He that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love
with sorrow and peevishness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses
to sit down on his little handful of thorns. Such a person is fit to
bear Nero company in his funeral sorrow for the loss of one of Poppea's
hairs, or help to mourn for Lesbia's sparrow; and because he loves it,
he deserves to starve in the midst of plenty, and to want comfort while
he is encircled with blessings.--_Jeremy Taylor._
~Soul.~--Had I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the
oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this
alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a
discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look
for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this
life; everything reassumes its order after death.--_Rousseau._
What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. What is the soul?
It is immaterial.--_Hood._
The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments
and contradictory opinions with much impartiality.--_George Eliot._
Our immortal souls, while righteous, are by God himself beautified with
the title of his own image and similitude.--_Sir W. Raleigh._
~Specialty.~--No one can exist in society without some specialty. Eighty
years ago it was only necessary to be well dressed and amiable; to-day a
man of this kind would be too much like the garcons at the
cafes.--_Taine._
~Speech.~--Sheridan once said of some speech, in his acute, sarcastic way,
that "it contained a great deal both of what was new and what was true:
but that unfortunately what was new was not true, and what was true was
not new."--_Hazlitt._
God has given us speech in order that we may say pleasant things to our
friends, and tell bitter truths to our enemies.--_Heinrich Heine._
The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a
scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of
language and has a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to
hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one
set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are
always ready at the mouth: so people come faster out of a church when it
is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.--_Dean Swift._
Speech is like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the
imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in
packs.--_Plutarch._
Never is the deep, strong voice of man, or the low, sweet voice of
woman, finer than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech,
richer than the richest music, which are a delight while they are heard,
which linger still upon the ear in softened echoes, and which, when they
have ceased, come, long after, back to memory, like the murmurs of a
distant hymn.--_Henry Giles._
Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the
speech they know to be useless--nay, the speech they have resolved not
to utter.--_George Eliot._
~Sport.~--Dwell not too long upon sports; for as they refresh a man that
is weary, so they weary a man that is refreshed.--_Fuller._
~Spring.~--Stately Spring! whose robe-folds are valleys, whose
breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal
evening.--_Richter._