"Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever;
Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long,
And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever
One grand sweet song."
He did not intend to deprecate cleverness and learning, but to point out that our first endeavour should be to be good and live a noble life, and if we could accomplish that, not to fret or be grieved if outstripped in intellectual attainments by others; because whilst "to do lovely things" lies in everybody's power, the higher intellectual acquirements are not within the reach of all. With due arrangement of time it is marvellous how much can be accomplished. You will be surprised to find how many books you can read in a year if you devote one hour a day to them. It is often said that it is the busiest people who can always find time to undertake yet some more work or do a service for others, while idle people never have time for anything, and the truth of this paradox is proved by the vast amount of reading accomplished and the intense interest taken in extraneous matters by our very busiest statesmen, surgeons and clergymen. Try then, all of you, to acquire such habits of regularity and punctuality whilst at school, that they may remain with you afterwards and make it an easy and pleasant task for you to apportion your time to the best advantage, when freed from the rules necessary in scholastic life.
It remains for me to say a few words on the economy of our powers or strength, which must be subdivided into physical and moral. Here the idea of law involved in the word economy plays a most important part, for nature has certain laws which, in our employment of our forces, she will not allow to be transgressed with impunity; if we overtax either our bodily or mental strength, we shall find that this disregard of nature's laws will, sooner or later, bring its inevitable punishment. A word of warning against the folly of taking physical exercise in excess will hardly be out of season just now, when bicycling is so very popular, that one unfortunately hears of many men, women and girls who have made themselves ill by riding too fast or too long distances at a stretch, or who, in other words, have not listened to the warning of Nature, which says, "Do enough, but not too much." It is such a pity ever to convert what is intended to be a beneficent pleasure into an evil through our inability to practise a little self-restraint, and this may arise not only from doing too much, but also from doing it in a reckless and senseless manner. I heard it said recently that, according to computations, there had been more deaths from bicycling accidents in the last year in England than there had been English soldiers killed throughout the present Egyptian campaign, from its very beginning to after the Battle of Omdurman; and when one reads the accounts of these accidents, one finds that nearly every one was caused directly by the rider's recklessness and want of prudence. Too much physical exercise also weakens our mental powers, so intimately are mind and body connected, that that is an additional reason for taking bicycling and all other bodily exercises in moderation, lest we should be too tired to fulfil our other duties. The same warning applies to mental overwork. How many a girl while at school, and more especially at College, ruins her eyesight, if not her constitution, by poring over her books at all hours, even when she ought to be taking the much-needed rest of sleep, or of open-air exercise; and they cannot, or will not, believe that time spent on necessary recreation and change of occupation is time saved, not lost, and will enable them to resume their work or exercise with far more vigour.
Therefore, dear girls, listen to your common sense, and stop immediately when you feel that, either in work or play, you are getting overtired.
Finally, let us consider what these three economies united will effect. Each is good in itself, but happy is he who practises all three with the ever-present thought that God is to be the end of all, for he will be gaining wisdom, which "is better than rubies," and "whoso findeth wisdom findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord." "Wisdom! how inexhaustible a theme! It is the ripest fruit of a well-spent life. Wisdom never grows old, for she is the expression of order itself—that is, of the eternal. Only the wise man draws from life, and from every stage of it, its true savour, because only he feels the beauty, the dignity, and the value of life.... To see all things in God, to make of one's own life a journey towards the ideal, to live with gratitude and devoutness, with gentleness and courage, to add to these the humility which kneels and the charity which gives, is the true wisdom of the children of God."
[OLD ENGLISH COTTAGE HOMES;]
OR,
VILLAGE ARCHITECTURE OF BYGONE TIMES.
PART II.
The village architecture of England, though more ancient than that to be found elsewhere in Europe, does not date so far back as the ecclesiastical. There are many reasons why this is the case. The churches and monasteries were erected with great solidity, because, being for religious uses, it was presumed that they would be required for all times, but the more humble domestic dwellings were rather constructed with a view to the wants of those who had to live in them. Then also, the church was subscribed for not only by those who lived in the immediate neighbourhood, but often by the powerful and wealthy, who, though not being connected directly with the locality, were moved by charity and generosity to assist in works of piety.