THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2806, 27 November 1931, Page 4 (Supplement)

THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY

AS THEY APPLY TO MOST PEOPLE. The Millennium.—lt is, indeed, right that we should look for, and hasten, ,so far as in us lies, the coming of the day of God; but not that we should check any human effort by anticipations of its approach. We shall hasten it best by endeavouring to work out the tasks that are appointed for us here; and, therefore, reasoning as if the world were to continue under its existing dispensation, and the powers which have just been granted to us were to be continued through the myriads of future ages. —Ruskin (The Stones of Venice).

Opinion.—Opinion rides upon the neck of reason; and men are happy, wise, or learned, according as that empress shall set them down in the register of reputation. However, weigh not thyself in the scales of thy own opinion, but let the judgment of the judicious be the standard of thy merit. — Sir Thomas Browne (Christian Morals). Secrets. —If a fool knows a secret, he tells it because he is a fool; if a knave knows one, he tells it wherever it is his interest to tell it. But women and young men are very apt to tell what secrets they know from the vanity of having been trusted.— Chesterfield: Letters.

Truth.—Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed. She is said to lie at the bottom of a well for the very reason. perhaps, that whoever looks down in search of her sees his own image at the bottom, and is persuaded not only that he has seen the Goddess, but that she is far better-look-ing than he had imagined.—Lowell: Democracy and Other Addresses. Law.—People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous, more or less.—Burke.

Politeness.—Kindly politeness, is the slow fruit of advanced reflection; it is a sort of humanity and kindliness applied to small acts and everyday discourse; it bids man soften toward others, and forget himself for the sake of others; it constrains genuine nature, which is selfish and gross. —Taino.

Farming.—Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labour of man. Man may be civilised in some degree without great progress in manufactures and with little commerce with his distant neighbours. But without the cultivation of the earth he is, in all countries, a savage. Until he gives up the chase, and fixes himself in some place, and seeks a living from the earth, he is a roaming barbarian. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilisation. —Daniel Webster.