THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17177, 22 October 1923, Page 8

THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Silence is golden only when nothing we can say will help. POM ER ’S* ENEMY Depression is an enemy of power, cheerfulness is its tested ally. The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers; but they rise he hind her steps, not before them.— Rusk in. Like all rogues, lie was a great calumniator of the fair sex.—Sectt. Do you not know I am a what I think, 1 must speak.—Shakespeare. THE \VORK OF GOD. Watchman on Zion's hill. Thy vision pierces far, Discerning good and ill. The signs of peace and war. "What of the night? Is yonder light Tlie morn or even star. - S. .T. Stone. "Watchman, what of Ihe field?— The Cross i.> battling on: They close in fight . the foemen yield: God speed thf lingering sun ! —E. H. Bickersteth. "With noiseless slide of stone to stone The mystic church of God has grown. —Whittier. MEANNESSES. There are some meannesses which are too mean even for man—woman, lovely woman alone, can venture to commit them. —'Thackeray. No is no negative in a woman's mouth.—Sir P. Sidney.

To behold her is an immediate check tc loose behaviour : and to love her is a liberal education.— Steele MYTHOLOGY OF WORDS. The perpetual mythology of words makes them at best an imperfectvehicle for pure reason, and language itself is a bar tc that finality of statement science seeks: yet words remain great enough for the poet and seer whose utterance soars above exactitude. Even as Nature’s self they possess the power to flash different truths from different facts to different minds. t It is by ancient pathway, then, that we approach the forest, and through the deep, dark waters o r being, through an accumulated inheritance of feeling and emotion, seek to unite therewith in understanding.—-Eden Pliillpotts. BE CHEERFUL. And truth may lie in laughter too. and wisdom in a jest, And wit may lend its sparkle to the reverential thought . —AY. C. Smith. NATIVE TALENT. Strong native talent will find means of expression. Not a little mediocre talent goes to the grave unwept and unsung, because it lacked iu vitality to force its way to public recognition. Biography has no truer lesson than the fact that great men are great largely because they overcame the obstacles which hinder lesser men. When a man fell into hi*;, anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.—Disraeli. FAITH. In that high dome I neither know nor say What Power and Presence was alive that- day. For sight of eyes nor ear with hearing That windless wind that where it listed blew ; Yet seeing eyes and eafcs that hear shall be As dust and nothingness henceforth for me, n Who once have felt tlie blowing Spirit, roll Life on ftiy life, and on my soul a Soul. —F. W. H. MveV Tlie re are only two kinds of women, the plain and tlie coloured.—Oscar Wilde. THE PINCH OF CHARACTER. Jjist a pinch of salt makes or mars a stew, and just a pinch of character makes or mars a home. If we even knew exactly what ’twas. we alter it. You can’t pull out a hit of human nature like a. hollow tooth. .lust ail over seasoning of pepper in a man, or a pinch of softness in a woman, may spoil all. It takes terrible little to wreck a home, and J’ve known large tragedies rise out of nought but a taste. . . . ’Tis the little twists of character that lead to the biggest troubles, as the acorn breeds the oak. „ AGE. Alonzo of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age. That age appeared to l>e best in four things: Old wood best to hunt;,‘old wine to drink; old friends to trust; and old authors to read.”—Bacon. DIVIDE THE BOYS. We should he disposed to subdivide the old hoys into two distinct classes the gay old boys and the steady old boys.—Dickens. AFFECTION. Saul and Jonathan were lovely am! pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.