INDEX.

Answer, a soft, wrath-dispelling, 357;

most exquisite revenge for reproaches, 358;

like healing balm, 359;

comes of practised patience, 359;

Illustrations from Alison, Sir Matthew Hale, Spenser, Decker, and

others, 357-360.

Anticipations of the future, delusive, 333;

often crushed when nearest realization, 334;

when seeming fulfilled, extinguished by death, 336;

Illustrations from Homer, Michelet, Cowper, Mrs. Gaskell, and

others, 333-337.

Anxious foreboding, forbidden by Scripture, 47;

deprecated by pagan philosophy, 48;

no preparation for coming ills, 48;

only causes a depression of spirits, 49;

and cripples energy, 50;

destroys present enjoyment, 51;

cannot see into the future, 52;

indulged in, breeds despair, 54;

remedy for, 54;

Illustrations from Hume, Swift, Schleiermacher, Longfellow, and

others, 48-55.

Appetite, indulgence in, indecent, 249;

cause of death to royalty, 250;

inability of some to resist, 251;

allowed in Italy, in case of fatal sickness, 253;

a common weakness, 254;

Illustrations from Adam Smith, Gibbon, Tennyson, Gray, George

Herbert, and others, 242-255.

Bargains, makers of, their tactics, 367;

depreciate when buying, 368;

exaggerate when selling, 369;

customs of different countries, 370;

horse-dealers, their tactics, 371;

an exception to the general rule of, 372;

Illustrations from A. K. H. B., Fuller, Leigh Hunt, Capt. Marryat,

Kingsley, Plautus, and others, 367-372.

Beauty, but a clothed skeleton, 101;

all lost in the grave, 102;

only food for worms, 133;

Illustrations from Byron, Southey, Blair, Macaulay, and others,

100-104.

Beneficence, secret, an exception to the rule, 259;

dislike of, to thanks, 260;

of Wellington and Byron, 261;

finds a reward in itself, 262;

Illustrations from Chamfort, Goldsmith, Smollett, Cowper, and

others, 259-262.

Childhood, everything may be hoped from, 382;

evanescence of promise in, 383;

retrospect of, shows how we have fallen, 384;

possibility of a noble future for all, 385;

much of the good in, checked from development, 386;

Illustrations from Dante, Adam Smith, Samuel Rogers, Baron

Alderson, Charles Lamb, Dr. Caird, and others, 381-386.

Children, dying before their parents, an inversion of natural order,

182;

one of the greatest sorrows to man, 183;

the case of Mohammed cited, 184;

ruins the hopes of the parents, 186;

Citations from Canon Melvill, Edmund Burke, Moore, and others,

182-187.

Co-workers, all human beings, 348;

each in his place or degree, 349;

all required to account for their performance of their part, 350;

the difference in, not position, but how duties performed, 351;

all to one end, and that is with God, 352;

Illustrations from Coleridge, John Newton, Mrs. Gaskell, Colani,

Milton, and others, 348-352.

Darkness, increases the sense of danger, 223;

and the bitterness of death, 324;

power of, over the guilty, 324;

natural dread of, in mankind, 326;

of coming death, rouses a longing for light, 327;

the concomitant of misery, 327;

Illustrations from Marlowe, Scott, Croly, Professor Newman, Lord

Lytton, Dickens, and others, 323-328.

Death, sum and story of all humanity, 156;

the inevitable fate of all, 157;

a leveller of all distinctions and grades, 160;

even in Arcadia, 163;

the actions of the just blossom in, 165;

Illustrations from Addison, Barry Cornwall, James Montgomery,

Gibbon, Warton, Prior, George Herbert, and others, 156-165.

Elements, the, God only can control, 233;

the folly of man commanding, 232;

all men subject to, 232;

folly of Xerxes cited, 233;

legends of power of priests over, 234;

the greatest conquerors, impotent against, 235;

moral application, 237;

Illustrations from Pepys, Longfellow, Gibbon, Carlyle, Cowper, and

others, 231-237.

Falsity of friends, the sharpest pang of all, 201;

darkens man’s views of the moral government of God, 206;

shakes confidence in the whole world, 206;

David’s lament over, 208;

Illustrations from Colani, Milman, Longfellow, Corneille,

Shakspeare, and others, 200-208.

Faults in others, more easily discerned than in ourselves, 187;

we should mend our own, before looking for those of others, 188;

we often possess those, that we attribute to others, 190;

Illustrations from Trench, Horace, Hogg, Molière, Mrs. Inchbald,

and others, 187-191.

