? Or what's my mother, or my nurse to me ? Quarles. God should have the same place in our hearts that he holds in the universe. — World's Laconics. Who guides below, and rules above, The great disposer, and the mighty King ; Than he none greater, next him none, That can be, is, or was ; Supreme he singly fills the throne. — Horace. What is there in man so worthy of honor and reverence as this, — that he is capable of contemplat- ing something higher than his own reason, more sublime than the whole universe ; that Spirit which alone is self-subsistent, from which all truth pro- ceeds, without which is no truth ? — Jacobi. Give me, Father, to thy throne access, Unshaken seat of endless happiness ! — Boethius. BOOK OF THOUaHT. 95 GOOD AND EVIL. Natural good is so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if I heard a voice from heaven pro- claim it, that God is on the side of virtue. He has learnt much, and has not lived in vain, who has practically discovered that most strict and necessary connection, that does, and will ever exist, between vice and misery, and virtue and happiness. — Colton. As there is much beast and some devil in man, so is there some angel and some God in him. The beast and the devil may be conquered, but in this life never destroyed. — *S'. T. Coleridge. It is a proof of our natural bias to evil, that gain is slower and harder than loss, in all thin";s good : but in all things bad, getting is quicker and easier than getting rid of. — Sare. The Rabbins note a principle of nature, that putre- faction is more dangerous before maturity than after, and another noteth a position in moral philosophy, that men abandoned to vice do not so much corrupt manners as those that are half good and half evil. Lord Bacon. Good and evil, we know, in the field of this world, grow up together almost inseparably : and the know- ledge of good is so involved and interwoven with the knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resem- 96 BOOK OF THOUGHT. blances hardly to be discerned, that those confused seeds which were imposed upon Psyche as an inces- sant labor to cull out and sort asunder, were not more itermixed. It was from out of the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. — Milton. GOOD. MANNERS— CIVILITY— PO- LITENESS. Good manners are the signs of inward qualities of the mind, founded on spontaneous modesty, self- denial, and due respect for others. Youth passes speedily away, beauty soon decays, but good manners are the charm of every period of life — the only external charm that time does not impair. — Berkeley. The scholar, without good breeding, is a pedant, the philosopher, a cynic ; the soldier, a brute ; and every man disagreeable. — Chesterfield. Good breeding is the art of showing others by external indications, the internal regard we have for them. — Cato. As charity covers a multitude of sins before God, so does politeness before men. — G-reville. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 97 "Politeness," says Witherspoon, " is real kindness kindlj expressed." A man's own good breeding is his best security against other people's ill manners. — Chesterfield. Defect in manners is usually defect of fine per- ceptions. — Emerson. Manners are the outward expression of the inter- nal character. Harmony of being makes harmony of expression. It is the undeveloped and discord- ant who are crude and awkard in their mannera Book of Politeness. Unbecoming forwardness oftener proceeds from ignorance than impudence. — Q-reville. The manner of saying or doing a thing goeg a great way in the value of the thing itself. — Lacon. There is no policy like politeness ; and a good man- ner is the best thing in the world, either to get a good name, or to supply the want of it. — Bulwer. Nothing costs less, and nothing purchases so much, as a kind, respectful, courteous and agreeable treat- ment of others. Good manners are merely the outward expression o" good sense, good feelings, and good morals. Whistling, humming a tune, or drumming with the fingers or feet, in company, is great impoliteness. Chesterfield. 98 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Pride, ill-nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill-manners. — Swift. The external grace and manners commonly cor- respond to the internal beauty of mind and heart. Book of Manners. Next to the consciousness of doing a good action, that of doing a civil one is most pleasing. Scott's Lessons. The manners of a people are of much greater im- portance than their laws. Upon them the laws de- pend. The law touches but here and there, now and then; manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarise or refine us, by a steady, constant, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. Our manners give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them. — Burke. Virtue itself offends, when coupled with forbid- ding manners. — Bishop Middleton. Undeviating civility to those of inferior stations, and courtesy to all, are the emanations of a well edu- cated mind, and finely balanced feelings. — Sigourney. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 99 GOSSIPING. There is a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time. — Sheridan. If your mind be not employed on higher and more holy objects, you are sure to gossip about your friends and neighbors. — Home. The gossip volunteers to supervise all the sins, follies, and shortcomings of all their neighbors and acquaintance. Fall into the company of a gossip when you will, and you may hear the latest news of every family in the neighborhood. — Means and Ends. Gossiping destroys much heaven-bestowed social happiness. It is strange that so many women should so dishonor God's precious gift of the tongue, (a gift somewhat lavished on them,) should so squander their God-given moments, and so poison social life. Means and Ends. What would you think of a person who should go about collecting for exhibition samples of the warts, wens, cancers, and sores, with which his fellow mor- tals are afflicted. And yet, would not his avocation be more honorable, more humane, at least, than the gossip mongers ? — Means and Ends. Many whole families, as well as many Individuals, make themselves common sewers, through which all 100 BOOK OF THOUGHT. the follies, foibles, shortcomings, and sins of the entire neighborhood run. Thousands of men and women there are, who so engross their time in contemplating and publishing the faults of others, that they never have time to consider their own faults. — H. Ann Jones. GRATITUDE — INGRATITUDE. If there be a crime Of deeper dye than all the guilty train Of human vices, 'tis ingratitude. — Brooke. Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man. — Pope. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. When any mercy falls, he says, " yes, but it ought to be more. It is only manna, as large as corriander seed, whereas it ought to be like a baker's loaf." How base a pool God's mercies fall into, when they splash down into such a heart as that ! — S. Ward Beecher. Gratitude is the homage the heart renders to God for his great goodness and mercy. Christian cheer- fulness is the external manifestation of that homage. He that calls a man ungrateful, sums up all the evil that a man can be guilty of. — Swift. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 101 It is a species of agreeable servitude, to be under obligation to those we esteem. — Queen Christiana. He who receives a good turn should never forget it ; he who does one, should never remember it. Charron. Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man. — Ausonius. If you say he is ungrateful, you can impute to him no more detestable act. — From the Latin. HAPPINESS. Know then this truth, enough for man to know, Virtue alone is happiness below. — Pope. If happiness has not her seat and center in the breast, We may be wise, or rich, or great, but never can be blessed. — Burns. Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere ; 'Tis no where to be found, or everywhere. — Pope. The surest means of augmenting our own happi- ness, is by contributing systematically to that of our fellow creatures. — Mrs. R. 3IorreU. All happiness of man is derived from discovering, applying, or obeying the laws of his Creator; and all his misery is the result of ignorance and diso- bedience. — Wayland. 102 ^ BOOK OF THOUGHT. Knowledge or wealth to few are given, But mark how just the ways of heaven, True joj to all is free. — Michle. Mankind are always happier for having been happy ; so that if you make them happy now, you make them happy many years hence, by the memory of it. — Sidney Smith. The means immutable of happiness, Or in the vale of life, or on the throne, Is virtue. — Murphy. Men live best on little — nature has granted to all to be happy, if the use of her gifts were but known. Claudian. To communicate happiness is worthy the ambition of beings superior to man. — Langhorne. There is very little pleasure or happiness in the world that is true, sincere, and lasting, except that of good offices to our fellow mortals. The chief secret of comfort and happiness, lies in not suffering trifles to vex us, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great onc^s, alas ! are let on long leases. Sharpe. If sensuality be our only happiness, we ought to envy the brutes ; for instinct is a surer, shorter, and safer guide to such happiness than reason. Colton. BOOK OF THOUOHT. 