SELECTIONS.

Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 2, 11 April 1896, Page 3

SELECTIONS.

Men show character in nothing more surely than in what they think laughable. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.—George Eliot. An appearance of delicacy, and e/en of fragility, is most essential to beauty.—Burke. 1 Duty stands for the most part close at hand, unobscured, simple, immediate. If any man has the will to hear her voice, to him is she willing to enter and to be his ready guest The only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest to us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves. If each drop of rain chose where it should fall God’s showers would not fall as they do now.—Charles Kingsley. The best discrimination is that which detects the fewest faults. The good-natured critic -one who discriminates in favour of more than against the object under consideration—enjoys this advantage, that if he errs he is sure to err on the amiable side—Bovee. The way to worship God while the daylight lasts is to work : the service of God, the only Divine service, is the helping of our fellows.—Macdonald. In every pursuit of life it is the effort, the preparation, the discipline, the earnest labour that makes the valuable man in every department, uot the mere fact of his occupying this or that position. There is nothing so beautiful as beautiful manners. Perfect courtesy is the flower’ and fruit of all perfect breeding. It is the one all-potent and all-determining quality, and, when fulfilled to the utmost, ,it touches within the limits of that which is divine. Unhappy is he of whom we say, How lucky he is ! Adversity is more easily resisted than prosperity. We rise more perfect from ill-fortune than from good. Victor Hugo. Activity is liable to commit some injuries, but indolence is sure to do no good.—Ziramermati. Seek not every quality in one individual—Chinese Proverb. History and fiction are distinguished by this—that the one relates to what has been, the other to what might be ; on this account fiction is more valuable in one way than history, for fiction is chiefly conversant about general truth, history about particulars of truth.—Aristotle.