Flowers, not to be considered in a utilitarian light, 109;

awaken finer sensibilities, 110;

akin to the poetic faculty in man, 111;

the teaching of, lost on the dull, 112;

woman compared to, 113;

Illustrations from Tennyson, Leigh Hunt, Isaac Taylor, Shenstone,

and others, 109-113.

Freedom, from righteousness, a service to sin, 60;

true, only found in God’s service, 61;

sweetened by constraint, 61;

without law, pernicious, 62;

at times a relief to give up, 63;

too much, in art and literature, hurtful, 64;

obedience nobler than, 65;

Illustrations from Gray, Wordsworth, Goethe, Mrs. Gaskell, and

others, 60-66.

Freedom, the service of, 66;

from self-control, a bane, 67;

not idleness, 67;

may be enjoyed in a prison, 68;

maintained by law, 70;

Illustrations from Keble, Cowper, Johnson, Hawthorne, and others,

66-70.

Friendship, closer than relationship, 328;

want of with relatives, arises from lack of sympathy, 329;

or of knowledge of each other, 332;

Illustrations from Samuel Bailey, Thackeray, Sir Thos. Browne,

Montaigne, Richardson, and others, 328-332.

Futurity, prying into brings a penalty, 76;

ignorance of, an advantage and happiness, 77;

a knowledge of, would cloud our life, 78;

hidden from us by God, 79;

could we foresee, we should suffer by anticipation, as well as

reality, 80;

and lose hope, 81;

visionary previsions of, vanity, 82;

ignorance of, a source of content, 84;

and deprives death of part of its gloom, 85;

Illustrations from Cicero, Froude, De Quincey, Scott, La Bruyère,

and others, 76-86.

Gray hairs, first notice of decline, 372;

various ways, first discovery of, met, 373;

a shadow of the end, 374;

come unawares, 375;

Illustrations from Coleridge, C. Bowles, Thackeray, Trollope,

Tennyson, and others, 372-376.

Greatness and affluence, sometimes productive of selfishness, 15;

loss of, awakens sympathy with poor and afflicted, 16;

peculiar sin of, carelessness rather than inhumanity, 17;

this often the result of early education, 18;

sympathy with poverty need not destroy natural joy of, 18;

one object of suffering, to re-unite poverty with, 19;

of some, not a cause of poverty in others, 20;

oft performs its charity by commission, 21;

desirable for, to make personal acquaintance with misery and

suffering, 22;

case of the Pretender cited, 26;

causes an isolation from the poor, 28;

shows best when engaged in works of mercy, 28;

results of want of thought in, 29-31;

benefit of proper use of, 32;

Illustrations from Shakspeare, 17;

La Bruyère, Hannah More, and others, 18-32.

Guilt, first thoughts of, abhorrent, 255;

case of Hazael, 255;

mere protestation against, no safeguard against, 256;

familiarity with, breeds apologies for, 257;

one step in, speedily induces others, unsuspected, 258;

transforms those subject to it, 259;

Illustrations from Miss Lee, Tobin, Dr. Hamilton, Southey,

Sainte-Beuve, and others, 255-259.

Hearing, with the mind as well as ears, 386;

interest in theme, creates attentive, 387;

compared with seeing, 388;

difference between, and marking, 388;

some have no, for spiritual things, 389;

Illustrations: Milton, Webster, Balzac, Dumas, Shakspeare, and

others, 386-389.

Human body, the, reduced to its lowest terms, 104;

Hamlet’s speculation on, 105;

as Mummy, a merchandise, 106;

turned to animal black, 106;

suggestion to use bones as a manure, 107;

used for earthworks, 108;

Illustrations from Sydney Smith, Chateaubriand, Xenophon, Dicey,

and others, 101-109.

Human Knowledge, imperfection of, 224;

in things of this world, 226;

in the workings of providence, 226;

imperfect, because we cannot see the end of all, 229;

Illustrations from Locke, Mrs. Browning, Thomson, Addison, Le

Maistre, and others, 224-231.

Hurry and Excitement, the characteristic of the present age, 242;

its effect on current literature, 243;

destructive of calm thought, 244;

different from haste, 245;

hinders clearness of perception, 246;

deadens capacity for simpler enjoyments, 247;

too little work as fatal as, 248;

Illustrations from Chateaubriand, Dr. Boyd, Longfellow, Sir Henry

Taylor, and others, 242-249.

Joy—human, mostly overshadowed, 87;

of success, overclouded by the thought of the future, 88;

of hope, by thought of others’ present suffering, 89;

present, by the thought of death, 90;

soon fades, 91;

Illustrations from Gibbon, R. Browning, Lord Lytton, Hannay, and

others, 86-91.

