THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17862, 2 June 1926, Page 4

THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

WORD WISDOM. A word once spoken, can return no more; A wise man sets a watch before th& door. The bird in hand we may at will restrain: But. being flown, we call her back in —Whitney. THE WORLD’S*"GREAT LITERATURE. Whether our neglect of the great books of the world comes from our not reading at all, or from an incorrigible habit of reading the little books, it ends in just the same thing. And that thing is ignorance of all the greater literature of the world.—Frederic Harrison. A CHILD. All seems so bright and perfect, and quite a new life seems to open before me in that beloved little child. She helps me to look forward to slifch a far distance, and opens quite a new view of one’s own purpose arid duties on earth. It is something new to live for, to train a human soul entrusted to us, to fit her for her true home beyond this life.—Max Muller. :* si :: THE BEST MONUMENT. Do good, and leavfe behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love and mercy on the hearts of thousands yotk corrie in contact with year by year, arid you will riever be forgotten. No, your name, your deeds, wil be as legible ori the hearts you leave behind as the stars on the brow of the evening. Good deeds will shine as brightly on the earth as the stars of heaven.—Dr Chalmers. CHILDHOOD’S DREAMS. The dreams of childhood—its airy fables; its graceful, beautifill, humane impossibly adorhments of the world be3*ond, so good to be believed in. once, so good to be refnembfcred when outgrown. for then the least amortg therri rises to the stature of a great charity in the heart, suffering little children to come into the midst of it and to keep with their piire hands a garden in the stony ways of the world, wherein it was better for all the children of Adam that they should oftener sun themselves, simple and trustful, and not worldly wise.—Charles Dickens. :*: x MY WORLD. God gave my world to me, And I rebelliotisly Cried out, “ How small! And is this all?" His words were sad, yet mild: “ All that you love, mv child.” Myself that moment died, And born anew I cried: “ Love, take control Arid lead my soul To serve my small estate”; And 10, my world is great! ■ —C. R. Pietv. <■: ti TO-DAY! Be swift to love your own, dears, our own, who need you so; Say to the speeding hour, dears, “ I will not let thee go— Except thou give a blessing”; Force it to bide and Stay. Love has no sure to-morrow. It only has to-day. Swifter than sun and shade, dears, Move the fleet wings of pain; The chance we have to-day, dears, May never come again; Joy is a fickle rover. He brooketh not delay. Love has no sure to-morrow. It only has to-day. * —Susan Coolidge. WHY GOD* WITHHELD REST. When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, “ L?t us,” said • He, “ pour on him all Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie. Contract into a span.” So strength first made a way, * Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure; When almost all was out, God made a stay. Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure. Rest in the bottom lay. “ For if I should,” said lie, “ Bestow this jewel also on My creature. He would adore My gifts instead of Me, Arid rest in Nature, not the God of Nature; Sd both should losers be. “ Yet let him keep the rest. But keep them with repining resflessLet him be rich and weary, that at least, If goodness lead him not, y6t wresririess May toss him to My bfeagt." George Herbert (1593-1633.) NO SUCH THING AS CHANCE. The first thing that men learned, as soon as they began to study Nature carefully, was that some events take place in regular order, and that some causes always -give rise to the same effects. The sun always rises on one side and sets on the other side of the sky. The changes of the moon follow one another in the same order, and with similar intervals; , water always • flows down hill; fire always burns; animals are born, grow, reach maturity and die age after age in the same way. Thus the notion of an order of Nature, and of a fixity in the relation of cause and effect between things gradually entered the minds of nien. So far aS such order prevailed it was felt that things were explained, while things that could not be explained were said to have come by chance or ' accident. But the mdre carefully Nature has been studied the more widely lias order been found to prevail, while what seemed disorder has proved to be nothing but complexity; until at present no due is so foolish as to believe that anything happens by chance, or that there are any real accidents, in the sense of events which have no cause. And if we say that a thing happens by chance, everybody admits that all we really mean is that we do not know its cause or the reason why that particular thing happens. Chance and accident are only the aliases for ignorance.—Huxley.