A Hard Task.—It is often difficult to control our feelings; it is still harder to subdue our will; but it is an arduous undertaking to control the contending will of others.—Crabb.
The Art of Authorship.—The great art of a writer shows itself in the choice of pleasing allusions.—Addison.
Affectation.—Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.—Locke.
The Happy and the Discontented.
Some people, not to be copied, live in a perpetual state of fret. The weather is always objectionable; the temperature is never satisfactory. They have too much to do, and are driven to death, or too little, and have no resources. If they are ill they know they shall never get well; if they are well they expect soon to be ill. Their daily work is either drudgery, which they hate, or so difficult and complex that they cannot execute it.
In contrast to these, we meet sometimes with men and women so bright and cheery that their very presence is a positive pleasure. They discover the favourable side of the weather, of their business, of home surroundings, of social relations, even of political affairs. They will tell you of all the pleasant things that happen and give voice to all the joy they feel. Of course, they are sometimes annoyed and worried by petty troubles, but the very effort they make to pass them over silently diminishes their unpleasant effect upon themselves and prevents the influence from extending.
The Good-tempered Wife.
A man in Sussex whose wife was blessed with a remarkably even temper went over the way to a neighbour one evening and said—
“Neighbour, I just should like to see my wife cross for once. I’ve tried all I know, and I can’t make her cross no way.”
“You can’t make your wife cross?” said his neighbour. “I wish I could make mine anything else. But you just do what I tell you, and if that won’t act nothing will. You bring her in some night a lot of the crookedest bats you can get, them as won’t lie in no form, and see how she makes out then.”