I do not know anyone who makes us feel more than Milton does the grandeur of the ends which we ought to keep always before us, and therefore our own pettiness and want of courage and nobleness in pursuing them. I believe he failed to discern many of the intermediate relations which God has established between Himself and us; but I know no one who teaches us more habitually that disobedience to the Divine will is the seat of all misery to men.
“The Friendship of Books,”—D. Maurice.
Frederick Denison Maurice, a celebrated English divine and theological and philosophical writer, was born near Lowestoft, Suffolk, August 29, 1805, and died in London, April 1, 1872. Among his works are: “Ancient Philosophy,” “Theological Essays,” “Modern Philosophy,” “Mediæval Philosophy,” “The Friendship of Books,” etc., and a novel, “Eustace Conway.”
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
“The Chambered Nautilus,”—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a distinguished American man of letters, was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1809, and died at Boston, October 7, 1894. The most important of his works are: “Urania,” “The Iron Gate,” “Songs in Many Keys,” “Poems,” “Songs of Many Seasons,” “Elsie Venner,” “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” “The Professor at the Breakfast Table,” “The Poet at the Breakfast Table,” “Soundings from the Atlantic,” “Our Hundred Days in Europe,” “John Lothrop Motley,” “A Mortal Antipathy,” “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” “Over the Teacups,” etc.
Men’s weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life.
“Joyzelle,” Act ii.—Maurice Maeterlinck.
Maurice Maeterlinck, a celebrated Belgian poet, was born in Flanders, August 29, 1864. Among his works are: “The Seven Princesses,” “The Blind,” “The Intruder,” “The Treasure of the Humble,” “Hot-House Blooms,” “La Princesse Maleine,” “Alladine et Palomides,” “Douze Chansons,” “La Sagesse et la Destinée,” “Le Temple Enseveli,” “The Double Garden,” “The Blue Bird,” “La Mort,” “The Light Beyond,” etc.
It is very foolish, and betrays what a small mind we have, to allow fashion to sway us in everything that regards taste; in our way of living, our health, and our conscience.