Things Thoughtful

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 17 May 1941, Page 10

Things Thoughtful

THE COMPANY OF THOUGHTS They are never alone that arc accompanied with noble thoughts.— Sir Philip Sidney. * * * * BENEFITS OF TRAVEL Before you travel, learn what you have to see; he whose Alpha is ignorance will generally find his Omega to be the same. If men and women were to do a little travelling together before marriage there would be fewer marriages than there arc.—Geo. Dawson. THE DESIRE TO LIVE There appears to exist a greater desire to live long than to live well. Measure by man’s desires, he cannot live long enough; measure by his good deeds, and he has not lived long enough; measure by bis evil deeds, and he has lived too long.—Zimmerman. BEST FOR LOVE IS BEST FOR ALL Pure and true affection well I know Leaves in the heart no room for selfishness. Such love of all our virtues is the gem: We bring with us the immortal seed at birth; Of Heaven it is, and heavenly; woe to them Who make it wholly earthly and of earth! What we love perfectly, for its own sake We love, and not our own; being ready thus, Whate’er self-sacrifice is ask'd to That which is best for it. is best for us.—R. Southey. CHERISH FRIENDS A friend whom you have been gaining during your whole life, you ought not to be displeased with in a moment. A stone is many years becoming a ruby; take care that you do not destroy it in an instant against another stone. —Saadi. * * * * THE LOVE OF OFFICE Profligacy in taking office is so extreme that we have no doubt public men may be found wh/, for half a century, would postpone all remedies for a pestilence if the preservation of their places depended upon the propagation of the virus.—S. Smith. * * * * THE BURDENS OF THE HOUR You’ll meet a host of happy days If you this course pursue: When doing not the thing you like, Just like the thing you do. God lays a little on us evry day. And never I believe on all the way Will burdens bear so deep, Or pathways lie so steep But we can go, if by God’s power We only bear the burdens of the hour. —George Klingle. * * * * THE TRUE FRIEND A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously.—William Penn.

START A KIND WORD Start some kind word on its travels. There is no telling where the good it may do will stop.—De Witt Talmage. HOME, SWEET HOME Whate’er my future years may be, Let joy or grief my fates betide. Be still an Eden bright to me, My own, my own fireside. ; —A. A. Watts. TIMES OF CALAMITY r Times of general calamity have j ever been productive of the greatest . minds. The purest ore is produced , from the hottest furn-ce, and the > brightest thunderbolt is elicited from , the darkest storm.—Colton. , ¥ ¥ SHUN NOT THE STRUGGLE We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, . We have hard work to do and loads to lift, . Shun not the struggle—face it—’tis ; God’s gift.—Goethe. * * * •k ; THE MARVELS OF VEGETATION . We see around us innumerable [ forms of vegetation, and when we . realise that the moss on the wall . and the majestic oak tree, and the . two hundred thousand, or nearly, different specimens of plants that come . between, have all the same principle of construction, we are lost iy amazement. The form and the structure of the leaf are the primitive models • from which all this complexity has i originated. Every leaf in formation ; is a miniature picture, for the outi line of a tree in full foliage is repre--1 sented in each of its leaves. —Eleanor ■ Clare. I ' ADVANCE OF THE MIND [ The mind is continually labouring ; to advance, step by step, through • successive gradations of excellence r towards perfection, which is dimly , seen at a great though not hopeless : distance, and which we must always I follow because we never can attain: i but the pursuit rewards itself; one ; truth teaches another, and our store is always increasing, though nature i can never be exhausted.—Sir Joseph - Reynolds. * * * * MOTIVES FOR PEACE , Were half the power that fills the world with terror—- [ j Were half the wealth bestow’d on camps and courts, , | Given to redeem the human mind from error. There were no need of arsenals j and forts: . The warrior’s name would be a name abhorr’d. I And every nation that should lift ' ! again i I Its hand against a brother, on its ; forehead ! Would wear for evermore tine i curse of Cain.—Longfellow. * ¥ * | OPPRESSION OF THE POOR I O what avails it, missionary, to I come to me, a man condemned to residence in this foetid place, where every sense bestowed upon me for mv delight becomes a torment, and where every minute of my numbered days is new mire added to the heap | under which I lie oppressed! But i give me my first glimpse of Heaven, through a little of its'light and air: give me mire water; help me to be clean: lighten this heavy atmosphere and heavy life, in which our spirits sink, and we become the indifferent and callous creatures you too often see us; gently and kindly take the bodies of those who die amor*g us out of the small room where we grow to be so familiar with the awful change that even its sanctity is lost to us; and, teacher, then T will hear —none know better than you, how willingly—of Him whose thoughts were so much with the poor, and who had compassion for all human sorrow!—Dickens.