Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile.
Who murders time, he crushes in the birth
A power ethereal, only not adorned!”
Murillo, a Spanish painter, left a wonderful painting which represents a monk in his cell writing. He had been engaged in writing his life, but before he had completed it, death summoned him to the eternal world. He pleaded to return, and the legend says that he was permitted a certain period to complete his autobiography. The famous Spanish artist seized the moment when the monk, seated at the table, resumes his toil. The intensity of feeling thrown into the wan, ghastly face, and into the lips which had talked with death, and into the eyes that had looked in on eternity, and the tremendous energy with which he writes, all portray to us the knowledge and the value of time: time limited by the all-powerful command. And, as Schiller truthfully puts it:
“The moments we forego
Eternity itself cannot retrieve.”
Shun amusements if they have a tendency to injure health. Health is the greatest fortune one can possess. Without it, all joy, all comfort, all pomp is but mockery. “Riches are useless, honor and attendants are cumbersome, and crowns themselves are a burden,” “for life is not to live, but to be well.” To take care of one’s health is one of the first requirements of nature. This cannot be accomplished by staying up late at night, by intemperate eating and drinking, by being out in all kinds of weather, by wilful neglect of proper clothing, which various amusements incur.
ENJOY YOURSELF.
Enjoy yourself, my boy. “To dry up the fountains of mirth that are within, to crush out the spontaneous impulses of merriment which are a part of our complete life, is a crime against nature. Life will have sorrows enough without making ourselves chronically cheerless. The right of enjoyment is a divine right, and should be lawfully used and enjoyed. Not only that, but it is invigorating.” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Running is good exercise, the bat and ball strengthen the arm and gauge the eye, the oar and boat broaden the chest and make the liberated lungs beat with life, and not a few others, if not too greatly indulged, prove helpful rather than detrimental.
Counsel yourself when invited to join in some pleasure: “What will this amusement do for my physical development? Is there any gymnastic exercise connected with it? What will it do for my intellectual enlightenment? What will it do for the improvement of my morals? Will it make me purer, nobler, better? Will it increase piety, make me more useful to society, increase my happiness and benefit my associates?” If it will, then indulge in it, if not, discard it.