Items of Interest.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 8 September 1904, Page 7

Items of Interest.

THE only correct actions are those which require no explanation and no apology.—Berthold Auerbach. Great workers and groat thinkers are the true makers of history, which is but continuous humanity influenced by men of character.—Smiles. The past is dead the.Future none may scan, But use the Present while you can. Honour and shame from no condition rise ; Act well your part—there all the honour lies. Keep virtues' rimple path before your eyes, Nor think from evil good can ever rise. —Thompson. To become the master of some bitter experience is to become eDriched by the bitterness experienced. The secret of order and proportion in our studies is the true secret of economy in time.—P. E. Hammerton. Cheerfulness is not always spontaneons ; it is greatly a matter of habit and bears cultivation. One who can contrive to bear a smiling face through a world where there are so many troubled hearts, may unconsciouely be a public benefactor. The true view of our livelihood is to use it a sphere for developing virtue. A narrow corner of life, when possessed by a supreme sense of duty, may be an opportunity for a larger and deeper achievement than would be likely in a spacious lot under the sunshine of smiling fortune. —Hugh Black. cLabour, if we would but perceive it, is one of the greatest of earthly blessings. It rewards with health, contentment "of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, and sound, refreshing sleep, few of which blessings of life are long enjoyed by those who do not daily, in one form or another, labour. And wbyisthu? Because to labour is to perform the business of life : to carry out the purpose for which every human being is called into existence. The successful people of this world are commonly those who make the most of their opportunities. That martial mastiff, Frederick of Prussia, defied half of Europe to conquer him for seven years, simply by his intuitions of the right moments, and his prompt use of them His famous pupil, Napoleon, was the king of opportunities; he used to say, ' There is a crisis in every battle, a tenor fifteen minutes cA which the fate of the battle depends. To gain this is victory, to lose it is defeat.' In every battle of life there are pivot occasions, on which the greatest interests are depending. The loss of these never can be retrieved.

Some distinguished men once amused themselves with the insoluble problem, ' Which are the best hundred books ?' I, say insoluble, because to niymind the best book for any man is that in which he takes most interest; and as men's powers and tastes vary indefinitely,, and there is no power and no taste which may not be stimulated by reading, so the suitability of books depends upon the idiosyncrasy of the reader. . . . Whichever rouses his mind most, and commands his sympathies most powerfully, is in all probability the best for him. Literature represents all the reasonings and feelings and passions of civilised men in all ages. —Leslie Stephen. In general all fatal, false reasoning proceeds from people having some one false notion in their hearts, with which they are resolved their reasoning shall comply.— John Buskin, It is an excellent plan to have some place to go to be quiet when things vex or grieve us. There are a good many hard times in this life of ours, but we can always bear them if we ask help in the right way. — Miss Alcott. I have been as enthusiastic and joyful as any one after a victory, but I confess' that even the sight of a field of battle has not only struck me with horror, but oven turned me sick, and now that lam advanced in life I cannot understand how beings who call themselves reasonable, can employ tEis short existence, not in loving and aiding each other, and passing through it as gently as possible, but in endeavouring to destroy each other, as if time did not do this with sufficient rapacity.— Napoleon 111.