Things Thoughtful

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 28 September 1940, Page 10

Things Thoughtful

FALLEN GREATNESS The baser is he, coming from a king, To shame his hopes with deeds degenerate. The mightier man, the mightier is the thing That makes him honour’d, or begets him hate; For greatest scandal waits on greatest state. The moon being clouded presently is miss’d. But little stars may hide them when they list. —Shakespeare. MARRIAGE SHOULD BE A “PERPETUAL FRIENDSHIP” Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, 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. * * * * heaven on earth Love! I will tell these what it is to love. It is to build with human thoughts a shrine Where hope sits brooding, like a beauteous dove; Where life seems young, and, like a thing divine, All tastes, all pleasures, all desires combine To consecrate this sanctuary of bliss: Above, the stars in cloudless beauty shine; Around, the streams their flowery margin kiss; And if there’s heaven on earth, that heaven is surely this.—Swain. *** * - THE SELFISH WOMAN EXACTS LOVE It. is a great mistake to suppose that a woman with no heart will be an easy creditor in the exchange of affection. There is not on earth a more merciless exactor of love from others thair a thoroughly selfish woman; and the more unlovely she grows the more jealously and scrupulously she exacts love to the uttermost farthing.—Mrs Stowe. * * * * TREE OF KNOWLEDGE AND TREE OF LIFE The tree of knowledge is grafted upon the tree of life; and that fruit which brought the fear of death into the world, budding on an immortal stock, becomes the fruit of the promise of immortality.—Sir Humphrey Davy. * * * * TO THE LAST SIGH The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest pang, even at the moment of parting; yea, even fhe eternal farewell is robbed of half of its bitterness when uttered in accents that breathe love to the last sigh.— Addison * * * # A BREACH OF FRIENDSHIP To doubt’s an injury; to suspect a friend Is breach of friendship; jealousy’s seed Sown but in vicious minds; prone to distrust, Because apt to deceive—Landsdowne. * * * * LAUGH AND LIVE Laughter is an external expression of joy; it is the most salutary of all the bodily movements; for it agitates both the body and the soul at the same time, promotes digestion, circulation, and perspiration, and enlivens the vital power.—Hukeland^ INCLINATION AND WILL A good inclination is but the first rude draught of virtue; but the finishing strokes are from the will, which, if well disposed, will by degrees perfect; if ill-disposed, will, by the superinduction of ill habits, quickly deface it.—South. * * * * WANTED—AN UNDERSTANDING WIFE Give me, next good, an understanding wife. By nature wise, not learned by much art; Some knowledge on her side, will all my life More scope of conversation impart, Besides her inborn virtue fortify. They are most firmly good that best know why. As good and wise; so be she fit for me; That is, to will, and not to will, the same. My wife is my adopted self, and she As me, so what I love, to love must frame: For when by marriage, both in one concur, Woman converts to man, not man to her. —Sir Thomas Overbury. LOCKED IN WOMAN’S LOVE The treasures of the deep are not so precious As are the conceal’d comforts of a man Lock’d up in woman’s love; —I scent the air Of blessings when I come but near the house.—J. Middleton. X * * * THE FRIENDLY HEART AND HAND It is in the time of trouble, when some, to whom we may have looked for consolation and encouragement, regard us with coldness, and others, perhaps, treat us with hostility, that the warmth of the friendly heart and the support of the friendly hand acquire increased value, and demand additional gratitude.—Bishop Mant. PARTS OF PERFECT WISDOM Perfect wisdom hath four parts—viz., wisdom, the principle of doing things aright, justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private: fortitude, the principle of not flying danger, but meeting it; and temperance, the principle of subduing desires, and living moderately—. Plato. * SUCH IS THE LAW OF LOVE Dig channels for the streams of Love, Where they may broadly run; And Love has overflowing streams To fill them every one. But if at any time thon cease Such channels to provide, The very springs of Love for thee Will soon be parched and dried. For we must share, if we would keep, That good thing from above; Ceasing to give, We cease to have— Such is the law of Love. —R. C. Trench. THE GERM OF AFFECTIONS True, most true! The innocent associations of childhood, the kind mother who taught us to whisper the first faint accents of prayer, and watched with anxious face over our slumbers, the ground on which our little feet first trod, the pew in which we first sat during public worship, the school in which our first rudiments were taught, the torn Virgil, the dogeared Horace, the friends and companions of our young days, the authors who first told us the history of our country, the songs that first made our hearts throb with noble and onerous emotions, the buryingplace of our fathers, the cradles of our children, are surely the first objects which nature tells us to love. Philanthropv, like charity, must begin at home. From this centre our sympathies may extend in an ever-widen-ing circle.—Lamb.