WORK, THE GREAT INSTRUMENT OF SELF

CULTURE.

Now the man who in working, no matter in what way, strives perpetually to fulfil his obligations thoroughly, to do his whole work faithfully, to be honest, not because honesty is the best policy, but for the sake of justice, and that he may render to every man his due,-such a labourer is continually building up in himself one of the greatest principles of morality and religion. Every blow on the anvil, on the earth, or whatever material he works upon, contributes something to the perfection of his nature.

Channing.

SELF-CULTURE.

It is the work of a philosopher to be every day subduing his passions, and laying aside his prejudices.

NATURE-HOW COMMANDED.

Nature is commanded by obeying her.

Addison.

Bacon.

HEAVEN UPON EARTH.

Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence and turn upon the poles of truth.

Bacon.

BAD HABITS.

Like flakes of snow that fall unperceived upon the earth, the seemingly unimportant events of life succeed one another. As the snow gathers together, so are our habits formed: no single flake that is added to the pile produces a sensible change; no single flake creates, however it may exhibit, a man's character; but as the tempest hurls the avalanche down the mountain, and overwhelms the inhabitant and his habitation, so passion, acting upon the elements of mischief, which pernicious habits have brought together by imperceptible accumulation, may overwhelm the edifice of truth and virtue.

Jeremy Bentham.

REAL HAPPINESS AND GREATNESS.

Der allein ist glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht um Etwas zu

fein.

READING.

Goethe.

Hobbes was wont to say: "Had I read as much as others, I had remained as ignorant as they."

PROGRESS IN KNOWLEDGE.

Progress in knowledge is often paradoxically indicated by a diminution in the apparent bulk of what we know. Whatever helps to work off the dregs of false opinion, and to purify the intellectual mass-whatever deepens our convictions of our infinite ignorance-really adds to, although it sometimes seems to diminish, the rational possessions of man. This is the highest kind of merit that is claimed for Philosophy, by its earliest as well as by its latest representatives. It is by this standard that Socrates and Kant measure the chief results of their toil.

Sir William Hamilton.

STUDY AND THOUGHT.

Certaines gens étudient toute leur vie; à la mort ils ont tout appris, excepté à penser.

Domergue.

VAIN DISPLAY OF KNOWLEDGE.

If there happens among fools any dispute concerning learning, for the most part be silent. It is dangerous to speak what comes first into one's mind. If any one calls you ignorant, be not moved at the reproach; and when you have learned this, then know you begin to be learned. A sheep does not show she has had a good pasture by throwing up the grass she has eaten, but in that she has well digested it, and has wool and milk in plenty; so do you in the same manner not boast your reading to fools, but show by the actions that follow a true improvement, that you have read and profited. Epictetus.

IGNORANCE.

Ignorance does not simply deprive us of advantages; it leads us to work our own misery;

it is not merely a vacuum, void of knowledge, but a plenum of positive errors, continually productive of unhappiness.

Samuel Bailey.

IGNORANCE.

There are two sorts of ignorance: we philosophize to escape ignorance; we start from the one, we repose in the other; they are the goals from which, and to which, we tend; and the pursuit of knowledge is but a course between two ignorances, as human life is only a travelling from grave to grave.

Sir William Hamilton.

VOLUNTARY IGNORANCE OF USELESS SUBJECTS.

It requires courage indeed, as Helvetius has remarked, to remain ignorant of those useless subjects which are generally valued; but it is a courage necessary to men who love the truth.

Dugald Stewart.