Beautiful hands are those that do
Work that is earnest, brave and true
Moment by moment, the long day through.
Kind hearts are gardens,
Kind thoughts are roots,
Kind words are blossoms,
Kind deeds are fruits;
Love is the sweet sunshine
That warms into life,
For only in darkness
Grow hatred and strife.
Be good, dear child, and let who will be clever;
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
--_Kingsley._
Whene'er a task is set for you
Don't idly sit and view it,--
Nor be content to wish it done;
Begin at once and do it.
Look up and not down, look forward and not back, look out and not in,
and lend a hand.
--_Hale._
This world is not so bad a world
As some would like to make it;
Though whether good or whether bad,
Depends on how we take it.
--_M. W. Beck._
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
--_Longfellow._
Dare to be true, nothing can need a lie;
A fault which needs it most grows two thereby.
--_George Herbert._
If wisdom's ways you'd wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,--
_Of_ whom you speak, _to_ whom you speak,
And _how_, and _when_, and _where._
Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to save.
--_Gay._
If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is
cheerfulness.
--_Bulwer Lytton._
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view
And clothes the mountain with its azure hue.
--_Campbell._
Give fools their gold and knaves their power,
Let fortune's bubble rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree is more than all.
--_Whittier._
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
--_Longfellow._
Too low they build who build beneath the stars.
--_Young._
Errors, like straws upon the surface flow;
He who would seek for pearls must dive below.
--_Dryden._
The cross, if rightly borne, shall be
No burden, but support to thee.
--_Whittier._
Oh, deem it not an idle thing
A pleasant word to speak;
The face you wear, the thoughts you bring,
A heart may heal or break.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,--
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
One by one thy duties wait thee,
Let thy whole strength go to each;
Let no future dreams elate thee,--
Learn thou first what these can teach.