Life and Literature Part 104

Where is there a sharper arrow than the sting of unmerited neglect?

1434

'Tis wisely said To know thyself: equally profitable it is To know thy neighbors!

1435

Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

--_Proverbs 3, 28v._

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_Very Few Live by Choice._--Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.

--_Dr. Johnson in Ra.s.selas._

1437

We ought to do at once and without delay whatever we owe to our neighbors; to make them wait for what is due to them, is the essence of injustice.

1438

A BIRD'S NEST.

It wins my admiration To view the structure of this little work-- A bird's nest. Mark it well, within, without; No tool had he that wrought; no knife to cut, No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, No glue to join; his little beak was all; And yet how neatly finished!--What nice hand, And every implement and means of art, And twenty years' apprentices.h.i.+p to boot, Could make me such another? Fondly then We boast of excellence, whose n.o.blest skill Instinctive genius foils.

--_Hurdis._

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The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

--_Ecclesiastes 1, 9v._

1440

He knocks boldly at the door who brings good news.

1441

The most ridiculous nicknames are often the most adhesive.

--_Haliburton._

1442

Coolness and counsel come in the night, and both are of G.o.d.

--_Arab Proverb._

1443

Quiet night, that brings Rest to the laborer, is the outlaw's day, In which he rises early to do wrong, And when his work is ended, dares not sleep.

--_P. Ma.s.singer._

1444

Night is the time for rest; How sweet, when labors close, To gather 'round an aching breast The curtain of repose.

Stretch the tir'd limbs and lay the head Down on our own delightful bed!

--_Jas. Montgomery._

1445

Learn to say No! and it will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.

--_Spurgeon._

1446

_Duty._--A wise man who does not a.s.sist with his counsels, a rich man with his charity, and a poor man with his labor, are perfect n.o.bodies in a commonwealth.

--_Swift._

1447

IMPORTANT.

n.o.body likes to be n.o.body; But everybody is pleased to think himself somebody.

And everybody is somebody: But when anybody thinks himself to be somebody, He generally thinks everybody else to be n.o.body.

1448