Life and Literature Part 43

There is pleasure in meeting the eyes of one on whom you are going to confer a favor.

--_La Bruyere._

586

FAVORITISM.

A little figure glided through the hall.

"Is that you, Pet?" the words came tenderly.

A sob--suppressed to let the answer fall,-- "It isn't Pet, mama, it's only me."

The quivering baby-lips! They had not meant To utter any word that could plant a sting, But to that mother-heart a strange pang went; She heard, and stood like a convicted thing.

One instant, and a happy little face Thrilled 'neath unwonted kisses rained above; And from that moment "Only Me" had place And part with Pet in tender mother-love.

587

We like better to see those on whom we confer benefits, than those, alas! from whom we receive them.

588

It is not the quant.i.ty of the meat but the cheerfulness of the guests, which makes the feast.

--_Lord Clarendon._

589

Feast to-day with many makes fast to-morrow.

--_Plautus._

590

FEASTING AND FASTING.

Accustom early in your youth To lay embargo on your mouth; And let no rarities invite To pall and glut your appet.i.te; But check it always, and give o'er With a desire of eating more; For where one dies by inanition, A thousand perish by repletion: To miss a meal sometimes is good,-- It ventilates and cools the blood.

--_Raynard._

591

Every young man has a fine season in his life when he will accept no office, and every young woman has the same in hers, when she will accept no husband; by and by they both change, and often take one another into the bargain.

--_Richter._

592

FIDELITY.

He was--True as the needle to the pole, Or as the dial to the sun.

593

MY OWN FIRESIDE.

Let others seek for empty joys At ball or concert, rout or play; Whilst, far from fas.h.i.+on's idle noise, Her gilded domes, and trappings gay, I while the wintry eve away,-- 'Twixt book and lute the hours divide And marvel how I e'er could stray From thee--my own Fireside!

594

All that a fish drinks goes out at the gills.

(Spent as soon as got.)

595

Did we not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never hurt us.

--_Rochefoucauld._

596

_Boswell_: "No quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of others. I do not mean flattery, but a sincere admiration." _Johnson_: "Nay, Sir, flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered."

--_Boswell's Johnson._

597

_Flowers._--These children of the meadows, born of suns.h.i.+ne and of showers!

--_Whittier._

598

_Flowers._--Pretty daughters of the Earth and Sun.

599