Life and Literature Part 74

1021

Give every one the benefit of a doubt. You might be sadly in need of it yourself some day!

--_N. S. Murphy._

1022

Gently to hear, kindly to judge.

1023

We shall be judged, not by what we might have been, but what we have been.

--_Sewell._

1024

He hears but half, that hears one party only.

--_Aeschylus._

1025

Any time is the proper time for saying what is just.

--_From the Greek._

1026

Justice and truth may sleep but will never die.

1027

Habits of justice are a valuable possession.

--_Antiphones._

1028

Justice means that standard or boundary of right which enables us to render to every man his just due without distinction.

K

1029

"I expect" said one, "to pa.s.s thro' this world but once. If therefore there be any kindness I can do, or show, to my fellow-men, let me do it now, as I shall not pa.s.s this way again."

--_Mrs. A. B. Hegeman._

1030

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

--_Goethe._

1031

Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning.

--_F. W. Faber._

1032

A long delay in kindness takes the kindness all away.

1033

To remind a man of a kindness conferred is little less than a reproach.

1034

In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for September, 1797, published in London, there appears a letter which shows Benjamin Franklin, the philosopher, in the character of a creditor. The letter, which was written in Paris, is as follows:--

April 22, 1784.

I send you herewith a bill for ten louis d'ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum. I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country you cannot fail of getting into some business that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress you must pay me by lending this sum to him, enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation when he shall be able, and shall meet with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands before it meets with a knave to stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be cunning and make the most of a little.

1035

If none were sick and none were sad, We scarcely would be tender.