pitifulness of things. She had thought too much to be able to indulge in
the primitive luxury of unqualified condemnation."
_In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim_,
Mrs. HODGSON BURNETT.
"She was one of those lowly women who apply the severity born of their
creed to themselves, and spend only the love born of the indwelling
Spirit upon their neighbour."
G. MACDONALD.
Justice and Mercy
JUNE 28
"It is not even, amongst men, the best and purest who are found to be
the severest censors and judges of others. Quickness to detect and
expose the weakness and frailties of a fellow-man, harshness in
condemning them, mercilessness in punishing them, are not the
characteristics which experience would lead us to expect in a very high
and noble nature.... To be gentle, pitying, forbearing to the fallen, to
be averse to see or hear of human faults and vices, and when it is
impossible not to see them to be pained and grieved by them, to be
considerate of every extenuating circumstance that will mitigate their
culpability, to delight in the detection of some redeeming excellence
even in the vilest.... Is not all this the sort of conduct which, as
experience teaches us, betokens, not moral apathy or indifference, but
the nature which is purest and most elevated beyond all personal
sympathy with vice.... If, then, human goodness is the more merciful in
proportion as it approaches nearer to perfection ... might we not
conclude that when goodness becomes absolutely perfect, just then will
mercy reach its climax and become absolutely unlimited?"
Principal CAIRD.
"Search thine own heart. What paineth thee
In others, in thyself may be;
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;
Be thou the true man thou dost seek."
WHITTIER.
Judging
JUNE 29
"It is my way when I observe any instance of folly, any queer or absurd
illusion, straightway to look for something of the same type in myself,
feeling sure that amid all differences there will be a certain
correspondence; just as there is more or less correspondence in the
natural history even of continents widely apart, and of islands in
opposite zones....
"Introspection which starts with the purpose of finding out one's own
absurdities is not likely to be very mischievous, yet of course it is
not free from dangers any more than breathing is, or the other functions
that keep us alive or active. To judge of others by oneself is in its
most innocent meaning the briefest expression for our only method of
knowing mankind; yet, we perceive, it has come to mean in many cases
either the vulgar mistake which reduces every man's value to the very
low figure at which the valuer himself happens to stand; or else, the
amiable illusion of the higher nature misled by a too generous
construction of the lower. One cannot give a recipe for wise judgment:
it resembles appropriate muscular action, which is attained by the
myriad lessons in nicety of balance and of aim that only practice can
give."
GEORGE ELIOT.
Contemptuousness
JUNE 30
"Our Lord not only _told_ men that they were the children of God, that
they should strive after their Father's likeness, and that they might
approach nearer and nearer to being perfect as He is perfect: but, what
was more than this, in every word He spake,--whether of teaching, or
reproof, or expostulation, or in His passing words to those who received
His mercies,--He _treated_ them as God's children. Man, as man, has in
His eyes a right to respect. Anger we find with our Lord often, as also
surprise at slowness of heart, indignation at hypocrisy, and at the
Rabbinical evasions of the Law; but never in our Lord's words or looks
do we find personal disdain. Towards no human being does He show
contempt. The scribe would have trodden the rabble out of existence; but
there is no such thing as rabble in our Lord's eyes. The master, in the
parable, asks concerning the tree, which is unproductively exhausting
the soil, why cumbers it the ground; but it is not to be rooted up, till
all has been tried. There it stands, and mere existence gives it claims,
for all that exists is the Father's."
_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.
"Tennyson was very grand on contemptuousness. It was, he said, a sure
sign of intellectual littleness. Simply to despise, nearly always meant
not to understand. Pride and contempt were specially characteristic of
barbarians. Real civilisation taught human beings to understand each
other better, and must therefore lessen contempt. It is a little or
immature or uneducated mind which readily despises. One who has
travelled and knows the world in its length and breadth, respects far
more views and standpoints other than his own."
