Stop before adhering to an error through a mistaken sense of shame. “Who acknowledgeth his error showeth an increase of wisdom; who stubbornly adhereth to what hath been disproved confesseth himself a fool.”
Stop short of the conceit that irresistibility with the fair sex depends on good-looks alone. The manners make the man.
Stop before aping the characteristics of another, however exalted. The gesticulations of the Frenchman would be unseemly in the staid Hidalgo, and that which would be a pleasing originality in one might be a preposterous parody in the imitator.
Stop short of the notion that wiseacre looks and frigidity of manner will always be indicative of reserved force and intellectual acumen. The owl is the solemnest and likewise the stupidest of birds.
Stop, whenever in moral doubt or distress, and consult the masterly advice and sage promptings of this jewel of a book. It shall be unto you “as rivers of water in a dry place, or the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
In Love Affairs.
Stop!—That burning thought—that delirium in thy heart—as to the lovely being whose image is before thee night and day—is it such as her modesty and virtue, her seraphic guilelessness should inspire? if not, away with it—blot it out!
Stop! Was she rather plain than peerless, and is it the thought of her father’s bonds and shekels that now summons the enamored hectic to thy virile cheek? Away with it, likewise, and for shame! Shall blood with boodle blend—emotion cringe at Mammon’s beck—and Love be unavenged?