Life and Literature Part 4

At table, discussing with some friends the subject of raffles, Bishop Wescott said that he objected to them as part of the gambling question, and also on wider grounds. He objected to all the "side means" which were sometimes combined with sales of work for "getting money out of people." Such money, he thought, as distinct from that which is given, was not wanted nor acceptable.

--_The Contemporary Review._

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What stamps the wrinkles deepest on the brow, It is to be alone, as I am now!

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The following Hawaiian alphabet, consisting of twelve letters, was in use, and had been for something like a hundred years, when the compiler visited the Islands in 1886. It was given to the Hawaiians by the missionaries, viz.:

a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w.

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THE AMBITIOUS MAN.

A slave has but _one master_; the _ambitious man_ has as _many masters_ as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his _fortune_.

--_La Bruyere._

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How easy it is to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success!

--_Madame Swetchine._

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The sea of ambition is tempest--tost, And your hopes may vanish like--foam.

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To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.

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_Amus.e.m.e.nts_--The mind ought sometimes to be amused, that it may the better return to thought, and to itself.

--_Phaedrus._

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Thy father's merit sets thee up to view, And shows thee in the fairest point of light, To make thy virtues, or thy faults conspicuous.

--_Addison._

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THE QUEST OF ANCESTORS.

"Of all the notable things on earth, The queerest one is pride of birth."

A few years ago a well-known Bostonian, the descendant of an honored family, began the ancestral quest with expert a.s.sistance. All went merry as a marriage bell for a time, when suddenly he unearthed an unsavory scandal that concerned one of his progenitors. Feeling a responsibility for the misdeeds of his great-grandfather, he ordered all investigation stopped, and the disagreeable data destroyed; but he had delved too far.

His genealogist had told a friend, and the secret was out beyond recall.

--_D. O. S. Lowell._

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MERIT FROM ANCESTORS.

Were honor to be scann'd by long descent From ancestors ill.u.s.trious, I could vaunt A lineage of the greatest; and recount, Among my fathers, names of ancient story, Heroes and G.o.d-like patriots, who subdu'd The world by arms and virtue.

But that be their own praise; Nor will I borrow merit from the dead, Myself an undeserver.

--_Rowe._

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He who constantly boasts of his ancestors, confesses that he has no virtue of his own.

--_Charron._

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Never mind who was your grandfather. What are you?

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A good man's anger lasts an instant, A meddling man's for two hours, A base man's a day and night, A great sinner's until death.

--_Persian._

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