103 Noah and his family were saved by obedience, Pharaoh and his host perished for disobedience. B. B. Cutler. Happiness is much less valued when we possess it, than when we have lost it. — Experience. A very few men say I was happy ; the most say I shall he happy ; very few say I am happy. That's so. When we are free from pain, sickness, and abso- lute want, no external change of circumstances can make us more happy. To ignorance of this truth, is justly to be attributed that universal dissatisfac- tion of mankind. Happiness is that single and glorious thing which is the very light and sun of the whole animated uni- verse ; and where she is not, it were better that nothing should be. — Lacon. HISTORY. History is not only a valuable part of fducation, but it opens the door to most other parts of knowl- edge, and furnishes materials for the sciences gener- ally. "Indeed, most of what is termed erudition, is but an acquaintance with historical facts." A man well acquainted with history, may be said to have lived from the very beginning of letters, 104 BOOK OF THOUGHT. and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge. — Mrs. H. N. Cutter. The historian sees all the hnman race, from the infancy of time, pass, as it were, in review before him, and that in their true colors. This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved ex- pressions and base actions. — Tacitus. HOME. Home is, to a well-ordered mind, more attractive than any other place. — D. B, Adams, M. D. The strength of a republican government, is in the well-ordered, comfortable homes of the people. Sigourney. What a man is at home, that he is indeed ; if not to the world, yet to his own conscience and to God. Phili'p. Withdraw thy feet from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee. — Prov. 25 : 17. The first sure symptoms of a mind in health, Is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home. Young. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 105 As a bird that ■wandercth from his nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. — Prov. 27: 8. Home, the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. Montgomeri/. Home is the place of harmony and peace. The spot where angels find a resting place, When, bearing blessings, they descend to earth. S. J. Hale. Much as we may delight in other things, or all other things, we gladly turn from them all, to seek the deep, pure joys of home. — 31r8. S. iV. Cutter. Home can never be transferred, — never repeated in the experience of any. The place consecrated by paternal love ; by the innocence and the sports of childhood ; and by the first acquaintance of the heart with nature, is the only true home. The world has a million of roosts for us, but only one nest — home. — 0. H. Holmes. After all, home — "sweet home," is the place for comfort, if the affections of the heart center there. Mm A. G. N. Morrell. Any feeling that takes a man away from his home, is a traitor to the household. — H. Ward BeecJier. Home is the magic circle within which the weary spirit finds refuge ; it is the sacred asylum to which the 106 BOOK OF THOUGHT. care-worn heart retreats to find rest from the toils and inquietudes of life. — Home Memories, Home is the place of confidence, and refuge from the stormy ocean of life. — Mrs. R. Morrell. At length his lonely cot appears in view, Beneath the shelter of an aged tree ; Th' expectant wee things, todlin, stacher thro !Co meet their dad, with flichterin noise an glee. His wee bit ingle blinkin bonily, His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile, And makes him quite forget his labor and his toil. Burns. HOME POLITENESS. Surely family politeness strengthens and brightens all the ties of social afiiection in the family. The husband who observes the courtesies of polite- ness toward his lady acquaintances, but is in the habit of speaking abruptly to his wife, is a filthy hypocrite. Husbands there are, not a few, who will listen with due deference to any thing a lady ac- quaintance, or even a lady stranger, may please to say ; but if the poor wife draw upon his attention, a small draft, she is heard with manifest impatience, or snubbed outright. Does she urge some reasonable request? " Oh," cries her petty lord and master, BOOK OF THOUGHT. 107 " don't bother me." A lady acquaintance calls upon, him •with a request that John take her a buggy ride to Mr. so and so's. " Oh ! with great pleasure, madam. John put the new harness on dobin, hitch him to the buggy and be at the service of this lady." John must go, even if he is the milkman, and the cows go unmilked this evening. Any thing an impolite husband wishes his wife to do, he orders her to do it. " Look here, I want you to do so and so, just see that its done ;" and away marches my lord, having a hypocritical bow and sweet looks for every casual acquaintance he may chance to meet. He accidentally treads on the toe of a lady acquaintance, — " I beg pardon, madam," just as readily as if it came naturally. Let him tread on his wife's toe, however, and if she cry with pain, all her comfort is, "keep your toes out of my road." — H. Ann Jones. Depend upon it, kind words and little kind attentions keep the flame of family affection burning brightly. " The children grow up in a better moral atmosphere, and learn to respect their parents, as they see them respect each other. Many a boy becomes saucy and disobedient to his mother, because he so frequently sees the rudeness of his father toward her. He in- sensibly imbibes the same habits, and the thoughts and feelings they engender, and in his turn becomes the petty tyrant. Only his mother, why should he be polite to her ? " Father never is,." Thus it is seen 108 BOOK OF THOUGHT. how home — " sweet home," becomes the seat of dis- cord and unhappiness. Not to be chargeable with partiality ; we think it looks even worse for a wife to be guilty of such coarse impoliteness, than for the " rough pebble."— ilt/r8. E. N. Cutter. We would, any time, join an excursion of a hun- dred miles, and we should think any respectable railroad company would carry us at half fire, to visit a family, the father of which politely requests his wife to do so and so, and the wife heartily answers : " your pleasure my dear." The wife requests the husband to grant so and so, and with polite atten- tion he answers : " Yes, with pleasure my dear." The father requests the son to do so and so. " With strict fidelity, father." The mother requests the daughter to do so and so. " Your pleasure is my delight, mothei." The brother requests the sister to do so and so. " I am happy to serve you, my dear brother." One, by a little awkwardness disconcerts another, he heartily begs pardon. " It is granted, dear sister, brother" — as the case may be, — " I know you did not intend it." HOPE. Hope, of all passions, most befriends us here ; Passions of prouder name befriend us less. Toung. The miserable hath no other medicine, Bu^ only hope, — ShaJcspeare. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 109 Hope awakens courage, while despondency is the last of evils ; it is the abandonment of good, the giving up of the battle of life. — Von Kneble. We are never beneath hope, while above hell ; nor above hope, while beneath heaven. World's Laconics. True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings, Kings it makes Gods, and meaner creatures kings, Shakspeare. Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior — Shenstone. White as a white sail on a dusky sea, When half the horizon's clouded and half free. Fluttering between the dun wave and the sky, Is Hope's last gleam in man's extremity. £i/ron. Hope ! of all ills that men endure. The only cheap and universal cure ! Thou captives freedom, and thou sick man's healthi Thou lover's victory, and thou beggar's wealth. Cowley/. Her precious pearl, in sorrow's cup, Unmelted at the bottom lay. To shine again, when, all drank up. The bitterness should pass away. — Moore. 110 BOOK OF THOUGHT. HUMAN PROGRESS— REFORM. Thoughts are first clouds, then rain, then harvests and food. The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. Men are called fools, in one age, for not knowing what they were called fools for averring in the age before. We should so live and labor in our time that what came to us as seed may go to the next generation as blossom, and that which came to us as blossom may go to them as fruit. This is what we mean by progress. Henry Ward BeecJier. The true test of a great man — that at least which must secure his place among the higest order of great men — is his having been in advance of his age. This decides whether or not he has carried forward the grand plan of human improvement ; has con- formed his views and adapted his conduct to the existing circumstances of society, or changed those so as to better its condition; has been one of the lights of the world, or only reflected the rays of former luminaries ; and sat at the same twi-light or the same dawn. — Brougham. Reform is the great secret of our nation's prosper- ity ; and every effort to paralyize its progress, is a clog to its wheels. — T. Henry Davis, 31. D. He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impo- tent patriots. — Lavater. BOOK OF THOUGHT. Ill Analogy, although it is not infiillible, is yet that telescope of the mind by which it is marvelously as- sisted in the discovery of both physical and moral truth. Analogy has much in store for men, but babes require milk, and there may be intellectual food which the present state of society is not fit to partake of; to lay such before it, would be as absurd as to give a quadrant to an Indian, or a loom to a Hottentot. — Colton. The present is generally styled the age of reform; this we do not feel disposed to controvert. It can not, however, be denied, that mankind are wholly deficient in the greatest of all reforms — individual reform. Societies for the reformation of others are multiplied almost ad infinitum; but efforts for personal reformation are much neglected. Editors univer- sally complain of the corrupt state of the press, and yet most of them aid in the perpetuation of that corruption. Infidels, as well as Christians, mourn, or profess to mourn, over the evils of society ; while those evils are augmented by their own wrong doings. Reformers must take an entirely different course — first reform themselves, and then their in- fluence will be felt with a hundred-fold more force on others. " Man know thyself : all wisdom centers there." So said the profound, though poetical writer, Young. And until this wisdom is acquired, and ex- hibited in life, no thorough reform can take place in the world. — T. Harrison. 112 BOOK OF THOUGHT. The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he his to-day. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone. — Colton. HUMILITY. Sense shines with a double lustre when set in humility. An able and yet humble man, is a jewel worth a kingdom. — TF/n. Penn. