lovingly accepted; the nature often expands and blossoms under it as under no other influence. 10. Power dwells with cheerfulness; hope puts us in a working mood, whilst despair is no muse, and untunes the active powers. NERVE THYSELF TO HOPE 11. Did we ever hear of a fallen creature made moral by despair? 12. Enthusiasm springs from hope, and for hope there must be a manly heart, there must be courage. It 13. There is a phrase: The courage of despair. should be said: The courage of hope. And with a true and active charity hope ever mingles. 14. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 15. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Discouragement is but disenchanted egotism. Let us hope, till Hope creates 16. From its own wreck the thing it contemplates. 17. And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 18. No man who is wretched in his own heart, and feeble in his own work, can rightly help others. ONLY HOPE- Adroitly, needs must I know joy myself. 20. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. 21. The world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the Happiness of Duty. 22. Consider those who are below thee, and in a far meaner condition, and by that argue thyself, not only to contentment, but to thankfulness. HOPE'S MAXIMS AND WARNINGS 23. We pervert all: when we look below us, it raises our pride; and when above us, it casts us into discontent. Might we not as well, contrariwise, draw humility out of the one, and contentment out of the other? 24. Look out for the bright, for the brightest side of things, and keep thy face constantly turned to it. 25. Struggling against inevitable results which he cannot control, too often man is heedless of those accessible pleasures, whose amount is by no means inconsiderable when collected together. 26. Stretching his hand out to catch the stars, he forgets the flowers at his feet. 27. The virtuous man has a store of happiness in coming time, the vicious man has prodigally spent his revenues of happiness. 28. To remain young long, to remain a child even, in the spontaneity and tenderness of the heart, to preserve ever, not only in the outer behaviour but in the inner life, a certain lightness, a certain elasticity—this is the best way to rule our lives; for what greater force is there than youth? 29. Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity Robbed thee of any faith in happiness, CHAPTER LXIX ALL GOOD THINGS ARE OURS 1. Like religion, morality has its fanatics. The fanatic of the first degree is a person who exalts some one moral rule at the expense of others. MORAL ASCETICISM 2. A fanatic of a higher order exalts the whole body of moral rules at the expense of human instincts and desires. 3. He is a person who always acts according to rule; who introduces moral consideration into every detail of life, who rides the moral hobby; 4. Who is never satisfied unless at every step he feels the strain of the bridle of conscience; who is incapable of spontaneous enjoyment. 5. Even the young often betray a tendency toward moral asceticism. 6. Teachers, in the earnest desire to impress the laws of the moral empire, are sometimes betrayed into disregarding the provincial laws of the senses, the intellect, and the feelings; 7. Are apt to go too far in applying moral prescriptions to the minutiae of conduct; are apt to leave the impression that pleasant things, just because they are pleasant, are therefore sinful. 8. If a vine-dresser be not skilled in his art, he is as likely to crop off the good branches which bear the grapes as the wild shoots, and thus spoil the vineyard. HUMAN NATURE MUST NOT BE MUTILATED 9. So it is with those who do not understand the spiritual art; they leave the roots of vice and evil dispositions alive in the heart, and hew and lop at poor nature, and thereby destroy this noble vineyard. 10. Cut away all evil failings from thy heart, and it will do thee no harm, either in head or in hand, or in any member. But hold thy knife still, till thou hast really seen what ought to be cut off. 11. Nature is in itself good and noble; why shouldst thou hew away aught that belongs to it? 12. Man is all symmetry, Full of proportions, one limb to another, 13. Each part may call the farthest, brother; And both with moons and tides. 14. Ascetics taught Self to feel its meanness; and Self, in common parlance, signifies a little private enclosure, jealously walled round. 15. But to deeper thought it is co-extensive FULNESS OF LIFE with the cosmos; every man is his own universe. The ideal is fulness of life. 16. Let us not always say: "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" 17. As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry: "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!" 18. O the wild joy of living, the leaping from rock up to rock. The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver shock Of the plunge in a pool's living water! 19. Life's gift outruns my fancies far, And drowns the dream In larger stream, As morning drinks the morning star! 20. I cannot spare water or wine, 21. I have a stake in every star, In every beam that fills the day: 22. The fields, the skies, The sweet replies Of thought to thought are my gold-dust, And speaking looks Of lover's faith and friendship's trust. 23. I am the owner of the sphere, Of the seven stars and the solar year, Of Cæsar's hand and Plato's brain, Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain. |