_Tennyson--A Memoir_, by his Son.
False Impressions
JULY 1
"There are thousands and thousands of little untruths that hum and buzz
and sting in society, which are too small to be brushed or driven away.
They are in the looks, they are in the inflections and tones of the
voice, they are in the actions, they are in reflections rather than in
direct images that are represented. They are methods of producing
impressions that are false, though every means by which they are
produced is strictly true. There are little unfairnesses between man and
man, that are said to be minor matters and that are small things; there
are little unjust judgments and detractions; there are petty violations
of conscience; there are ten thousand of these flags of passions in men
which are called foibles or weaknesses, but which eat like moths. They
take away the temper, they take away magnanimity and generosity, they
take from the soul its enamel and its polish. Men palliate and excuse
them, but that has nothing to do with their natural effect on us. They
waste and destroy us, and that, too, in the soul's silent and hidden
parts."
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
"A lie which is half a truth
Is ever the blackest of lies."
TENNYSON.
Truth
JULY 2
"Truth is the great mark at which we ought to aim in all things--truth
in thought, truth in expression, truth in work. Those who habitually
sacrifice truth in small things will find it difficult to pay her the
respect they should do in great things."
Lord IDDESLEIGH.
"Stand upright, speak thy thought, declare
The truth thou hast that all may share.
Be bold, proclaim it everywhere,
They only live who dare."
Sir LEWIS MORRIS.
"The mind can only repose upon the stability of truth."
Dr. JOHNSON.
Truthfulness
JULY 3
"Be profoundly honest. Never dare to say ... through ardent excitement
or conformity to what you know you are expected to say, one word which
at the moment when you say it, you do not believe. It would cut down the
range of what you say, perhaps, but it would endow every word that was
left with the force of ten."
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
"Be honest with yourself, whatever the temptation; say nothing to others
that you do not think, and play no tricks with your own mind. Of all the
evil spirits abroad at this hour in this world, insincerity is the most
dangerous."
J. A. FROUDE.
"Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits
itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through
every word and deed."
SAMUEL SMILES.
Accuracy
JULY 4
"We always weaken what we exaggerate."
LA HARPE.
"It is no great advantage to have a lively wit if exactness be wanting.
The perfection of a clock does not consist in its going fast, but in its
keeping good time."
VAUVENARGUES.
"After much vehement talk about 'the veracities,' will come utterly
unveracious accounts of things and people--accounts made unveracious by
the use of emphatic words where ordinary words alone are warranted:
pictures of which the outlines are correct, but the lights and shades
and colours are doubly and trebly as strong as they should be."
HERBERT SPENCER.
Truthfulness
JULY 5
"It takes two to speak truth--one to speak and another to hear."
THOREAU.
"Truth of intercourse is something more difficult than to refrain from
open lies. It is possible to avoid falsehood and yet not tell the truth.
It is not enough to answer formal questions. To reach the truth by yea
and nay communications implies a questioner with a share of inspiration,
such as is often found in mutual love. _Yea_ and _nay_ mean nothing; the
meaning must have been related in the question. Many words are often
necessary to convey a very simple statement; for in this sort of
exercise we never hit the gold; the most that we can hope is by many
arrows, more or less far off on different sides, to indicate, in the
course of time, for what target we are aiming, and after an hour's talk,
back and forward, to convey the purport of a single principle or a
single thought."
_Virginibus Puerisque_, R. L. STEVENSON.
Truthfulness
JULY 6
"In very truth lying is a hateful and accursed vice. It is words alone
that distinguish us from the brute creation, and knit us to each other.
If we did but feel proper horror of it, and the fearful consequences
that spring from such a habit, we would pursue it with fire and sword,
and with far more justice than other crimes. I observe that parents take
pleasure in correcting their children for slight faults, which make
little impression on the character, and are of no real consequence.