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life. — God. Our humiliations work out our most exalted joys. S^. Ward Beecher. Humility that low, sweet root, From which all heavenly virtues shoot. — Moore. The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient. — St. Augustine. HYPOCRISY. If the Devil ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites ; they are the greatest dupes he has ; they serve him better than any others, and receive no wages ; nay, what is still more extraordinary, they submit to greater mortifications to go to hell, than the sincerest Christian to go to heaven. — Colton. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 113 'Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts, Or carry smiles and sunshine in my face, When discontent sits heavy on my heart. Addison. Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul, To counsel me to make my peace with God, And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind, That thou wilt war with God. — Shakspeare. I, under fair pretence of friendly ends. And well placed words of glossy courtesy Baited with reason not unplausible. Wind me into the easy-hearted man, And hug him into snares. — Milton. Though I do hate him as I do Hell pains, Yet, for necessity of present lift, I must show out a flag and sign of love, Which is indeed but sign. — Shakspeare. IMITATION. I hardly know so true a mark of a little mind, as the servile imitation of others. — Greville. He who is always in want of something, can not be very rich. 'Tis a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions, and actions of others. — Lavater. (10) 114 BOOK OF THOUGHT. It is certain that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another ; therefore, let men take heed of their com- pany. — Shakspeare. IMMORTALITY. I feel my immortality o'ersweep All pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peal into my ears this truth — thou liv'st forever ? — Byron Cold in the dust this perished heart may lie. But that which warmed it once shall never die. Campbell. A few days may — a few years must^ — Repose us in the silent dust. The voice of nature loudly cries, And many a message from the skies, That something in us never dies ; That on this frail, uncertain state. Hang matters of eternal weight ; That future life in worlds unknown Must take its hue from this alone ; Whether as heavenly glory bright, Or dark as misery's woful night.—Jiobt. Burns. The good man, on viewing the dead, is not alarmed at the express declaration of God, " Thou shalt surely die." But he reflects that the Lord shall deliver me also into the hands of death. And when BOOK OF THOUGHT. 115 I am dead, I shall have no use for the embalmer's art: my works of faith, labors of love, and the robe of Christ's righteousness, shall be my spices and per- fumes. Enwrapped in these, I will lay me quietly down, and sleep sweetly in the blessed Jesus ; in full confidence that God will some day, " give command- ment concerning my bones,'' and one day raise them from the dust, as silver from the furnace, purified, I say not, seven times, but seventy times seven. Is it credible, is it possible, is it probable that the mighty soul of a Newton should share exactly the same fate with the vilest insect that crawls upon the ground ? That, after having laid open the mysteries of nature, and pushed its discoveries almost to the very boundaries of the universe, it should suddenly have all its lights at once extinguished, and sink into everlasting darkness and insensibility ? — Spectator. A belief in the immortality of the soul furnishes the best and surest alleviation of all the ills of this mortal life, which are both universal and perpetual. This is the only possible remedy for them. Hence, unless we adopt the incredible absurdity, that error strengthens our virtue, improves our morality, in- creases our bliss, and mitigates our sorrows, we are brought inevitably to the conclusion that it is not error to believe in the immortality of the soul. Judge McDonald. 116 BOOK OF THOUGHT. INFIDELITY. "Disbelief in a future state," says Hume, "loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that reason, to be pernicious to the peace of civil society." D'Alembert and Condorcet, one day dining with Voltaire, proposed to converse of atheism, but Vol- taire stopped them at once. "Wait," said he, "till my servants have withdrawn ; I do not wish to have my throat cut to-night." A town missionary, in Birmingham, attended a misguided infidel on his death-bed, and the system of Socialism being referred to, the dying man ex- claimed, " call it not Socialism ; call it devilism ! for it has made me more like a devil than a man. I got into company which led me to Socialism and to drinking. I rejected the Bible, denied the Savior, and persuaded myself that there was no hereafter ; and as the result, I acted the part of a bad father, and a bad husband. I have the testimony of my master that I was a steady and respectable man until I listened to the Owenites; but, since that time, I have become a vagabond, and those who formerly knew me have shunned me in the streets. The sys- tem of the Owenite is worse than that of Paine." Dr. Nelson, of Illinois, in his work on infidelity, gays, that for many years he had endeavored to per- suade every infidel to read some work on the evi- BOOK OF THOUGHrr 117 dences of Christianity, and never knew but two instances fail of conviction, and in these he did not know the result for want of opportunity. That infidelity which can persuade a man that he will die like a brute, will also make him live like a brute. — South. An infidel in Western New York desired that a certain pastor of a church should read one of his books. The pastor consented to do so on the condi- tion that the infidel would read one of his in turn, which was " Leslie 8 Short Method with Deists J' It was the means, under God, of his hopeful conversion ; and of the many whose minds he had poisoned, he was the instrument of bringing back ten or twelve to the knowledge of the truth. When Dr. Johnson was asked why so many lite- rary men were infidels, he replied, "because they are ignorant of the Bible." INTEGRITY. In all things preserve integrity ; and the con- sciousness of thine own uprightness will alleviate the toil of business, soften the hardness of ill success and disappointments, and give thee an humble con- fidence before God, when the ingratitude of man, or the iniquity of the times, may rob thee of other reward. — Paley 118 Book of thought. Integrity is a stilling virtue, which is not likely ever to lose any of its lustre, by becoming too com- mon among men. JEALOUSY. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong, As proofs of holy writ. — ShaJcspeare. To be jealous, is to torment yourself, for fear you should be tormented by another. jealousy, Thou vilest fiend of hell ! thy deadly venom Preys on my vitals, turns the healthful hue Of my fresh cheek to haggard sallowness. And drinks my spirit up ! — Hannah Moore. JUDGMENT. Frame every action and plan of your whole life, with reference to the unchanging decisions of the day of judgment. — Roht. B. Cutter. Moral character will be the only mark of distinc- tion at the judgment seat of Christ. All outward distinctions will there be totally abolished. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 119 JUSTICE. The only way to make the mass of mankind see the beauty of justice, is, by showing them in pretty plain terms, the consequence of injustice. Sidney Smith. Justice is as strictly due between neighboring na- tions, as between neighbor citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when single ; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang of robbers. — Franklin. Courteously grant to others more than strict jus- tice demands of you. — Mrs. H. Morrell. Let a sense of justice be the foundation of all your social qualities. — Scott's Lessons. Philip, king of Macedon, having drunk too much wine, determined a cause unjustly, to the hurt of a poor widow, who on hearing his decree, cried out, "I appeal to Philip sober." The king, struck with this strange appeal, and the confiding manner of the poor woman, speedily recovered his senses, reheard the cause, and, finding his mistake, ordered her to be paid out of his own purse, double the sum she was to have lost. This is an example of justice worthy to be copied. Justice is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civi- lized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a founda- 120 BOOK OF THOUGHT. tion for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. And who- ever labors on this edifice with usefulness and dis- tinction, whoever clears its foundations, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, con- nects himself in name, and fame and character, with that which is and must be as durable as the frame of human society. — Webster. If strict justice be not the rudder of all our other virtues, the faster we sail, the further shall we find ourselves from "that haven where we would be." Colton. KIND WORDS. Kind words are the brightest flowers that bloom in this vale of sorrow. They make a paradise of the humblest home. They are jewels beyond all price, and more precious and efiectual to heal the wounded heart, and raise the weighed down spirit, than all other blessings this world can bestow. 31is8 A. Q. N. Morrell. A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain. It is seed which, even when dropped by chance, springs up a flower. — D. B. Adams. More hearts pine away in secret anguish, for un- kindness from those who should be their comforters, than for any other calamity in life. — Young. