Is all the counsel that we two have shared, Have with our needles created both one flower, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem : 1411. FRIENDSHIP: its joys. Shakespeare. I COUNT myself in nothing else so happy, Shakespeare. Who knows the joys of friendship? The trust, security, and mutual tenderness, The double joys, where each is glad for both? Friendship our only wealth, our last retreat and As meeting streams-both to ourselves were lost. strength, Secure against ill fortune and the world.-Rowe. Angels from friendship gather half their joy. Young. To bless mankind with tides of flowing wealth, To all, the gift of ministering to ease : The gentle offices of patient love, The taunting word suppress'd as soon as thought; We were one mass, we could not give or take, If I have any joy when thou art absent, 1416. FRIENDSHIP. Philosophy of As frost to the bud, and blight to the blossom, even such is self-interest to friendship: For confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate. If thou see thy friend to be selfish, thou canst not be sure of his honesty ; And in seeking thine own weal, thou hast wronged the reliance of thy friend. Flattery hideth her varnished face when friendship sitteth at his board; And the door is shut upon suspicion, but candour is bid glad welcome; For friendship abhorreth doubt, its life is in mutual trust, And perisheth, when artful praise proveth it is sought for a purpose. A man may be good to thee at times, and render thee mighty service, Whom yet thy secret soul could not desire as a friend; For the sum of life is in trifles, and though, in the weightier masses, A man refuse thee not his purse, nay, his all in thine utmost need, 1419. FRIENDSHIP: should neither be formed Yet if thou canst not feel that his character agreeth A GOLDEN treasure is the tried friend ; him a heart full of gratitude. A coarse man grindeth harshly the finer feelings of his brother; A common mind will soon depart from the dull companionship of wisdom. A weak soul dareth not to follow in the track of vigour and decision; And the worldly regardeth with scorn the seeming foolishness of faith. With th' one thyself, with th' other thy friend thou hurt'st, Who twines betwixt, and steers the golden mean, Mirror for Magistrates. 1420. FRIENDSHIP: superior to love. IN folly's heart love's shortlived blaze may glow, A mountain is made up of atoms, and friendship of Wisdom alone can purer friendship know. little matters, Love is a sudden blaze, which soon decays; And if the atoms hold not together, the mountain is Friendship is like the sun's eternal rays; crumbled into dust.-Tupper. Not daily benefits exhaust the flame; It still is giving, and still burns the same.- Gay. 1421. FRIENDSHIP. Tested SHEIK SCHUBLI, taken sick, was borne one day Unto the hospital. A host the way Behind him throng'd. Who are you?' Schubli cried. 'We are your friends,' the multitude replied. Sheik Schubli threw a stone at them; they fled. 'Come back, ye false pretenders!' then he said; 'A friend is one who, rank'd among his foes By him he loves, and stoned, and beat with blows, Will still remain as friendly as before, And to his friendship only add the more.' Oriental, tr. by Alger, 1422. FRIENDSHIP: tested by adversity. WHAT the declined is, He shall as soon read in the eyes of others As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies, Show not their mealy wings but to the summer. Shakespeare. O summer friendship, Whose flattering leaves, that shadow'd us in Our prosperity, with the least gust drop off In th' autumn of adversity !—Massinger. The friends who in our sunshine live, Must weep those tears alone.-Moore. 1423. FRIENDSHIP. Trust in TRUST is the strongest bond upon the soul; It binds where 'tis, and makes it where 'twas not. 1424 FRIENDSHIP. Uses of SUCH is the use and noble end of friendship, Higgons. Well-chosen friendship, the most noble Of virtues, all our joys makes double, And into halves divides our trouble. Denham. Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene; Resumes them, to prepare us for the next.— Young. Friendship has a power To soothe affliction in her darkest hour. H. Kirke White. 1425. FRUGALITY. Rule of By no means run in debt: take thine own measure. The curious unthrift makes his clothes too wide, Spend not on hopes. They that by pleading clothes Old courtiers know this; therefore set out so In clothes, cheap handsomeness doth bear the bell. George Herbert. 1426. FRUITFULNESS. Moral By nature peccable and frail are we, Is not a field where tares and thorns alone 1427. FRUITFULNESS. Prayer for LORD, I have lain I would redeem the time, that I may be Fruitful in knowledge, faith, obedience, Ere I go hence : That when I come At harvest to be reaped, and brought home, Thine angels may My soul in Thy celestial garner lay, Where perfect joy and bliss If to entreat A crop of purest wheat A blessing too transcendent should appear For me to hear, Lord, make me what Thou wilt, so Thou wilt take What Thou dost make, And not disdain To house me, though among Thy coarsest grain : Laid with the gleanings gathered by Thee, 1428. FUNERAL. Hymn for a COME forth! come on, with solemn song! This home was for a passing day. Here in an inn a stranger dwelt; The sojourner returns no more. Now of a lasting home possess'd, He goes to seek a deeper rest; HEAVEN from all creatures hides the book of fate, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 1433. FUTURE. Hope for the Kept on after the grave, but not begun ; And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife, From strength to strength advancing-only he, His soul well-knit, and all his battles won, Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life. Matthew Arnold. 1434. FUTURE. Hue of the A FEW days may-a few years must- 1435. FUTURE. Ignorance of the I FEEL the mighty current sweep me on, He knows when they shall darken or grow bright; Or do the portals of another life Even now, while I am glorying in my strength, In the vast cycle of being which begins At that dread threshold, with what fairer forms Like a bright river of the fields of heaven, Shall journey onward in perpetual peace.—Bryant. 1436. FUTURE. Obscurity of the ETERNITY, thou awful gulf of time, This wide creation on thy surface floats. Of life of death-what is-or what shall be, Search starry mysteries overhead, For nothing is withheld, be sure, Our being needed to have shown; Cast we no astrologic scheme To map the course we must pursue ;• But use the lights whene'er they beam, And every trusty landmark too. The Future let us not permit To choke us in its shadow's clasp ; It cannot touch us, nor we it; The present moment's in our grasp. Oh, who could endure the burdens of life; There is bread for the hungry, and wealth for the poor, And fountains of pleasure whose waters are pure; 1439. FUTURE. Shaping the WE shape ourselves the joy or fear Of which the coming life is made, And fill our future's atmosphere With sunshine or with shade. The tissue of the life to be We weave with colours all our own, And in the field of destiny We reap as we have sown. Still shall the soul around it call The shadows which it gather'd here, And, painted on the eternal wall, The past shall reappear. |