And rich beyond computation is the one who has joyousness to spare. Better All my old opinions were only stages on the way to the one I now hold, as itself is only a stage on the way to something else.—R. L. Stevenson. than gold, better than food and raiment and all material things, betimes, is a ray of sunshine from the heart, an uplift of saving humor from a merry tongue. "I have often felt, myself," says Benson, "that the time has come to raise another figure to the hierarchy of Christian graces. Faith, Hope and Charity were sufficient in a more elementary and barbarous age, but, now that the world has Hasten slowly, and, without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.—Boileau. broadened somewhat, I think an addition to the trio is demanded. A man may be faithful, hopeful, and charitable, and yet leave much to be desired. He may be useful, no doubt, with that equipment, but he may also be both tiresome and even absurd. The fourth quality that I should like to see raised to the highest rank among the Christian graces is the Grace of Humor."
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control—these three alone lead life to sovereign power.—Tennyson. Splendidly blest is that household that is so fortunate as to possess at least one member gifted with the grace of good humor. One such person in a home is enough if there cannot be more. Just when all the others are seriously It is curious to what an extent our happiness or unhappiness depends upon the manner in which we view things.—E. C. Burke. confronting what seems to be a most sad and serious condition of affairs how just one word of illuminating good humor can change the whole point of view and send the foreboding proposition glimmering into nothingness. "Do you know, my dear," says Mrs. Holden, "that there is absolutely nothing that will help you to bear the ills of life so well as a good laugh? Laugh all you can and the small Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.—Joubert. imps in blue who love to preempt their quarters in a human heart will scatter away like owls before the music of flutes.
There are few of the minor difficulties and annoyances that will not dissipate at the charge of the nonsense brigade. If the clothes line breaks, if the cat tips over the milk and the dog elopes with the roast, if the children fall into the mud simultaneously with the advent of clean aprons, if the new Truth is tough; it will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.—Oliver Wendell Holmes. girl quits in the middle of housecleaning, and though you search the earth with candles you find none to take her place, if the neighbor you have trusted goes back on you and decides to keep chickens, if the chariot wheels of the uninvited guest draw near when you are out of provender, and the gaping of your empty purse is like the unfilled mouth of a young robin, take courage if you have Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.—Emerson. enough sunshine in your heart, to keep the laugh on your lips. Before good nature, half the cares of daily living will fly away like midges before the wind. Try it."
What a world of inspiration and cheerfulness in the motto written by Edward Everett Hale for the Lend-A-Hand Society: "Look up, and not down; look forward, and not back; look out, and not in; and lend a hand." It is the lifting of the The aids to noble life are all within.—Matthew Arnold. burden from another’s tired shoulder that does most to lighten the load resting on our own.
No one who truly is conscious of the value of sunshine upon his own nature Nothing is difficult; it is only we who are indolent.—B. R. Haydon. and upon the spirits of those with whom he comes into contact will ever, for one minute, permit himself to be taken possession of by
THE "BLUES"
"Blues" are the sorry calms that come
To make our spirits mope,
And steal the breeze of promise from
The shining sails of hope.
It is a serious thing that we should see the full beauty of our lives only when they are passed or in visions of a possible future. What we most need is to see and feel the beauty and joy of to-day.—Maurice D. Conway. Margaret E. Sangster, who is the kind and gracious foster mother to all the girls of her time and generation, says that "being in bondage to the blues is precisely like being lost in a London fog. The latter is thick and black and obliterates familiar landmarks. A man may be within a few doors of his home, yet grope hopelessly through the murk to find the well-worn threshold. A person Let us enjoy the scenery of the present moment. The landscape around the bend will still be there when our life-train arrives.—Horatio W. Dresser. under the tyranny of the blues is temporarily unable to adjust life to its usual limitations. He or she cannot see an inch beyond the dreadful present. Everything looks dark and forbidding, and despair with an iron
clutch pins its victim down. People think, loosely, that trials that may be weighed and measured and felt and handled are the worst trials to which flesh is If we cannot get what we like let us try to like what we can get.—Spanish Proverb. heir. But they are mistaken. Hearts are elastic, and real sorrows seldom crush them. Souls have in them a wonderful capacity for recovering after knockdown blows. It is the intangible, the thing that one dreads vaguely, that catches one in the dark, that suggests and intimates a peril that is spiritual rather than mortal; it is the burden that carries dismay and terror to the imagination."
Men continually forget that happiness is a condition of the mind and not a disposition of circumstances.— Lecky. A single member of a household who is given to having "the blues" often darkens a home that would otherwise be bright and sunny. Such an unfortunate person should bear in mind that when a servant is employed the whole household Delicacy in woman is strength.— Lichtenberg. expects her to be kind, tidy, industrious, moral, gentle, and, above all, good natured in her attitude toward all. Surely the daughter of a household cannot wish to feel that she holds her position by accident of birth, and that if her family were not compelled to keep her they would not. If you would know the political and moral condition of a people, ask as to the condition of its women.—Aime Martin.