GOOD-BY.

"Farewell! farewell!" is often heard

From the lips of those who part:

'Tis a whispered tone,--'tis a gentle word,

But it springs not from the heart.

It may serve for the lover's closing lay,

To be sung 'neath a summer sky;

But give to me the lips that say

The honest words, "Good-by!"

"Adieu! adieu!" may greet the ear,

In the guise of courtly speech:

But when we leave the kind and dear,

'Tis not what the soul would teach.

Whene'er we grasp the hands of those

We would have forever nigh,

The flame of friendship bursts and glows

In the warm, frank words, "Good-by."

The mother, sending forth her child

To meet with cares and strife,

Breathes through her tears, her doubts, and fears

For the loved one's future life.

No cold "adieu," no "farewell," lives

Within her choking sigh,

But the deepest sob of anguish gives,

"God bless, thee, boy! 'Good-by!'"

--_Anonymous._

777

The sign of goodness in the young is to love the old; and in the old to

love the young.

778

To all, to each, a fair good night,

And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.

--_Sir Walter Scott._

779

The Cross is the guarantee of the Gospel; therefore it has been its

standard.

--_Amiel._

780

There is so much bad in the best of us,

And so much good in the worst of us,

That it hardly behooves any of us,

To talk about the rest of us.

--_Robert Louis Stevenson._

781

_Leviticus xix. 16._--"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer

among thy people."

At a small town in ----shire lives a decent honest woman, who has for

more than forty years gained her livelihood by washing in gentlemen's

families. She gives the highest satisfaction to all her employers, and

has, in several instances, been the whole of that time in the employ of

the same families. Indeed, those whom she has once served never wish to

part with her. She has one distinguishing excellency, it is this:

through all this course of years,--forty--she has never been known, by

either mistress or servant, to repeat in one house what was said or done

in another.

--_John Whitecross_, _Edinburgh, 1835_.

782

Tale-bearers, as I said before, are just as bad as the tale-makers.

--_Sheridan._

783

The inquisitive are the funnels of conversation; they do not take in

anything for their own use, but merely to pass it to others.

--_Steele._

784

What future misery ought they to endure who talk of what is not good in

others.

--_Chinese Maxim._

785

If families have no sons devoted to letters, whence are the governors of

the people to come?

(Necessity for general education.)

--_Chinese._

786

He governs best who governs least.

--_Latin._

787

Life and Literature Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, and classified in alphabetical order · 第 147 / 867 题