~Present, The.~--Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is
gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is
passing.--_Goethe._
Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering
present.--_Schiller._
'Tis but a short journey across the isthmus of Now.--_Bovee._
The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future
ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest
prospect.--_Thoreau._
Let us enjoy the fugitive hour. Man has no harbor, time has no shore, it
rushes on and carries us with it.--_Lamartine._
~Presentiment.~--We walk in the midst of secrets--we are encompassed with
mysteries. We know not what takes place in the atmosphere that
surrounds us--we know not what relations it has with our minds. But one
thing is sure, that, under certain conditions, our soul, through the
exercise of mysterious functions, has a greater power than reason, and
that the power is given it to antedate the future,--ay, to see into the
future.--_Goethe._
We should not neglect a presentiment. Every man has within him a spark
of divine radiance which is often the torch which illumines the darkness
of our future.--_Madame de Girardin._
~Press.~--The press is not only free, it is powerful. That power is ours.
It is the proudest that man can enjoy. It was not granted by monarchs,
it was not gained for us by aristocracies; but it sprang from the
people, and, with an immortal instinct, it has always worked for the
people.--_B. Disraeli._
~Presumption.~--Presumption is our natural and original
disease.--_Montaigne._
Presumption never stops in its first attempt. If Caesar comes once to
pass the Rubicon, he will be sure to march further on, even till he
enters the very bowels of Rome, and breaks open the Capitol itself. He
that wades so far as to wet and foul himself, cares not how much he
trashes further.--_South._