Tit-Bits.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

Tit-Bits.

* Gnawing the nails is popularly believed to be a sign of constitutional bad temper and nervousness in the person who bites, but a French doctor named Berillon has discovered that it is much worse than that. He calls it " onohyophage " and sees in such a habit a symptom of degeneracy, of nervous excitation and debility, of incipient lunacy, and half a hundred different kinds of "phobic" which are well known to practitioners in Paris. The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well doing. — Smiles. Whenever you see ingratitude, you may as infallibly conclude that there is a growing stock of ill-nature in the breast, as you may know that man to have the plague upon whom you see the tokens. — South. Wit may raise admiration, but good nature has a more powerful effect.— Cleasby. A hero is known in war, a friend is known in necessity, and a wise girl is known in anger. "A home without music," says a certain moralist, " is like springtime without birds." The spare moments of life have been the opportunities of the greatest achievements. We attract hearts by the qualities we display; we retain them by the qualities we possess. Sleep (says Dr. Wilhelm Fisher) is easiest and the most refreshing when- the head is somewhat lower than the feet. Instead of two pillows, therefore, use only one, and place two others under the feet. This position, says the doctor, is a marvellous cure against all nervous diseases, and all lung diseases, if adopted in time. I would not advise anyone threatened with blood to his head, however, to sleep with the feet higher than the head. Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done, as the fear of consequences.—La Rochefoucauld. A gushing and loquacious friend is much worse than a discreet enemy. What makes vanity so insufferable to us is that it wounds our own. — La Rochefoucauld. This is the age of transition. The change is from faith in God to faith in man. The devil was never so, deadly as he is when we no longer believe in him. People talk little ills into great ones, bat seldom talk little goods into great ones. There are no buaybodiea in heaven. A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it. To be happy at home ia the ultimate result of all ambition ; the end to which every enterprise and. labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution. If happiness has not her seat And centre in the breast, We may be wise, or rich, or great, But never can be blest. — Burns. Faith and hope in the future, to be sound and permanent, must grow out of the knowledge of the past and respect for it ; and he who gratefully acknowledges his obligations to the old is all the better fitted to espouse the cause of the new.

When a man is going down, dou't increase hi« trouble: whnn everybody is blaming him, do not swell the churua oi censure. Fear of failure proveuti. many person* from putting forth their bost on-leavo-i-s. Anyono with ordinary insight may observe this paralysing- element in some wh^m they casually meet, und may do somethingtowards dispersing it by a kiudly word of j encouragement or timely counsel. Kindness is tho golden chain by which society is bound together, — Goethe. Do first thine own duty, and then look that another man do his. — Thomas a Kempis. If it were not for hope, the heart would break. Affected modesty is the most vicious form of self-consciousness. Never offend little people ; the great can afford to forget, the small cannot even affect to forgive. 'Tis a cowardly and servile humour to hide and disguise a man's self under a visor, and not to dare to show himself what he is. By that our followers are trained up to treachery. Being brough up to speak what is not true, they make no conscience of a lie. — Montaigne. A man owes many debts to others which they can never enforce, and many obligations which no one will chum, but the non-fulfilment of which will bring woe to him. One of the most responsible of these is searching for the right path, testing his ideals, distinguishing between a strong desire and a sense of duty. Between a man and a woman are always the two questions — Why do I love? and Why don't I love ? Every ono is anxious to help the man who doesn't need it. Sincerity is speaking as we think, believing ns we pretend, acting as we profess, performing as we promise, and being as we appear to be.