Judgment, Man’s, of his fellow, deprecated, 208;

wrong, because he knows not himself, 210;

nor the secrets of others, 211;

nor their motives, 212;

the habit of, presumptuous, 213;

God’s, the only just, 214;

God’s, more merciful than man’s, 215;

man’s necessarily imperfect, 216;

human, severe, 219;

of the heart, belongs only to God, 221;

should be charitable, because of our own failings, 224;

Illustrations from Shakspeare, Sir Thomas Browne, La Bruyère,

Arthur Helps, O. W. Holmes, Anthony Trollope, Carlyle, and

others, 208-224.

Lies, lead to further lies, case of Jacob, 290;

carry their punishment, in necessity of further lies, 291;

inextricably entangle those who use them, 293;

injurious to those who tell them, 294;

one makes a necessity for others, 295;

Illustrations from Mrs. Browning, Scott, Corneille, Cellini, Jeremy

Taylor, Beaumont and Fletcher, and others, 290-296.

Light—“at evening time”—the promise of, a comfort, 313;

a deliverance from the fear of death, 314;

often clears up the end of a life of trial, 315;

disperses all darkness and difficulties, 316;

a relief from troubles in declining years, 317;

appears sometimes unexpectedly, 318;

_Light_—a longing of the human soul, 319;

to die in, almost a universal craving, 321;

the comfort of dying moments, 322;

Illustrations from Bunyan, O. W. Holmes, Dickens, Shirley Brooks,

Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, Sophocles, Landor, and others, 313-323.

Love and Gentleness more powerful agents than force, 33;

illustrations from Plutarch, 33;

children more easily governed by, than fear, 34;

this also the case with nations, 35;

natures not amenable to, exceptional, 35;

the means usually employed by women to gain their ends, 36;

the best method for missionaries, 37;

used by Queen Elizabeth and Empress Catherine towards their people,

38;

when rulers fail with, they employ worse means, 39;

best means of eliciting truth, 40;

works even on the most depraved natures, 40;

Illustrations from Ben Jonson, Mr. Freeman, Scott, Dr. Beattie, and

others, 32-41.

Lying, engenders lying, 286;

the case of St. Peter, 287;

demands a good memory, 288;

leads to hopeless entanglement, 289;

first step in all wrong doing, 289;

Illustrated by Trench, Swift, Robertson, Froude, and others,

286-290.

(See also pp. 290-296.)

Mirth, good in due season, 296;

must be recommended by higher qualities, 297;

too much is wearisome, 298;

deep and true feeling of more real value than mere, 299;

in some, always inclines to sadness, 300;

Illustrations from Tennyson, St. Evremond, Richardson, Scott, Mrs.

Riddell, Hood, and others, 296-300.

Music—its power to dispel evil humours, 55;

gives ease in various nervous disorders, 56;

used by Luther to repel his visions of Satan, 57;

removed the melancholy of a king of Spain, 57;

wakes up feelings of the past, 58;

studied by the Jewish priesthood, 58;

effect of, on lunatics, 59;

soothes grief, 60;

Illustrations from Beveridge, Burton, Sir James Stephen, Schiller,

and others, 55-60.

Order, Heaven’s first law, 273;

human not to be compared with Divine, 274;

obedience to, the stay of the world, 275;

to be found in all God’s handiwork, 276;

man should be the servant of, 277;

love of, improving to the mind, 278;

the basis of civil government, 279;

truth is, 280;

a love of, may subsist with a low mental standard, 281;

the happiness of heaven, 281;

Illustrations from C. H. Townshend, Hooker, Carlyle, Shaftesbury,

Lowell, George Herbert, Crabbe, Patmore, Southey, 273-282.

Plans, of Man, overruled by God, 305;

for the future, vain, 306;

often bring but trouble, 308;

Illustrations from Helps, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Thackeray,

Schiller, Congreve, Tasso, 305-309.

Praise, of self, unseemly, 96;

productive of ridicule, 96;

common among savages, 97;

a mark of vanity, 98;

fault of Cato and Cicero, 98;

true merit disdains, 99;

degrading, 100;

Illustrations from Plutarch, Swift, Chateaubriand, Barrow, Feltham,

Carlyle, 96-100.

Prayer, without action, the mark of feebleness, 342;

with action, shows trust in God, 343;

for help, must be accompanied by self-help, 345;

only when in danger, the folly of some, 346;

of Benvenuto Cellini, 347;

Illustrations from Bentley, Kingsley, Froude, John Brown, Lord

Broughton, and others, 342-347.