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 121 A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track — but one inch between wreck and smooth rolling prosperity. S. Ward BeecJier. Deal gently with those who stray from the paths of rectitude. A kiss or a kind word will do more toward reclaiming the poor wanderer, than a thousand kicks. LABOR, INDUSTRY, IDLENESS, LAZINESS, SLOTH. Physical labor conduces to physical health, moral purity, and mental power. — R. B. Cutter. Moderate exercise and toil, so far from injuring, strengthens and consolidates the body. — Br. Rush. Labor, though the primeval curse, is softened into mercy. As nothing truly valuable can be had without in- dustry, every young person should carefully culti- vate industrious habits. — Mrs. R. Morrell. Nothing is denied to well-directed labor ; nothing valuable is ever to be attained without it. Sir J, Reynolds. Think not a life of labor hard. Health is its rich and sure reward. (11) 122 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. — Franklin. Industry conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay contribution. — Clarendon. At the working-man's house hunger looks in, but dare not enter ; nor will the bailiff or the constable enter: for industry pays debts, while despair in- creases them. — Franklin. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the key often used is always bright. Franklin. Troubles spring from idleness, and grievous toils from needless ease. — Franklin. Labor, intelligent, manly, independent, thinking and acting for itself, earning its own wages, accumu- lating those wages into capital, educating chilhood, maintaining religious worship, claiming the right of the elective franchise, and helping to uphold the great fabric of the state — that is American labor ; and all my sympathies are with it ; and my voice, till I am dumb, will be for it. — Webster. Diligence in employments of less consequence is the most successful introduction to greater enter- prises. — Todd. There are many miseries in idleness which none but the idler can conceive of. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 123 Industrious wisdom often does prevent What lazy folly thinks inevitable. Abdicated Prince. From labor health, from health contentment springs ; Contentment opes the source of every joy. — Beattie. Idleness is the hotbed of temptation, the cradle of disease, the waster of time, the canker-worm of felicity. Laziness grows on people ; it begins in cobwebs, and ends in iron chains. The laboring man of enlightened mind, is the American gentleman; the intelligent working woman is the American lady. — Mrs. R. Morrell. There is nothing menial in the performance of any necessary labor. The noblest man on earth is he who, with an enlighted mind, puts his hands cheerfully and proudly to honest labor. D. B. Adams. When the proud, the rich, the idle, would see an intelligent, cheerful, honest laborer, they must look Wj9, however much they may affect to look down. The person who is ashamed to be seen at useful labor, has a strange perveision of mind. Angelina Cr. -/\r. Morrell. Two words will make any young man of sound intellect a lawyer — industry and application; and 124 BOOK OF THOUGHT. the same words with a third — economy — will enable him to make a fortune. — Henry Clay. Human enjoyments are only to be secured by human labor. — Roh. Chambers. For slu^rgard's brow the laurel never grows ; Renown is not the child of indolent repose. Thompson. Lazy rich girls make rich men poor, and indus- trious poor girls make poor men rich. — Anonymous. Ten thousand harms more than the ills we know, Our idleness doth hatch. — Shakspeare. By nature's law immutable and just, Enjoyment stops where indolence begins. — PollocTc. Providence has put care and labor on us, because blessings too easily enjoyed are soon neglected, if not despised. — Virgil. All labor of mind required of children before the seventh year, is rather in opposition to the laws of nature ; and proves injurious to the physical organ- ization, and prevents its proper and mature develop- ment. — Huf eland. Each day brings its appropriate work, and happy is he who loves his duty well enough to welcome it. World's Lacon. A man should labor to better his condition, but first he should labor to better himself. " Seek ye BOOK OF THOUGHT. 125 first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Strong arms and willing hands for labor, directed by an enlightened mind, is a beautiful thing to con- template. — Heater Ann Jones. Industry is not only the instrument of improve- ment, but the foundation of pleasure. Scotfa Lessons. Though indolence appear a slowly-flowing stream, yet it undermines all that is stable and flourishing. Blair. Industry keeps the soul in constant good health ; but idleness corrupts and rusts the mind. — Smither. No lazy person will ever inherit eternal life, for it is attained by toil. — Di: D. B. Adams. Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. — Franklin. One to-day is worth two to-morrows, as poor Rich- ai'd says ; and further, never leave that till to-mor- row which you can do to-day. — Franklin. What is lost by idleness is estimated higher than the money expended. — B. B. Gutter. When the devil has any odd job to do, he always looks about for some idler to do it. — One who has occasionally performed some of those odd jobs. 126 BOOK OF THOUGHT. When a great crime has been committed, espe- cially in a city, we have observed that the police look among the idle and the dissolute for the perpe- trator. — F. 31. Pitts. The way to wealth is as plain as the way to mar- ket. It depends chiefly on two words — Industry and Frugality : that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best nse of both. Without Industry and Frugality nothing will do, and with them every thing. — Franklin . Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. — Cowper. Evil thoughts intrude in an unemployed mind, as naturally as worms are generated in a stagnant pool. — From the Latin. Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind; and hence arises the happiness of the poor. La Rochefoucauld. Come hither, ye that press your beds of down, And sleep not : see him sweating o'er his bread Before he eats it. — 'Tis the primeval curse, But softened into mercy ; made the pledge Of cheerful days and nights without a groan Cotvper. I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is eflBciently destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive. — Chesterfield. BOOK OP THOUGHT. 127 LIBERTY— FREEDOM. Partisans have their liberty circumscribed by their platform ; and are, in very deed, much greater slaves than any one else would wish to make them. Oh ! give me liberty ! For even were Paradise my prison, Still I should long to leap the crystal walls. Dryden. He is a freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside. — Cowper. Liberty consists in being master of one's own time and actions, consistently with the laws of God and our country. So fond is man of liberty, that to restrain him from any thing, however indiflferent, makes it an object of desire. — Observation. Liberty is the soul's right to breathe, and when it can not take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope. H. Ward Beeeher. The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself th' inferior gift of heaven. Dryden. The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues. The savage makes his boast of free- 128 BOOK OF THOUGHT. dom. But what is it worth ? Free as he is, he con- tinues for ages in the same ignorance, leads the same comfortless life, sees the same untamed wilder- ness spread around him. — Charming. The wish — ^which ages have not yet suhdued In man — to have no master save his mood. Byron. O liberty, thou goddess, heavenly bright, Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight. Addison. Who then is free ? The wise, who well maintains An empire o'er himself; whom neither chains, Nor want, nor death, with slavish fear inspire ; Who boldly answers to his warm desire ; Who can ambition's vainest gifts despise; Firm in himself, who on himself relies ; Polish'd and round, who runs his proper course, And breaks misfortune with superior force. — Horace. LIFE. This little life has duties that are great — that are alone great, and that go up to heaven and down to hell. — Carlyle. Human life is too short to suflfer any part thereof to run to waste, or to be used to disadvantage. Life is short yet tedious ; spent in wishes, schemes, and desires. — Bruyere. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 129 The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on. — Pope. The time of life is short, To spend that shortness basely, 'twere too long. Shakspeare. All life is expenditure : we have it, but as continu- ally losing it ; we have the use of it, but as continu- ally wasting it. — John Foster. For what is your life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James. If we calculate the time of life for seventy years, and take from it the time of our infancy, plus the time of our childhood, plus the time of sleep and recreation, plus the time of eating and drinking, plus the time of sickness and old age ; but a small por- tion remains for service. — Fuller. We bring into the world with us, a poor, needy, uncertain life, short at the longest, and unquiet at the best. — Sir W. Temple. While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone ; and death, though perhaps they receive him differently, yet treats alike the fool and the philoso- pher. — Hume. He lives long who lives well ; and time misspent is not lived, but lost. — Fuller. Measure life by man's desires, he can not live 130 BOOK OF THOUGHT. long enough ; measure by his good deeds, and he has not lived long enough; measure by his evil deeds, and he has lived much too long. — Zimmerman. The man who lives in vain, lives worse than in vain. He who lives to no purpose, lives to a bad purpose. Nevins. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Bailey. The certainty that life can not be long, and the probability that it may be much shorter than nature usually allows, ought to waken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to do. It is true that no diligence can insure success; death may intercept the swiftest career ; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking, has at least the honor of falling in his rank, and at his post, and has fought the battle though he missed the prize. — Johnson. Measure not life by the hopes and enjoyments of this world, but by the preparations it makes for another ; looking forward to what you shall be, rather than backward, to what you have been. Berkeley, I would have every one consider that he is in this life only a passenger ; and that he is not to set up his rest here ; but to keep an attentive eye on that state of being to which he is approaching every moment, and which will be forever fixed and perma- BOOK OF THOUGHT. 