THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17037, 10 May 1923, Page 3

THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

LIFE’S FIGHT. If this life he not a i'oai fight in which .something is eternally gamed for the universe by success, it is no : better than a game of private theatri- j cals, from which one may withdraw at. will. But it feels like a real fight— j as if there were something really wild in the universe which we. with all j our idealities and faithfulnesses, a.re needed to redeem.—William James. j FINDING- ONE’S SELF. X love to see Rimrising and sunsetting. moonshine and starshine. earth, sen and sky. These are the big things, whose magnitude is such that 1 regard my ego as utterly insignificant in the scale of being. L am appalled at the immensity of it all. and I lose myself in that immensity until I can closely caress a daisy in a meadow, or i touch a tinted leaf upon a friendly hush by the wayside. Then, and only then. 1 find myself again. TALE OF A KICKER. ?here lived t-vo frogs, bo I’ve been to-ld. In a quiet wayside pool; And one of these frogs was a blamed bright frog, But the other frog was a fool. j Now a farmer man with a big milk 1 Was ivo»t to pass that way; And he used to stop and add a drop Of the aqua pure, they say’. And it chanced one morn in the early ! dawn, When the farmer’s sight was dim. ! He scooped those frogs in the water j he dipped. Which same was a joke on him. ’ The fool frog sank in the swashing . tank _ As the farmer bumped to town. I But the smart frog flew like a tug- ! boat screw. Ancl he swore he’d not go down. So he kicked and splashed and lie * slammed and thrashed. And he kept on top through ail; | And he churned that milk in firstin a great big butter ball. Now when the milkman got to town, And opened the can, there lay The fool frog drowned: but hale" and sound. The kicker he hopped away. Moral. Don’t fret your life with needless i strife. Yet let this teaching stick: You’ll find, old man, in the world's ! Wg can It sometimes pays to kick. —Holman F. Day. j THE parting message. Give my love to your mother,” said a sweet-fired lady to the young /friend she was leaving at the station. ” c hope the lore was carried safely, and the pleasant message given. Too often these tender parting words are considered as mere matter of ooorse. It should not be so. If anybody sends us love in this troublesome world, we I want to be assured of it, for love i a 1 the heart better than gold, j or silver, or houses, or lands. * ! THE COMMUNITY. 1 can see no reason either in morals or in religion for the perpetuation of the human swarm, except for the development and perfecting of the human souls who make mankind. What re*l good appears m the mere continuance nt any cowmiiaitr unless you think of the men and women and child I ren who live there, each one the inheritor of a spark of the Divine Life, which may be cherished and enlarged into a fin me of beautiful •• notert life-? There * vow reeson W sa( - I rilice. There i, eo.vr reason for ser-/I vice. The eo mm uni tv has a Haim to ! live for the sake of the better men and women who .ire going to live in it and make it better. Henry Van Dyke. CAUSE OF MISERY. Money can buy things, but it can't buv health. happiness, kindness., fr.eniis. anything that is really worth haring; anrj that is one reason why the riel, are so miserable. They have found that out.—Philip Osier. For this I pray ; Absolute rlav.' With nnriiinmerf sight <>l perfect Light.. —Armel O’Connor. SELF CON TROT.. What remains is that we learn' uTkeep oiil* hearts; to govern and regulate our passions, mind, affections; that we may be free from the impotencies of fear, envy, malice. covetousness ambition ; that we may be Hear of these considered as vices seated in the heart, considered as constituting a general -wrong temper : from which general. wrong frame of mind all the mistaken pursuits, and far the greatest part of the unhappines of life pro oeed.—Bishop Butler. PEN ALTY OF PR OYIINENCE. Censure is the tax a man pays to the public, for being eminent. Tt is folly for an eminent man to think of feoted with it. All tlm sous of antiquitv. ard indeed of everv age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defence against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman j triumph.