Prayers—at times made for what would be our own hurt, 147;

made in ignorance of true needs, 148;

the best, for those things which God sees needful for us, 149;

instances of ruin, by granted, 150;

real answer to, opposite of what we expect, 152;

granted, by seeming to be rejected, 154;

Illustrations from Plato, Juvenal, Montaigne, Madame de Sévigné,

Carlyle, Walpole, Jane Taylor, De Quincey, Tennyson, 147-156.

Present despair, succeeded by comfort, 92;

anger, by joy, 92;

joy, by grief, 92;

pleasure, mixed with pain, 93;

triumph, with anxiety for the future, 94;

prosperity bears within it decay, 95;

Illustrations from Shakspeare, Byron, Mrs. Browning, Johnson,

Tennyson, Pope, 91-95.

“Prophet, no man one in his own country,” 143;

few admired by their own domestics, 144;

mankind apt to underrate those they are familiar with, 145;

some exceptions to the rule, 146;

Illustrations from Montaigne, Ben Jonson, Scott, Mrs. Oliphant,

Milman, 143-147.

Protestation, fervid, case of Peter’s, 165;

too much, a mark of insincerity, 166;

over, awakens suspicion, 167;

over, the refuge of base minds, 168;

not needful to truth, 168;

seldom to be trusted, 169;

fails of its purpose, 170;

Illustrations from Racine, Disraeli, Milman, Hawthorne, Wolcot,

Corneille, Feltham, Fielding, B. Jonson, Alison, 165-170.

Purposes of man, often frustrated by God, 301;

confounded by the smallest accident, 302;

often end as least expected, 302;

Illustrations from Molière, Dryden, W. Irving, Burns, Wordsworth,

301-304.

Repentance and Relapse, in the case of Pharaoh, 125;

in sickness, and falling back in health, a mark of weak minds, 126;

made in fear of death, usually vanishes on removal of cause, 127;

the irreligious, prompt with in trouble, 128;

Infidels in health, repentant in sickness, 130;

at times, but want of power to sin, 131;

may in some, be measured by their health, 132;

when in danger, no repentance, 134;

Illustrations from Boileau, Lady M. W. Montagu, Scott, Le Sage,

Crabbe, Montesquieu, Butler, Wolcot, Gibbon, Whately, 125-134.

Retributive Justice, in the case of Haman, 41;

that of Daniel, and his accusers, 42;

the delight of early ballads, 42;

popular history teaches, by examples, 43;

examples of, from ancient history, 44;

Illustrations from Hamlet, 47.

Retrospect of Human Life, vanity, 361;

in, swiftness of time seems infinite, 302;

in, past seems as a dream, 364;

nothing in regard to eternity, 364;

Illustrations from Seneca, Moore, Southey, Mde. de Sévigné, Cowper,

and others, 361-365.

Saints considered as Strangers and Pilgrims, 192;

to them, this world but as an inn, 193;

looking to their home, lightens their earthly troubles, 194;

this world as a wilderness, 196;

their home on high, 197;

look there for their rest, 198;

this, to them, a subject of rejoicing, 200;

Illustrations: Leighton, Beveridge, Lamennais, John Foster,

Chaucer, Mrs. Browning, Robertson, Keble, 192-200.

Scripture, often quoted, by the vicious, to excuse their faults, 10,

13;

by divines to support their own peculiar tenets, 11;

used in election squibs, 12;

sometimes quoted for self-deceit, 14;

misused quotations, 14;

Illustrations from Bunyan, Shakspeare, Carlyle, Dickens, and

others, 10-16.

Self-control, the greatest victory, 276;

the effort of all noble minds, 377;

constant practice of, subdues the most violent tempers, 377;

strengthened by religion, 378;

should be exercised in letter writing, 379;

failure of, causes the greatest mischief, 380;

Illustrations from Marcus Antoninus, Clarendon, Macaulay, Dr.

Chalmers, Scott, Gibbon, Swift, Buxton, Molière, 376-381.

Shadow a, man’s life compared to, 170;

earthly pursuits and pleasures, but, 171;

man’s corpse becomes, 173;

some waste their life in hunting, 175;

reality to be sought above, and hereafter, 181;

man’s soul a reality, 182;

Illustrations: Burke, Emerson, G. Herbert, Scott, R. Browning, Abbé

Gerbert, Hawthorne, La Bruyère, De Tocqueville, Hare, Sterling,

Rob. Lytton, Churchill, Carlyle, 170-182.