131 nent. This single consideration would be suflScient to extinguish the bitterness of hatred, the burning thirst of 'avarice, and the cruelty of ambition. Addison. Life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone, Not for itself, but for a noble end The Eternal gave it ; and that end is virtue. Johnson. Fleeting as were the dreams of old, Remembered like a tale that's told, We pass away. — Longfellow. Our life contains a thousand springs. But dies if one be gone ! Strange that a harp of thousand strings. Should keep in tune so long! — Watts. Nor love thy life, nor hate ; but what thou livest, Live well; how long or short permit to heaven. Milton. Life is the time to serve the Lord, The time to insure the great reward ; And while the lamp holds out to burn. The vilest sinner may return. — Waits. Our life can not properly be pronounced happy, till the last scene has closed with resignation and hope, and in the full prospect of a blessed immor- tality beyond the grave. — D. B. Adams, M. D. 132 BOOK OF THOUGHT. What is life, but a circulation of little mean ac- tions ? We lie down and rise again, work or play, dress and undress, feed and wax hungry, work or play, and are weary, and then we lie down again, and the circle returns. We spend the day in trifles, and when the night comes we throw ourselves on the bed of folly, amongst dreams, and broken thoughts, and wild imaginations. Our reason lies asleep by side of us, and we are, for the time, as arrant brutes as those that sleep in the stall. Are not the capacities of man higher than these ? And ought not his ambition and expectations to be greater ? Let us be adventurers for another and a better world. It is at least a fair and noble chance ; and there is nothing in this world worth our thoughts or our passions. If we should be disappointed, we are still no worse than the rest of our fellow mor- tals ; and if we succeed in our expectations, we are eternally happy. — Burnet. Life is the jailer of the soul in this filthy prison, and its only deliverer is death; and what we call life is a journey to death, and what we call death is a pass- port to life. True wisdom thanks death for what he takes, and still more for what he brings. — Colton. LOVE. Solid love, whose root is virtue, can no more die than virtue itself. — Erasmus. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 133 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. — Solomon. Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it alive and in good health, is shortlived, and apt to have ague-fits. — Urasmus. Love covers a multitude of sins. It covers the blemishes and excuses the failings of a friend ; it draws a curtain before his stains, and displays his pei-fections ; it buries his weaknesses in silence, and proclaims his virtues upon the house-top. — South. We love ourselves notwithstanding our faults, and we ought to love others in like manner. — Ci/rus. " I love God and little children," was the simple, yet sublime sentiment of Ritcher. "Beware," said Lavater, "of him who hates the laugh of a child." Love not those things excessively, which you are not sure to live long to love, nor to have long if you should. — Fuller. Love of our friends should not attach us too strongly to this world ; for the greater part of those we have most loved are gathered into eternity ; so that we covet only exile from them, when we would prolong our stay on earth. There is In all this cold and hollow world, no fount Of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within A mother's heart. — Memans. 134 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Yes, love indeed is light from Heaven, A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared, by Allah given. To liorht from earth our low desire. Devotion wafts the mind above, But heaven itself descends in love ; A feeling from the Godhead canght, To win from self each sordid thought ; A ray of him who formed the whole ; A glory circling round the soul. — Byron. Love is God's loaf; and this is that feeding for which we are taught to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread," — H. Ward Beecher. True love can no more be diminished by showers of evil than flowers are marred by timely rains. Sir Philip Sidney. Let Grace and Goodness be the principal load- stone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end ; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue. — Dryden. LUXURY. Luxury destroys mankind. At once corrupts the body and the mind. — Crown. Fell luxury ! more perilous to youth, Than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains ! H. Moore. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 135 Weariness Can snore upon the flint, when restive sloth Finds the down pillow hard. — Shakspeare. Such is the diligence with which, in countries completely civilized, one part of mankind labor for another, that wants are supplied faster than they can be formed, and the idle and luxurious find life stagnate for want of some desire to keep it in mo- tion. This species of distress furnishes a new set of occupations ; and multitudes are busied from day to day in finding the rich and fortunate something to do. — Johnson. LYING. After the tongue has once got the knack of lying, it is not to be imagined how almost impossible it is to reclaim it. — Montaigne, Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. We may work out a good character much faster than any can lie us out of it. Berkeley. Although the devil is the " father of lies," and therefore the inventor of the same ; yet he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his well-earned reputation by the continual improve- ments made upon him by men. — Swift. A lie will travel a hundred miles while truth is putting on its boots. 136 BOOK OF THOUGHT. It is more from carelessness about truth, than from intentional lying, that there is so much false- hood in the world. — Johnson. Lying is a hateful and accursed vice. We are not men, nor have other tie upon one another, but our word. If we did but discover the horror and consequences of it, we should pursue it with fire and sword, and more justly than other crimes. Montaigne. The first step towards useful knowledge, is to be able to detect falsehood. — From the Latin. MAN. What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason ! How infinite in faculties ! In form and moving, how express and admirable ! In action, how like an angel ! In apprehension, how like a god! What a chimera is man ! what a confused chaos ! what a subject of contradiction ! a professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth ! the great depository and guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty! the glory and scandal of the universe ! — Pascal. To make a man in all points a man, study to do faithfully every duty incumbent upon you. Stand bravely to your post ; silently devour the chagrins BOOK OF THOUGHT. 137 of life; delight injustice; love mercy; control self; swerve not in the least from truth or right ; be a man of rectitude, decision, conscientiousness, in the widest sense of those terms ; one who fears and obejs God, and exercises benevolence habitually. John Smither. Man is to man all kinds of beasts ; a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dis- sembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapa- cious vulture. — Cowley. MARRIAGE. Never marry but for love, but see that thou lovest what is lovely. — Wm. Penn. Thou art the nurse of virtue. In thine arms She smiles, appearing as in truth she is. Heaven-born and destined to the skies a^ain. Cowpcr. Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friend- ship, and there can be no friendship without confi- dence, and no confidence without integrity; and he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness, that regard which only virtue and piety can claim. — Johnson. The reason why so few marriages are happy, is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages. — Swift. (12) 138 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Themistocles, the great Athenian general, being asked whether he would rather choose to marry his daughter to an indigent man of merit, or to a worth- less man of estate ; replied, that he would prefer a man without an estate to an estate without a man. ' World's Laconics. 1 Marriage is to a reflecting female, at once the happiest and the saddest event of her life. It is the promise of future bliss, raised on the death of pre- sent enjoyment. There are many men who, from a loose education, and a consequent loose life, contract a lasting aver- sion to the marriage state. Be sure you like the parents of the girl you are about to wed ; it is almost as essential to your future happiness as to truly love the object of your wishes. Ation. That alliance may be said to have a double tie, where the minds are united as well as the body, and the union will have all its strength, when both the links are in perfection together. — Colton. Marriage is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is un- fit for the marriage state. — Johnson. Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife ; A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. Limonides. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 139 MIND. The mind is the great instrument of affecting the world; and no other instrument is so decidedly and continually improved by exercise and use. — Todd. y The human mind is but a barren soil, soon ex- hausted, and will produce no crop, unless it be con- tinually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter. Sir J. Reynolds. There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed the more it rises to resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do, the more we are able to accom- plish. — T. Edwards. As the fire-fly only shines when on the wing, so it is with the human mind — when it rests it darkens. Berheley, What stubbing, plowing, digging, and harrowing is to land; thinking, reflecting, and examining is to the mind. — World^s Laconics. The age of a well cultivated mind is often more complacent, and even more luxurious than the youth. The more the mind produces, the more it is capa- ble of producing ; the creative faculty grows by in- dulgence. — E. Bryges. To educate mind, the instructor should inquire into the nature of mind, and the natural order in which its faculties are developed. — Dr. Wayland. 