836

GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE.

Is there not a soul beyond utterance, half I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to be nymph, half child, in those delicate

lieve

petals which glow and breathe about the The bosom of a friend will hold a secret, centres of deep color? (George Eliot. Mine own could not contain.

Art thou a type of beauty, or of power,
Of sweet enjoyment, or disastrous sin?

TRUTH.

(Massinger.

For each thy name denoteth, Passion-flower! O, while you live, tell truth; and shame the

O no! thy pure corolla's depth within

We trace a holier symbol; yea, a sign
'Twixt God and man; a record of that hour
When the expiatory act divine

dower.

Cancelled that curse which was our mortal And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake. (Lowell. 'Tis strange-but true; for truth is always strange,

It is the Cross !

(Sir Aubrey de Vere.
It never rains roses; when we want
To have more roses we must plant more trees.
(George Eliot.
Aromatic plants bestow

No spicy fragrance while they grow,
But crush'd or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.

(Goldsmith.

Woo on, with odor wooing me,
Faint rose, with fading core;
For God's rose-thought, that blooms in thee,
Will bloom for evermore.

(George MacDonald.

TRUST.

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to
be loved.
(George MacDonald.
Confidence is a plant of slow growth.
(Earl of Chatham.

Better trust all and be deceived,
And weep that trust and that deceiving,
Than doubt one heart which, if believed

Stranger than fiction.

(Byron.

But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question

put

To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.
(Couper.
Truth is truth, though from an enemy, and
spoken in malice.
(G. Lille.

O Truth is easy, and the light shines clear
In hearts kept open, honest and sincere!
(Abraham Coles.
The deepest truths are best read between the
lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be
written.
(Alcott.

True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shined upon. (Butler.
To God, thy country, and thy friend be true.
(Vaughan.
The dignity of truth is lost
With much protesting.
(Ben Jonson.
Who never doubted, never half believed.

Had blessed one's life with true believing. Where doubt, there truth is—'tis her shadow. (Frances Anne Kemble.

He who betrays the secret of his friend be-
cause he has quarreled with him, was
never worthy the name of friend. No
breach of friendship can ever justify a
breach of trust.
(Anon.
No soul is desolate as long as there is a hu-
man being for whom it can feel trust and
(George Eliot.
Trust not him that hath once broken faith.
(Shakespeare.

reverence.

(Bailey.

Truth comes to us from the past, as gold is

washed down from the mountains of Si-
erra Nevada, in minute but precious par-
ticles, and intermixed with infinite alloy,
the debris of centuries.
(Bovee.
Once to every man and nation, comes the mo-
ment to decide,

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the
good or evil side.
(Lowell.

LIVING THOUGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS.

837

He is the free-man whom the truth makes The fool is happy that he knows no more.

(Menander.

There have been men who could play delight- If a man empties his purse into his head, no

ful music on one string of the violin, but there never was a man who could produce the harmonies of heaven in his soul by a one-stringed virtue.

(Chapin.

Recommend to your children virtue; that A life of knowledge is not often a life of in

alone can make happy; not gold.

(Beethoven. Virtue maketh men on the earth famous, in their graves illustrious, in the heavens immortal. (Child.

WISDOM.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

(Tennyson.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. (Pope.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a
subject ourselves, or we know where we
can find information upon it.

(Sam'l Johnson.
When you know a thing, to hold that you
know it; and when you do not know a
thing, to allow that you do not know it;
this is knowledge.
(Confucius.
Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one,
Have oft-times no connexion. Knowledge
dwells

In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.

(Cowper. Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one (Addison.

man above another.

jury and crime. (Sydney Smith. Tell (if you can) what is it to be wise? 'Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all other's faults, and feel our own. (Pope. To know thyself-in others self discern; Would'st thou know others? read thyselfand learn! (Schiller. Sense is our helmet, wit is but the plume; The plume exposes, 'tis our helmet saves. Sense is the diamond weighty, solid, sound; When cut by wit, it casts a brighter beam; Yet, wit apart, it is a diamond still. (Young. Nothing is more terrible than active igno(Goethe. Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread. (Pope.

rance.

WOMAN.

O, woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade

By the light quivering aspen made:
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!
(Scott.
Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger
brave,

Learning passes for wisdom among those who Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.

want both.

(Sir W. Temple.

(Barrett

838

GEMS FOR THE FIRESIDE.

But one upon Earth is more beautiful and A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleabetter than the wife-that is the mother.

sure.

With such a mother! faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high

(Tupper.

(Wordsworth. Pointing to such, well might Cornelia say, When the rich casket shone in bright array, These are my jewels!" Well of such as he, When Jesus spake, well might the language be,

"Suffer these little ones to come to me!"

Standing with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet !

(Rogers.

(Longfellow. Be wise with speed,

A fool at forty is a fool indeed. (Young. Years follow'ng years, steal something ev'ry day;

At last they steal us from ourselves away,

(Pope.

Dark and despairing, my sight I may seal,
But man cannot cover what God would re-
veal:

Comes easy to him, and though he trip and 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before. (Campbell.

fall,

He shall not blind his soul with clay.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

(Madame de Staël. The youth of the soul is everlasting and (Richter.

eternity is youth.
Old age is courteous-no one more :
For time after time he knocks at the door,
But nobody says, "Walk in, sir, pray!
Yet turns he not from the door away,
But lifts the latch, and enters with speed,
And then they cry,
A cool one, indeed."
(Goethe.

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the

swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the brusk.

(George McDonald. (Longfellow. Life's shadows are meeting Eternity's day. (James G. Clarke.

How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams
With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!
Book of Beginnings, Story without End,
Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!
(Longfellow.