Whereas lying, in my opinion, and obstinacy, though in a less degree,
are vices, the rise and progress of which ought to be particularly
watched and counteracted; these grow with their growth, and when once
the tongue has got a _wrong set, it is impossible to put it straight
again_. Whence we see men, otherwise of honourable natures, slaves to
this vice. If falsehood had, like truth, only one face, we should be on
more equal terms with it, for we should consider the contrary to what
the liar said as certain; but the reverse of truth has a hundred
thousand forms, and is a field of boundless extent."
MONTAIGNE.
"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but
is a stab at the health of human society."
EMERSON.
Truthfulness
JULY 7
"The cruellest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a
room for hours and not opened his teeth, and yet come out of that room a
disloyal friend or a vile calumniator. And how many loves have perished
because, from pride, or spite, or diffidence, or that unmanly shame
which withholds a man from daring to betray emotion, a lover, at the
critical point of the relation, has but hung his head and held his
tongue? And, again, a lie may be told by a truth, or a truth conveyed
through a lie. Truth to facts is not always truth to sentiment; and part
of the truth, as often happens in answer to a question, may be the
foulest calumny. A fact may be an exception; but the feeling is the law,
and it is that which you must neither garble nor belie. The whole tenor
of a conversation is a part of the meaning of each separate statement;
the beginning and the end define and travesty the intermediate
conversation. You never speak to God; you address a fellow-man, full of
his own tempers: and to tell truth, rightly understood, is not to state
the true facts, but to convey a true impression; truth in spirit, not
truth to letter, is the true veracity."
_Virginibus Puerisque_, R. L. STEVENSON.
"Truth is violated by falsehood, and it may be equally outraged by
silence."
AMMAN.
Gossip
JULY 8
"Gossip is a beast of prey that does not wait for the death of the
creature it devours."
_Diana of the Crossways_, G. MEREDITH.
"Give to a gracious message
A host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves when they be felt."
SHAKESPEARE.
"Let evil words die as soon as they're spoken."
GEORGE ELIOT.
"If there is much art in speaking, there is no less in keeping silence.
There is an eloquent silence; it serves to praise and to condemn: there
is a scornful silence: and there is a respectful silence."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
Back-biting
JULY 9
"Hear as little as you possibly can to the prejudice of others; believe
nothing of the kind unless you are forced to believe it; never
circulate, nor approve of those who circulate, loose reports; moderate
as far as you can the censure of others; always believe that if the
other side were heard a very different account would be given of the
matter."
_Everyday Christian Life_, Dean FARRAR.
"We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are
willing to give the advantage of a good light."
EMERSON.
"Refrain your tongue from back-biting; for there is no word so secret
that shall go for nought, and the mouth that belieth, slayeth the soul."
WISDOM i. 2.
Gossip
JULY 10
"When people run about to disseminate some scrap of news which they
alone possess, the result is not usually beneficial either to character
or to mind."
_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.
"Slander meets with no regard from noble minds,
Only the base believe what the base only utter."
"No word, once spoken, returneth
Even if uttered unwillingly--
Shall God excuse our rashness?
That which is done, that abides."
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
Egotism
July 11
"Above all things, let us avoid speaking too often about ourselves, and
referring to our own experiences. Nothing is more disagreeable than a
man who is constantly quoting himself."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
"The pest of society is egotists."
EMERSON.
"Avoid the personal view, the small view, the critical and fault-finding
view. Run away from gossip as from a pestilence, and keep in your soul
great ideals and ideals to solace your solitude. They will drive out
petty worries, conceits and thoughts of carking care."
ADA C. SWEET.
Conversation
JULY 12
"The etiquette of conversation consists as much in listening politely as
in talking agreeably."
H. A.
"The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that
every one thinks more about what he shall say than about what others are
saying, and because one cannot well be a good listener when one is eager
to speak."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
"I am an enemy to long explanations; they deceive either the maker or
the hearer, generally both."
GOETHE.
