Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 41

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves on, and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy.--WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING.

If there be aught surpa.s.sing human deed or word or thought, it is a mother's love!--MARCHIONESS DE SPADARA.

I think it must somewhere be written, that the virtues of mothers shall, occasionally, be visited on their children, as well as the sins of fathers.--d.i.c.kENS.

Unhappy is the man for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable.--RICHTER.

The instruction received at the mother's knee, and the paternal lessons, together with the pious and sweet souvenirs of the fireside, are never effaced entirely from the soul.--LAMENNAIS.

One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.--GEORGE HERBERT.

"An ounce of mother," says the Spanish proverb, "is worth a pound of clergy."--T.W. HIGGINSON.

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friends.h.i.+p fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all.

--HOLMES.

A mother's love is indeed the golden link that binds youth to age; and he is still but a child, however time may have furrowed his cheek, or silvered his brow, who can yet recall, with a softened heart, the fond devotion or the gentle chidings of the best friend that G.o.d ever gives us.--BOVEE.

All that I am, my mother made me.--J.Q. ADAMS.

MOURNING.--He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.--YOUNG.

Of permanent mourning there is none; no cloud remains fixed. The sun will s.h.i.+ne to-morrow.--RICHTER.

Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.--XENOPHON.

The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.--BURKE.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead, Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled.

--SHAKESPEARE.

MUSIC.--Music is the medicine of an afflicted mind, a sweet sad measure is the balm of a wounded spirit; and joy is heightened by exultant strains.--HENRY GILES.

Sweet music! sacred tongue of G.o.d.--CHARLES G. LELAND.

Music is the fourth great material want of our natures,--first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.--BOVEE.

When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music, with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination; as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself.--SIR W. TEMPLE.

I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms; could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine.--EMERSON.

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

--CONGREVE.

There's music in the sighing of a reed; There's music in the gus.h.i.+ng of a rill; There's music in all things, if men had ears.

--BYRON.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

--SHAKESPEARE.

O, pleasant is the welcome kiss When day's dull round is o'er; And sweet the music of the step That meets us at the door.

--J.R. DRAKE.

Not the rich viol, trump, cymbal, nor horn, Guitar, nor cittern, nor the pining flute, Are half so sweet as tender human words.

--BARRY CORNWALL.

Is there a heart that music cannot melt?

Alas! how is that rugged heart forlorn.

--BEATTIE.

Music cleanses the understanding, inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself.--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners; she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.

--LUTHER.

Amongst the instrumentalities of love and peace, surely there can be no sweeter, softer, more effective voice than that of gentle, peace-breathing music.--ELIHU BURRITT.

Explain it as we may, a martial strain will urge a man into the front rank of battle sooner than an argument, and a fine anthem excite his devotion more certainly than a logical discourse.--TUCKERMAN.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.--BEETHOVEN.

Music is the child of prayer, the companion of religion.--CHATEAUBRIAND.

Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.

--HORACE WALPOLE.

Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their G.o.dly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.--LUTHER.

NATURE.--Nature does not capriciously scatter her secrets as golden gifts to lazy pets and luxurious darlings, but imposes tasks when she presents opportunities, and uplifts him whom she would inform. The apple that she drops at the feet of Newton is but a coy invitation to follow her to the stars.--WHIPPLE.

Everything made by man may be destroyed by man; there are no ineffaceable characters except those engraved by nature; and nature makes neither princes nor rich men nor great lords.--ROUSSEAU.

It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.

Let us begin where she begins, go her pace, and close always where she ends, and we cannot miss of being good naturalists.--WILLIAM PENN.

O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.--PSALM 104:24.

The laws of nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the laws of man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the laws of nature,--were man as unerring in his judgments as nature.--LONGFELLOW.

Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the cl.u.s.tering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.--T. EDWARDS.

Nature never did betray The heart that loved her.

--WORDSWORTH.