140 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Knowledge, -wisdom, erudition, arts, and elegance, are the mere trappings of the mind, if they do not serve to increase the happiness of the possessor. A mind rightly instituted in the school of philosophy, acquires at once the stability of the oak, and the flexibility of the osier. — Goldsmith. There is one law inwoven into the nature of things, which declares, that force of mind and character must rule the world. — E. P. Whipple. To see a man fearless in dangers, untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those things which are generally either coveted or feared, all men must acknowledge that this can be nothing else but a beam of Divinity that influences a mortal body. — Seneca. He who has no resources of mind, is more to be pitied than he who is in want of necessaries for the body ; and to be obliged to beg our daily happi- ness from others, bespeaks a more lamentable pov- erty than that of him who begs his daily bread. Colton. Man's chief good is an upright mind, which no earthly power can bestow nor take from him. I^IISFORTUNES. Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew Himself, or his own virtue. — Mallet. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 141 Misfortunes are in morals, what bitters are in medicine : each is at first disagreeable ; but as the bitters act as corroborants to the stomach, so adver- sity chastens and ameliorates the disposition. From the French. It is much better always to endeavor to forget our past misfortunes, than to speak often of them. Henry C. Smither. MOB. A mob is a monster with heads enough, but no heart, and little brains. — World's Laconics. The scum That rises upermost, when the nation boils. Dry den. Mankind in the gross is a gaping monster, thnt loves to be deceived, and has seldom been disap- pointed. — Mackenzie. Inconstant, blind. Deserting friends in need, and duped by foes ; Loud and seditious, when a chief inspired Their headlong fury, but, of him deprived. Already slaves that lick'd the scourging hand. Thompson 142 BOOK OF THOUGHT. MODERATION. Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues. — World's Laconics. They are sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. — ShaTcspeare. Moderation is like temperance : we should wish to eat more, but are afraid of injuring our health. La Rochefoucauld. A sober moderation is secure, No violent extremes endure. — Alleyn. Steer through life a safe and middle course, avoid- ing equally all extremes. Moderation is commonly firm, and firmness is commonly successful. — Johnson. MODESTY. A modest person seldom fails to gain the good will of those he converses with, because nobody en- vies a man who does not appear to be overpleased with himself. — Steele. You little know what you have done, when you have first broken the bounds of modesty ; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at pleasure, ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew. — Baxter. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 143 Modesty is to merit, as shades to figures in a pic- ture ; giving it strength and beauty. — Bruyere. A just and reasonable modesty sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies. Addison. That modesty in a man which suppresses his vir- tue, and hides it from the world, when he has a mind to exert himself, is a bad quality — a weakness. Taller. Immodest words admit of no defense, For want of decency is want of sense. Roscommon. Modesty is one of the chief ornaments of youth, and is generally a presage of rising merit. Scott's Lessons. Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a safe- guard to virtue. — Miss Myrtilla Morrell. NATURE. Who can paint Like nature ? Can imagination boast. Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ? Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, And lose them in each other, as appears In every bud that blows ? — Thompson. 144 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Look nature through, 'tis revolution all ; All change ; no death. — Young. Not vainly did the early Persian make His altar the high places and the peak Of earth — o'er gazing mountains, and thus take A fit and unwall'd temple, there to seek The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak, Uprear'd of human hands. Come, and compare Columns and idol- dwellings, Goth, or Greek, With nature's realms of worship, earth and air, Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer ! Byron. By viewing nature, nature's handmaid, art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow : Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow. Bryden, Scenes must be beautiful which daily viewed Please daily, and whose novelty survives Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years ! Coivper. The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ; What is her burying grave, that is her womb ; And from her womb, children of divers kind, AVe sucking on her natural bosom find ; Many for many virtues excellent. None but for some, and yet all difierent. Sliaksfeare. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 145 See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick and bursting into birth. Above, how high progressive life may go ! Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ! Vast chain of being ! which from God began. Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man; Beast, bird, fish, insect — what no eye can see. No glass can reach, from infinite to Thee, From Thee to nothing. — Pope. nature, how in every charm supreme ! Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new ! Oh, for the voice and fire of seraphim, To sing thy glories with devotion due ! Beattie. NIGHT. In her starry shade Of dim and solitary lovelinesss, I learn the language of another world. — Byron. Darkness has divinity for me ; It strikes thought inward ; it drives back the soul To settle on herself, our point supreme ! There lies our theater ; there sits our judge. Darkness the curtain drops o'er life's dull scene ; 'Tis the kind hand of Providence stretched out 'Twixt man and vanity : 'tis reason's reign, And virtue's too ; these tutelary shades Are man's asylum from the tainted throng. (13) 146 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Night is the good man's friend, and guardian, too ; It no less rescues virtue, than inspires. — Young. Dark night, that from the eye its functions takes, The ear more quick of apprehension makes ; Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, It pays the hearing double recompense. — Shahspeare How beautiful is night ! A dewy freshness fills the silent air. No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven : In full orb'd glory yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths. Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean, girled with the sky. Southey. All is gentle ; naught Stirs rudely ; but congenial with the night, Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit. — Byron. NOVELS. Above all things, never let your son touch a novel or a romance. How delusive, how destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss ! They teach the youthful to sigh after beauty and happiness which never existed ; to despise the little good that fortune has mixed in our cup, by expecting more than she BOOK OF THOUGHT. 147 ever gave ; and in general, take the word of one who has seen the world, and studied it more hy experi- ence than precept — take my word for it, I say, that such books teach us very little of the world. Goldgmith. No habitual reader of novels can love the Bible, or any other book that demands thought, or incul- cates the serious duties of life. He dwells in a region of imagination, where he is disgusted with the plainness and simplicity of truth, with the sober realities that demand his attention, as a rational and immortal being, and an accountable subject of God's government. — Berkeley. OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS— MANNERS TO AGED PERSONS. Ye shall fear every man, his mother and his father. — Lev. 19 : 3. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. — Prov. 1 : 8. Cursed is he that setteth light by his father or his mother. — Deut. 27: 16. Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this well-pleasing unto the Lord. — Col. 3: 20. Never deserve to be reproached with a want of respect in your manners to your parents. Mrs. E. MorrelL 148 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Children obey your parents in the Lord ; for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother, (which is the first commandment with promise,) that it may he well with thee, and that thou mayest live long in the earth. — Epli. 6 : 1-3. There is not a more beautiful thing to behold, nor a more pleasing thing to contemplate, than cheerful obedience to, and due respect for parents. Mrs. Elizabeth Adams. Want of proper respect for parents, is one of the most glaring defects of childhood and youth, and lays the foundation for disobedience to the laws of the land, and the laws of God. Let thy child's first lesson be obedience, and the second may be what thou wilt. — Fuller. Respect to the aged, and kindness to children, are among the true tests of an amiable disposition. Sigourney. Honor thy parents, them that gave thee birth, And watched in tenderness thine earliest days, And trained thee up in youth, and loved in all. Edwards. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God : I am the Lord. — Lev. 19 : 32. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the eUQT.—lPet. 5: 5. