Legere sine calamo est dormire.--_Quintilian_.
8. "A drayman is probably born with as good organs as Milton, Locke,
or Newton: but by culture they are as much above him, almost, as he
is above his horse."--_Chesterfield_.
Chesterfield, it would seem, was a Phrenologist, in fact.
9. "In matters of consequence, have nothing to do with secondary
people: deal always with principals."--_Edgeworth_.
Good advice. In matters of state, deal never with a clerk,--he has no
discretion. In matters of trade deal never with an agent, if you can
come near the principal, for the same cause,--he lacks the discretion
that the latter has. But for a different cause than this, in matters
of love, deal never with parents, but with the child: it is true, she
has less discretion, but in this matter she is still _the principal_.
10. "Women may have their wills while they live, for they may make
none when they die."--_Anon._
The author of that, whoever he be, was a kind soul: he found an
apology for that which husbands, lovers, and fathers are apt to think
a grievous fault in the sex. But the thought that strikes me most
forcibly upon reading that passage is, the injustice of the law's
treatment of women in this regard. Why should a woman's property,
upon her marriage, become, _ipso facto_, another's? I take it that is
a question which neither casuists nor gownsmen can answer. I knew an
old woman who could give the true reply, and it was one that she gave
as a reason for every query, puzzling or plain,--and that was
"_'Cause!_"
11. "A soul conversant with virtue resembles a fountain: for it is
clear, and gentle, and sweet, and communicative, and rich, and
harmless and innocent."--_Epictetus_.
Beautiful because true. Such a soul is _clear_; one can see deeply
into its crystal purity: it is _gentle_, and no waves disturb the
spectator as he gazes: it is _sweet_, and he who drinks of it is
refreshed and renovated in mental and intellectual health.
_Communicative_ is it, and throws out its _jets_ in affluent
profusion, making the atmosphere delicious to those who come within
its reach. _Rich_, too, abundantly, overflowingly _rich_, full of
jewels beyond price, ready for those who will gather them up from the
inexhaustible bed of that fountain: _harmless_, moreover, and
_innocent_, diffusing influences of a healthful and inspiring force,
which turns mere sense to soul, mere mortality to immortality!
12. "The suspicion of Dean Swift's irreligion proceeded, in a great
measure, from his dread of hypocrisy: instead of wishing to seem
better, he delighted in seeming worse than he was."--_Dr. Johnson_.
That is a queer apology for a great Moralist to make for a Dean of
the Church! It makes out Swift to be the worst of rascals: for it
makes him more regardful of other men's opinions than of his own. It
exhibits him as contravening conscience with _seeming_. Now, to my
mind, the mere suspicion of hypocrisy is a far less evil than the
positive conviction of it. He was, according to Johnson, afraid of
being thought a hypocrite, and so he actually became one!
13. "As much company as I have kept, and as much as I love it, I love
reading better; and would rather be employed in reading, than in the
most agreeable company."--_Pope_.
It is but a choice of company after all. For my part I verily believe
the poet loved both well enough, although the world of books he most
affected. He never wrote the "Essay on Man" or the "Dunciad" from the
experience of the study, however: men's hearts were the 'books' he
read from when he gave those splendid poems birth. The "world of
books"--reminds me of
14. "Books are a real world, both pure and good,
Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness may grow."
_Wordsworth_.
15. "Oh! who shall tell the glory of the good man's course, when, as
his mortal organs are closing upon the world, he is looking forward
to the opening brightness of that sun which never sets, shining from
out the sapphire gates of Heaven! What earthly simile can your poet
or your rhapsodist furnish, to carry to the spirit so rapturous a
conception?"--_Chalmers_.
The simplest similes for such purposes are the best. And it is a
beautiful order of our nature, that it furnishes them abundantly for
the improvement of the reflective mind. And thus would I assimilate
an earthly scene to the rapturous conception of the eloquent divine
whom I have quoted. A most beautiful autumn day, free from
clouds,--when the varied colored leaves _seem willing to fade_, with
so bright, so warm, so cheerful a sun upon them,--is to me an emblem
of the beaming of the sun of {235} righteousness, which, growing
brighter as their bodies decay, makes the happiest and holiest
spirits _willing to die_, under an influence so benign.
16. "I walked, I rode, I hunted, I played, I read, I wrote, I did
every thing but think. I could not, or rather I would not think.
Thinking kept me too long to one point. I could not bear that turning
my face to a dead wall. In self defence, to keep me from my thoughts,
I flitted from one occupation to another in which my mind could not,
if it would, find the least employment or permanent satisfaction. But
the world called me a very happy man!"--_Bulwer_, (I believe.)
Every man has those moments, I imagine, of struggling with his own
mind, endeavoring, yet almost impossibly, to fix it upon a single
object for any length of time: when it is like a bird in a storm,
attempting to alight upon a waving, trembling spray.
17. "But Thomas Moore, albeit but an indifferent biographer, is one
of the greatest masters of versification the world has ever known,
while in song-writing he is perfectly unrivalled."--_Quarterly
Review_.
Perhaps in a peculiar, refined style of song-writing he may be: but
while his are the music of the fancy, _Burns_ speaks the melodies of
the soul.
18. "The Creator has so constituted the human intellect, that it
_can_ grow only by its own action, and by its own action it _will_
most certainly and necessarily grow. Every man must, therefore, in an
important sense, educate himself. His books and teachers are but
aids, _the work_ is his."--_Daniel Webster_.
The great statesman spoke this from the lessons of his own
experience, and it is true. Yet how many moments there are in a
scholar's life, when his progress seems so slow that he languishes
over every task; and, because he cannot attain every thing at once,
forgets, that every thing worth gaining is obtained after many
struggles: and, if one foot slips back a little, yet, if he gain _at
all_ on his way, that it is better to persevere! Besides, it is not
only _the ends_ of study which are delightful--for so also are its
_ways_: and, if we are not advancing rapidly, there is yet a pleasure
in exercise, even when much of it fails.
19. "The preacher, raising his withered hands as if imparting a
benediction with the words, closed his discourse with the text he had
been enforcing,--'It is good that a man bear the yoke in his
youth.'"--_Lights and Shadows_.
I do believe that text most implicitly. I myself feel that it is
true: for I am one of those who are best when most afflicted. While
the weight hangs heavily, I keep time and measure, like a clock; but
remove it, and all the springs and wheels move irregularly, and I am
but a mere useless thing.