Silence, discreet in a fool, 70;

a virtue in wise men, 71;

when it breaks, ignorance shows itself, 72;

by keeping, fools acquire respect, 73;

often taken as a mark of wisdom, 75;

Illustrations: Sir Thomas Browne, Montaigne, Ben Jonson, C. Lamb,

W. Irving, Jewsbury, Goldsmith, and others, 70-76.

Sin of One Man, consequences of felt by whole nations, cases of

Achan and David, 1;

results of, felt in distant lands and by future generations, 2;

affects others by force of example, 4;

remote consequences of, even greater than present, 5;

the effects of, often show when deed forgotten by sinner, 5;

Illustrations from South, G. Eliot, Robert Browning, and others,

1-6.

Sleep, Death compared to, in Scripture, 134;

and Death as twin brothers, 135;

a counterfeit of death, 136;

Sancho Panza’s apostrophe to, 136;

a daily death, 137;

of a child, as death of a Christian, 138;

Illustrations from Homer, Warton, Byron, Sir Thomas Browne, George

Herbert, Mrs. Browning, and others, 134-139.

Sleep, peaceful, destroyed by crime, 282;

exceptions to the rule, 283;

disturbed by feelings of remorse, 284;

only enjoyed by an innocent mind, 286;

Illustrations from “Macbeth,” G. W. Cooke, R. Lytton, Hawthorne,

Godwin, Roscoe, Webster, 282-286.

Society, regarded as a body, 353;

each member in, has his peculiar functions, 353;

subordination in, no degradation, 354;

all service in, the same in God’s sight, 355;

contentment to be found by each member of, in doing his duty, 356;

Illustrations: F. W. Robertson, Mrs. Browning, R. Browning,

Wordsworth, J. C. Hare, R. Lytton, G. Herbert, 353-357.

Solitude, in death, 389;

in a spiritual sense, not to the Christian, 390;

the bitterest pang of humanity, 390;

the choice of the animal creation, 391;

a preference for, in some natures, 391;

in a natural sense, a necessity, 393;

our Lord, the highest example of, 396;

Illustrations from Pascal, Wordsworth, Scott, Merivale, De Quincey,

Crabbe, Robertson, W. Humboldt, Mrs. Browning, 389-396.

Stage, this world considered as a, 114;

man an actor on, 115;

human life in its varieties, like a play, 116;

one man plays many parts, 118;

man of the world, only first-class actor, 118;

Mary Stuart, an actress on the political, 119;

every man spectator as well as actor, 120;

players the representatives of human nature, 121;

an epitome of this world, 121;

necessity for each to act his part well, on, 123;

Illustrations from Shakspeare, Sir Thomas Browne, Cervantes, Dr.

Maginn, Sainte-Beuve, Chamfort, Hazlitt, Overbury, R. Hall,

114-125.

Sympathy, as first shown by Job’s friends, 6;

often best proved by silence, 7;

moralizing no evidence of, 8;

more strongly evidenced by deeds, 8;

Illustrations from Steele, Rousseau, and others, 6-9.

To-morrow, cannot be calculated upon, 263;

hopes and fears intent on, 264;

penitence deferred till, too late, 266;

vain the pursuit of, 266;

the refuge of fools, 268;

a favourite phrase with Napoleon, 270;

a vanishing quantity, 271;

one, will come to all, 273;

Illustrations: Shakspeare, C. Rossetti, Charles Reade, Hawthorne,

Prior, Macaulay, Southey, and others, 263-273.

Unconscious peril—the case of Saul, 237;

surrounds man, 238;

retrospect of, more interesting than that of positive danger, 239;

escape from, proof of superintending Providence, 240;

often nearest when least suspected, 241;

Illustrations: Cowper, De Quincey, Hawthorne, Scott, Southey,

Milman, Young, 237-242.

Unrest, one of the woes denounced against the Jews, 365;

one of the greatest afflictions of man, 366;

Illustrations: Shakspeare, Landor, Crabbe, Keats, Keble, Mrs.

Gaskell, Shenstone, 365-367.

Utilitarianism, of the crass, pur-blind sort, 309;

has no sympathy with the beautiful as such, 310;

or self-sacrifice, 311;

only a one-sided and degrading way of satisfying the mind, 312;

sees nothing beyond money-making, 313;

Illustrations from Hare, Carlyle, Coleridge, Buckle, De

Tocqueville, Haliburton, 309-313.

Vain-glory, punishment of, in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, 337;

of Belshazzar, 338;

mostly the forerunner of a fall, 339;

founded on the favour of man, 341;

Illustrations from Prescott, Ben Jonson, Milman, Shakspeare, and

others, 337-342.

Worth, unrecognized, by one’s kindred, case of David cited, 139;

Pythagoras said to have borrowed his learning, etc., 140;

familiarities of common life hinder appreciation of, 141;

one’s family most difficult to convince of, 142;

Illustrations from Euripides, Gibbon, David Hume, Swift, Horace

Walpole, and others, 139-143.