Mystic builders in the brain—
Mirth and sorrow, joy and pain,
Grief and gladness, gloom and light—
Build, oh, build my heart aright!
O ye friends, with pleasant smiles,
Help me build my precious whiles;
Bring me blocks of gold to make
Strength that wrong shall never shake.
Day by day I gather from
All you give me. I become
Yet a part of all I meet
In the fields and in the street.
The advantage of leisure is mainly that we have the power of choosing our own work; not certainly that it confers any privilege of idleness.—Lord Avebury. Bring me songs of hope and youth,
Bring me bands of steel and truth,
Bring me love wherein to find
Charity for all mankind.
Place within my hands the tools
And the Master Builder’s rules,
That the walls we fashion may
Stand forever and a day.
Help me build a palace where
All is wonderfully fair—
Built of truth, the while, above,
Shines the pinnacle of love.
Suffering becomes beautiful, when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind.—Aristotle. If we are to receive help and strength from our friends we must lend them help and strength in return. And since the deeds of others inspire us we should not deem it impossible to make our deeds inspire them.
Helen Keller, who, though deaf and Character is a perfectly educated will.—Novalis. blind, has achieved so many wonderful and beautiful victories over the barriers that have beset her, says: "My share in the work of the world may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.... Darwin could work only half an hour at a time; yet in many diligent half-hours he laid anew the foundations of philosophy.... Green, the historian, tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."
One of the most massive and enduring gratifications is the feeling of personal worth, ever afresh, brought into consciousness by effectual action; and an idle life is balked of its hopes partly because it lacks this.—Herbert Spencer. In the same spirit the great French savant, Emile Zola, penned these words: "Let each one accept his task, a task which should fill his life. It may be very humble; it will not be the less useful. Never mind what it is, so long as it exists and keeps you erect! When you have regulated it, without excess—just the quantity you are able to accomplish each day—it will cause you to live in health and in joy."