Conversation
JULY 13
"The tone of good conversation is flowing and natural; it is neither
heavy nor frivolous; it is learned without pedantry, lively without
noise, polished without equivocation. It is neither made up of lectures
nor epigrams. Those who really converse, reason without arguing, joke
without punning, skilfully unite wit and reason, maxims and sallies,
ingenious raillery and severe morality. They speak of everything in
order that every one may have something to say: they do not investigate
too closely, for fear of wearying: questions are introduced as if
by-the-bye, and are treated with rapidity; precision leads to elegance,
each one giving his opinion, and supporting it with few words. No one
attacks wantonly another's opinion, no one supports his own obstinately.
They discuss in order to enlighten themselves, and leave off discussing
where dispute would begin: every one gains information, every one
recreates himself, and all go away contented; nay, the sage himself may
carry away from what he has heard matter worthy of silent meditation."
Argument
JULY 14
"Argument is always a little dangerous. It often leads to coolness and
misunderstandings. You may gain your argument and lose your friend,
which is probably a bad bargain. If you must argue, admit all you can,
but try to show that some point has been overlooked. Very few people
know when they have had the worst of an argument, and if they do, they
do not like it. Moreover, if they know they are beaten, it does not
follow that they are convinced. Indeed it is perhaps hardly going too
far to say that it is very little use trying to convince any one by
argument. State your case as clearly and concisely as possible, and if
you shake his confidence in his own opinion it is as much as you can
expect. It is the first step gained."
Lord AVEBURY.
"Speak fitly, or be silent wisely."
GEORGE HERBERT.
"After speech silence is the greatest power in the world."
LACORDAIRE.
"It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humouredly,
and so spoiling an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce."
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.
Argument
JULY 15
"When opposition of any kind is necessary, drop all colour of emotion
out of it and let it be seen in the white light of truth."
"Nothing does reason more right than the coolness of those that offer
it: For truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from
the arguments of its opposers."
WILLIAM PENN.
"Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy."
GEORGE HERBERT.
"To speak wisely may not always be easy, but not to speak ill requires
only silence."
Argument
JULY 16
"Prejudice is opinion without judgment."
"When a positive Man hath once begun to dispute anything, his Mind is
barred up against all Light and better Information. Opposition provokes
him, though there be never so good Ground for it, and he seems to be
afraid of nothing more, than lest he should be convinced of the Truth."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
"In proportion as we love truth more and victory less, we shall become
anxious to know what it is which leads our opponents to think as they
do. We shall begin to suspect that the pertinacity of belief exhibited
by them must result from a perception of something we have not
perceived. And we shall aim to supplement the portion of truth we have
found with the portion found by them."
HERBERT SPENCER.
An Open Mind
JULY 17
"He often thought that Dr. Arnold's maxim of being prepared each morning
to consider everything an open question a good working rule. Not that
one should readily change one's opinions, but should always have an open
mind, never a closed one, on any question outside exact knowledge."
"He that never changed any of his opinions, never corrected any of his
mistakes; and he who was never wise enough to find out any mistakes in
himself, will not be charitable enough to excuse what he reckons
mistakes in others."
WHICHCOTE.
"Narrow-mindedness is a cause of self-sufficiency. We are slow to
believe what is beyond the scope of our vision."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
Tolerance
JULY 18
"Nothing, in our Lord's wisdom, strikes me more than His moderation with
regard to error. What seems false to one man's mind may be true to that
of another."
_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.
"A genuine universal tolerance is most surely attained, if we do not
quarrel with the peculiar characteristics of individual men and races,
but only hold fast to the conviction, that what is truly excellent is
distinguished by its belonging to all mankind."
GOETHE _to_ CARLYLE.
"New ideas want a little time to grow into shape: we know how easily a
man is startled into shutting his mind against novelty when it is
suddenly presented."
_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.
