Part 12

A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.--DR. JOHNSON.

MEDITATION.--Meditation is the soul's perspective glass, whereby, in her long removes, she discerneth God, as if He were near at hand. --FELTHAM.

Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give God the glory. --QUARLES.

MELANCHOLY.--I once gave a lady two-and-twenty receipts against melancholy: one was a bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things said to her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on the chimney-piece and a kettle simmering on the hob. I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or in others.--SYDNEY SMITH.

Melancholy sees the worst of things,--things as they may be, and not as they are. It looks upon a beautiful face, and sees but a grinning skull.--BOVEE.

There are some people who think that they should be always mourning, that they should put a continual constraint upon themselves, and feel a disgust for those amusements to which they are obliged to submit. For my own part, I confess that I know not how to conform myself to these rigid notions. I prefer something more simple, which I also think would be more pleasing to God.--FÉNELON.

MERCY.--Let us be merciful as well as just.--LONGFELLOW.

Consider this,-- That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. --SHAKESPEARE.

Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice.--CERVANTES.

God's mercy is a holy mercy, which knows how to pardon sin, not to protect it; it is a sanctuary for the penitent, not for the presumptuous.--BISHOP REYNOLDS.

It is enthroned in the heart of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. --SHAKESPEARE.

There is no better rule to try a doctrine by than the question, Is it merciful, or is it unmerciful? If its character is that of mercy, it has the image of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. --HOSEA BALLOU.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes; 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown. --SHAKESPEARE.

Lenity will operate with greater force, in some instances, than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have my whole conduct distinguished by it.--WASHINGTON.

Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me. --POPE.

Underneath the wings of the seraphim are stretched the arms of the divine mercy, ever ready to receive sinners.--THE TALMUD.

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.--SHAKESPEARE.

MERIT.--There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Distinguished merit will ever rise to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. The vapors which gather round the rising sun, and follow him in his course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for his reception, and to invest with variegated tints and with a softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide.--ROBERT HALL.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.--GEORGE COLMAN.

The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem and often confers more reputation than real merit.--LA BRUYÈRE.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

METHOD.--Method is essential, and enables a larger amount of work to be got through with satisfaction. "Method," said Cecil (afterward Lord Burleigh), "is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one." Cecil's despatch of business was extraordinary; his maxim being, "The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."--SAMUEL SMILES.

MIND.--Our minds are like certain vehicles,--when they have little to carry they make much noise about it, but when heavily loaded they run quietly.--ELIHU BURRITT.

We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.--POPE.

It is the mind that makes the body rich.--SHAKESPEARE.

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.--CHESTERFIELD.

Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must be measur'd by my soul: The mind's the standard of the man. --DR. WATTS.

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. --MILTON.

The blessing of an active mind, when it is in a good condition, is, that it not only employs itself, but is almost sure to be the means of giving wholesome employment to others.

He that has treasures of his own May leave the cottage or the throne, May quit the globe, and dwell alone Within his spacious mind. --DR. WATTS.

The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.--ROUSSEAU.

Every great mind seeks to labor for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good.--SCHILLER.

Mind unemployed is mind unenjoyed.--BOVEE.

As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor.--DR. JOHNSON.

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without culture, so the mind without cultivation can never produce good fruit.--SENECA.

Few minds wear out; more rust out.--BOVEE.

There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed the more it rises to resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do, the more we are able to accomplish. --T. EDWARDS.

Minds of moderate calibre ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Guard well thy thoughts: our thoughts are heard in heaven.--YOUNG.

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor. --SPENSER.

He that has no resources of mind, is more to be pitied than he who is in want of necessaries for the body; and to be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others, bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.--COLTON.

A good mind possesses a kingdom.

MIRTH.--Harmless mirth is the best cordial against the consumption of the spirit; wherefore jesting is not unlawful, if it trespasseth not in quantity, quality, or season.--FULLER.

Mirthfulness is in the mind, and you cannot get it out. It is the blessed spirit that God has set in the mind to dust it, to enliven its dark places, and to drive asceticism, like a foul fiend, out at the back door. It is just as good, in its place, as conscience or veneration. Praying can no more be made a substitute for smiling than smiling can for praying.--BEECHER.

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt; And ev'ry grin so merry draws one out. --PETER PINDAR.

There is nothing like fun, is there? I haven't any myself, but I do like it in others. O, we need it! We need all the counterweights we can muster to balance the sad relations of life. God has made many sunny spots in the heart; why should we exclude the light from them?--HALIBURTON.

I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning.--IZAAK WALTON.

Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety,--all this rust of life, ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth. It is better than emery. Every man ought to rub himself with it. A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it runs.--BEECHER.

MISFORTUNE.--The diamond of character is revealed by the concussion of misfortune, as the splendor of the precious jewel of the mine is developed by the blows of the lapidary.--F.A. DURIVAGE.

A soul exasperated in ills, falls out With everything, its friend, itself. --ADDISON.

We have all of us sufficient fortitude to bear the misfortunes of others.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

The good man, even though overwhelmed by misfortune, loses never his inborn greatness of soul. Camphor-wood burnt in the fire becomes all the more fragrant.--SATAKA.

Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew Himself, or his own virtue. --MALLET.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.--WASHINGTON IRVING.

Misfortunes are, in morals, what bitters are in medicine: each is at first disagreeable; but as the bitters act as corroborants to the stomach, so adversity chastens and ameliorates the disposition.--FROM THE FRENCH.

When one is past, another care we have; Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave. --HERRICK.

The greatest misfortune of all is not to be able to bear misfortune. --BIAS.

I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.--STANISLAUS.

Our bravest lessons are not learned through success, but misadventure. --ALCOTT.

The less we parade our misfortunes the more sympathy we command. --ORVILLE DEWEY.

It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division.--ADDISON.

We should learn, by reflecting on the misfortunes which have attended others, that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourselves. --MELMOTH.

Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.--COLTON.

MOB.--The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.--GOETHE.

The mob have neither judgment nor principle,--ready to bawl at night for the reverse of what they desired in the morning.--TACITUS.

The scum that rises upmost, when the nation boils.--DRYDEN.

The mob is a sort of bear; while your ring is through its nose, it will even dance under your cudgel; but should the ring slip, and you lose your hold, the brute will turn and rend you.--JANE PORTER.

Inconstant, blind, Deserting friends at need, and duped by foes; Loud and seditious, when a chief inspired Their headlong fury, but, of him deprived, Already slaves that lick'd the scourging hand. --THOMSON.

Let there be an entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks throughout this country during the period of a single generation, and a mob would be as impossible as combustion without oxygen.--HORACE MANN.

MODERATION.--Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.--GOETHE.

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.--THOMAS PAINE.

The boundary of man is moderation. When once we pass that pale our guardian angel quits his charge of us.--FELTHAM.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.--BISHOP HALL.

The superior man wishes to be slow in his words and earnest in his conduct.--CONFUCIUS.

Moderation resembles temperance. We are not unwilling to eat more, but are afraid of doing ourselves harm.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within it.--PASCAL.

MODESTY.--A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.--STEELE.

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.--GOLDSMITH.

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.--ADDISON.

You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew.--BAXTER.

Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.--SENECA.

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated. --STEELE.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of; it heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colors more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without. --ADDISON.

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.--ADDISON.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.--EMERSON.

God intended for women two preventatives against sin, modesty and remorse; in confession to a mortal priest the former is removed by his absolution, the latter is taken away.--MIRANDA OF PIEDMONT.

MONEY.--The love of money is the root of all evil.--1 TIMOTHY 6:10.

But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the friendship in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used. Give it plenty of air, and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up, and it cankers and breeds worms.--GEORGE MACDONALD.

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.--WESLEY.

What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative; what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her!--THACKERAY.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."--FRANKLIN.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.--SWIFT.

We must learn that competence is better than extravagance, that worth is better than wealth, that the golden calf we have worshiped has no more brains than that one of old which the Hebrews worshiped. So beware of money and of money's worth as the supreme passion of the mind. Beware of the craving for enormous acquisition.--BARTOL.

Money is a good servant, but a dangerous master.--BOUHOURS.

By doing good with his money, a man as it were stamps the image of God upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven. --RUTLEDGE.

To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.--COLTON.

The deepest depth of vulgarism is that of setting up money as the ark of the covenant.--CARLYLE.

MORALITY.--In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say, Is there any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be best answered by asking ourselves another: Is there any harm in letting it alone? --COLTON.

To give a man a full knowledge of true morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament.--LOCKE.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.--WASHINGTON.

Ten men have failed from defect in morals where one has failed from defect in intellect.--HORACE MANN.

Socrates taught that true felicity is not to be derived from external possessions, but from wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and practice of virtue; that the cultivation of virtuous manners is necessarily attended with pleasure as well as profit; that the honest man alone is happy; and that it is absurd to attempt to separate things which are in nature so closely united as virtue and interest. --ENFIELD.

The moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last.--FROUDE.

Morality without religion, is only a kind of dead reckoning,--an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have to run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies. --LONGFELLOW.

The system of morality which Socrates made it the business of his life to teach was raised upon the firm basis of religion. The first principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind are, according to this excellent moralist, laws of God; and the conclusive argument by which he supports this opinion is, that no man departs from these principles with impunity.--ENFIELD.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.--VOLTAIRE.

MOTHER.--The mother in her office holds the key of the soul.--OLD PLAY.

There is a sight all hearts beguiling-- A youthful mother to her infant smiling, Who with spread arms and dancing feet, A cooing voice, returns its answer sweet. --BAILLIE.

"What is wanting," said Napoleon one day to Madame Campan, "in order that the youth of France be well educated?" "Good mothers," was the reply. The emperor was most forcibly struck with this answer. "Here," said he, "is a system in one word."--ABBOTT.

A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive. --COLERIDGE.

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.--WASHINGTON IRVING.

If there be aught surpassing 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.--DICKENS.

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 friendship 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 God 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 shine 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 God.--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 gushing 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.