Life and Literature Part 82

1137

No one sees what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars.

--_Cicero._

1138

He who with life makes sport, Can prosper never; Who rules himself in nought, Is a slave ever.

1139

A MISSION FOR EVERY ONE.

Think not thou livest in vain, Or that one honest pain Of thine is lost.

He, who in loving care, Numbers thine every hair, Knows all the cost.

No lightest care of thine Escapes His love divine; No smile's forgot, Nor cup of water given.

Each tender, loving deed, Like some strange, precious seed, Shall bear its fruit in heaven.

Nor dream, if thou wert gone From out life's troubled throng Thou'dst not be missed.

Thou knowest not what heart, That lives in gloom apart, Would find its suns.h.i.+ne fled If thou wert dead-- What slender thread of faith would break If thou shouldest prove untrue.

The flower that blooms in desert place And lifts its head with winsome grace, Might sigh: "Alas; ah, me: Why should I live where none can see?"

But He who made both field and flood, Hath formed that flower and called it good, And in His wisdom placed it there To make the desert seem more fair: And if He then hath need of flowers To deck this barren world of ours, He hath a use for thee!

1140

YOUTH, MANHOOD, OLD AGE.

How small a portion of our life it is, that we really enjoy. In youth, we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.

1141

Our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

--_Shakespeare._

1142

LIFE REPRESENTED BY A NEWSPAPER.

This folio of four pages, happy work!

Which not even critics criticize, that holds Inquisitive attention while I read-- What is it, but a busy map of life, Its fluctuations and its vast concerns?

1143

The acts of this life are the destiny of the next.

--_Chinese._

1144

There are three whose life is no life:-- He who lives at another's table; He whose wife domineers over him; And he who suffers bodily affliction.

--_Talmud._

1145

Life is too short to be spent in nursing animosities, or in registering wrongs.

1146

Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles, life.

--_Young._

1147

THE HAPPIEST LIFE.

Life's fittest station needs must be Midway between the poor and great: Above the cares of poverty, Below the cares of high estate.

--_E. C. Dolson._

1148

We find life exactly what we put in it.

1149

The sweetest thing in life Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.

--_N. P. Willis._

1150