Right Use of Speech
JULY 19
"There is no better way, I believe, in which to test the reality of our
culture than by the self-discipline it teaches us to use in talk; and it
may be that the chief service we can render, the chief outcome that God
looks for from our higher education, is that in our homes, in the
society around us, we should set a higher example of the right use of
speech; the right tone and temper and reticence in conversation; the
abhorrence of idle words. Neither let us think that this ever will be
easy to us. We must not be affected or pedantic, we must not be always
setting other people right; but we must be careful; we must keep our
wishes and passions from colouring our view of things; we must take
great pains to enter into the minds and feelings of others, to
understand how things look to them, and we must remember that, whatever
pains we take in that regard, the result is still sure to be imperfect;
we must rule our moods, our likes and dislikes, with a firm hand; we
must distrust our general impressions till we have frankly, faithfully
examined them; we must resist the desire to say clever or surprising
things; we must be resolute not to overstate our case; we must let
nothing pass our lips that charity would check; we must be always ready
to confess our ignorance, and to be silent.--Yes, it is a hard and long
task; but it is for a high end, and in a noble service. It is that we
may be able to help others; to possess our souls in days of confusion
and vehemence and controversy; to grow in the rare grace of judgment; to
be such that people may trust us, whether they agree with us or not. It
is that we may somewhat detach ourselves from the stream of talk, and
learn to listen for the voice of God, and to commit our ways to Him."
_Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.
Thoughts
JULY 20
"If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are
at least responsible for those we admit and entertain."
CHARLES B. NEWCOMB.
"The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the
great art in life is to have as many of them as possible."
BOVEE.
"We lose vigour through thinking continually the same set of thoughts.
New thought is new life."
PRENTICE MULFORD.
Culture
JULY 21
"Culture is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance
or retard it; it is always a matter of individual education."
HAMILTON W. MABIE.
"The secret of culture is to learn that a few great points steadily
reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the
miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be
regarded:--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are;
and the love of what is simple and beautiful,--these, and the wish to
serve, to add somewhat to the well-being of men."
EMERSON.
"The highest we can attain to is not knowledge, but sympathy with
intelligence."
THOREAU.
Courtesy
JULY 22
"Courtesy is really doing unto others as you would be done unto, and the
heart of it lies in a careful consideration for the feelings of other
people. It comes from putting one's self in his neighbour's place, and
trying to enter into his mind, and it demands a certain suppression of
one's self, and a certain delicate sympathy with one's neighbour."
Dr. JOHN WATSON.
"Even as one tries thus to think out the quality and work of courtesy,
to understand the skill and power which it wields so quietly, to see the
issues upon which it tells in the lives that are affected by it, one may
begin to feel that its place is really with the great forces of
character that ennoble and redeem the world; that, simply and lightly as
it moves, it rests on deep self-discipline and deals with a real task;
that it is far more than a decoration or luxury of leisurely excellence.
But it is in contact with those who are growing perfect in it, those who
never fail in it, that one may more nearly realise its greatness. In
seeing how every part of life is lit and hallowed by it; how common
incidents, daily duties, chance meetings, come to be avenues of
brightness, and even means of grace; how points of light come quivering
out upon the dull routine of business, or the conventionality of
pleasure; how God is served through every hour of the day;--it is in
seeing this that one may come to think it far from strange that for His
beginning of miracles our Saviour chose an act of courtesy."
_Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.
Courtesy
JULY 23
"Courtesy. This is Love in society, Love in relation to etiquette. 'Love
doth not behave itself unseemly.' Politeness has been defined as love in
trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little things. And the one
secret of politeness is to love. Love _cannot_ behave itself unseemly."
_The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.
"The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do
tact and courtesy become."
O. W. HOLMES.
"Kindness is the principle of tact, and respect for others the condition
of 'savoir-vivre.'"
_Amiel's Journal._
"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for
courtesy."
EMERSON.
Courtesy
JULY 24
"True politeness arises from the heart, not the head."