Life and Literature Part 41

Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next.

--_Dr. Young._

558

To be trusted is perhaps a greater compliment than to be loved.

559

He who believes in n.o.body knows that he himself is not to be trusted.

--_Auerbach._

560

Trust not him that hath once broken faith.

--_Shakespeare._

561

It goes a great way toward making a man faithful, to let him understand that you think him so.

--_Seneca._

562

All that a man gets by being untruthful is, that he is not believed when he speaks the truth.

563

Telling an untruth is like leaving the highway and going into a tangled forest. You know not how long it will take you to get back, or how much you will suffer from the thorns and briers in the wild woods.

564

There is no greater mistake in social life than indulging in over-familiarity. Intercourse, even between intimate friends, should have some dignity about it.

565

A family is a little world within doors; the miniature resemblance of the great world without.

--_J. A. James._

566

Where can one be happier than in the bosom of his family?

--_Young._

567

FAMILY REUNION.

We are all here-- Father, mother, sister, brother, All who hold each other dear.

Each chair is filled, we're all at home; To-night let no stranger come.

It is not often thus around Our old, familiar hearth we're found Blessed, then, the meeting and the spot: For once be every care forgot; Let gentle peace a.s.sert her power, And kind affection rule the hour: We're all, all here.

--_Charles Sprague._

568

Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been-- A sound which makes us linger;--yet--farewell.

--_Byron._

569

FAREWELL.

If thou dost bid thy friend farewell, But for one night though that farewell may be, Press thou his hand in thine.

How canst thou tell how far from thee Fate or caprice may lead his steps ere that to-morrow comes?

Men have been known lightly to turn the corner of a street, And days have grown to months, And months to lagging years, ere they Have looked in loving eyes again . . . . . .

Yea, find thou always time to say some earnest word Between the idle talk, lest with thee henceforth, Night and day, regret should walk.

--_Unknown._

570

MAN AND THE FARM.

It is a common complaint that the farm and farm life are not appreciated by our people. We long for the more elegant pursuits, or the ways and fas.h.i.+ons, of the town. But the farmer has the most sane and natural occupation, and ought to find it sweeter, if less highly seasoned, than any other. He alone, strictly speaking, has a home. How many ties, how many resources, he has!--his friends.h.i.+p with his cattle, his team, his dog, his trees; the satisfaction in his growing crops, in his improved fields; his intimacy with nature, with bird and beast, and with the quickening elemental forces; his co-operations with the cloud, the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost. It humbles him, teaches him patience and reverence. Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow your heart and brain upon it.

--_John Burroughs._

571