Gems.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 December 1883, Page 11

Gems.

Act towards others as you desire them to act toward yOU. —IsOCRATES. We should do good to our enemy and make him our friend.—C erbulus. Do nothing which will occasion grief to yourself or others.—Oleantiies.

A calamity is always the better borne for not bein" previously dwelt upon.— Mme Bunsen. ° Four things come not back—the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, the neglected opportunity.— Hazlitt. No man ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time did a much greater injury to himself Bishop Butler. Remember that every person, however low, has rights and feelings. In all contentions, let peace be rather your object than triumph. Value triumph only as the means of peace —Sydney Smith. No one loves to tell a tale cf scandal, except to him that loves to hear it; learn, then, to check and rebuke the detracting tongue, by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure.— Jerome. To talk about eternal torment is not difficult, to press belief in it may be possible even for good-natured people, but to think it, to bring it home to reason or heart, is what the stoutest cannot do. — Frothingham. The wrongs we inflict upon our neighbors follow us like our shadow. Love of his follow-creatures should be the i uling principle of the just man in all his works, for that weighs the most in the celestial balance. - Chrishna. Fi iendship is reciprocal benevolenca which inclines each individual to be as anxious for another’s welfare as his own. It is better to be poor than illiterate , for the poor only want money, the illiterate lack the distinguishing characteristics of human nature. Aristippus. Use moderation. Believe not all. Be equally mindful of friends present and absent. Cherish thy parents. What thou bestowest on thy parents thou shalt receive from thy children in thy old age. That which thou blamest in another do not thyself to thy neighour,— Thales. Watch thyself with all diligence and hold thyself in as the spirited steed is held in by its owner, Master thyself so mayest thou teach others, and easily tame them, after having tamed thyself; for self is hardest to tame! The taint worse than all others is ignorance.— Buddha. The grandest of empires is to rule one’s self. There is nothing grand that is not also calm. Who has most? He who desires least. Throw away all anxiety about life and make it pleasant. If you hear that others have spoken ill of you, consider whether you have not done the same about many people. How much better to heal an injury than to avenge it. I shall take the world as rny country. Guard vigorously that social tie which binds man to man and establishes the rights common to the human race. Life is waifare, and those who climb up and down steep paths and go through dangerous enterprises are the brave men and the leaders in the camp : but to rest basely at the cost of others labors is to be a coward, safe because despised. Seneca. . 1)0(33 ie son o °f the herald-angels, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” express the exaltation and the yearning of a human soul, or does it describe an optical and acoustic fact—a visible host and an audible song? If the former, the exaltation and the yearning are man’s imperishable possession—a ferment \sic\ long confined to individuals, but which may by and by become the leaven of the race. If the latter, then belief in the entire transaction is wrecked by non-fulfilment. Look to tne Fast, at the present moment [1877], as a comment on the promise of peace on earth and good will toward men. That promise is a dream dissolved by the experience of eighteen centuries. But though the mechanical theory of a vocal heavenly multitude proves untenable, the immortal song and the feelings it expresses are still ours, to be incorporated, let us hope, in purer and less shadowy forms in the poetry, philosophy and practice of the future Tyndall on Man’s Soul.

Whatever tends to preserve and ameliorate mankind is good ; and whatever tends to the destruction and deterioration thereof is evil. — Volney. Faithfulness and sincerity are the highest qualities. When you transgress do not fear to return. Learn the past and you will know the future. Not to correct our faults is to commit new ones. Be rigid to yourself and gentle to others, and you will have no enemies.— Confucius. The only true aristocracy, probably, is that of kindness. Intellect without heart is infinitely cruel; as cruel as wealth without sense of justice; as cruel as muscle without mercy. So that, after all, the real aristocracy must be that of goodness where the intellect is directed by the heart.— Col. Ingersoll. Do not that to your neighbor which you would not wish to take from him. Speak ill of no one, not even your enemies. Whatsoever you do, do it well. Never boast of your plans before they are executed, for fear of the ridicule and disappointment to which you will be exposed if you do not accomplish them. — Pittacus. Justice is the virtue of treating every one according to his deserts. Justice includes the observance of the laws for the preservation of society and the discharge of obligations and debts between equals. Learning is the best provision against old age. There is just as much difference between the wise and the foolish as there is between the living and the dead. —Aristotle. It is criminal not only to do mischief, but to wish it. He who subdues his passions is more heroic than ho who vanquishes an enemy. Do nothing shameful though you are alone. It is the office of prudence, where it is possible, to prevent injuries; but where this cannot be done a wise regard to our tranquility will prevent us from avenging them. —Democritus. There is no better way to true glory than to endeavor to be good rather than seem so. Only the wise man can be brave, just, and temperate. Vice of every kind is ignorance. If a man is cowardly it is because he does not rightly appreciate the importance of life and death. Ho thinks death an evil and flees from it. If he were wise he would know that death is a good thing, or at least an indifferent one, and therefore would not shun it. —Socrates. I deny the existence of such a being as the Hebrew Jehovah, or Calvin’s God, who walked and talked with men ; who destroyed them purposely with flood and fire, earthquake and plague ; who turned a ■woman into salt; made an ass speak ; killed fifty thousand and seventy men for looking into the ark ; stopped the sun and moon in order that a Hebrew “fillibuster” might slaughter the Canaanites; saved a drowning prophet in a whale’s bell}' ; and who makes “ decrees’Tor the salvation of some, and allows others to inhabit an eternal hell.—ll. C. Adams. Theology is now making its voyage from the icebergbreeding regions of the far north, where the pinnacles and the towers, and the mountains of wondrous gleaming glory, 7 O O o «/ " sail slowly every day to their destruction, melting at the bottom by the warmth of the water of the Gulf Stream, melting at the top by the shining of the sun. They turn over every once in a while, groaning as they turn, and by-and-by, rotted, they sink and are mixed with the ocean flood. So the old systems of theology, on which honest men, good men, expended their lives, are bound to dissolution. —ll. W. Beecher. Nothing can ever spring from nothing, nor can anything ever return to nothing. The universe always existed and will always remain, for there is nothing into which it can be changed. There is nothing in nature, nor can anything be conceived, besides body and space. Body is that which possesses the properties of bulk, figure, resistance and gravity. It is this alone which can touch or be touched. Space is the region where body is or may be occupied by body, and which affords an opportunity of moving freely. Besides these—body and space—no third nature can be conceived ; for such a nature must either have bulk or solidity, or want them, that is, it must either be body or space. The universe consisting of body and space, is infinite, for it has no limits. Bodies are infinite in multitude. Space is infinite in magnitude. The universe is to be conceived as immovable, since beyond it there is no place into which it can move ; and as eternal and immutable, since it is neither liable to increase nor decrease, to production nor decay.— Epicurus.