Pages 99 - Clippings
Clipping 1
Power of Happiness
As vulgarity and ignorance betoken a neglected mind, so unhappiness and misery proclaim a neglected heart. The normal nature will keep strong and fresh the chords that vibrate joy. Depression and worry take the nerve out of mans arm, take the keen edge of his mind, rob life of its victory. For unhappiness wins no battles, gloom invents no tool, wretchedness writes no drama. Earths great achievements represent those whose hearts sung over their tasks. To meet storm with calm, defeat with faith, ingratitude with charity, is not an easy thing. Nothing requires so much wisdom, practice, and skill as learning how to live habitually above the distempers of life.
The Bachelors Complaint
Returning home at close of day,
Who gently chides my long delay,
And by my side delights to stay?
Nobody!
Who sets for me my easy chair,
Spreads out the papers with such care,
And leaves my slippers ready there?
Nobody!
When plunged in deep and dire distress,
When anxious cares my heart oppress,
Who whispers hopes of happiness?
Nobody!
When sickness comes and sorrow twain,
And grief distracts my fevered brain,
Who sympathises with my pain?
Nobody!
But I’m resolved, so help me fate,
To change at once my single state,
At Hymens altar I will mate
Somebody!
The girl that believes
Of all the pretty maidens
There’s none as sweet as she,
That simple trusting lassie,
The girl who believes in me.
There are some with greater beauty
And some wittier be;
But there is only one wee girlie
That ever believed in me.
She’s never been to college,
Knows not her ABC,
Yet she has stores of wisdom
(or she’d not believe in me).
She’s not an ancient lassie,
Her years they are but three,
Which maybe, is the reason
That she believes in me.
Clipping 2
To be learnt by heart
It is the woman who is neither just nor generous who is fondest of the saying “Be just before you are generous.”
All is not attractive that is good. Iron does not sparkle like a diamond, yet it is useful. Gold has not the fragrance of a flower, yet it is valuable. So different persons have different graces of excellence, and to be just we must have an eye to all.
Self is the point from which all our power must be drawn; but its effects are far beyond our sight or ken, reaching to family and friends to all who profit by our abilities and labours, to those whom we influence consciously, or unconsciously, both near and far away.
We are ruined, not by what we really want, but by what we think we do; therefore, never go abroad in search of your wants. If they be real wants, they will come home in search of you; for he who buys what he does not want will soon want what he cannot buy.
A single bitter word may disquiet an entire family for a whole day. One surly glance casts a gloom the household, while a smile, like a gleam of sunshine, may light up the darkest and weariest hours. Like unexpected flowers which spring up along our path, fall off freshness, fragrance, and beauty, so do kind words, and gentle acts and sweet dispositions make glad the home where peace and blessing dwell.
Wishing
Do you wish the world were better?
Let me tell you what to do.
Set a watch upon your actions,
Keep them all straight and true.
Rid your mind of selfish motives,
Let your thoughts be clean and high;
You can make a little Eden
Of the sphere you occupy.
Do you wish the world were wiser?
Well, suppose you make a start,
By accumulating wisdom
In the scrapbook of your heart.
Don’t waste one page on folly;
Live to learn, and learn to live,
If you want to give men knowledge,
You must get it, ere you give.
Do you wish the world were happy?
Then remember day to day
Just to scatter seeds of kindness
As you pass along the way;
For the pleasures of the many
May be of times traced one,
As the hand plants an acorn it
Shelters armies from the sun.
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