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 149 How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, To have a thankless child. — Shakspeare. OCCUPATION— EMPLOYMENT. Time well employed is Satan's deadliest foe, It leaves no opening for the lurking fiend. Wilcox. No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very hopelessly miserable. — Landon. I have lived long enough to know that the great secret of human happiness is this : never suffer your energies to tire or stagnate. — Adam Clark. He who will not apply himself to business, evi- dently discovers that he intends to get his bread by cheating, stealing, or begging, or else is wholly void of reason. — Ischomachus. The great happiness of life, I find, after all, to consist in the regular discharge of some mechanical duty. — Schiller. Occupation is a pressing necessity to the young. They love to be busy about something, however tri- fling ; and if not directed to some useful employment, will soon engage in something evil ; thus verifying the old proverb, " that idleness is the mother of mis- chief." — WorMs Laconics. Indolence is a delightful, but distressing state; 150 BOOK OF THOUGHT. "we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought, to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. — Sazlitt. The prosperity of a people is in proportion to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a fever, corruption is a gangrene, and idleness is an atrophy. — Johnson. He who does not bring up his son to some honest calling and employment, brings him up to be a thief. Jewish Maxim. "It is employment," says Daniel Webster, "that makes people happy," and says Jean Paul, " I have fire proof, perrennial enjoyments, called em- ployments." Employment, which Galen calls " nature's physi- cian," is so essential to human happiness, that indo- lence is justly considered the mother of misery. Burton. Every Egyptian was commanded by law, to declare annually, by what means he maintained himself; and if he omitted to do it, or gave no satisfactory account of his way of living, he was punishable with death. This law Solon brought from Egypt, to Athens, where it was inviolably observed as a most equitable regulation. — Herodotus. Most of the trades and professions among man- kind, take their original, either from the love of BOOK OP THOUGHT. 151 pleasure, or the fear of want. The former, when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter into avarice. — Addison. The safe and general antidote against sorrow, is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves ; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy, will find himself equally unaffected by irretrievable losses. — Johnson. Redeeming your time from dangerous waste, en- deavor to occupy it fully with employments, which you can, any time, review with entire satisfaction. t/ohn Smither, OPPORTUNITY. A little fire is quickly trodden out ; Which, being suffered, rivers can not quench. Shakspeare. Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald ; if you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her, but, if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again— i'Vow the Latin. No man possesses a genius so commanding that he can attain eminence, unless a subject suited to his talents should present itself, and an opportunity occur for their development. — Pliny. 153 BOOK OP THOUGHT. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries : And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. — Shakspeare. ORDER— METHOD. Order is heaven's first law. — Pope. Let order o'er your time preside. And method all your business guide. Tract Primer. One thing at once be still begun, Continued, resolved, pursued, and done. — Ihid. We do not keep the outward form of order, Where there is deep disorder in the mind. Shakspeare. Method goes far to prevent trouble in business, by making the task easy, hindering confusion, and saving time. — Wm. Penn. Order, thou eye of action, wanting thee, Wisdom works hood-winked in perplexity ; Entangled reason trips at every pace. And truth, bespotted, puts on error's face. A. Eill. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 153 PASSIONS. He suffers himself to be seen through a micro- scope, who is caught in a fit of passion. — Lavater. Men spend their lives in the service of their pas- sions, instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives. — Steele. Our passions are like convulsion fits, -which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after. — Pope. The passions may be humored till they become our masters, as a horse may be pampered till he gets the better of his rider ; but early discipline will prevent mutiny and keep the helm in the hand of reason. — Cumberland. The passions are unruly cattle, and therefore you must keep them chained up, and under government of religion, reason, and prudence. — Sir M. Hale. Princes rule the people ; and their own passions rule princes ; but Providence can overrule the whole, and draw the instruments of his inscrutable purpose from the vices no less than from the virtues of kings. Colton. The round of a passionate man's life is in con- tracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation. — Johnson. 154 BOOK OF THOUGHT. We ought to distrust our passions, even when they appear most reasonable. — Safe Rule. PATIENCE. The soul clothed with patience is in armor of proof, against which the shafts of vexation fly only to lose their point. — Mrs. S. U. Phelps. If the wicked flourish, and thou suffer, be not dis- couraged They are fatted for destruction: thou art dieted for health. — Fuller. The impatient — the fretful, worrying spirit, is the sensitive, helpless prey to innumerable evils. 3Iiss A. a. N. Morrell. How poor are they that have not patience ! What wound did ever heal, but by degrees ? Shakspeare. PEACE. Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us, viz ; avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride, and if those enemies were to be banished, we would infalli- bly enjoy perpetual peace. — Petrarch. I do not know that Englishman alive, With whom my soul is any jot at odds. More than the infant that is born to-night. ShaJcspeare. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 155 'Tis death to me, to be at enmity ; I hate it, and desire all good men's love. Shalcspeare. PERSONAL CLEANLINESS. The healthy and vigorous state of the nerves, and of the functions of digestion, depends in so great a degree, on the cleanliness of the skin, that the im- portance of daily bathing can hardly be overstated. The human organism is so constituted that, no person can be absolutely clean without thoroughly washing the whole surface of the body with pure water every day. The most scrupulous cleanliness of person, is necessary for health and comfort ; and is the first moral and physical duty of every human being. Every person not only consults his own well-being, his dignity and enjoyment, by his care of his per- son, but he also fulfills a social duty. Want of per- sonal cleanliness is a violent breach of good man- ners. Let one who entertains the idea of doins a wicked deed, wash his whole body with pure cold water, followed up by the towel, flesh-brush, and a clean shirt ; and ten to one, he will not commit the overt act. Hence bathing is a high moral duty. Miss MyrtUla Morrell. 156 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Amonp; the social virtues, personal cleanliness ought to be conspicuously ranked. — Jo Dennie. Even from the body's purity, the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid. — Thoinpson. PLEASURE AND PAIN. It would be impossible to appreciate pleasure, were there no pain. Among the last lectures that Socrates delivered, was a short one on the subject of the constant succession of pleasure and pain, and their nature in general. His fetters being taken off on the day of his execution, and being seated in the midst of his disciples, and laying one of his legs over the other in a very unconcerned posture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the iron, observed the pleasure of that sensation which now arose in those very parts of his leg that just before had been so much pained by the galling fetters. In this he manifested his utter contempt of death, and (after his usual manner) took this occasion of phil- osphising upon a useful subject. — Spectator. PRAISE. Allow no man to be so free with you as to praise you to your face. Your vanity by this means will want its food. At the same time your passion for esteem will be more fully gratified ; men will praise BOOK OF THOUGHT. 15-7 you in their actions ; where you now receive one compliment, you will then receive twenty civilities. Steele. It is the greatest possible praise to be praised by a man who is himself deserving of praise. From the Latin. Or who would ever care to do brave deed, Or strive in virtue others to excel. If none should yield him his deserved meed, Due praise, that is the spur of doing well ? For if good were not praised more than ill, None would choose goodness of his own free will. Spencer. PRAYER. All the duties of religion are eminently solemn and venerable in the eyes of children. But none so strongly proves the sincerity of the parent ; none so powerfully awakens the reverence of the child ; none so happily recommends the instruction he re- ceives, as family devotions, particularly those in which petitions for the children occupy a distin- guished place. — Dwight. The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment call- ing on Abraham ; and let it be remembered that it was practiced by a lost soul, and without success. Cecil, 158 BOOK OF THOUGHT. A good man's prayers Will from the deepest dungeon climb heaven's height, And bring a blessing down. — J. Bailie. Any heart tuned Godward, feels more joy In one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised By all the feasts on earth since its foundation. Bailey. We should pray with as much earnestness as if we expected every thing from God ; and act with as much energy as if we expected every thing from ourselves. — Colton. prayer, the converse of the soul with God ; the breath of God in man returning to its original ; the better half of our whole work, and that which makes the other half lively and effectual. — Leighton. One of the best prayers ever offered is that which Christ himself hallowed, and set apart for our obser- vation — " God be merciful to me, a sinner ! " There is no title, no " forever and ever, Amen," to it. It is only the heart broken out of the man. H. Ward Beecher. Fountain of mercy ! whose pervading eye Can look within and see what passes there. Accept my thoughts for thanks : I have no words. My soul o'erfraught with gratitude, rejects The aid of language — Lord ! behold my heart. E. Moore, BOOK OF THOUGHT. 