OUR OPEN LETTER BOX.
M. E. J. (Malvern) kindly sent us some information about an extract we have repeatedly tried to trace. In consequence of her suggestion, we wrote to Messrs. Bemrose & Sons, 23, Old Bailey, E.C., who have forwarded us a small pink card headed "Resolve." On one side are the words:
"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a human being, or any word that I can speak for Jesus—let me do it now. Let me not neglect or defer it, for I shall not pass this way again."
On the reverse side of the card we read:
"This Resolve was written by a New York lady, much impressed with the thought of the uncertainty of life. Not many days after, she was at a meeting in Madison Square Gardens, where she had distributed some printed leaflets with the Resolve, when the hall roof fell in and she was one of those killed by its fall."
The sentence has been frequently referred, by our correspondents, to Marcus Aurelius. We give the information just as we have received it. The cards, we may add, are 5d. per dozen, post free.
M. H. Coupland sends Lilian the verse inquired for in "The Lesson of the Water Mill," by Sarah Doudney. Laira, A. S., Acacia, A Schoolgirl, point out that the verse Lilian quotes is the fourth, not the last. The last verse runs as follows:
"Oh, the wasted hours of life
That have drifted by!
Oh, the good that might have been!
Lost without a sigh.
Loved ones that we might have saved,
Maybe, by a word;
Thoughts conceived, but never penned,
Perishing, unheard.
Take the proverb to thine heart,
Take, and hold it fast:—
'The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past.'"
The whole poem may be obtained for 1s. a hundred, from Andrew Stevenson, Stationer, Mound, Edinburgh; also as a "Stirling Leaflet, No. 52," from Peter Drummond, Stirling; also in the Practical Elocutionist, published by Blackie & Son. If Lilian will send her name and address to Mrs. Pawlby, 7, Maida Vale Terrace, Mutley, Plymouth, she will receive a copy.