THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17570, 22 June 1925, Page 12

THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

THOUGHTS FROM R. L. STEVENSON. What a man truly wants, that, will he get, or he will l>e changed in trying. To have suffered, nay, to suffer, sets a keen edge on what remains of the agreeable. This is a great truth and has to be learned in the fire. Jt is salutary to get out of ourselves and see people living together in perfect unconsciousness of our existence, as they will live when we are gone. If we are indeed here to perfect and complete our own natures, and grow larger, stronger, and more sympathetic against some nobler career in the. future, we had all best bestir j ourselves to the utmost while we have j time. | Some one has written that love \ makes people believe in immortality, j because there seepis not to be room i enough in life for so great a tender- j ness, and it is inconceivable that the I most masterful of our emotions should have no more than the snare moments of a W- years. TROUBLES OF THE INDUSTRIOUS. Not the least of the troubles of a busy man is to protect himself, as he sitteth in his home or goetli about the

ways of the world, from the great banditti of the idle, Does an idle man like conversation? he obtains it, not from some man equally yawning and vacant with himself, but from some active and well-plenished mind which cannot properly spare him a moment, though he generally contrives to take an hour. Say he dabbles in literature, and, in attempts at easy writing, makes as usual somewhat hard reading: to whom does he apply to get his diction trimmed and his work licked into shape, bxit to some poor, overdriven steer of the press, whose every minute is required for his ordinary and unavoidable labour, or who can only spare for this supererogatory drudgery some intervals of leisure which he ought, rather to spend in healthy exercise, or that to him greatest of all ; luxuries, simple vacation of mind? Th®. i idle never think of plundering rhe idle ; i they are a set of luxurious dogs, and I regard no booty as worth having un- ! ]©ss it be a serious deprivation of iti j former owners. It is upon the fully J or over-occupied man that they like Ito prey. Five minutes from such a j person is a greater acquisition than a. i whole from one who has only a little to do—Robert Chambers. DYING FOR* HUMANITY So long as you are. read'* to die for humanity the life of your country will be immortal.—Mazzini. ORIENTAL MAXIMS. When anger would overcome thee, curb it. . When thou speakest. weigh well thy * words. ( When thou makest a promise b« sure to keep it. » When thus iudgest be impartial. When thou hast cause for animosity forgive thine enemies. 1 When thou hast the ability be genj erous. When thou possessest power treat j thy dependents kindly. ! When thou art a dependent b« I obedient to thy superiors. I Whenever thou canst do good, neglect not the opportunity. WHERE LOVE DWELLS. Then, brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother! For where love dwells, the peace of God is there: To worship rightly is to love each Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. —Whittier. EVER-BUSY LOVE. Love is ever busv with his shuttle. Is ever weaving into life's dull warp Bright, gorgeous flowers, and scenes Arcadian, Hanging our gloomy prison house about With tapestries; that make its walls dilate In never-ending vistas of delight. —Longfellow. HOME. One's own home is the best home, though never so small. — Bishop Percy. Life's choicest blessings centre all • in home.—Cowper. If solid happiness we prize. I Within our breast, this jewel lies: And the}* are fools who roam , The world has nothing to bestow: I From our own selves our jo vs must flow. And that dear cot—our home —Cotton.