159 PflEJUDICE. Prejudice is a mist, which, in our journey through the world, often dims the brightest, and obscures the best of all good and glorious objects that meet us on our way. — Tales of Passions. Opinions grounded on prejudice are always sus- tained with the greatest violence. — Jeffrey. Blind mechanical attachment to ancient ways and prejudices, often retards the reception of valuable discoveries and improvements — of truth. Prejudice is an equivocal term; and may as well mean right opinions taken upon trust, and deeply rooted in the mind, as false and absurd ones so de- rived, and grown into it. — Surd. The grand reason why the different religious sects cleave so closely to their own religious systems is, that they are ignorant of all other systems ; many of which may be much more reasonable than their own. In such case they hold their belief in preju- dice.— ilfz'ss M. Morrell. So little inquiry is there after truth, that a great majority, even of those who hold truth, hold it in prejudice ; never having tested it. Prejudice is a dense fog, through which light gleams fearfully, serving rather to terrify than to guide mankind. — Common Observation. 160 BOOK OF THOUGHT. We seldom find persons whom we acknowledge to be possessed of good sense, except those who agree with us in opinion. — La Rochefoucauld. PRECEPTS— EXAMPLES. The examples of the good are more subject to error than their speculations. We should honor good ex- amples, but live by good precepts. Examples, how- ever, serve to impress precepts. Whatever you would have your children become, strive to exhibit it in your own lives and conversa- tion. — Sigourney. It is a moral duty resting on all parents to set before their children, a model of both public and private virtues, worthy of their imitation. Henry Clay. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. He is a good divine who follows his own instructions ; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. Shakspeare. One of the saddest things about human nature is, that a man may guide others in the path of life, without walking in it himself; that he may be a pilot and yet a castaway. — Mrs. S. Ann Jones. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 161 As men in all ages of the world, have preached and written much better than they have lived, it is much wiser to be guided by good precepts than by examples ; however much we may respect good ex- amples. The minister who, being sensible of his short-comings, told his hearers, " do as I tell you, not as I do," manifested honesty of heart, as well as some observation. — Z). B. Adams, M. D. PRIDE. Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. H. Ward Beeelier. The seat of pride is in the heart, and only there. Without the sovereign influence of God's extraordi- nary and immediate grace, men very rarely put ofl" all the trappings of their pride. — Clarendon. Of all the marvelous works of Deity, perhnps there is nothing that angels behold with such supreme astonishment as a proud man ! — Colton. Pride goeth before destruction, and ahaughty spirit before a fall. — Solomon. When pride enters the heart, if it docs not find a dessert there, it makes one ; even submission can not tame its ferocity, nor satiety fill its voracity ; withal, it requires a very costly food — its possessor's happiness. — Colton. 162 BOOK OF THOUGHT. We rise in glory as we sink in pride, Where boasting ends, there dignity begins. Young. The disesteem and contempt of others, is insepa- rable from our pride. — Clarendon. Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem aud reverence into contempt. Bolinghrohe. There is this paradox in pride, — it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. — Colion. Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and overlook in himself. Johnson. Pride hates superiors, scorns inferiors, and owns no equal ; and until we hate pride God hates us. Lacon. If a proud man makes me keep my distance, the comfort to me is, that he keeps his at the same time. iSwift. Pride is a tumor in the mind, that breaks and ruins all the actions ; a worm in one's treasury, that eats up the estate. It loves no man, and is beloved by none ; it disparages another's virtues by detrac- tion, and our own by vain glory. It is the friend of the flatterer, the mother of envy, the nurse of fury, the sin of devils, the devil of mankind. World's Laconics. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 163 Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece ; but it is easier to suppress the first desire, than to gratify all that follow it. Franklin. We hear of a decent pride, a becoming pride, a noble pride, a laudable pride. Can that be decent of which we ought to be ashamed ? Can that be be- coming of which God has set forth its deformity ? Can that be noble which God resists and is deter- mined to abase ? Can that be laudable which God calls abominable ? — Cecil. Pride is increased by ignorance ; those assume the most who know the least. — Gay. " Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man can not keep up his dignity." In glut- tony there must be eating, it is not the eating, how- ever, that must be blamed, but the excess in eating. Just so in pride. — Miss A. G.N. Morrell PROCRASTINATION. He who defers present duties till some future time, will probably defer his future time's duties to eternity. Procrastination says, the next advantage We will take thoroughly. — Shakspeare. 164 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Procrastination has been very properly called a thief. I wish it were no worse than a thief. It is a murderer ; and that which it kills is not time merely, but the immortal soul. — Neviyis. Be wise to-day, 'tis madness to defer ; Next day the fatal precedent will plead ; Thus on till wisdom is pushed out of life. Young. Of all our losses, those caused by delay are most and heaviest. — Edwards. Procrastination is the great, arch thief of time^ the great murderer of souls, and the faithful ally of hell. — D. B. Adams. Good is best when soonest wrought, Lingering labors come to nought. Roh. Southwell. Whatever injures your eye, you are anxious to remove, but things which affect your mind you defer. Horace. To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it : this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed. — Tilloison. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 165 PROF ANENESS. Of all the dark catalogue of sins, there is not one more vile and execrable than profaneness. — S. H. Cox. Some sins are productive of temporary profit, or pleasure ; but profaneness is productive of nothing unless it be shame on earth and damnation in hell. Edwards. There is neither profit nor pleasure in profane swearing, nor any thing in man's nature to incite him to. For though many men pour forth oaths as freely as if they came naturally, yet surely no man is born of a swearing constitution. — Tillotson. The foolish and wicked practice of profane swear- ing, is a vice so low and mean, that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. Washington. Common swearing, if it have any meaning at all, argues in main, a perpetual distrust of his own repu- tation ; and is an acknowledgement that he thinks his bare word not to be worthy of credit. — Tillotson. From a common custom of swearing, men easily slide into perjury; therefore, if thou would'st not be perjured, do not use to swear. — Hierocles. There are some sins which are presumptions, and do not admit of any palliation. Profane swearing is one of these. — D. B. Adajns, M. D. 166 BOOK OF THOUGHT. An honest man is believed without an oath, for his reputation swears for him. The man who pro- fanely swears to his assertions, seems to doubt his own honesty. PROSPERITY— ADVERSITY. It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex, instead of a fountain ; so that he learns only to draw in, instead of throwing out. H. Ward Beecher. Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, particularly being free from flatterers. Pros- perity is too apt to prevent us from examining our conduct, but as adversity leads us to think properly of our state, it is most beneficial to us. — Johnson. Take care to be an economist in prosperity : there is no fear of your being one in adversity. Zimmerman. The good are better made by ill : — As odors crushed are sweeter still. — Rogers. The gods in bounty work up storms about us, That give mankind occasion to exert Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice Virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed In the smooth seasons and the calms of life. Addison. BOOK OF THOUGHT. 167 Adversity has the eiFect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dor- mant. — Horace. Ye good distressed ! Ye noble few ! who here unbending stand Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile. And what your bounded view, which only saw A little part, deemed evil, is no more ; The storms of wintry time will quickly pass, And one unbounded spring encircle all. Thompson. PUNCTUALITY. Method is the very hinge of business; and there is no method without punctuality — Cecil. I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments. — Emmons. Appointments, once made, become debts. If I have made an appointment with you, 1 owe you punctuality; and I have no right to waste your time, if I do my own. — Cecil. The punctual man can perform twice as much, at least, as another man, with twice the ease and satis- faction to himself, and with equal satisfaction to others. — Todd. 168 BOOK OF THOUGHT. Every child should be taught to pay all his debts, and to fulfill all his contracts, exactly in manner, completely in value, punctually at the time. Every thing he has borrowed, he should be obliged to return uninjured at the time specified ; and every thing belonging to others which he has lost, he should be required to replace. — Divight. Every child should be required to restore to the proper owner, any lost article which he has found, punctually, and without /