BETTER THOUGHTS FOR QUIET MOMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 153, 29 June 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

BETTER THOUGHTS FOR QUIET MOMENTS.

A HAPPY LOT.

How happy is he born and taught Who serveth not another's will— Whose armour is his honest thought* And simple truth his only Skill.

Whose passions not his masters are. Whose soul is still prepared for-deatH*, Untied to this vain world by care Ofpublic fame or private breath. i

This man Is freed from servile bands' j Of hope to rise or fear to fall; ! Lord of himself, though not of lands, ' And having nothing, yet hath all.' WOTTTCHT-

Wrapped up in selfishness, Peter, tWS bookbinder lived alone and friendless, ana he died as he had lived. His loss was neither mourned by anyone nor dis arranged anything- in the world. . There was merely a ditch filled up in the gTaveyard and an attic emptied in oar hoosev— Souvestre.

All progress is of slow growth, even under the most favourable conditions. We may gTeatly hinder it, but we cannot hurry it by any. spasmodic or one sided efforts.

When anyone stands condemned at the bar of his own conscience, it is of small importance to hia happiness to be thought innocent by all the rest of the world. The beginning: of all life is a searth for individual happiness. We look upon the -world as made specially for our. selves, and we expect with the utmost confidence that everything around us will minister to our pleasure. And In every ease we experience a bitter disappointment.

There are some instances In which the fortunes of life aro nnequaliv bestowed; but hero the same lot falls impnrt;a!ly to all.

There is not a man In this world who has not come to the conviction that hfcj first conception of existence was a dream, who has not arrived at the knowledge that things were not creatfd to minister to h;s own Individual happiness.