~Afflictions.~--Before an affliction is digested, consolation comes too
soon; and after it is digested, it comes too late; but there is a mark
between these two, as fine, almost, as a hair, for a comforter to take
aim at.--_Sterne._
Stars shine brightest in the darkest night; torches are better for
beating; grapes come not to the proof till they come to the press;
spices smell best when bruised; young trees root the faster for shaking;
gold looks brighter for scouring; juniper smells sweetest in the fire;
the palm-tree proves the better for pressing; chamomile, the more you
tread it, the more you spread it. Such is the condition of all God's
children: they are then most triumphant when most tempted; most glorious
when most afflicted.--_Bogatzky._
That which thou dost not understand when thou readest, thou shalt
understand in the day of thy visitation. For many secrets of religion
are not perceived till they be felt, and are not felt but in the day of
a great calamity.--_Jeremy Taylor._
Nothing so much increases one's reverence for others as a great sorrow
to one's self. It teaches one the depths of human nature. In happiness
we are shallow, and deem others so.--_Charles Buxton._